Page 122 of Keeping Kasey
The only words she’s spoken were to my soldiers for an update on Lover Boy—which I allowed them to give her. When they left the hospital, he was getting a blood transfusion, and the doctors were still deciding whether or not to take the bullet out.
Kasey still holds her head high and squares her shoulders, but there’s no fire in her eyes.
She didn’t protest when I ushered her out of her apartment, when I ignored every empty seat on the plane and took the one next to her, or when I ordered her to eat a dinner I knew she wouldn’t like—pasta with mushrooms, supplied by a flight attendant.
I’ve finally tamed her.
And it isn’t half as satisfying as it should be.
When I first saw Kasey, the fury that’s been simmering in my veins for months was suddenly boiling over with the desperate need to destroy her. Black rage blinded me to anything that wasn’t her fear and submission.
But now I have it, and the hollowness is no less consuming than it’s been for four months.
When the plane lands, Kasey wordlessly follows me to the waiting car.
I throw her bags into the back seat of my Rolls-Royce, forcing her to take the passenger seat, though I’m sure she’d prefer to be far from me.
We drive in suffocating silence.
Kasey wears the same blank expression she’s worn for hours as she stares out the window. As we get closer, she must recognize the streets because she sinks back into her seat. Her chest rises and falls in quick breaths, her eyes flickering from the road to me.
“What?”
She only offers a silent shake of her head, and that pisses me off more than her fight.
“What?” I repeat with a bite.
“You said you had a cell for me,” she whispers.
“I do,” I say as I turn onto the driveway to the manor. “And I’ll take you there the second you give me a reason to.”
I expect her silence this time, but I’m still pissed off by it.
I park the car and haul her suitcases from the back seat.
She looks at the manor like it’s a war zone—and I suppose for her, it is.
“Go,” I order, and she swallows before forcing one foot in front of the other.
The doors open as we reach it, and my brothers stand at the entrance, expressionless. Damon takes in the mute girl at my side, but James only watches me. The slightest narrowing of his eyes answers my question.
He’s still mad.
I didn’t tell anyone where I was going. Even the soldiers I took were only told to get on the plane.
All my brothers know is what I told them via text while we sat on the runway for hours.
James:Where are you?
James:Why aren’t you answering your phone?
James:If you’re not dead in a ditch, I’m going to kill you.
Logan:I have her.
James:Who?
Logan:Kasey.
