The Hunt for Summer (NSC Industries) (34 page)

As I practically
fell out of the car, he turned towards me and my chest popped. A small but
significant smile lifted his lips, then it transformed into a huge beam and I
felt my little legs scrambling across the grass to him.

He laughed loudly,
lifted me up and spun me round, both of us laughing and crying and just
touching each other.

“Kay…” he breathed
in my ear as I pulled him closer.

“What… Why… just, Oh
God, Kenny.”

He laughed again as
he placed my feet on the ground and palmed my cheeks. “Do you know how bloody
difficult you are to find, Plum?”

I smacked his arm at
his nickname. “What are you doing here?”

He opened his mouth
to speak then looked behind me. I turned to see Lucas had joined us and the
expression on his face was thunderous.

“You gonna introduce
us, Red?” he growled and I scowled at him.

Kenny pulled me into
his side and wrapped his arm around my shoulder. “Stop it” I warned, knowing
exactly what he was doing.

“Lucas, this is my
brother Kenny. Kenny this is my… this is Lucas Hunt, my boss.”

Lucas quirked a brow
at my introduction but he visibly relaxed and held his hand out to Kenny. Kenny
eyed him warily, scanning him up and down before he took Lucas’s hand and shook
with a grin.

“You coming in?” I
asked Kenny who smirked at me.

“Well I was hoping
there was a pub around here, I’m gasping.”

“Wheels?” I asked
and he tipped his head as though I was stupid.

“Plum, I always have
wheels.” He winked and I smirked at him.

“Yours?” I asked.

He grinned and
winked again and I rolled my eyes “You seriously wanna go back in?”

He shrugged but
laughed as we walked over to a black BMW and I narrowed my eyes on him. “Don’t
pinch anything inconspicuous then.”

“And what would be
the point in burning a dump? Especially when it’s gotta bring me all the way
down to see my little sis.”

He opened the door
and swung his arm out in a gesture for me to climb in. He turned to Lucas then
“You wanna join us, mate?”

Lucas smiled and
nodded gratefully and I climbed back out and clambered in the back so Lucas
didn’t have to squeeze his long legs into the tiny space.

“Feed me some
directions.” He said as he pulled out into the traffic.

“Just keep going
straight mate” Lucas said and I scoffed loudly.

“Kenny’s never been
bloody straight.”

“God, I’ve missed
you, Kay.”

***

“So, I take it you
two have a thing going?” Kenny said openly as we nursed our second pint.

I smiled but shook
my head. “No, Lucas is just my boss.”

Kenny lifted his
brows high and smirked. “Sure, Plum.”

“Why ‘Plum’?” Lucas
asked and Kenny waggled his eyebrows.

“Don’t you dare!” I
warned as I pointed my finger at him but his lips lifted into a cruel smile.

Kenny shifted in his
seat so he had Lucas’s full attention. “I take it you haven’t seen a photo of
Kay when she was twelve?”

Lucas frowned but
shook his head.

“Kenny…” I warned again
as I tried to cover his mouth with my hand.

Lucas laughed and
took hold of my hand, holding it tight against his lap.

Quite an
uncomfortable place to put it really but I was more concerned about Kenny at
this point.

“Well, our Kay here
was such a looker at twelve, weren’t you sis.”

I poked my tongue
out at him, huffed and looked towards the bar to hide the blush that was
creeping up my neck and onto my face fiercely.

“She had the blondest,
frizziest hair in the world. It was like a blonde afro. She had a brace and was
built like a lat, straight up and down. No word of a lie she looked like a
human dandelion clock.”

“You bastard” I
whinged and Lucas pulled me into a side hug, laughing loudly as he pictured a
twelve year old me.

“Anyway, she got
bullied relentlessly, proper picked on when she walked home. One particular day
she was late and when she eventually made it home…”

He couldn’t carry on
for laughing and it was hard to control my own. “It wasn’t funny you twat.”

“What?” Lucas urged.

Kenny had tears
rolling down his face and I shook my head and huffed.

“…when she walked in
she was… she was purple.” He laughed again, “The kids had pelted her with
fucking overripe plums…”

Lucas laughed with
Kenny and I glared at them both and crossed my arms over my chest, refusing to
look at them as they tittered and snorted at my expense.

“It wasn’t funny” I
tried but my lips curled upwards and I fought to hold back my smile.

“I beat the shit out
of them for you” Kenny confessed and I stared at him.

“You did?”

“Of course I did. No
fucker hurt my sister like that.” He winked.

“Awww. You do love
me.”

He reared back a
little, “Don’t go too far Plum. Talking of loving family, you heard owt from
the bastard?” He asked, referring to our father.

I shook my head.
“Like he’d want anything to do with me after Ry.”

“How is Ry, he out
yet?” he asked as he finished his pint.

He frowned when he
noticed me stiffen and narrowed his eyes on me. “What the fuck’s he done now?
If he’s hurt you again, I’ll fucking kill him.”

I shook my head and
looked away as the lump formed in my throat. “Kay?”

“Ry was murdered in
prison a few weeks back.” Lucas told him for me.

“Oh Fuck, Kay. Baby,
I’m sorry.”

He gave me a
sympathetic look and stood up. “This calls for another” he said as he looked at
Lucas in query. He nodded and I drained my glass and passed it to him.

“You okay?” Lucas
asked quietly as he leant into me.

I nodded and smiled.
I realised he still had hold of my hand and I looked down at it at the same
time as Lucas.

