Trudging up the stairs, I’m exhausted.
I unlock the door, flip on the lights and slam my back against the door when I see a figure sitting at my kitchen table.
“Keno! What the hell are you doing? You scared me to death.”
“Where were you?”
I’m breathing like I just ran a mile. “What?”
“Where were you?”
“I just… went for a walk.”
“In your car? Don’t lie to me, Six.” He stands and stalks toward me.
“How did you get in?”
“You left the door open. Where were you?” His eyes sweep over my dark clothing.
My shoulders drop.
“I snuck in my brothers’ garage.”
His brows shoot up. “What did you say?”
“I snuck in. I think they…” God, I can’t say the words.
“Take a ride with me.” He grabs my arm.
“Now?” I try to pull back, but he’s having none of it. “Keno. Stop. I’m tired. I just want to sleep.”
“We need to talk. But not here.”
We go out into the alley, and he climbs on his bike and passes me a helmet.
“I’m really not in the mood for this.”
“Then you’re really not going to be in the mood to see what happened to your bike.”
“What?” I glance back and see that the front tire is missing, and the forks are all mangled. “Oh my God.”
Before I can jump off the back of the bike, Keno roars off down the alley and onto the street. He doesn’t slow down until we’re miles outside of town and climbing into the mountains.
I pound on his shoulders. “I’m cold and I want to go home.”
He doesn’t reply, just reaches back and squeezes my thigh.
A mile down the road he makes another turn and soon slows to turn into a gravel driveway. It’s long and narrow, and I can’t imagine where it leads. We come through the trees, and there before us is a log cabin.
There are no vehicles and no lights on.
He stops the bike, and I scramble off, tearing my helmet off. “Where are we?”
“Rock’s cabin.”
“Why are we here?”
“Because you and I need to be alone. We’ve got a lot of shit to talk about.”