Chapter 12

Kin

Strong arms caught me around the waist before I even reached the exit. I kicked backward in rage, wanting to make Jace hurt as much as I was. I couldn’t believe the way he’d just behaved, but I wasn’t going to put up with his shit anymore tonight.

“Jesus,” a voice that was definitely not Jace St. Charles’s laughed in my ear. “Feisty little thing, huh?”

I gasped and turned my head to see it was Derrick Stewart who had his arms around me. The chill that had started to invade my body began to fade, replaced with something white-hot and edgy. Guilt flooded through me all over again. The only person to ever incite that kind of reaction in me was Jace, and I felt like I was betraying him in some way for feeling it now with Derrick.

But that was crazy. Jace and I were over. I was allowed to lust after anyone I freaking wanted.

Not this guy, though.

I couldn’t want this guy.

He was going to be related to me, and that just felt wrong. As I thought about letting him kiss me, the lust that had been eating at me since I literally ran into him earlier dissolved and turned to feelings of disgust. Kissing him would be like kissing Caleb.

Gross and wrong.

So I turned in his arms and shoved him away. “I thought you were Jace,” I told him, pushing my hair back from my face.

“The guy who was in your business earlier?” I nodded, crossing my arms over my chest.

His dark eyes fell to the wrist I was keeping close to my stomach. Long fingers caught my arm and pulled it away gently. Turning it over, he skimmed his fingers over the red marks Jace had left. A lump clogged my throat, not at how tender he was being, but because Jace had touched me so forcefully. He’d never done something like that before, and I knew he’d done it because he was upset with me—the desperation had been coming off him in waves, the panic making his eyes manic. But that didn’t excuse the way he’d just treated me. It wouldn’t make the fucking bruises go away.

“He your ex?” Derrick asked, his jaw clenched as his thumb skimmed over a particularly tender red spot.

“Yeah,” I choked out, tugging my arm free. “Look, I need to go. It’s getting late.”

“Do you need a ride?”

“I can hail a cab or get an Uber,” I assured him, unsure why. This guy was no one to me. He was going to be family, but it wasn’t like we would ever see each other again. Scott couldn’t have cared less about me, and we never saw each other. Out of sight, out of mind—that was how our relationship worked.

“Let me drive you home,” Derrick urged. “You’re still upset, and I think you need someone to vent to.”

He held out his hand. I looked down at it, then back up at his face. Fuck, he was male perfection. Just looking at him made it hard to remember he was going to be family one day. But the hunger I’d seen on his face earlier was banked now, and only concern for me shone out of those dark chocolate orbs.

“I’m a really good listener,” he said, sweetening the deal. “My sisters all tell me I’m good boyfriend material because I know how to pay attention.”

My teeth sank into the inside of my bottom lip. “I’m not shopping for a new boyfriend.”

“No more than I’m looking for a girlfriend. But we’re going to be family, so that means you are important, little niece. I have two ears that hear perfectly, and my shoulders are strong enough for you to cry on without breaking me.”

My heart clenched when he said I was important, and I suddenly found myself putting my hand in his.

“I only have one ear I can hear out of,” I confessed as we walked out of the club.

He glanced down at me in surprise. “Really? Is that something you were born with?”

“No. I had a lot of ear infections when I was a toddler, but apparently, I never cried or did anything to alert my mom to the fact that I was in pain. By the time she realized what was wrong with me, I’d already lost hearing in my right ear.”

Derrick handed over the valet ticket to the attendant before turning his full attention back to me. “You’re totally deaf in that ear? A hearing aid wouldn’t help?”

“It’s completely gone.”

“Want to know something weird about Shannon?” I lifted a brow, waiting for him to answer. “She had webbed toes when she was a kid. Both her big toes were connected to the second toe with this weird membrane thing. It was really gross, and it freaked me out to look at her feet. When she decided to get into acting, she had surgery to get rid of it, but I still can’t look at her feet without shuddering.”

His confession about his sister was so unexpected, I couldn’t help but laugh. The sound surprised me even more because it was so natural.

“That is a really pretty sound,” Derrick murmured, stepping closer to me, his eyes scanning my face. “I’ll have to remember to make you laugh more often.”

