Chapter 25: Rebel Revenge: Chapter 25

I had to go to work, and War called some sort of club meeting that required Fang’s attention, so our amateur sleuthing was put on hold after we’d made our suspect list. But I was distracted all night while I pulled beers and bussed food to tables. Every name on the list rolled around in my head, along with a ticking bomb, just waiting to explode.

I had no idea if or when the cops would come for me. But if Vaughn’s lawyer was right, it seemed like it could happen at any time.

I couldn’t think about that too much or the panic would consume me. I’d seen too many innocent people go to jail to think it couldn’t happen to me too.

I fell into my big soft bed in Vaughn’s house after my shift and tossed and turned until the tiny hours of the morning, when exhaustion finally took over.

I could have sworn it was only ten minutes later when Kian bounded into my room and cannonballed onto my bed. “Wake up, Little Demon!”

His heavy weight sent my much smaller body nearly right off the bed. In my half-sleep state, I grappled at the sheets, trying to get a grip on something that would stop me sliding right onto the floor.

The covers just came sliding down with me.

I hit the carpet with a bone-jarring thud that ricocheted right through my body.

Kian’s handsome face peered over the bed at me. Eyes wide with surprise, he barely held back laughter. “What just happened?”

I reached up and pushed his face away. “You catapulted me off my bed!”

He burst into laughter that made his handsome face way too attractive for this time of the morning. “It was not my intention, but at least you’re up. Let’s go!”

I glanced out the window, and my mouth dropped open. I pointed at it. “Is that sky orange because the sun is still rising? What the hell time is it?”

“Five thirty.”

“Five thirty in the morning?”

“Best time of the day, and you’re missing it. Come on!”

He grabbed my arm and dragged me up off the floor, though I would have preferred he’d left me there. I wasn’t fussy about where I slept. I just wanted to actually get some.

But Kian shoved me toward my walk-in closet. “Go. Get dressed. We’re going running.”

I stopped, and then it was my time to laugh. “Ha, that’s funny. I thought you just said running. You meant, you’re going running and buying me a bucket-sized coffee on your way home, right?”

“Coffee is terrible for you. Running is good. Natural endorphins are where it’s at, Little Demon.”

“How am I the demon when you’re the one in here before six and bouncing around like you just took an upper?” I narrowed my eyes at him. “Did you? ’Cause if you want me to run, you might have to share.”

He laughed. “I don’t even drink coffee. You really think I put drugs in my body?”

I groaned. “Oh shit, I live with a ‘my body is a temple’ person. Tell Vaughn I changed my mind about living here. Sleeping in my car might be preferable.”

He raised an eyebrow. “You want your revenge on Caleb or what?”

There was probably nothing else that would have got me motivated to work out at this time of the morning. Nothing except for that.

He grinned, knowing he had me. “You aren’t a bad fighter. But the sort of training we’re going to be doing? You’re going to need the fitness. And from what I can see, your current lifestyle is not exactly what I call athletic.”

I tossed a sock at him from my drawer. “Insulting. I run. If bears are chasing me.”

“You don’t eat.”

I glanced at him sharply. “Haven’t had much appetite with everything going on.”

“That has to change. I’m not the only one who noticed. Fang sent me a text last night, asking me to watch you.”

Anger poured through me. “He better not have. He’s not my mother.” Not that my mother had ever really paid attention to my calorie consumption.

“Don’t get pissed. He’s scared. And frankly, so am I. You need the fitness, which means you need the calories, or you’ll have nothing to build muscle with. What’s your favorite foods? I’m a good cook. I’ll make whatever you want, whenever you want.”

“Coffee is my favorite food.”

“Not a food, Little Demon.”

I sighed. “The omelets you made the other morning smelled really good.”

He nodded. “Run first. Then omelets. Promise you won’t run off somewhere before you can eat them?”

My stomach was churning at the thought of food, but I knew he was right. I’d lost weight since the attack, and it wasn’t healthy. I needed to be stronger to take on Caleb.

“Fine. Let’s go ruh…ruhhhh… Kian, I can’t even say the word at this time of the morning. It’s dirty.”

Kian sniggered from the other side of the closet. “Get dressed or I’m coming in there and doing it for you.”

I stuck my head out of the doors, being careful to cover up my half-naked state. “Pervert.”

“That sounds like more procrastination. I’m not joking. I will come in there and put a sports bra on you myself if I have to. Can’t say I have any practice in that. Plenty of practice in taking them off though, if you ever require such a service…”

I grinned at him but decided enough men had seen me naked in the past two days so dressing myself was the preferred option. I rummaged through all my clothes and came up with a cutoff pair of shorts and an old Rolling Stones shirt. I didn’t even own a sports bra, but there wasn’t much bounce to my barely-there boobs anyway. A regular old crop top would have to do.

I found a pair of beat-up old Converse in a box I hadn’t unpacked yet, put them on, then presented myself to Kian.

His gaze swept over me. “You look like you’re going to an emo punk rock concert.”

“If that were true, I’d have more eyeliner on.”

“Where are your sneakers?”

“These are sneakers. If you don’t like my outfit choice, we could go shopping instead? That sounds like way more fun than running.”

He shook his head. “I will take you shopping and get you some decent sneakers, but after running, and after food.”

I grumbled at him but followed him down the stairs and out the door anyway. The cold morning air hit me in the face, and I turned back around. “Nope. It’s freezing. There’s a reason bears hibernate in winter. I now identify as a bear. Bye.”

