“And?” Kingston challenged.
The group around the pool started to get quiet when they picked up on the tone of Kingston’s voice. Complete silence fell over the group when Maverik walked up to stand beside his brother.
“What brings you over to our side this afternoon, Kaine?” he said conversationally, but with an edge of danger lurking in his voice.
“Are there sides now?” Kaine asked casually. “I thought we were all friends here.”
Maverik gave him a slow smile. “Yeah, we’re all friends here.”
There were a couple of beats of silence where no one knew what was going to happen. Tension was in the air, and violence was lurking just beneath the surface. I got the sense that there was a lot more to this story than what I had witnessed today. These guys had a history, and it wasn’t pretty.
Kaine looked down at the ground, and Maverik must have taken that as a sign of submission, because he flicked his eyes towards me. “Katya, come with me.”
Despite my better judgment, I followed Maverik into the pool house, and Kingston trailed behind me.
“Shut the door,” Maverik ordered.
“Bro, he was disrespectful,” Kingston started after slamming the door shut. “After he came on our turf.”
“What’s going on?” I asked in confusion. “You guys are talking like he’s in a rival gang or something.”
Kingston laughed. “Something like that.”
“King, I need you to hold it together,” Maverik told him. “Kaine will be taken care of, but not today.”
“He was talking about Freddie,” Kingston said quietly.
“Freddie won’t talk,” Maverik said derisively. “He learned his lesson.”
I swallowed nervously. It looked like everyone who warned me was right - the Wilder brothers were dangerous. What had they done to Freddie? What had Freddie done to deserve punishment in their eyes?
The brothers stared at each other for a moment in silence, unspoken words passing between them. It was obvious that I was an intruder in a family moment.
“Okay,” I said nervously. “You guys are making me nervous. Are we talking like mafia ‘take care of’ or…”
Both guys gave me odd looks as if they had forgotten I was there. “You asked me to come in here,” I said in irritation. “What did you want?”
“Stay away from Kaine,” Maverik told me in a hard voice. “There’s plenty of cock out there - you don’t need to ride his.”
I almost choked in indignation. “This is ridiculous. I don’t know why I even bother to try to talk to you sometimes.”
I turned to leave, but Maverik grabbed my arm. I looked down at his hand and then into his eyes. “Do I need to threaten you, or are you going to take your hand off me?”
Maverik’s grip only tightened, and his eyes were heated. “Stay. Away. From. Kaine.”
Kingston laughed nervously. “Alright, bro. I think she gets it.”
“Do you?” Maverik asked me in a low voice.
“Yeah,” I spat out at him. “Standing within a ten-foot radius of a guy that you invited to the pool where I was hanging out will cause you to fly into a rage and leave bruises on my arm. Got it.”
I saw a flicker of something that I couldn’t identify in Maverik’s eyes, and he let me go. “You can leave.”
I huffed before stalking out. “Unbelievable.”
“Hey, Kitten,” Kingston called as he caught up to me just before I would have slammed the door in his face. “Don’t let Mav ruin your day.”
“I won’t,” I said with a defiant toss of my hair and a look back over my shoulder.
“Come do a shot with me. That’s what I was coming over there to ask you.”
I turned to look at him and was surprised when I saw an honest expression on his face. “I didn’t mean for that shit to go down,” he told me. “Promise.”
I was about to say no automatically, but then I stopped. My goal today was to try and live like a normal teenager, not a ballet-crazed shut-in. Instead of going to my studio, alone, and pushing my body to the breaking point, why not try to relax Kingston’s way? He looked like he was genuinely trying to get to know me, and pushing him away wouldn’t help my situation.
Living life for one day wasn’t going to kill me. Plus, I wasn’t going to let Maverik chase me away. I was too stubborn to let him win.
I nodded. “You want to do a shot? Sure.”
Kingston shot me a grin. “Yeah, let’s go. You like Patron?”
“Sure,” I shrugged.
I’d never really had anything but an occasional sip of wine because of how controlling I was about my diet and practice schedule. But today seemed like a good day to break that habit. If I was going to do this, I might as well go all out.
Kingston called a bunch of other people over and poured the bottle over a line of shot glasses. I got more than a few strange looks from the group as they grabbed shot glasses, but I just shrugged it off. Kingston didn’t explain our relationship to anyone, and I really didn’t care to.
Kingston called out another toast as everyone raised their glasses. “This is to my little Kitty Kat, let’s get her drunk!”
I tried to toss back the shot just like everyone else did, but I choked.
“That’s terrible,” I spluttered.
Kingston slapped me on my back. “Was that your first shot? I popped your cherry!” He laughed wildly as I got my breath back and tried to play it cool.
Maverik walked up beside me, but I refused to look in his
