Chapter Three
Amelie
24 hours earlier
“Did anyone ever tell you, you’re the human version of a headache?” I despair. Kalen is crazy annoying me. A quick glance at my watch tells me there’s still way too many hours of this flight left to go.
“Actually yeah, O says that to me all the time.” He grins at me and I can’t help but smile. It is such an Onyx thing to say. Then my face falls.
“Kalen—”
“Don’t ‘Kalen’ me, he’s fine. I promise.”
“We shouldn’t be doing this. We shouldn’t be going away and leaving him.”
“You know if he was fit to fly, he’d be here, right?”
“Exactly. If he’s not fit to fly, I shouldn’t be leaving him! He needs me!” I cry.
It doesn’t matter that we’ve been having this conversation for weeks, the guilt wracks me and tears threaten to spill when I realise I should never have got on this damn plane.
How did Kalen convince me again?
Ah, the sex. The amazing, I’m so relieved your brother didn’t die and I can’t bear to look at his twin without bursting into tears but I need comfort from someone right now, mind blowing monster cock sex.
“And Smalls? Aadi? Don’t they need you right now too?”
“But—”
“But nothing. They would never have asked if they didn’t really need you to come.”
I know he’s right. It’s part of the reason why my stomach is in knots. Onyx barely survived the gunshot wound and blow to the head.
I ran, but I soon came to my senses. I was so terrified that he was going to die and that I would lose another person I love, that I bolted to avoid the pain. It didn’t work. The not knowing was agony, so I found help and got a lift straight to the hospital.
Onyx ended up in a coma for nine days and kept in for observation another seven after that. He’s only been out of hospital a couple of days, but when Smalls called and said that Brenton – a close friend of him and my brother – had died, and begged me to come back for the funeral, what choice did I have?
I took a lot of persuading, and it was only Kalen deciding to come with me – I think at Monty’s insistence – that finally made me cave and agree to come. So that’s how I came to be stuck on a twenty-hour flight back to Queensland, with the most annoying human known to man. As if that wasn’t bad enough, I’ve had to leave my baby, Mo-Mo, at home with Sawyer. For two weeks. I don’t know how I’m going to survive without them all for that length of time. Kalen insists I can survive on chocolate – since we will be spending Easter with my family – and sex. Little does he know there is no way in hell my brother or Smalls will let him sleep in my room. He’ll get the guest bedroom. Which is a tiny box of a room, big enough for a child sized bed. Chelsea uses it when her nieces and nephews come to stay.
“Look, sis—” Kalen begins in a weirdly reproachful tone.
“Not your damn sister, Kalen. And my brother will not appreciate you calling me that.”
“Just shut up and listen to me. And remember where you are.”
“O-okay?” I puzzle.
“There’s something we didn’t tell you about the night of the...well, you know.”
I nod sharply. It’s better if no one says it. But my chest constricts in fear at the mention of that night and the grave expression on Kalen’s face.
“What?” I ask with trepidation.
“Don’t kick off…”
“For god’s sake, Kalen! Just tell me already!” I snap.
“Okay, keep your panties on.”