The Revolt (The Reapers: Book Two) (11 page)

“So when you say you want to touch him, what
exactly are we talking about?”

It took him a moment to catch up with my
subject change and, when he did, he smiled. “G-rated, Kelsey. I
promise.”

“Okay, then. I agree. Figure out the when,
where, and how, and I’ll do it.”

“Thank you,” he said, a hand over his heart.
He blew me a kiss and left.

I tiptoed out to find Jed asleep on the
couch, snoring softly. I might be able to make it past him and out
of the condo to check on Angelica and Bruce, but I was pretty sure
I wouldn’t make it back in. Instead, I tiptoed over and spread the
throw on him. He snuggled down a bit under it, but he didn’t wake
up. I watched him for a moment, his face so peaceful that he could
be any good-looking guy crashing on a friend’s couch after a party,
instead of worrying about keeping me safe and saving the world from
reapers.

I probably should have woken him and helped
him to his own bed, but I couldn’t stand the thought of disrupting
his peace.

Jed and I were just coming up from an
obscenely early training session, and I was headed straight for the
kitchen and breakfast, when there was a knock at the door.

I started toward the door, thinking of
Angelica, but Jed stopped me with a raised hand, and answered it
himself.

I followed him, but froze when I saw Caleb on
our doorstep.

“You aren’t welcome here,” Jed said.

Caleb scowled, and I wondered how I had ever
found him good-looking. I mean, he was absolutely flawless in the
looks department. The planes in his face were sharp enough to cut
paper and his eyes were a brilliant green that would make most
girls swoon. Knowing who he really was, though, I just saw
ugly.

“Nice to see you, too, brother,” he said. He
looked at me and gave me his most dazzling smile. A smile that
would have melted me four months ago. “You’re looking well,
Kelsey.”

Jed pushed me behind him and stepped to the
doorway, his body filling it. “You should leave. Now.”

“I thought you might at least pretend to be
happy to see me, but it doesn’t matter. I’m really here for
Kelsey.”

“And I’m here to protect her.”

“From me? I would never hurt her, Jed. I love
her, I’ve told you that.” I couldn’t see Caleb’s face, but his
words sounded sincere. I shivered.

“Now’s not the time. Varius is compromised
and reapers are trying to take over Briarton. Kelsey’s not
interested in you anymore.”

“If that’s the case she can tell me herself,”
Caleb said, his tone going hard. “You’ve never wanted me to have
anything worth having, Jed. You’ve always hated me.”

Jed flinched and the muscles in his back
tightened. “You should go.”

“Look, I’ll leave if that’s what you want,
but I think you should hear what I have to say. Especially, since
I’m the only thing standing between the two of you and a pack of
reapers who would love to reap you.”

“Why should we believe anything you say?” I
asked over Jed’s shoulder.

Caleb sighed. “Look. Shit. Please just let me
in and hear me out. You both know Jed could end me without breaking
a sweat. I’m trying to help you.”

Jed shook his head. “We have a pretty good
idea what you’re mixed up in, and we don’t want any part of
it.”

“Fine. I’ll talk to you out here where any
passing reaper can hear everything I say.” He paused as though he
expected Jed to change his mind, but continued when he didn’t. “As
you’ve probably figured out, I made a deal with the reapers. Part
of that deal is that the two of you are untouchable as long as you
don’t interfere with any of our plans. Some of my associates have
told me your buddy Tucker has been asking about our girl Rose, and
they think that alone is enough of an excuse to go after you.” He
waved a hand as though he were calming Jed, but Jed seemed
perfectly at ease. “I’ve convinced them to leave you alone by
promising them you would stay out of it. I’m here to tell you to
stay out of it.”

“Let’s assume you’re telling us the truth,”
Jed said. “What makes you think they’ll pass on the opportunity to
destroy me and Kelsey?”

“Because I’ve promised them you’ll work
for
them, not against them. You’re my brother and Kelsey’s
my girlfriend…”

“Like hell I am,” I said.

Jed tensed next to me when anger flashed in
Caleb’s eyes.

Somehow, Caleb managed a smile. “You may not
see it now, Kelsey, but I love you and we’re meant to be
together.”

