Page 16 of Alive and Kicking
There’s no creepy Cain shrine there.
Now, there’s a creepy Enzo shrine. And that’s not even the worst part. The crazy mother fucker just pasted his face over Cain’s in all the photos.
Yeah, I said he’s crazy because this is just... well, crazy.
“Thought you said he was like an uncle to you,” Zane says from behind me. I turn my head to the side to see him narrowing his eyes at the wall where there are hearts drawn around Enzo’s head on Cains body.
“I’m going to stab him,” I say as I start yanking photos off the wall.
Sloane reaches forward and I make the mistake of thinking he’s going to help me get rid of this shit, but no. He peels one of Enzo’s heads off to reveal Cain and a slow smile spreads across his face. “This is like the funniest thing that’s ever happened around you. What the hell is this?” he asks, peeling off another Enzo head.
I huff as I rip the offending scraps from his hands. “This was Enzo following an order. I knew I should have asked Kian to take down the photos of Cain instead. This is what I get when I ask Enzo to do something.”
Sloane laughs, but Zane remains quiet, and surprisingly, Sloane does start to help me pull down the pictures from the wall. When we’ve got all the photos pulled from the wall, I turn to find a trash can but find Zane standing in the doorway holding the small waste basket from my room. I guess that explains why he got so quiet.
Leaving the trash can filled with crumpled pictures in the closet to keep it out of sight, we head back to the main room. We find Cain and Nox arguing quietly in the center of the room. “This is a giant house. I’m sure they have other rooms that don’t have bunk beds. Hell, I have the money, I can just rent a room atone of the hundreds of hotels in a twenty-mile radius.” He huffs, turning his back to Nox.
A laugh escapes me, and Cain turns narrowed eyes on me. “What is so funny to you about this situation?”
I shrug my shoulders and repress another laugh. “You always call me princess and yet you’re the one acting like the spoiled princess. There are reasons for all of this and I would have told you them if you’d just asked.”
I quirk a brow at the idiot. It’s not like I’m unreasonable or anything. He could have just asked a few questions before acting like a brat.
“Fine. Why are we staying here instead of a hotel?” He pinches the bridge of his nose like he’s fending off the worst migraine in the world.
“Hotels are less secure. There is no place safer for us to be once the announcement is made.”
His hand falls and he looks at me, a little of the stiffness falling from his expression. He acts like he assumes something psychologically divergent is going to come out of my mouth every time he talks to me. I’m not that bad.
“And why are we staying in one room, on those.” He points at the offending furniture like it’s made one too many ‘yo mama’ jokes at his expense.
I roll my eyes at his dramatics. “We’re staying in one room because, while this is the safest place for us, it still is not a safe place. The bunk beds are just because it was the most logical thing for the space I had.”
In all my fantasies of bringing Cain home to meet my family he’d never been so ungrateful. I guess it’s true that reality pales in comparison to fantasy… Or is it supposed to be the other way around? Whatever it is, he’s just lacking compared to the fantasy version of him that I created. I shake my head to get rid of my thoughts and zero back in on Cain, who’s now working his jawmuscles like he’s about to partake in the world gum chewing competition.
“Fine,” he grits out, and stomps over to the pile of bags that someone left near the door while we were meeting with my father.
He grabs his bag, flinging it onto one of the bottom bunks, and Zane jumps up and down grabbing his own bag before hurrying over to the same bunk Cain claimed. “I call top bunk.” He tosses his bag up there and scurries up the narrow ladder. Nox smiles fondly at his antics as he and Sloane pick out their beds as well. Nox ends up on the bottom with Soane on top, and Sloane makes some joke about how he’s always a top and never a bottom, but I don’t really understand it. Maybe he’s had a bad experience with the bottom bunk?
It's not so bad right now, when all we have to do is get through another awkward dinner with my dad. The real fun will begin tomorrow when I’m announced as the next head of the family. Then it’ll be open season on me. But now that the guys are starting to get settled and the arguing is over, I have hopes that things won’t turn out too badly.
After a mind-numbingly boring dinner with my dad and the guys, we’ve finally escaped to my room for the night. I stretch my arms over my head as Nox closes the door behind us. I’m about ready to fall into bed and sleep for a week straight. Long drives are really not my thing. When I was running for my life, that sixteen-hour trip didn’t seem so long.
“Bedtime!” Zane says when he sees me yawn for the sixth time in the last thirty minutes.
I don’t disagree with that and just walk into my closet. I don’t even bother closing the door behind me as I yank my clothes off in front of the built-in drawers, thinking that since I’m home I might as well pack a few more things when we leave. Pulling out a pair of silk pajamas my personal shopper sent to the house, Igrin at how smooth and soft they are. They’re in my usual style too, shorts with a lace trimmed camisole.
“Hey Viv, what exac…” The words cut off as I look over my shoulder at Nox.
His eyes are fixed firmly to my bare ass and I give it a little wiggle. He blinks after a moment and his eyes fly up to meet mine. This would be a really great time to be able to do that eyebrow wiggle thing that Sandy can do, but I just smirk at him before looking away and slowly stepping into my shorts.
A soft groan leaves him as I bend over to push my feet through the leg holes and I make sure to move extra slow as I pull them up my legs. Sometimes I just like to torture him since he’s still holding out on me. Pretty sure he’s just doing it at this point to be stubborn. I can’t even be sure who will break first; him or Cain. They’re both stubborn to a fault.
I look forward to watching them crumble though.
I pull on my pajama top at a normal speed and turn to find him continuing to stare at me. “What did you need?” I ask, deciding to remind him that he probably came in here for a reason.
He blinks, looking away with his brow furrowed before snapping his head back toward me. “Yeah, what exactly is the plan tomorrow?” he asks finally.