I tried to pull it
away but he held firm, and turning it over he ran his finger across my palm and
over my middle finger.

I shivered at the
tender touch. “I miss you, Red” he whispered and I looked up at him.

His face was sad and
he sucked in his lips before pulling in a huge breath. “I just… I just can’t
seem to… I can’t stop picturing you on your knees, grieving that… that…”

“You are the only
fucking babe I know who drinks pints of bitter…” Kenny snorted as he placed the
drinks on the table.

Lucas pulled his
hand away and stared down at his drink as I coughed slightly to hide our
intimate moment.

“Ooh sorry, lover’s tiff?”
Kenny mocked.

I glared at him and
he rolled his eyes before he flicked them back to the bar.

I turned to see what
he was smiling at and it was my turn to roll my eyes when I caught a brunette
smiling seductively at him.

“Oi, you are here
with your sis. Don’t even think about it, whore.”

He smirked at me.
“You seriously need to get laid, Kay. Stop being so bloody uptight. I’ve been
out 48 hours, a man has needs.”

I scoffed “You don’t
have needs; you have an addiction to women.”

Kenny had always
been good looking. His muscled tattooed body had constantly attracted him lots
of lady attention. Kenny was a manwhore, plain and simple.

He had been sent
down seven years for his part in a robbery and his body was more toned and
muscular now, his time in prison had obviously been spent in the gym.

He laughed at my
words. “Anyway, I need a bed for the night. She’ll do.”

I shook my head at
his triviality. “You can stay at Mason’s, he’ll be fine.” I told him and he
narrowed his eyes for a moment.

“About that. You do
know that the house you’re staying at came up as flagged by Ricky. You do
realise who it is you’re staying with don’t you?”

I huffed and rolled
my eyes. “Yes, Kenny. I know who Mason is and he’s been a good friend to me.
Don’t you dare start dissing Mason or you’ll be peeling yourself off my fist. I
mean it Kenny, if it wasn’t for Mase, I wouldn’t be here.”

He tipped his head in
query and regarded me carefully and I shook my head. “You don’t need to know.
I’m your sister and… and well, there are some things that you should never tell
family.”

He sighed heavily
but nodded before he downed his pint and grinned at me. “Right, I’m off to get
laid. I’ll see you back at Mason’s tomorrow then.”

With that he winked,
kissed my cheek and stalked across the room to his conquest for the night.

I shook my head and
puffed out a deep breath before I finished my own drink. “I’d better get back”
I said as I reached for my bag off the floor.

“Don’t go yet” Lucas
urged softly and I glanced up at him.

“Why, you ready to
talk?”

He pursed his lips
then shook his head softly. “No, I… I just wanna spend some time with you” he
shrugged and swallowed heavily as his eyes bore into me.

“Lucas…”

“Please Red, just
one more drink. That’s all and I promise to keep my hands to myself” He pleaded
and I relented, nodding at him.

“Another?” he asked
and I nodded again.

This was gonna be
fun.

Chapter 40

Lucas

We were both
plastered and giggling like fools two hours later as we emerged from the pub,
holding onto each other as we tried desperately to keep upright.

“God, I fancy some
chips. Loads of salt and vinegar.” Red declared suddenly and I nodded in
agreement as I scanned the vicinity for a chippy.

“I think there’s one
around Maple Street” I told her.

She nodded in
confirmation as we rounded the side of the pub and headed across the park to
Maple Street.

“I meant to ask you,
what was all that between Mason and Kade in La Roche?” I asked as I grabbed
hold of Red’s arm when she stumbled on a clump of grass.

“Ava had a thing with
Kade when she was with Mason” she divulged and I stared wide eyed at her.

“Really? God, they
seem so tight. I can’t imagine Ava doing that.”

She nodded as she
slipped her arm through mine and I smiled softly at her. “Ava took some shit
from Mason though. He was heavy into drugs and it was her that went through the
withdrawal with him. He was a right twat to her; sleeping with women, constantly
high or pissed, and quite abusive with her at one point. But, she got him off
the stuff and now they’re solid.”

I nodded in
admiration for them. “It’s amazing what love can pull you through” I said
before I filtered my words.

She stiffened
slightly but nodded and turned away.

The path we walked
on was dimly lit and all of a sudden Red stumbled and landed on her knees on
the gravel path, yanking on my arm hard enough to pull me downwards but not
hard enough to drag me all the way down with her.

“You dozy sod” I
laughed as I pulled her up.

She laughed then
looked down at her bleeding knees. “Bloody hell, that’s another skirt ruined”
she grumbled as she swiped at the blood and gravel.

I bent and peered at
her knees in the darkness before pulling her over to a bench and crouching in
front of her.

“Have you got a
tissue in your sack?” I asked. She squinted at me in confusion, “Your bag” I
rectified.

She shook her head
in bewilderment before reaching in and pulled a pack of tissues out and passed
them to me.

I clenched my teeth
as I gently cleaned her knees, my dick deciding he liked me cleaning Red’s
knees as it sprang to life, even in my intoxicated state.

I placed a soft kiss
on each knee when I finished and looked up at her.

She was quiet as she
watched me and I couldn’t help reaching up and cupping her cheek.

She was so damn
stunning that I just needed to touch her.

“I’m sorry” she
whispered as she nuzzled into my hand.

“I know” I whispered
back.

We gazed at each
other for a while and I planted another kiss on her knees.