I wanted to run screaming from him as fast as
I could, but I couldn’t help feeling that that he might enjoy the
chase. A predatory anger seeped through his charm.

“You’re a fool, Caleb, if you trust anything
the reapers promise,” Jed said. “What are you really doing here?
You could have told us this over the phone.”

“I’m here to get to know Kelsey better. That
seemed to be your main complaint against me, right, Kelsey, that we
don’t know each other very well. I want to fix that.”

I opened my mouth to tell him my main
complaint was that he was a sociopath, but Jed stopped me with a
look.

“That’s it?” Jed asked.

Caleb took a step closer to me and I forced
myself to meet his eyes without flinching. “I know you love this
little town. I’m going to give it to you, so you’ll never have to
leave it again.”

“And what do the reapers think of your plan?”
I asked.

“They need me more than I need them. I’ve got
access to more power than all of them put together.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“I’ll tell you, if you let me in.”

I looked at Jed, eyebrows raised. I was
curious to hear him out, but Jed shook his head and curled his lip
in a way that made it clear he thought Caleb was full of shit.

“Guess I’ll have to find a way to live
without knowing,” I said, returning my attention to Caleb.

“I’ll be going, then.” He bowed his head to
me. “I look forward to seeing you again, Kelsey.”

“Screw you,” I said.

He smiled and left.

Jed slammed the door shut after him. “I know
you want to talk about this, Kelsey, but I need to hit something
right now.”

“Can I be there when you do?”

Surprise raised his brows and lit his eyes.
He smiled a sweet, slow smile. “You want to hit something,
too?”

“Hell, yes.”

As we walked toward the kitchen, Jed shoved
me hard enough that I fell over the back of the couch and into the
cushions. “First one down picks the music,” he said and sprinted
toward the door to the garage.

I rolled off the couch and ran after him,
taking a couch cushion with me. I caught up to him halfway down the
stairs and used the cushion to knock him off-balance long enough
for me to get to the IPod first.

“You believe anything he said?” I asked Jed
over a post-workout snack.

“I believe he believes it, but I seriously
doubt the reapers are going to take orders from him any longer than
absolutely necessary.”

“Any idea what he’s talking about when he
says he should own this town?”

“Got me. It sounds like more of the same
crazy shit he says about the two of you being fated to be
together.”

“Maybe,” I said, but it didn’t feel right to
me, and the look on Jed’s face said he doubted his own conclusion.
Or, I realized studying the furrow between his brows, he was
worried about something entirely different. My brain was beginning
to feel like mush, between all the training we’d been doing and the
lack of a good run to clear my head.

“What’s wrong?”

He laughed. “You mean besides the takeover at
Varius, the reapers trying to run this town, and Caleb showing up
on our doorstep?”

I gave him several long minutes to tell me
what the trouble was, but he didn’t open up. “Yeah, there’s
something else bothering you. All the other stuff we already knew,
and Caleb showing up wasn’t exactly a surprise. You look more
worried than I’ve seen you before.”

He gave me a long measuring look and nodded.
“It might not have been a surprise, but I’d still hoped I was wrong
about Caleb working with the reapers. He’s always been practical,
even in his delusions, but this… I’m not sure I know him at all
anymore.”

That scared me. I’d been pretty much okay,
even when Caleb showed up, because I figured Jed could handle it. I
believed he’d protect me for Varius’s sake if for no other reason.
If he was lost, then I was, too. “What do you think he’ll do? Do
you have any idea?”

“Hell if I know. Either he’s gone over the
edge, or he knows something, something big, something I’ve never
even heard of before.” He rubbed his eyes with the heels of his
hands. “I have a bad feeling about all of this, Kelsey, and I want
to tell you now that I’m sorry. I’m pretty sure I’m going to fuck
this all up and I want you to understand I’m doing everything I can
to keep you from getting hurt.”

I imagined it might be the first time in his
life he’d felt overwhelmed. As the most powerful supernatural at
Varius, things had probably come pretty easy for him. “I’m a big
girl, Jed, and I’m pretty tough, you don’t need to protect me.” I
wanted to believe my own words, but I felt goose bumps rise on my
flesh and I couldn’t help shivering. I wasn’t ready for any of
this.

