I didn’t know why. It wasn’t like I’d done anything. Maybe he was pissed Sculpt had a job for me. But what did he care?
Trapped in Killian’s ice-green eyes again, I felt as if an elephant sat on my chest.
Why couldn’t I look away?
I so did not want to be on his radar.
But it wasn’t like I had a choice. His gaze had me locked to him, and the only way I’d be able to look away was if he allowed it.
Jesus.
“Why not?” Sculpt asked him.
Killian’s jaw clamped and he jerked his eyes from mine, pushing away from the locker. “She’s a damn freshman and terrified of her own fuckin’ shadow. I bet she’d run out of there crying the second she saw what was happening. Not fuckin’ her!” Killian repeated. Then he turned and headed down the hall.
“Shit,” Sculpt mumbled. “Don’t take it personally. You’re one of the few he actually likes,” he said, but he didn’t say it like a compliment, just a fact.
That made no sense. He didn’t even know me, and I wasn’t sure I liked that he liked me.
Sculpt gave me a once over with his black eyes, and it was unnerving because it was like he was checking to see if I measured up to something. “You want to make quick cash, let me know.”
I wanted to say yes for the fact alone that Killian said I was scared of my own shadow and would run crying out of… wherever he was talking about.
Sculpt turned and jogged down the hall after Killian before I had a chance to ask what the job actually was.
He body checked Killian and Killian punched him in the chest.
I watched them until they disappeared around the corner then flung my bag over my shoulder and ran to meet my mom outside.
An hour later, I sat on the school steps studying math because my mom hadn’t shown—again. It was the third time this week. Mom was getting worse.
“You always do your homework on the steps after school?”
I gasped, twisting at the waist to see Killian standing on the top step looking like one of those Greek gods again. I wasn’t an expert on gods or anything, but I’d decided that he was definitely Zeus. Powerful with a temper and if you pissed him off you were totally screwed.
I stuffed my math book into my bag. “Sometimes. When my mom is late.”
“And how often is that?” he asked.
Shrugging, I said while collecting my bag and standing. “She’s really busy.”
He’d walked down five steps so he was beside me. He smelled fresh and clean with the lingering scent of soap, as if he’d had gym his last period and had showered.
I dragged in a deep inhale then stopped when his brows lifted as if he knew I’d been breathing in his smell.
Crap.
He continued, “Doing what?”
I hitched my bag over my shoulder. “I don’t know. Stuff.”
She probably took too many of those pills again and was passed out. I didn’t know what they were because she’d peeled the label off.
“Come to the river with us,” Killian said. “After the fight one of the guys will drive you home.”
I was so not doing that.
First off, watching a fight made my stomach churn. Not because of the blood, but because I hated the idea of fighting.
The second reason, I didn’t know any of ‘the guys’ and I wasn’t getting in a car with them. I’d rather walk the six miles home.
“I’m okay. It’s not far.”
“Bullshit. I know where you live,” he retorted.
He did? It was odd that Killian would know that. Why would he?
“Well, I’m used to it.” And according to my mother, I needed the exercise. That was her excuse for when she forgot to pick me up. That I should walk home so I could lose a few pounds. I wasn’t exactly overweight, but I was short and had bulk, but I danced, so I was toned and in shape. My body wasn’t a dainty China doll like hers.
I headed down the stairs, praying I didn’t trip and fall because pins and needles surged through my legs from sitting cross-legged on the stairs for so long.
I was also nervous because I couldn’t figure out why Killian was talking to me again. That was twice in one day.
I hadn’t done anything. I had nothing he wanted. And I certainly wasn’t a threat to him or would break any of his rules.
Everyone whispered that Killian Kane only noticed the people he meant harm.
And he’d noticed me.
But Killian randomly talking to girls, and especially girls like me, didn’t happen as far as I was aware. I bet his father would have a fit if he knew his son was talking to a girl in second-hand clothes who lived in a trailer.
The Kane’s were wealthy, lived in the nice part of town and belonged to the exclusive country club, and supposedly, his dad had a number of horses and played polo. Rumor was his dad owned several nightclubs downtown, and that was where he made his money.