I balked. “Like, live with you?”
He nodded. “And Kite.”
“You’re kidding, right?” I looked to Kite and he shrugged. “I meant my own place.”
“Why not? It makes sense. Close to school. Less traveling time.”
“With you?”
“Well, yeah, me and Kite.”
It would be a hell of a lot easier to get to school and I wouldn’t feel like I was encroaching on Kat and Ream’s space. But living with Crisis and Kite? They were famous and I didn’t need famous in my life. But what I did need was a job and that would give me the opportunity to work.
“We’d buy a place big enough to have your own space,” Kite said.
I bit the insides of my cheek. “I don’t like all the attention you guys draw. No, it wouldn’t work.”
“Babe, it’s not like we have reporters outside our door every day. Besides, we have security and we’d buy a place that has it as well.”
I’d never be able to move out of here unless I had a job and it was impossible to find a job while living on the farm with no license or car.
But living with Crisis when I had this unmistakeable desire filtering through me . . .”It just wouldn’t be a good idea.”
“It’s a great idea,” Crisis continued. “I’ll keep a low profile.” Kite huffed. “If anyone finds out we live there . . . which will take months . . . then you don’t leave the building at the same time as us. It’s simple.”
I looked to Kite and he shrugged.
“We’d hardly be there,” Crisis said. “We’ll be at the studio most of the time working on the album. And I can talk to Georgie about a job at her coffee shop. It’s right downtown.”
I’d been a marionette for twelve years and this would give me the chance to get a job and make my own money. Money I’d get to keep for myself. “Why?” I asked.
Crisis frowned. “Why what?”
“Why would you want me living with you guys?”
Kite completely threw me off guard when he walked over and cupped his hand around the back of my neck and kissed my forehead. “Why wouldn’t we? Plus, it will keep this guy from parading around naked.” Kite let me go. “Think about it.” Kite glanced at Crisis and frowned. “What happened to your face?”
I bit my lower lip as a smile creeped up on me. There was a bruise on his cheek now from the lawnmower incident.
“Haven punched me.”
Kite’s brows lifted and he half-cocked a grin before he left us alone. Live with Crisis and Kite? Wasn’t I doing that now? Hadn’t I done that for two months before they went on tour? My brother was marrying Kat and they certainly didn’t need me hanging around.
There was the possibility of a job.
To make my own money.
Close to school.
“No barging into my bedroom,” I said.
Crisis held up his hands. “Done.”
“And no parading around naked.” My pulse rose as I thought about his naked hard body and I swallowed.
He quirked a grin. I glared. “Okay, deal, but you’re missing out.”
“And as soon as I get a job, I pay rent.” Crisis scowled, but I stared him down and he relented with a nod. “If you have chicks over, I don’t want them parading around naked either.”
He threw back his head and laughed. “Yeah, Ice. Got it. But that won’t be happening.”
“And I get my own bathroom.”
“Sweetness, you sure are asking a lot. You want a soaker tub, too? With the jets?”
I scrunched up my nose.
He pushed away from the counter. “Okay, so no nakedness. Own bathroom. And paying rent.”
“And no barging into my room.”
“Sure, but that goes both ways, Ice. You parade around naked once and you’re out on your ass.” He winked at me then strolled away.
I huffed, but I doubt he heard me. Taking my coffee, I went out to the porch and sat looking out onto the horse field. I’d miss this, the quiet and calm of the farm. But I couldn’t get a job staying here and, more importantly, I needed my brother to see that I was okay. That he could stop worrying about me.
I lay back, my hand on my abdomen. This hurt the most.
The rape. The drugs. The club. They had bent pieces of me, but I was repairing them.
But one piece remained trapped and it was like fighting against a tornado. It whirled and spun inside me, damaging more and more each day. I didn’t know how much longer I’d be able to stand in the eye of the storm and ignore what was churning around me.
Babe, we’ll pick you up in five.
What?
Kite and I want to show you a place.
Don’t pick me up at school.
It’s fine. We won’t even get out of the car.
I was walking across the parking lot with Dana to her car. “Crisis and Kite want to take me to see a place. You want to come?”
Dana smiled. “Yeah. I’ll text Dillon and let him know.”
She’d been dating him since the frat party.
Where are you?
St. George Street. Where we met before. You’ll see my car.
Oh, shit. Crisis’ car was a cranberry red muscle car. He didn’t have to get out of the car to gain attention; the car did that all by itself. Crisis hadn’t allowed me near the driver’s seat. Although, we had moved on to the tractor a couple weeks earlier and since I passed my written exam last week, I drove Ream’s Audi to the store on Sunday and that turned out to be pretty important because I’d gone to my brother and asked him. He grinned from ear-to-ear and grabbed his keys and we were out the door.
Over the last month, Crisis and I had fallen into an easy friendship. Easy wasn’t really true because whenever I was near him, I fought the escalating desire. He acted like it was nothing when I jumped at the slightest graze of his hand or when I darted away from him and went for a run. Now, it was a run to smother something else entirely.