Finally, he smiled at me. “Angelica’s a big
girl, and you don’t need to protect her, but you’re trying
anyway.”

Seeing his smile was like seeing a rainbow
after a thunderstorm. I’d never been able to avoid smiling back at
him when he looked at me like that, not even the first time I met
him. “Fine. I forgive you, and I release you from blame. If I get
hurt we’ll blame Caleb and the reapers. Now what are we going to do
about him?”

“We need more information. You talk to Tucker
and ask him to get some of his people on Caleb, discreetly. Caleb’s
bound to have a lot of attention on him right now.”

I nodded, but I didn’t move. I needed to
understand something. “What happened to Caleb to make him this
way?”

He shrugged, the muscle in his jaw working.
“I think maybe that’s the hardest part for me,” he said. “I saw
what growing up in the corporation was like for him and I
understand what he wants. I’m not sure, if our situations were
reversed, that I wouldn’t have ended up just like him. It could
have been me standing on that porch, swearing you and I were
destined to be together.”

For just a moment, I saw Jed at the door in
Caleb’s place and I imagined him swearing he loved me. It didn’t
scare me the way Caleb scared me, and I was pretty sure I would
have opened the door wider and let Jed in. No matter what he said,
he wasn’t the same person as Caleb. Judging by the look on his
face, though, I was pretty sure I’d never convince him of that.
“That would never happen, though, since I’m not your type.”

His gaze focused on me and something like
humor quirked his lips. He remembered our conversation, too, when
he told me I was too much the girl next door to be his type. “Yeah,
if you were a stripper, though.” He chuckled and shook his head.
“You know that was just bullshit, right?”

“You don’t date strippers?”

“I dated one stripper. Very briefly. A very
long time ago”

“So what is your type? If it’s not me or
strippers?” I wasn’t sure I really wanted to hear his answer, but
he was smiling and I wanted to keep him smiling.

“There aren’t many women who can handle what
I do for a living. I’m not sure anyone should ever have to.”

He was starting to frown again and I
couldn’t, I just couldn’t, let that happen. “You should give
yourself more credit, Jed, even mob assassins have girlfriends. At
least in the movies.”

He laughed. “There’s hope for me, yet.”

“So what are we going to do now? Can I
convince you to go for a jog with me?”

“Not until you pin me, remember?”

“Oh, right. You want to head back down to the
garage and give me a shot?”

He shook his head. “You should probably take
a shower first. Right now you could pin me with BO.”

I groaned at the bad joke and headed back to
my room and the shower.

“It’s me. I just wanted to make sure you’re
okay. After the way you left here…” I said when Angelica answered
the phone.

“I don’t like to be lied to, especially not
by people who are supposed to be my friends.” Her words were
strong, but her voice shook.

“We weren’t lying to you. Rose is just
Rose.”

“You always were a terrible liar, Kels. Your
voice gets all serious and you sound like a different person.”

“No, I’m stressed, and I’m tired, and I’m
worried about you. Rose hasn’t been reaped. It must be hard for
her, though, to return to town after being gone for so long. That’s
probably why she’s acting weird.”

“Right.” she sighed. “I get the message. I’ll
play nice. Will you be able to get the real Rose back into her own
body?”

“Angelica. Come on, we aren’t playing around
here. You need to stop saying things like that where someone might
be able to hear you.”

“I’m alone, Kelsey.”

“And how do you know that?” I couldn’t help
the harsh tone of my voice. She was seriously pissing me off,
acting so casual about the whole thing.

“Oh, right.” There was real fear in her
voice, finally. “So what am I supposed to do?” I heard tears in her
voice and I felt awful.

“Don’t
do
anything. Just act like
everything is normal, because it is. Everything is going to be
okay.”

She took a deep breath. “That sounds so easy.
Thanks for all of your awesome help.”

“Believe me, I’m doing everything I can. I’m
just doing it quietly, which is what you should be doing. Have you
found out any more about the curse?”