Chapter 13: Rebel Revenge: Chapter 13

I didn’t feel as triumphant as I thought I would when Vaughn walked out of the room and back to his own. The door slammed a moment later, and I winced at Kian. “Why do I just feel like we kicked a puppy?”

He sighed. “’Cause Vaughn is real good at putting on the puppy-dog eyes when it suits him. Don’t feel bad. He’s a professional liar.”

I cocked my head. “There’s a story there. That was said with the hurt of a man betrayed.”

“It’s nothing. Ancient history. We’re both over it.” He tossed his magazine aside and stood, offering me a hand up. “Come on. Let’s get the rest of your stuff out of your car now that his lordship has graciously approved your stay.”

I followed him, both of us eyeing Vaughn’s bedroom door as we passed to go down the stairs. But I was soon huffing and puffing, carrying boxes to and from the car and into my new room, and too excited about the prospect of living in this massive house to worry about Vaughn being a jackass. He wasn’t my problem. Especially since the man had a wife who could worry about him.

Plus, Kian was entirely distracting. He lugged the heaviest of my stuff up the stairs, placed it all neatly in my room, until only one box was left.

“I can grab it.” I reached for the last, overflowing box.

“It weighs more than you do. Not a chance. Give it.”

He swiped it before I could stop him, and I slammed down the hatchback’s door, before locking it.

Not that anyone was going to try stealing it around here, when there were BMWs, Porches, and Mercedes everywhere you looked. We walked up the staircase side by side, Kian chattering about the history of the house and how his dad had worked here when Kian was a kid.

“He landscaped the yard, renovated the ground floor bathroom, built the pool house…” He put the last box down on the writing desk in my room and paused mid-sentence.

I glanced over at him. “Your dad was the one who built the pool house, and then…” I prompted, truly curious about the property I’d inherited. I suddenly wanted to know everything about it, from its history to the people who’d owned it and lived here over the decades. It had to be one of the original properties in the area, perhaps once surrounded by land that had been sold off to make way for the new houses.

But Kian had lost interest in the story. He plucked three square photos from the top of my box and stared down at them. Horror stole the color from his face.

Oh fuck. I should have buried those deeper. I stormed across the room and snatched them from his grasp. “Those are private.”

He spun and glared at me.

I flinched at the intensity, and he backed right off, hands up. “Shit. Sorry. But what the fuck, Rebel? What are those?”

I swallowed thickly, exhaustion swamping me after a long, emotionally charged day. I didn’t have it in me to lie. “Photos to remind me of the injuries I sustained after I was attacked.”

He ground his jaw. “Who did it? A boyfriend?”

I shook my head quickly. “No. I made a bad decision in going home with a man who had friends waiting…” Tears pricked the backs of my eyes, emotion welling up in my chest from just looking at those photos again. I didn’t even want to talk about it for fear I’d cry. But then it was too late. The tears spilled over and coursed down my cheeks.

“Fuck,” Kian ground out. He wrapped his arms around me, dragging me to his chest in a bear hug.

I stiffened in his arms.

He must have felt it. He pulled back quickly. “Shit, sorry. That’s probably not what you need right now after what they did. Not everyone is a hugger.”

I was stunned to find that though his embrace had taken me by surprise, it hadn’t scared me. Kian gave off an overgrown teddy bear with golden retriever energy sort of vibe. It was hard to feel scared around a man who encouraged you to jump on his bed.

But at this point, I didn’t trust my own judgment. So I let him back off, even though the hug had felt kind of nice.

Kian tapped his fingers against the box. “I can promise you, though Prince Stick Up His Ass can be a royal dickhead, he won’t hurt you. I’ve known him long enough to say that with one-hundred-percent certainty. And full disclosure? I’m good at hurting people, but I’ve never laid a hand on a woman, and I never will.”

He sighed when I didn’t say anything.

“Talk is cheap, though, huh? I bet you went home with that guy, thinking he was nice too. Am I right?”

“I wish you weren’t.”

He mulled that over for a moment, his gaze dropping to the photos in my hand. I tucked them into my back pocket quickly, but he’d already seen them. Seen every bruise and cut Caleb and his friends had put on my body, none of them pretty.

Kian shoved off the wall abruptly. “Come with me.”

Without waiting for me, he strode purposefully out of the room and down the hall.

Curious, I followed, jogging to catch up to his long, determined strides. “Where are we going?”

“To the shed.”

I frowned, not exactly sure what was so exciting about a shed, presumably filled with tools and lawn-mowing equipment.

Kian led me out of the house and around the side, where a large metal shed was hidden from view of the pool and entertaining area. It wasn’t locked, and he let himself in, going straight for a drawer on the right of the neatly organized space. “I know they’re in here somewhere. Aha!”

