“He’ll catch a ride with River. Someone blew my car up tonight.”
A stupid smirk crosses my face for two reasons. One, I destroyed his car, whoops, and two, he doesn’t know that his mate no longer owns his combi. “Doubt it.” I huff out a laugh as I pull the keys from my pocket and dangle them just out of his reach.
His brow pops up. “Why do you have River’s keys. One charge of stealing not enough for you tonight?”
“Oh, please, we both know you’re not going to rat me out to the cops. What will you say, the girl I kidnapped and locked up in my house escaped and used my car to get away?” I roll my eyes. “Come on, Throne.”
“If I wanted you arrested, Dove, it would only take a call.”
I huff out a breath. His power trip doesn’t impress me.
He reaches for the keys, but I’m faster, tucking them back into my pocket. “Why do you have the keys to River’s combi?” he snaps when he can’t get them.
I fake a smile. “It’s my combi now, and it’s a real shame I didn’t get to take it for a spin before you turned up to ruin my fun.”
He winds down his window, and Slater and River approach. “River, why does Dove think your combi is now hers?”
River pops his head in the window. “She won that car fair and square, bro.” He winks in my direction, all playful, when he knows he’s on my shit list with the other two.
“See.” I smirk mostly to myself. Got to take whatever win I can in this situation.
Kasen massages his temples like I’m stressing him the hell out. I kind of hope I am, that way he might just let me go and get on with what I came here to do. “Looks like you two are finding your own way home then.” He winds his window back up, sand and gravel flying up behind him as he takes off out of the car park.
“Rude,” I mutter under my breath. Also, did he just say home, like implying they all live together in his place?
He sighs heavily as if the weight of the world is resting on his shoulders alone. Tension radiates off his massive frame. But he doesn’t say anything else, just drives through the streets, making the asphalt his bitch.
“If I’m so much trouble, why are you taking me home with you?” I push.
His eyes flick to me then return to the road. “Do you even understand the trouble you caused tonight?”
I give him a bitchy-as-hell look back because fuck him. “Youcaused. I didn’t lock myself up. Don’t deflect your shit onto me.”
He sucks in a labored breath. “Why are you acting like a child over all of this? We’re trying to help you.”
“I don’t want or need your help. I keep telling you repeatedly, but your stubborn head won’t listen to me. And apparently, you’re intent on ruining what is left of my life. Hasn’t your family already takenenough from me? My mother, my house, now my freedom.” I count the items out on my hand.
He keeps his eyes solidly glued to the road in front of him, but I don’t miss the way he cracks his neck. “Dove,” he practically shouts my name.
“What?” I mutter back, starting to feel like a misbehaving child with his bossy tone.
“After you and your dad disappeared on us, the investigation into your mother’s death stalled. For some reason there was too much missing evidence. The settlement of the estate also froze, the mortgage and rates fell behind, and your dad clearly wasn’t coming back to pay them. Throne Developments stepped in,” he explains, as if that’s what I just asked him when it wasn’t.
I don’t know why but his words make goosebumps scatter up my arms. Is this a trick? Is he trying to guilt me into staying with him by telling me I owe him something else? “Why would Keller do that? To just let the property rot away untouched? He wouldn’t.”
“He didn’t.” His head drops subtly, his guilty tell. Kasen did this? Saved my parents’ house from being repossessed by the bank?
I’m in shock for so many reasons. He was the one helping his dad to send me away. I didn’t mean anything to him, so why care if my place is knocked to the ground? I’m not sure why but sudden sickness fills me at the thought of it burning to the ground in my fit of rage tonight. “Why would you?” I whisper, so close to tears it’s not funny. My fingernails dig into the side of my leg, trying to get rid of the uncomfortable churning inside of me.
“I guess I always hoped you would eventually come home to us, and when you did, I wanted something for you to come home to.”
I stare at him, not sure what to make of that revelation. He and his family had something to do with what happened to my family, I’msure of it. Why would he do something nice to help us? I know this man and I know he wouldn’t. “But you were about to knock it down,” I snap back, remembering what he told me yesterday. It has Throne Developments’ signs all over the place. He can’t think I’m that dumb to fall for his tricks.
He pulls into the long driveway of his stupidly huge house, passes the security gate, and opens the garage door, pulling into a spot amongst at least ten others. He stops the car, turning back to me. “For ten years I held onto the idea that if I kept your family home, you would come back. But you never did. I had a ridiculous amount of pressure from the company; the land is more valuable than the house itself.” He runs a hand through his hair. “Maybe I should have waited longer, but earlier this year, I gave up on you ever coming back and signed the contract for the latest apartments to be built.”
His words hit me like a punch to the gut, knocking the air out of my lungs. I stare out the front windscreen. I can’t look at him right now. What he’s saying is sweet, the kind of gesture the old Kasen I grew up with would have made. But I know it’s not real, not really. This is Kasen Throne, after all. He didn’t hold on to my family’s house in the hope I would one day come home. There has to be more to this. Who am I to him? Just some kid he tried to get rid of years ago. He was going to help them send me away, I heard it with my own ears. He can’t deny it.
“What do you want with me? You can’t expect me to believe you want to help me after all this time. I’m not that naive. Thrones don’t do anything unless it’s going to benefit them in some way, but I don’t have anything to offer you.”