I gulped as a blush filled my cheeks. Quickly, I averted my gaze.

Derrick cleared his throat. “Tell me about your dad and his soon-to-be ex-wife,” he said, changing the subject.

“I can’t really help you with that,” I told him.

“Can’t or won’t?”

“Can’t,” I affirmed, and for some reason, I was sorry I couldn’t help him. “I didn’t grow up with Scott. After he broke up with my mom, we moved to Virginia, and he stayed here to continue his career. When she died, I was forced to move in with him and Jillian, but he was always on set in Canada or wherever.”

“I take it you didn’t get along with your stepmother?”

“Every Disney movie that portrays the poor little stepdaughter and the big, bad stepmother?” His brows arched. “They didn’t get it completely wrong. Although, Maleficent seems pretty tame compared to Jillian.”

“That bad, huh?”

“Jillian is consumed with wanting to be famous. With my mother’s death and my arrival on the West Coast, I was suddenly in the spotlight, and she wanted it on her. She hated me for it and because I wouldn’t use my new friends to make her oldest daughter just as famous.” I grimaced, remembering the time in my life when it felt like I was never going to be free of that house, wishing I had someone in my corner who cared.

But I did have people who were and did, though, I reminded myself.

It was just the person I really wanted there hadn’t been.

Scott.

Whatever. I was over it; there was no reason to even go down that road again.

“Do you think she’s going to make trouble for Shannon?” he asked with concern as the attendant pulled up a white Jaguar in front of us and Derrick moved forward to open the passenger door.

“Honestly?” I asked once we were in the car and he was pulling into traffic. “Probably. Celeb divorces are always publicized as much as possible, and Jillian will be in the spotlight the way she craves. She’s going to milk that for everything it is worth. If that means making it ugly for everyone involved, she won’t care. Any attention, good or bad, is still attention in her eyes.”

His jaw clenched. “Yeah, I was afraid of that.”

--

The drive to my apartment in West Hollywood passed with comfortable conversation. It was easy to talk to Derrick, and as he’d said, he was a really good listener.

When he pulled into the parking lot outside my apartment, I wasn’t ready to go in, but I still reached for the door handle.

“You never did vent,” Derrick said, making me pause before I had the door open. “You should do that. Get it all out of your system. It will be good for you, help you move on.”

“I’ve been venting for four months now,” I told him. “I’ve put it into music and screaming at the mountains while I was away. Amara even let me rage out a few times. If it’s not all out of my system by now, I don’t think it ever will be.”

“Did you ever stop to wonder why?” he asked quietly.

“Many, many times. But I already know the answer.” I blew out a pained exhale. “I still love him. I probably always will.”

“And you two can’t work it out?”

I closed my eyes, trapping the stupid tears that suddenly stung my eyes. “Have you ever been with someone who put you first?” I choked out.

“Girlfriend-wise or we talking family?”

“Either. Both.”

“My family has always put each other first, no matter what. We’ve all martyred ourselves for each other plenty of times, actually. There is nothing I wouldn’t do for Shannon and my other sisters. But I’ve never been in a relationship long enough for it to matter if I put her first or she reciprocated.”

I swallowed hard and forced my eyes to open. “I have people who love me enough to put me first. I would never ask them to give up something important to themselves for me. Never. Yet they would do it without even blinking. I never doubted they cared about me. Not once. But there have been two people in my life who have never put me first. I’m just an afterthought to them. And for some fucking reason, they are the two I need the most.”

“Scott and Jace?”

I nodded, unable to speak for the emotion choking me.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart,” he murmured. His fingers were soft when he rubbed his thumb over my cheek. “I wish I could change that for you.”

For a second—only for a second—I leaned into his touch, believing he would if he could. But just as quickly, I moved back and opened the door. “Thanks for the ride…and listening,” I said when I was standing. Leaning down to look at him, I offered him a small smile. “Be safe on your drive home.”

“Goodnight, Kin.”

“Night.” Shutting the door, I waved and stepped back.

I turned and went into the apartment building, and this time, I didn’t look back.