I tried to peer over his shoulder, but he was so much bigger than me and there was a lot of stuff in the way. Bags of fertilizer. Something called Oxyanedride, that was probably a pool cleaner, judging from the other equipment around it. A lawn mower and a rake. “I can’t see. What is it?”

He ignored the question. “Grab my drill, would you, please? It’s just on that tool bench.”

I grabbed the power tool in question and followed him back upstairs to my room. He waited for me to enter, then kicked the door closed, his big body blocking the exit.

A flicker of fear almost instantly exploded into a firestorm of terror.

It was just like that night all over again. I was trapped. Men blocking the exits. Not letting me leave until they got what they came for.

My chest tightened in panic, and I darted for the bathroom door, the only unblocked exit.

“Rebel,” Kian barked. “Wait. Stop. Look.”

Despite the adrenaline rushing my body, I did.

Two small silver slide locks sat on Kian’s palm. “One for this door, one for the bathroom door. I swear to you, Vaughn and I won’t ever lay a finger on you. But I thought you might feel safer anyway if you could lock yourself in here when you feel like you need to.”

The pounding of my heart slowed, the fight or flight response dying off as Kian turned back to the closed door and measured where the lock would be installed.

I moved to sit on the bed, tucking my knees up and wrapping my arms around them while I watched him work. “Thank you.” It was barely more than a whisper, easily lost in the noise of the drill.

But Kian nodded. “You’re welcome. If this is going to be your home, you should feel safe here.”

I wanted that. So desperately. I wanted to feel like I didn’t have to sleep with a gun under my pillow. I wanted to feel safe walking the streets again or having a drink with a man I found attractive. I wanted to be the woman I’d been before Caleb had stolen that sense of peace.

I couldn’t let him win. Right now, Caleb was walking around town, powerful in the knowledge he could do what he liked and face no repercussions.

While I’d become some scared mouse I barely recognized.

“I’m going to kill them.”

Kian paused in his drilling and looked over at me.

I waited for his shock. His judgment. Some sort of reaction. But he just put the drill down and picked up a chisel. “Okay. How?”

I blinked. “How? That’s what you’re asking me when I say I’m going to kill three men?”

He put the tool down and turned to give me his full attention. “I saw those photos, Rebel. I saw what they did to you. They don’t deserve to breathe.” He shrugged. “And better to have a plan than to just do it in the heat of the moment. That’s sloppy and a surefire way to get caught. So yeah, I’m asking you how?”

“Something painful. Brutally painful.”

He chuckled. “Okay, okay. I like your style.”

The corner of my mouth flickered but then died. “You probably think I’m some weak little girl who can’t stand up for herself, huh? I swear, I’m not. If you’d met me before, you’d have a very different opinion. I’m not the girl in those photos. I work at Psychos. You probably don’t know it. It’s a bar in Saint View. Rough as guts.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Psychos? Yeah, I know it.”

Something about the way he said it made me pause. “You’ve heard it’s a sex club, haven’t you?”

He grinned. “Is it?”

“You’re not an undercover cop, are you?”

He scoffed. “Hardly.”

“Then, yes. At times, it is. But most of the time it’s just a dive bar. I’m not beating my own chest when I say I ruled that place. I took no shit from any of the guys there, and they learned fast not to piss me off or they’d get a taste of my brass knuckles. I’m small. But I’m scrappy.”

“I don’t think you’re weak, Rebel. Weak women don’t decide they’re moving into the house they inherited, despite the fact other people already live in it. You’ve been ballsy as fuck in the single afternoon I’ve known you.” He sat on the bed next to me. “So let me help you.”

“Help me what? Kill a few men?”

He shook his head. “As much as I might enjoy teaching those pricks a lesson, I think that’s your wrong to right. Yeah?”

It was a relief to hear him say that. I couldn’t tell Fang or Bliss their names. Bliss’s guys and Fang would completely ignore what I wanted, because they could get the job done quickly. They weren’t like that to be assholes, but they were too close to me. They would think they were protecting me.

But I needed to do it myself. I wouldn’t feel whole until I’d proved to myself I was the woman I’d always thought I was. Strong. Powerful. An independent, take-no-shit sorta girl.

It was my whole damn identity, and without it, I was lost.

Kian cocked his head in my direction. “What are you doing tonight?”

I shrugged. “Nothing other than unpacking.”

Something devilish glinted in his eye. “I got to know you some this afternoon. I think it’s only fair I show you something of me. You in?”

I nodded. “Sure.”

Kian pointed toward my closet. “Get your shoes on, little demon. We’re going to a fight.”