I met that familiar blue gaze that had always had the ability to see straight to my soul.
What the hell was she doing in California? Not that I was complaining. This was fate telling me that she was meant to be with me after all. I just wanted to know what had brought her to California when I knew that she should still be in Virginia. She still had to finish out her senior year of high school. Why the fuck would she be uprooted during that last year and move over three thousand miles away?
After Kin and her friend left with the muscle-head bodyguard, I bailed on Harris and headed home once we got Jenna into a taxi. Jenna wasn’t my favorite person, but it was more because of the drugs than anything else. Her girlfriend, however, was another story. I couldn’t stand Tessa. She used people, was a hardcore drug addict and she was quickly turning Jenna into one too.
My thoughts didn’t stay on Jenna and her skanky girlfriend for long. I got home by eleven and went straight to bed, ignoring the annoying giggles coming from Gray’s room. The dude had a different girl every night and the less they had going on in the brain department the better he liked it. The way he whored himself out would have exhausted me. I only brought a girl home when I got shit-faced, and that wasn’t often these days.
Grimacing, I dropped down on my bed and pulled my phone out of my pocket. The wallpaper picture on the screen had my chest tightening with emotions as I ate up the sight of Kin gazing back at me so lovingly.
So trustingly.
I’d met her after a show at the bar where Tainted Knights had a steady gig every Friday night back in Bristol. It was college night and the place had been packed. Cash, our bassist, had invited friends from high school and had promised them we’d hang out after the show. I’d been set to bail on them and get home to Kassa, but a tall curvy redhead had caught my attention.
Kin had been wearing skintight jeans with holes in the knees, cowboy boots and a Demon’s Wings T-shirt that had fit perfectly over her tits. Her long hair had been pulled back into a ponytail, showing the world her long, graceful neck and the fact she had a freckle just under her left ear. I’d instantly wanted to taste that freckle and had been about to make my move when Cash had shaken hands with the mountain of a man standing beside her.
Caleb Jacobson was one scary-looking motherfucker. He was as wide as a car and looked like he could bench-press one with ease. The way he’d been so protective of Kin made me jealous for the first time in my life, but that was quickly squashed when I realized that the two were stepsiblings and acted like they were related by blood.
Kin hadn’t been shy and hadn’t played games with me. Her blue eyes had found mine as we’d all stood there talking and I’d known that she was mine for the taking. Caleb had kept a close eye on us throughout that night, but hadn’t tried to step in. Not that it would have mattered. I would have taken him and ten other guys just as big to be with Kin. It had taken less than an hour before I knew I wanted more than just one night with the beautiful redhead. Less than a week later I’d known that she could own me if I let her, and I’d been the first one to say ‘I love you’ a month later.
Kin’s mom had been sick a lot then, and I drove up to Wytheville to see her when Kin couldn’t make it down to Bristol to see the band play. I’d gotten to know all the Jacobsons, including Kin’s mom, Abigail. She was a nice woman and a great mom, so when the doctors told her that she didn’t have but a few months left, Kin had been destroyed. I’d held her, let her cry herself to sleep in my arms after finding out that she was going to lose her mother. I knew I’d feel the same way if it were Alicia who was battling cancer and was told she wouldn’t last until Christmas.
Harris had shown up at the bar just a few days later and had offered Tainted Knights a gig playing at