KENNICK: A Bad Boy Romance Novel (21 page)

Chapter
Thirty-Two

Kim heard the news from Ricky, who, by virtue of being
on the newspaper, was privy to all Kingdom's dirty business. Kim had dropped
the phone right on the floor, the screen shattering on impact. Who cared? The
girl was dead.
Another
girl was dead.

And the gypsies were involved, again.

She paced, wondering whether or not to just drive to
the trailer park. But she didn't want to complicate things for anyone, and she
knew that her presence would likely make Kennick even edgier than he was sure
to be. She knew they would be questioning him, his brothers, everyone in his
clan. She massacred her fingernails as she walked back and forth, waiting for
her phone to ring. Finally, it did, and through the cracked screen she saw his
name.

“Kennick,” she said, breathless. “What's happening? Is
everything alright?”

There was a pause on the other end of the line, as
though he were contemplating how, exactly, to answer that question.

“Yes,” he finally said. “It's as alright as one could
hope it to be. They're still here, going door to door, questioning everyone.
Cristov is shaken up. They damn near interrogated him.”

Kim wondered which of the cops had been tasked with
speaking with Cristov. She knew Jimmy would have been patient, would have been
impartial, but she wasn't sure she could say the same for anyone else.

“Can I come over?” she asked, wanting to see him,
needing to be with him, to give him whatever he needed to feel alright. The
pause on the line felt loaded.

“Yes,” he finally said, and in his voice she heard the
slightest crack, the smallest bit of weakness. “Yes, come over Kim.”

She didn't even say goodbye before rushing out the
door, slipping her phone into the pocket of her dress and running down the
steps to her car. The town passed by in a blur as she drove, disregarding the
speed limit. Not like there'd be any cops on the road to ticket her; they'd all
be at the trailer park.

She pulled straight up to Kennick's trailer, and he
came out quickly when he heard her door slam. She rushed to him, flinging
herself into his arms and burying her face in his neck.

“This is awful,” she murmured against his skin. “This
is...this is a nightmare.”

He tightened his embrace.

“You knew her, didn't you,” he asked into her hair,
nuzzling her. She felt tears wetting her cheeks. For the moment, she forgot the
repercussions of the murder, the fact that this could be the thing that chased
Kennick Volanis from her arms forever. She only felt sorrow filling her heart.
She nodded against him.

“She was sweet. So sweet, Kennick. Just a kid, really.
Had her whole life, and it would have been a good one...”

Still holding her, he led her inside.

“Damon took Cristov for a drive,” he said when Kim
looked around the trailer for his brothers. “Needed to clear his head.”

“How did he....” Kim began to ask, not entirely sure
she truly wanted an answer.

“Followed one of the Surry's dogs,” Kennick said,
anticipating her question. “Damn hounds are always wandering off into the woods
after critters. Usually you just wait a while and they come back, but Tommy Surry
was whining about the dog needing a bath, so Cristov went in to get him back.
The dog found the body, not Cristov.”

“How terrible,” Kim said softly, unable to keep her
mind from drifting to the imagined scene. Jessica's cold eyes staring up at
nothing, her body pale and rigid. Now, she imagined a dog's nose snuffling up
and down the body, whining because it sensed this human was not doing the
things that humans were supposed to do.

“What's going to happen now, Kennick?” Kim asked
suddenly, dragging herself away from the image in her brain. She wrapped her
arms around her, cold despite the oppressive summer heat. “What's going to
happen to...you?”

“Us?” Kennick asked, raising an eyebrow. “This has
nothing to do with us.”

His voice was low, a growl that forced his hand,
showing the uncertainty – and the anger at being caught uncertain – that
simmered underneath his calm eyes.

“It does,” Kim whispered, barely able to meet his
eyes. “You
know
it does. I mean, I
know it wasn't...it wasn't...
you
didn't
do it. But it doesn't
look
good, does
it?”

The silence that passed between them seemed heavy,
pregnant with the weight of her words. Kim knew that what she was saying made
them both uncomfortable. She supposed there might have been a time when she
would have avoided saying any of it. But this was Kennick. This was her man.
There could never be anything but the truth - the good, the beautiful, the ugly
and the horrible. Whether it sickened her or freed her, she would never be able
to bury her honesty in front of him.

He sighed, breaking the awful tension.

“No,” he said softly. “It doesn't. Doesn't look good
at all.”

“Oh, baby,” Kim breathed, crossing the distance
between them in a few steps, reaching up to stroke his stubbled cheek. He moved
so quickly then that it was like he'd snapped, grabbing her forearms and
holding them so tight it almost hurt. His eyes burned emerald fire into hers,
capturing her in a swirling storm of everything that had ever existed within
the bounds of the human heart. She trembled in his grip, simultaneously afraid
and aflame of the heat in his gaze.

“You trust me, don't you?” he growled down. “You trust
me when I say we'd never do this – not any of us, we'd
never
hurt someone for no reason, and no one had a single reason to
hurt that girl.”

