Page 32 of Unhinged Kallie
“Carter vouched for you, so don’t let us down,” he said, and I blushed as Kallie looked over her shoulder, smiled and mouthed, thank you.
Of course, my heart pounded hard, and I felt warm and fuzzy all over. I needed to figure out how to stop this from happening every time she looked at me.
With a flourish that only Kallie could create, she dashed out of the room.
“Famous last words,” Cain and I said together and then stared at one another.
“You better keep your promise as well. If anything happens to Kallie, I’m holding you responsible.”
I slumped as Cain left the room, assuming the position Kallie had been in when I came upstairs and put my head in my hands. Most people would never meet a serial killer, and here I lived with four of them, or five if you counted Bo. Now, it was my job to ensure Kallie didn’t speed off the track. What the fuck?
Chapter Twelve
KALLIE
FIRST DAY OF FRESHMAN YEAR
I couldn’t believe Dad had let Carter take the car, but I loved it. My arm was out the open window, and the air traveled over it as I held it like a wing. I pointed toward the ground, and the wind pushed my arm down and then pushed it up again with a flick of my fingers.
I wanted to hang my head out the window and scream at the top of my lungs just because I could. Glancing at Carter, he seemed so cool and relaxed. I wondered if people would think we were dating when we pulled up. Was it wrong that I hoped they would? He made my heart beat fast, and my blood hummed with excitement.
“I’ll find you at lunch, and we can sit together,” Carter said, and I forced myself not to smile or seem too happy about the idea.
“I thought you’d want to hang with your friends,” I said, leaning my head back on the seat.
“After you’ve made some friends, you won’t want me around anymore.”
I doubted that. Friends were a foreign concept, and I always wanted him around, but I needed to play it cool. That was what all the dating quizzes in the magazines said.
We pulled up to a stop sign and were just about to go when a pick-up truck filled with guys in the cab, and more in the bed, came speeding from the other direction, blowing through the stop sign.
“Loser!” The guys in the back screamed and gave Carter the finger. All I could see was cutting their fingers off and sticking them up their noses until they tickled their brain.
“Who the hell are they,” I asked, glaring at the guys all wearing matching red jerseys.
“Ignore them. They’re always idiots. That’s the football team, and they think they are better than everyone else, not just me.”
I recognized two of the boys sitting in the back as guys on Troy’s specialty team. Of course, Troy would be on a specialty team. He was Mr. Amazing.
“Doesn’t that bother you?”
Carter shrugged. “Why would it?”
“Because they almost hit the side of the car, and look at them, they are….” I pointed at the windshield and the guys making faces at us as we followed them.
“Something you need to realize about high school. You have nice people and idiots. If you let every idiot annoy you, you will want to kill everyone, and you cannot do that. Remember what your dad said, and I promised to look out for you.”
I crossed my arms and glared at the side of Carter’s face. “I don’t need a babysitter.”
“Okay, Trouble.” He rolled his eyes.
“I don’t. I want to do this to prove to my dad and myself that I can,” I said, and Carter nodded.
“Good, but I’m still looking out for you, and it’s not babysitting. The guys on my teams watch my back, and I watch theirs. Same thing.”
“Why does your dad think you can’t handle high school,” Talon asked from the backseat. I kept forgetting she was in the car. My cousin was clueless. She had no idea she was surrounded by serial killers, and Aunt Aspen wanted to keep it that way. I thought it was a stupid idea. The probability of her being home and seeing something she shouldn’t was high, and how were we supposed to handle that? I couldn’t kill her. Well, I could, but I shouldn’t.
“He’s nervous about it. He’s been like that since my mom died,” I said, smoothly lying to my cousin.
