Brighter Than the Sun - Darynda Jones Page 0,16

to take Kim and leave. But Earl has made sure I can’t do that. If I leave, he’ll kill her. If I take her with me, he’ll say I kidnapped her and make sure our faces are plastered all over the planet. If I don’t do what he wants, he refuses her food, then water, until I give in to his demands. If I go to the cops and he’s arrested, she’ll end up in a foster home or a children’s home. I’ve seen a lot of kids from those homes. Some of those places are great. Some are worse than my darkest nightmares. No way will I risk it.

If I were older, though, I could figure out a way. I’d have more options. I’d be smarter. More cunning like the Road Runner.

Celeste steps back to me. “I feel like we just molested a child.”

I lower my head and look at her from underneath my lashes. “You haven’t done anything yet. You aren’t forfeiting, are you?”

I finally take one hand out of my pocket. Look at my watch. I have a little more time, so I loop a finger into the waistband of her pants and pull her toward me. She lets me. Leans into me. Parks her chin on my shoulder so I can whisper into her ear.

“Show me what you got.”

A thrill races over her skin. I feel it as strongly as she does. She accepts my challenge, but she doesn’t start with the kiss. She leans her forehead against mine. Lifts her hands to my hips. Eases them up under my shirt. Slides them over my rib cage. I pray that’s all she does.

She falls almost immediately. Her huge gray eyes gloss over. Grow hooded. Intoxicated. Her breaths mingle with mine, and before she even kisses me, she runs her tongue along the seam of my mouth. It’s hot. She’s hot. Especially when she grazes her fingernails down my ribs and lowers one hand to my crotch. Feels the length of my erection.

Heat swells inside her. Floods her abdomen and rushes down her thighs. She moves in for the kiss a microsecond before she is ripped off me. I see her stumble back, but I don’t move. The five high school kids standing around me convince me to tread carefully.

“What the fuck are you doing?” one yells to Celeste.

Her friends help her up. She is still … inebriated.

Kim is standing behind one of the boys, her eyes wide.

Three of them are wearing letter jackets with hornets on the chests. The other two are dressed to impress with expensive sneakers, jeans riding their hips, graying beaters, and thick chains that run from their belt to their hip pockets. They all look like they’re fresh out of prison. I can’t help but notice the knives they each have clipped to their belts either.

The one who yelled turns to me. Raises his chin in greeting. Smirks. “Hey, dog.” He steps close. “You’re messing with the wrong girls.” Closer. “At the wrong park.” He has a lot of facial hair. “These are taken.”

I look at Kim to make sure she is okay before refocusing on him. “They didn’t mention it.”

“Leave him alone, Gabriel.” One of the blondes tugs on his jacket sleeve.

He ignores her.

“Well, how could they? With your tongue down their throats.”

“Actually, theirs were down mine.”

Celeste’s eyes become huge circles on her pretty face. She’s scared for me. A part of me is grateful. A part of me is embarrassed. But another part, a deeper part, feels bad for what she is about to see. I came here to kill someone, and it looks like I have my first volunteer.

He reaches out, yanks off the chain I’m wearing around my neck, and throws it on the ground. That’d show me.

Celeste walks up. “Gabriel, he’s only thirteen years old.”

He laughs. They all laugh.

“Bullshit.”

“He is, and I’ll call the cops if you touch him.”

Gabriel turns on her. Grabs her arm. Wrenches her forward. “Then what the hell does that make you? Kissing a thirteen-year-old? Maybe I should be the one calling the cops.”

She pales and tries to step back. He doesn’t let her. He glares until she bows her head. She seeks me out from underneath her lashes. Her expression full of apologies.

I look past her to another boy, this one younger. I’m not sure if he’s a part of the gang or not. He’s looking on but makes no move to join in.

He turns his head and spits, completely at ease.