“I told you....” Kim started to protest as he held
her, ensnared in his eyes.

“I know what you said,” he said. “You said you know
I
didn't do it. But you have to
understand
none of us
did it. Do you?
Do you believe that? Because it's a package deal, Kim. I think you know that.”

Kim thought of his brothers. She thought of Damon's
mysterious bruises and cuts. She thought of Mina, and Ana. She thought of the
laughter and music of their parties filling the summer night with joy. And then
she thought of Jenner, that man who'd been so eager to hurl insults and
threaten Kennick in his own trailer. But would he kill someone? No, she didn't
think he would. Because if he did, he'd lose his family. And family was the
only thing these people had.

“I do know, Kennick,” she breathed. “And if you say it
was someone else, someone outside the
kumpania,
I believe it. I believe you. Always, Kennick.”

He stared at her for a long moment, studying her,
letting her response sink in and salve his worried mind. He wanted her, then,
more than he could ever remember wanting another woman. She had said everything
he could ever hope to hear. And her eyes on him trusted him, implicitly,
without question. And she wasn't afraid to say what needed to be said. She was
strong, and barreled headfirst into love and everything that came with it.

He didn’t just want her.

He needed her.

He needed her to be his for the rest of his life, to
wake up in his arms every day. He wanted to belong to her, and for her to
belong to him. He wanted it so hard that he felt his stomach clenching, his
heart caught in a vise that cranked and cranked tighter and tighter.

He was sure, then, that she was the woman Baba Tayti
had seen in his future.

Chapter
Thirty-Three

Leaning forward, he answered the lingering question in
her eyes with a kiss. Long and deep, it stirred their souls together, Kim's
body sighing its surrender into his as his tongue entered her mouth and waltzed
against her own tongue.

“You’ll always believe me,” he said, pulling away, his
forehead pressed against her own, his eyes stabbing into hers. “I need more.”

“What,” she gasped, breathless from his kiss, willing
to give him anything he wanted if he’d only kiss her again.

“Say you’ll always be mine,” he growled, turning her
around so that her back was against the table. “Say you’re mine, Kim.”

“I’m yours,” she breathed, her hands moved to his hips
and hugging him in tight to her body. “I’m all yours, forever, always.”

His eyes flashed and his head dipped, his mouth covering
hers once more, hungry now, impatient. His strong arms lifted Kim at the waist
until she was seated on the table, her thighs spread for him as he yanked her
closer by her thighs and pressed his growing hardness against the fabric of her
panties. His body was hot, radiating energy, and she moaned into the kiss as he
teased her slit with the promise of his manhood.

“Say it again,” he grunted as he pulled away, his hand
falling to his pants and quickly undoing the button and zipper, his jeans
falling around his knees as his impressive cock sprang free.

“All yours, baby,” she moaned holding him around the
neck and squirming as his cock pressed against her panties again, now creasing
them to outline her dampening lips. “All yours, forever…”

“Fuck yes, you are,” he groaned, reaching forward to
grab her panties and wrench them to the side, exposing her glistening pussy.
“All fuckin’ mine.”

She whimpered as he teased her, the head of his cock
just barely pressing into her wet entrance. The smell of him filled her, made
her heart bolt and race, her nerves on edge, body sparking like fireworks.

“Tell me while I fuck you,” he demanded, slipping in
one inch further, making her eyebrows raise in a desperate pleading expression.

“All yours, Kennick,” she said, and finally he plunged
into her, drawing her voice into a high scream as her pussy welcomed him,
sucking him into her deepest center. “All yours, all yours…”

She struggled to keep the words coming as he pistoned
into her, fucking her hard and fast, his hand coming around to her lower back
and forcing her to arch back slightly, her knees wrapping around his hips. Fire
licked at her limbs, a burgeoning pressure building in her womb as he pierced
her center again and again, finding the exact place that drove her wild, made
her limbs go to jelly and her mind fade to white. Relentlessly, he drove
himself into her most sensitive self, his thrusts greedy, his hands strong, his
scent filling the air between them with a musky aphrodisiac.

“Say it when you come,” he demanded, and reaching for
her he rolled his finger across her clit, making her back go rigid and her eyes
close. “Say it…”

“All yours,” she cried out as he circled her clit with
his finger, slamming himself deep inside her and holding there, pulsing slightly
as her pussy clenched and released around him, her body shaking and bucking as
her climax ripped through her, a train barreling through the station,
everything dazzled and sparkling while the world faded to black and her thighs
shook in ecstatic release.

He could feel his own balls churning, the sensation of
her rippling pussy around his cock, and he pulled out quickly, taking his shaft
in his own hand.

“All…fucking…mine,” he groaned as warm bursts of cum
landed across Kim’s inner thighs and still-spread pussy, each spurt draining
him more and more as his eyes stayed fast on Kim’s face, her lips parted and
eyes unsteady, her climax only just fading. When at last he felt himself
emptied, his cock beginning to go limp, he quickly grabbed a paper towel and
cleaned her.

