Page 65 of Collide

As for his mom, Kai was a little more open about her. She’d passedaway from cancer when he was thirteen and Theo was eleven, and although they were devastated at her passing, they were relieved as it meant she would no longer have to put up with the way Chris treated her. Apparently, he regularly beat her, raped her, and cheated on her, and Kai was sure the only reason she stayed married to him was for the sake of her boys.

Every time Kai revealed a little piece of himself to me, I saw him lessand less of the monster I once thought he was, and my feelings towards him grew stronger.

There hadn't been any more moments like the one we shared on thebalcony the night we had dinner, the moment where, had his phone not rang, I have no doubt we would have kissed.But there were other signs Kai was feeling for me what I was feeling forhim. He made excuses to touch me, be that a brush of my arm or a palm to the small of my back when escorting me somewhere, and every time I felt his touch on me, sparks zapped through my body, or shivers shot down my spine. And I always felt his gaze on me, even when he thought I wasn't looking, I knew he was watching me with that intense stare of his.

And you know what, I found myself liking it.

Craving it,even.

I'd clearly lost the plot.

As I turned over in my bed for the millionth time exactly a week to theday after the incident with Luis, I'd decided this was ridiculous, and if I didn't get a good night's sleep soon, I'd be walking around like a zombie.

In the hopes that maybe some warm milk would help me sleep, Ihopped out of bed, wrapped my silk robe around me, and tip-toed out into the hallway on my quest for the kitchen.

The hallways were eerily silent, it was gone 3 am after all, anyonein their right mind would be sleeping. Alas, I was not in the right mind.I crept along, wondering for the umpteenth time where in this placeKai's room was. Not that I was planning on venturing into it or anything.

Honest.

As I silently walked along the hallway, my feet cold against themarbled floor, light filtered into the hallway from the kitchen and from the hushed voice I could hear, I knew someone was in there. I figured it must have been Kai, why would one of the other three bein his apartment at 3 am, but hope quickly disappeared when, as I crept closer, I recognized the hushed tones to be Hendrix.

It was strange, the way he was keeping his voice down, I mean yeahit was late, or early depending on which way you looked at it, but the kitchen was nowhere near any of the bedrooms, so there was no real reason for him to be keeping his voice down.

Also, why was he here?

It didn't feel right, and it was because of that I didn't immediatelybreeze into the kitchen.Instead, I hid in the shadows by the doorway. Hendrix was sittingat the island in the middle of the room holding a hand up to his ear. I didn't need to be a genius to know he was speaking to someone on the phone. Something had made him flustered, his cheeks were red and his hair was mussed up like he'd been tugging at it.

"I told you, I'm working on it. It's not that easy," he said, almost like hewas pleading with someone.

He was quiet for a minute then, listening to the response. If I strainedmy ears, I could just about hear the voice on the other end of the line, it was definitely a male. Kai maybe?

"Yeah, I’m aware," Hendrix snapped before pausing again. "Fine,”he said, this time sounding more resigned.

He paused again to look up at the doorway as if he sensed mypresence, despite me being as quiet as a mouse. I held my breath and tried to shrink into the shadows a little bit more, I doubt he would have been happy at my eavesdropping. When he didn’t move and dropped his head down to look at the table, I breathed a sigh of relief.

“It’ll be done, Boss,” he said and then hung up the phone. So, he wastalking to Kai, but what needed to be done?

You know what they say, curiosity killed the cat, and I really wasn’tready to die so I figured it was none of my business.

Instead, I stepped out of the shadows and into the kitchen, intent ongetting some milk and getting my ass back to bed. The second I stepped in, Hendrix looked up at me and a look of guilt flashed across his face before it disappeared as quickly as it had arrived.

“What are you doing up?” he snapped.

What the hell was his problem?

His tone took me by surprise, I was so used to him either ignoring meor being creepy that I wasn’t prepared for him to bite my head off.

“I couldn’t sleep so I thought I’d get some milk,” I answered, keepingmy tone cool and not reacting to his snappiness.

He watched me like a hawk as I crossed the kitchen and took the milkout of the fridge. I was very much aware of his eyes burning into my ass as I reached up for a mug. Being here alone with him was setting my nerves on edge.

Something wasdefinitelyoff about him, more so than usual.

Ignoring the creepy feelings he was setting off within me, I pouredmyself a mug of milk before heating it up in the microwave. For the minute it took to heat, neither Hendrix nor I said anything, there was an awkward tension in the air as he stared at me, shooting daggers in my direction while I pretended to look anywhere but at him. The second the microwave pinged, I grabbed my mug and was about to head off to bed, away from this weirdo as quickly as possible.

But the creepy bastard had other ideas.

Leaping from his seat, he blocked my path out of the kitchen andglared down at me with his bright blue eyes. My stomach churned with dread, I despised him being this close to me. Surely he wouldn’t try something, would he?

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