Page 111 of Just Between Us

I slide against the wall and fall to the ground.

Kai

My heart is racing as I look at Kenny who stands across me in the middle of the street. Around us, people move, the sun sinking into the horizon, painting the sky a watery twilight purple.

Everything should be beautiful, but I feel like that fifteen-year-old boy again, terrified, and alone, everything he loves about to be taken away.

Kenny looks the same, if only slightly bulkier but his skin is now leathery with sunspots and scars. I’m as tall as he is now, but I remember having to look up at him once.

He’s dressed in a beat-up denim jacket and old Levi jeans. It’s all so familiar and it makes my stomach roll with disgust.

“Good to see you, Kai. You’ve grown up into a good-looking, young man.”

I ball my fists. “What are you doing here? We weren’t supposed to meet today.”

Kenny laughs. “You embarrassed your new posh friends will finally see who you are?”

During the party, he sent me a picture of the hotel, demanding I come outside. I thought I had one more night to enjoy this. He isn’t supposed to be here.

“You know what I want,” Kenny says. “And I didn’t want to wait until next week.”

“I don’t have it here,” I say, trying to keep my voice level. “No one carries around that kind of money.”

Kenny looks me over before his eyes land on my hand. I flinch, hiding my wrist from view but he’s already seen the diamond bracelet that rests around it.

He grins. “Oh, I’ll take that shiny bracelet and go,” he says. “Give that to me and we can consider half of your payment done.”

For a moment, I consider it. I could say I lost it somewhere but just as quickly as the thought crosses my mind, I feel horrible for even considering it. I can’t betray their trust more than I already have.

I shake my head. “No, I said I’d get you the money and I will. I can’t give this to you.”

Kenny grins. “Your boyfriends gave that to you, huh?”

I keep my mouth shut and he huffs out a laugh. “You’re here at this pretty fancy hotel which I saw you drive into in an equally fancy car, and you can’t even afford to give a little compensation to the man whose life you destroyed?”

I flinch because he’s right. I destroyed his life because of my own desperation.

Across me, he widens his eyes, as if he’s just realised something. “Do your boyfriends know about me? They don’t, do they? Were you too ashamed to have a convicted felon in your family? Is that it? Or were you too embarrassed to tell them you asked your little friends to plant drugs for you?” He pauses, taking a step closer to me. He’s so close I can smell the cheap whisky on his breath. “Or is it that you don’t want them to know what you were willing to do so I could let you stay with us.”

My stomach coils. A memory I have tried to bury comes springing forth so quickly that I don’t have time to suppress it.

I’m fourteen, and one of my friends has just sent me a video of two guys having sex. Kenny bursts into the room and snatches away my phone. He is laughing so loudly, calling me all sorts of names, I just want him to stop. Then he says if I want to stay in the house that badly, I should strip naked for him. With trembling hands, I do. He leaves me standing there, still laughing too loudly.

“Kenny…” I start but I don’t know how to continue.

“If you don’t want your perfect boyfriends to know the truth about you then you’ll give me what I want.”

Tears sting my eyes, defeat and regret flooding through me. I feel so exhausted suddenly, and I’m desperate to disappear.

“It’s funny, I used to think you were this little simpering boy but seeing you now is…” he makes a sound of awe. “It’s amazing really. You put me away and then you went on to date not one but two millionaires. You have so much ambition, Kai which is why I don’t doubt you’ll have my money.” He shoves his hands in his pockets and looks around. “I’ll be generous and give you another week. If you don’t have it by then, my friends and I will get acquainted with your boyfriends. I’m sure they’d love to know all the cute stories I have about you as I tie them up and explore that really beautiful townhouse myself.”

He's going to hurt them.

“Good night, Kai,” Kenny says. “I’ll see you soon.”

He winks and turns, disappearing down the street, and leaving me standing there. Tears threaten to fall but I blink them away. I can’t let him get into my head now. Levi is still in there and Cole will be back tomorrow. I’ll get the money, and he’ll leave me alone. As I walk back into the hotel, I sincerely hope it’s true.

Levi is not with Anant or Kez. My eyes scan the party, landing on a few people I now recognise but he’s not with them either. Anant says he hasn’t seen him in a while either. I frown, pulling out my phone in case he messaged but there’s nothing.

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