“Just so you know,” he said, as clinically as a
physician as he wiped the evidence of their passion from her still-pink flesh,
“that goes both ways.”

“Oh?” Kim asked, smiling lazily, that post-orgasmic
look on her face that he’d grown to love so much.

Discarding the paper towel and moving close to her
once more, letting her arms fall around his neck as their eyes met, he smiled.

“Yeah,” he said, voice low and husky. “Consider me
yours. No matter what happens, you’re gonna have me as your man.”

She hummed, a sleepy happy sound, and let him lean in
for another soft, lingering kiss.

It was early still, not yet 5pm, and the summer sun was still
high against the blue sky, but they were both spent, and Kennick led her to his
bedroom. As Kim curled into his arms, feeling the strong pulse of his blood
against her cheeks, she sighed. Whatever consequences would come, they would
not come then. This may be the last time they could sleep so easily, though she
certainly hoped not. She closed her eyes and hoped until sleep overcame her.

A scream ripped through the early evening. Kennick
woke with a lurch, his heart stopping as a crash followed the scream; beside
him, Kim's body tightened then released as she awoke. She could hear his heart
race through his chest, her body lifted as he rose. Bleary-eyed and
sleep-stoned, she first felt thirsty. And then she heard the screaming, and her
eyes found Kennick's in the dark of his room. For one moment, the world was
frozen as reality rushed in, the nonsense of the sleeping mind colliding with
reality.

And then he was on his feet, pulling on his jeans even
as he ran through the trailer. She followed, pulling her dress on, and ran into
Damon as she rushed into the hallway. His huge form bouldered past her, his
heavy footsteps shaking the trailer as he rushed. The door was already swinging
open as Kennick raced out into the settling night, Cristov at his heels and
Damon close behind, Kim bringing up the rear. Outside, the air was too hot to
believe, the humidity heavy.

The sounds of cracking, of screams ripping across the
land, baffled the still-rousing mind, but in the distance there was red and
orange light, flickering and violent. Kennick was barefoot, crossing the
trailer park as fast as he could, hollering. He called for water, for someone
to call 911. He screamed fire, followed by his brothers.

Kim found her phone bouncing against her thigh, still
tucked into the pocket of her dress, and dialed 911, screaming at the operator
for a fire truck, her words breathless as she tried to keep up with the Volanis
brothers. The trailer came into view at last, two wailing figures crumpled to
their knees before it. The fire was gigantic, spectacular in its destruction.
Already, half the trailer was collapsing upon itself.

“Is anyone still in there?” Kennick bellowed as he
approached one of the kneeling figures, who clutched his arms in gnarled
fingers. It was an old woman, a younger woman beside her. Kim could hear her
screeching.

“Destin,” she wailed. “The baby...”

The women's clothes were covered in char and soot,
their cheeks smudged. Kennick looked into the inferno. He wished he'd had time
to put on shoes. He raced forward. The flames engulfed him. Kim screamed his
name, her voice joining in the cacophony. The sun had only just set, but the
flames lit the world up in a horrible glow, shadows dancing wickedly across the
figures that came, fast and slow, to crowd around the burning trailer.

Someone pulled the women away, their wails trailing
behind them. Kim strained her ears for the sound of sirens. She wanted to
follow Kennick into the fire, needed to bring him back to safety; she stepped
forward, but felt a strong hand on her arm, holding her back. Turning, she saw
Cristov, his eyes soft but his head shaking
no
.

Inside, Kennick's lungs were burning, his eyes
streaming tears. The heat was worse than anything he'd ever felt. This was why
they called hell an inferno. This was hell. A sickening crack made his heart
lurch, and a part of the roof collapsed into the kitchen. He knew where the
baby's room was, and fought through the heat and the smoke towards it, hoping
against hope he wasn't too late.

The bottoms of his feet scalded against the melting
tiles, and he slammed his body against the plywood door of the nursery; the
flames hadn't made it there yet, but the two-year-old boy didn't move in his
crib. Kennick bolted forward. He'd been holding his arm across his mouth, but
he needed both his arms to lift the unconscious figure from its crib, and he
felt his mouth immediately fill with ash and smoke, the taste something he
would never forget. Everything smelled like ruin: burnt plastic, melting tar,
smoke like a monster clawing at him from inside out.

His feet burned even when he finally stepped back onto
the grass, stumbling forward, seeing, in the distance, lights. He heard sirens
as he laid himself on the ground, careful not to crush the toddler beneath him.
It seemed he might never feel fresh air in his lungs again, breath after ragged
breath, the air too shallow, too hot, too humid. Kim was at his side, turning
him over, pushing his hair from his face and lowering her lips to his, giving
him her breath, pausing only to whisper his name, again and again she called to
him, begged him to stay. And though it was what he wanted more than anything
else, he couldn't.