Page 47 of Rough Start

“Huh?” Kye asked, glancing over at her. Eliana was about to explain that she was silently cursing her father and not talking to him when Kye spoke up. “I mean, probably wasn’t the best time to kiss you,” he said, referring to earlier, “but you were pressed up against me, and God it was so good to see you…”

“Okay, not what I was talking about!” Eliana said, holding a hand up to halt him. “And the only reason I was pressed against you was because you slammed me into my car!”

“You were running away.”

“You were kidnapping me!”

“It wouldn’t have been kidnapping if you had just cooperated,” Kye defended, both of their volumes rising again.

“Don’t argue semantics with a lawyer, Kye, you aren’t going to win,” Eliana said, effectively shutting him up. “Since you brought it up, why did you kiss me? Some sort of sick plot to exploit my former feelings for you? Because that’s a low blow even for someone like you.”

“Someone like me?” Kye asked defensively. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You know.”

“A criminal, right, you haven’t been shy about calling me that,” Kye said bitterly. “Am I really so different from what you remember?” At his question, Eliana turned to look at him although his eyes were fixed on the road.

He likely wasn’t any taller, although his height seemed more intrusive than she remembered. Where he had been lean in his youth, he’d filled out immensely in the last ten years. Without his suit jacket on, his arms were exposed in his white shirt that he’d rolled up to the elbow. Gripping the wheel tightly, she could see the bulge of muscle in his arms, and she’d felt first-hand how firm his chest was. His jaw was set and had matured. The beard was a new addition, and she couldn’t deny how it contributed to how attractive he was. His hair was shorter and though it was still disheveled, she could tell it was soft and thick. Kye’s usually average complexion looked more sun-kissed than she remembered, and she noted a sweeping, crescent-shaped pink scar under his right eye.

He was entirely beautiful and terrifying at the same time. He was imposing and carried himself with the confidence of a man who had held his own in more than one battle. He’d gone from crisp and sharp looking in his suit jacket and name-brand button-down shirt, to roguish and powerful in his dirty jeans and rumpled shirt. With a particular sense of pride, she saw a forming bruise on his jaw where she’d kicked him.

“How did you get this?” she asked quietly as she gently touched the scar. She needed to keep her mind away from the memory of how he’d had her up against the car. Kye flinched for a moment as though she’d shocked him when her fingers touched him, but when she went to recoil her hand, he once again took hold of it and held on.

“Took a hard hit with a pair of brass knuckles a few years ago,” he explained. “Thought my eye had popped out.” He was trying to make light, but her cringe made him second guess his joke. “It wasn’t too serious. Just a scar now.”

“That’s awful,” she replied. At the sound of compassion in her voice, he looked over at her. “Why would you want to be part of a world like this?”

“I told you, don’t ask questions you don’t want answers to.”

“I do want answers. I think I deserve them,” she countered. “I lost everything that night, Kye. It started out as the best night of my life. Things were finally working out with school and moving and with you… What happened after my dad dragged me away? Why didn’t you come after me? Did I mean so little?”

“No!” he said abruptly. “Eli, you meant everything to me. That’s why you had to go. The guys that were hunting you and your dad down, found you because they followed me. After you left, I took your dad’s truck. They chased me, and I was able to get back to town before they shot the tires out. Everything got a little chaotic… there was a lot of gunfire. Especially after the Screaming Demons showed up. Patty’s caught fire in the process. Sheriff declared martial law for two weeks, but eventually, we took care of them.”

“Took care of? You mean you killed them?” He looked at her again as if to ask, ‘do you really want to know?’. Her response was raising her eyebrows in insistence.

“Yes, we killed all of them. Including ten of our own men who had betrayed us,” Kye said truthfully. Eliana shook her head and pulled her hand away from his.

“How many did you kill?”

“If you’re trying to make me feel bad about what I did, it’s not going to work. I’ve made peace with the life I’ve chosen.”

“So you don’t have any regrets?” she asked with narrowed eyes. “You don’t feel bad about the things that you’ve done?”

“Everyone has regrets, Eli, don’t patronize me,” Kye retorted. “I have a family with the Demons. I’m respected, and I’ve made a hell of a lot more money than I could have dreamt.”

“Blood money.” Eliana nearly smacked her head on the dashboard as Kye slammed the brakes of the car. “What are you doing?” she shrieked as he pulled the car onto the gravel shoulder of the two-lane road. When the car was at a complete stop, a plume of dust encircling them, Kye turned to face her completely. His eyes were on fire again.

“You’re pissed, I get it,” he started, “leave it to your asshole of a dad to leave you with all this shit to deal with. Believe it or not, I had no idea Max still had a contract out on you or your dad. If I had, I would have dealt with it. Kept you safe. I didn’t know, and now we’re both stuck in this. If I don’t deliver you to Max, I lose all standing with him. If you don’t report to him, they’ll kill you outright. It’s not pretty, but that’s the facts. In the meantime, save your high and mighty bullshit for someone else. You have no idea what I’ve been through these last ten years without you. I’ve made more good decisions than bad, and I challenge anyone who says they would have made different decisions given the hand I was dealt. You wanna stay mad? Fine, stay mad, but don’t you dare judge me, Eliana. I don’t deserve that from you. You’re not the only one who lost someone they loved that night.”

“Kye…” she said softly with fresh tears in her eyes. It was only then that Kye realized in his angry tirade, he too had allowed a hot tear to pour from the corner of his eye. He wiped it away furiously with the back of his hand and glared at the road in front of him. He glanced down when he felt Eliana place her hand over his. Smiling softly, he gave it a gentle squeeze. “I’m sorry. I know you haven’t had it easy either…”

“I’m sorry, Eli,” Kye said after taking a deep breath. “I didn’t want any of this for you. If I knew of a way out, I would have taken it. As things stand, our best bet is to hear Max out, do what he wants, and get on with life. When it’s all over, you never have to see me again.”

“After this is all over, I’m going to take a long vacation,” she teased. “Somewhere warm and tropical where I can sip a margarita out of a coconut.”

“With a little umbrella?”

“Naturally.”