He caught me by the shoulders and steered me back along the path to the road.

I dragged my feet with every step.

“Gonna be a slow-ass run if I have to poke you the entire way.”

I sighed overdramatically and picked up the pace since I was out here, and Kian was clearly not giving up.

Kian jogged alongside me, grinning at me like I was his star pupil. “That’s it! You’re doing so well. Breathe in through your nose. Out through your mouth. You were born for this, Rebel! Go girl!”

I stopped and stared at him.

“What?” He ran around me in circles.

“Your pep is inciting violence. I just had a flash of me pushing you off the Saint View bluffs, and it brought me great joy, even though you were shouting motivations at me the entire way down.”

He sniggered. “Fine. No more pep. We can run in silence. Even though that’s really boring.” He broke off and headed down the road again.

I moved my ass to keep up with him.

For a minute, the silence was bliss. I loved every second of it.

Until he started singing.

Kian belting out Britney Spears songs in an off-key warble was disturbing. But clearly, Kian didn’t do silent contemplation.

“Tell me about Vaughn’s dad.”

Kian stopped in the middle of the “Toxic” chorus. “Bart? Nicest guy you’d ever meet. Went out of his way to be good to people.”

“You knew him well?”

He shrugged. “We weren’t best friends or anything. We didn’t stay up late at night sharing secrets. But there’s not really many secrets when you live with someone anyway, even if you are just the hired help.”

“What sort of secrets did Bart have?”

He shrugged. “There were some late-night phone calls, I guess. I just assumed they were from his business partner. They didn’t always get along.”

That sparked my interest. “What makes you think that?”

“Nothing terribly exciting. A few arguments floating out from behind Bart’s study door. The occasional look between them when they thought no one else was paying attention.”

“A look? Like a sexual one?”

He huffed out a laugh between sucking in breaths of air as we jogged along. “No. Bart wasn’t the one exchanging sexual looks in that house.”

I widened my eyes at him. “Who? Vaughn?”

He wiggled his eyebrows at me. “Maybe.”

“With you?”

Kian didn’t say anything. He just ran faster.

I pumped my legs to catch up with him. “Kian! You can’t just drop a bomb like that and then run off.”

He glanced over at me, laughter in his eyes. “Maybe I just said it to get you to run faster.”

“Well, it worked. Tell me more and a girl might even sprint.”

“Thought you wanted to know about Bart and his business partner?”

“I do.”

“If you ask me, Harold is the one the cops should be investigating. Bart held the majority share in the company. Fifty-one percent. With Vaughn in California and clearly no desire to ever work for his father, old Harry could have easily assumed he’d get to be the big boss if Bart was out of the picture. Seems like a pretty good motive to me.”

It was, and good information to have.

But I couldn’t stop thinking about what Kian had said about Vaughn. “Were the two of you together?”

“Me and Bart?” Kian coughed.

“I meant Vaughn, but should I ask about you and Bart? In theory, you have a good motive for murder too.”

He stopped running to stare at me. “Why on earth would I kill him?”

I was grateful for the break and took my sweet-ass time, doubled over with my hands on my knees while I sucked in giant lungfuls of air. “Because you were jealous of my mom maybe? Maybe you were in love with Bart? Maybe you were in love with both of them? You could have been having threesomes every night for all I know.”

“Pfft. Your mom would have told you if we were banging.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I do. Because I know Miranda had no filter, much the way you don’t.” He grinned down at me. “Trust me. If we’d been screwing, you would know about it. That’s how good I am.”

I cocked my head to one side. “You know, when guys talk themselves up like that, they’re normally compensating for something.”

He started up a slow jog again, running backward this time so I could see the devilish smile on his face. “If you ever want to find out, I’m just on the other side of the bathroom. Speaking of which, first one home gets first shower. And there’s limited hot water, just so you know.”

He took off running, leaving me trailing behind, my calf twinging with pain and my chest aching from exertion. By the time I got back upstairs, the water was already running in our shared bathroom, and Kian was singing a Christina Aguilera song at the top of his lungs.

“Ugh!” I was a hot and sweaty mess, and Kian was infuriating.

Vaughn appeared in the doorway and leaned on it. “He do that thing where he makes you race him home for the shower?”

“Yes!”

“He’s annoying when he does that. I could never beat him either. Come with me.”

“I’m hot and grumpy and tired, Vaughn. I think I pulled a muscle while I was running as gracefully as a gazelle.”

“I saw you through the window. Your legs are too short to be gazelle-like. It was more like watching a chicken with its head cut off.”

I glared at him. “I really don’t know why I moved in here.”

He smirked at me. “Come on. You want to get Kian back? I didn’t grow up with him not to know his pet hates. Cold water is one of them. I swear he got fast just because he never wants to be second in the shower.”

That I could get behind. I limped after him, my supposed chicken leg knotted with cramps. I followed Vaughn down into the laundry room where he made a show of leaning on the sink. He flicked up the handle, letting hot water pour from the faucet. Then he held one finger up, telling me to wait.

“Vaughn!” Kian yelled from upstairs. “You traitor! You did not tell her the laundry runs off the same hot water heater! Where is your loyalty?”

He shrugged. “Apparently with the chicken-legged, house-stealing, face-riding roach.”

On his tongue, it almost sounded like a compliment.