Page 7 of Grace of Spades
"Oh perfect, you're only a few houses down from me." She grins. "I'll pick you up at eight." I hear the door open and glance over and get caught in Caribbean blue eyes. Holy fuck. They do not make men like that on my side of the tracks. He's tall and leanwith messy dark copper hair with tattoos swirling up his corded arms. His clothes hug every muscled inch of him. He is positively drool-worthy.
Best of all, he has trouble written all over him with an eyebrow ring glinting in the light. His shirt looks like it's going to split at the seams. I feel my face heat as he nods a hello to me with a smirk. Oh, I am in so much trouble.
"I see you've noticed Liam." She grins.
"Kinda hard not to," I admit causing her to laugh.
"Alright, Grace. Let's head out." Andras says coming up behind Kennedy.
"This is Kennedy, this is my uncle, Andras. She's going to pick me up for school tomorrow." I explain.
"Oh perfect. It's nice to meet you, Kennedy." He smiles shaking her hand.
"See you tomorrow, Grace." She waves as we get up.
"See you then." I smile and head out.
"One more stop and then we head home." Andras grins.
"What are you up to now?" I ask narrowing my eyes in suspicion.
"Just relax and be surprised." He huffs impatiently waving me off. Okay then.
We drive to a strip mall where he tells me to wait in the car. I do as I'm told and pull out my book from my new bag. Emily made me throw out my rucksack saying it was on its last legs anyway. I couldn't really argue there. I had already patched it up a few times and the straps were starting to reject the safety pins.
When Andras arrives back at the car, he hands me a bunch of boxes. I'm nosy so I look at them. A laptop, a tablet and a phone. I look at him.
"You'll need them." He shrugs.These are for me?
“I do?”
“Yes. The laptop for school, the phone so we can get in contact with each other- don’t evenbring up the flip phone I saw you with earlier. You weren't even born the last time I had a flip phone.” He rants. Okay then, touchy subject. I choose not to ask about the tablet and behave myself.
We head back to Andras' house and I start unloading the car until he stops me and shoos me inside. I look back to see Richard has taken my place and is bringing everything inside behind us. So frigging weird but I thank him anyway.
The weight of the day must be bearing down on me. My whole body is heavy with exhaustion. I head to my new room to get ready for bed. It's only eight but today has been crazy and it's not like I have to find a place to crash tonight. Or wait until it's safe to sleep.
Alas, some habits are hard to break and I still hide my knives around the room so I can get to one wherever I happen to be. I slip one under my pillow too. Just in case. I like Andras but it's all so new and different. It's not like family hasn't betrayed me before. I will never be in that type of situation again without some line of defence.
I hope the school doesn't have metal detectors. I'm bringing knives there too. Once I'm done preparing my battlements I get into bed and slowly drift to sleep. Or try to.
This bed is so soft. Too soft. I feel like it's going to swallow me whole in all that marshmallow softness. After half an hour, I give up and bring my blankets to the floor. I'll be normal another day. I bring my pillow and knife with me too and soon sleep overtakes me.
I dream of broken glass, blood, and screaming before jolting awake breathing heavily and trembling. I slow my breathing and my heart and look out the window to see a dark morning sky. The only reason I know it's morning is because my phone says it's four o’clock. It's too early but the adrenaline from my dream buzzes under my skin not letting me return.
I need to go for a run to get rid of the remnants of my dream, my memories. I need to do something. Soon, I'm up anddressed in leggings, a tank top and hoodie that Emily picked out yesterday and running the perimeter of the estate. I have music from my new phone blaring in my ears as my feet pound to the beat. I'm on my fourth lap when I feel eyes on me. I look up to see Christian in a black suit leaning against a fucking black Lamborghini like a nerdy GQ model. If I could hate him, I would. Instead, I jog over to him with a smile.
"Good morning."
"You're up early." He grins.
"I've been up for an hour at least." I laugh. "What are you doing here so early?"
"Andras was looking for you. You weren't in your room." He chuckles. Oops.
"I'll have to start leaving notes, my bad. Sorry." I grimace.
"It's all good. Just glad you're okay." He smiles. "But we better head inside."
