Page 125 of Hush (Fighting Fate)

“Mostly. Some are Kara’s family, and a few of Adam and Kara’s friends are here, but yeah, we have a big family.”

He dragged me over to where Adam and Kara were talking with Isaac and a bunch of other people, introducing me to a few who were apparently his cousins. Everyone was really nice and made me feel very welcome, and they were all extraordinarily happy to see Noah after he’d been gone for so long.

Kara had decided not to worry about a main meal, choosing to have an endless stream of appetizers instead. I was actually a little surprised by the vast quantities of appetizers on hand…until I saw how much five grown men could devour in such a short amount of time.

I watched the brothers with keen interest during the night. They were all so similar, yet so different at the same time, if that made any sense. They all shared similar mannerisms and had the same dry sense of humor, and they obviously had very strong ties with each other, but they were uniquely individual.

Isaac was the loudest and funniest, but I could tell he was just a big softy at heart. Adam seemed to have the most sense of duty…apart from Noah that was, because I had a feeling they were scarily similar in that way. Eli and Micah were the quietest, but it was obvious they were quiet in different ways. Micah seemed to think a lot, choosing only to talk when he felt it was necessary, and Eli, I think, was only quiet because it was too hard to get a word in whenever Isaac, Noah and Adam were around. I had a feeling that if you got Eli on his own, he would have quite a lot to say.

What else was amusing was the difference in girls they had each brought as their dates. Isaac’s date was a real blonde bombshell, who, I hated to say, didn’t seem to have much of a brain. Micah’s date was an opinionated teacher he worked with, who was also an out and proud feminist - and liked to tell anyone who would listen about the unfairness of our sexes. Eli’s date was a girl he went to college with. She was actually really nice, and I talked to her quite a lot over the night, but she couldn’t stop looking at Isaac, so I wasn’t sure how Eli was going to go with that one.

At some stage after all the speeches were done, and we’d all toasted to the happy couple, I watched Noah and his brothers as they gathered on the back deck. Noah had tried to get me to stay with him, but all the other girls were sitting around in the garden, and I wante

d to try to fit in with them as much as I could.

Most of the older relatives had already gone home, so Adam had changed the music to something more modern and turned it up louder. The atmosphere was perfect.

Deciding it was time to use the bathroom, I excused myself from Alli and Kara and made my way towards the back door. Noah grabbed me as I passed, making me giggle.

“Where do you think you’re going?” he asked, talking into my ear so I could hear him over the music.

“I’m going to use the bathroom…”

Pulling me harder against him, he made a slight growling noise that made my body stir. “I could come and help you…”

I laughed, trying to push him away before I embarrassed myself in front of all his brothers.

“Jesus, Noah,” Adam said, laughing. “Leave the poor girl alone.”

Noah laughed and gave me a lingering kiss before releasing me. Giving him one last, flirty look over my shoulder, I slipped inside.

I knew I was wearing a ridiculously stupid grin. I couldn’t help it. He just made me happy. And to be honest, I thought I deserved a little bit of happiness after everything I’d been through over the years.

I was still lost in my thoughts of Noah when I turned to go down the hall, so I wasn’t aware of anyone else there until a hand came crashing down over my mouth and another clamped around my waist, lifting me up off the ground.

My whole body jerked, obviously not liking being taken by surprise, but a split second later my mind was rationalizing it, assuming it must’ve been one of Noah’s brothers playing a joke on me or something.

But then the rest of my senses caught up, and I was assaulted by the acrid smell of stale smoke and hideous body odor.

“Hello, Kaeli,” Aaron growled in my ear. “I’ve been waiting a long time for you.”

Panic exploded inside me and I began to thrash wildly. Aaron’s arms tightened painfully and he slammed me up against the wall, making my head smash into the drywall. I whimpered under the crush of his hand.

“You wanna fight, Kaeli? Because breaking a few of your bones wouldn’t upset me.”

I tried to clear my head, think of some of the self-defense moves I’d learned last summer with Mia. Curling myself forward as much as I could, I thrust my head back as hard and fast as I could, crying out when the back of my head connected with something hard and sent pain shooting through my skull.

Aaron swore and his grip loosened a little, but not enough for me to break free. God dammit. Why hadn’t I let Noah come with me?

Clenching his hand exceedingly hard over my mouth, he started dragging me backwards. I had no idea what he was planning on doing, but I knew I couldn’t let him get me out the front door. If that happened, I knew my chances of getting away from him were slim to none. I just needed to get Noah’s attention.

I knew if I could get free I could scream, but the music was pretty loud now, and the guys were standing right where the speakers were.

Self-preservation kicked in and my determination rose. Fumbling for the fingers digging into my stomach, I grabbed his middle finger with one hand and the two end ones with the other, and as hard as I could, I ripped them apart.

“God fucking damn it! I’m going to fucking kill you in a minute,” he roared.

But I didn’t stop. I couldn’t if I wanted to have any chance of getting away. I pulled harder, making him slam me up against the wall again. Pain shot through my shoulder. Taking his hand off my mouth, he grabbed one of my wrists and, squeezing hard, ripped my hand away from him.

---