Page 53 of Hiding In the Dark (The Righteous 4)
Zumi looked up at her, the corner of her mouth pulling up like she was trying not to smile. “I hope you don’t mind, but we bought the crust and I used your recipe to mae an apple pie. Kes tried to help, but honestly, I thought he was going to burn your apartment down. I mean the oven clearly says bake and he tried to broil the first curst attempt.”
“Hey, you promised not to squeal, besides I wasn’t that bad,” Kes said, his face morphing into the perfect pout, making them all laugh.
Tears pricked Ashley’s eyes. “Excuse me for a minute.” She shamefully fled at a spirited walk down the hall to her bedroom and closed the door. She covered her mouth as the tears fell in twin streams down her cheeks.
The door opened, and she knew it was Kes coming to check on her before he wrapped his arm around her waist. “Hey, are you okay?” he softly asked as he hugged her from behind.
She nodded, but the stupid emotion wouldn’t stop squeezing her chest like a vice.
“Why is it I don’t believe you?”
She let out a little burst of a laugh and turned around in his arms. “I’m sorry I’m such a cry baby, I just….”
“Did I overstep? I know that Christmas is still a couple of days away, but it didn’t look like you were going to decorate, and I remembered how much you loved the lights.” She stared up at him in wonder. She’d had no idea he’d paid that much attention to the things she liked or that he’d even remember this many years later. “Zumi and I can go, and if the decorations are too much, I can take them down. Those dirty, glittering little bastards of joy.”
“Oh my god, stop,” she giggled and shook her head. “I’m just so happy. I know you wouldn’t think it, but—Kes, I feel like I woke up in the middle of a romance novel, and it feels wonderful. But not only am I waiting for the other shoe to drop where you’re concerned, I also have this stupid disease hanging over everything I do. The emotions are all conflicted.” She rubbed at her chest. “I’m beyond happy, and yet I’m terrified and angry at the same time.”
He pulled her into his chest and hugged her tight. “There is no falling shoe coming from me, and you can be as happy or as scared or as sad as you need. You don’t have to hide from me. I’m here, I promise I’m here,” he mumbled into the top of her hair.
“Thank you, Kes.”
“Come on, let’s go get some pie. Zumi will kill me if I don’t try her hard work.”
The surreal moment continued as he kissed her lips and led her out of the room to their Christmas paradise.
Kes stepped out of the way of the little fist that was coming for his stomach. Reaching out, he gripped Zumi’s wrist in his hand and gave her a quick pull and twist, depositing her on her ass in the sand.
“Ugh!” Zumi grabbed handfuls of the little beige granules and threw them at his pants. They bounced harmlessly off the jean material and blended back in with the beach once more.
“That is definitely not going to work. At least try for the eyes,” he drawled as he stepped away and grabbed the bottles of water he’d stuck into the sand. Picking them up, he tossed one to Zumi, who caught it out of the air, and then cracked open the lid of his own.
“This is impossible. You’re just too much taller and stronger. It’s not fair,” she grumbled.
“Of all people, I didn’t think I needed to explain to you that life’s not fucking fair. Now, do you want to quit, give up, and walk away? If so, tell me now. I’m not wasting another minute trying to train someone that has no drive or fight in their gut to continue on at all costs.”
Zumi looked down to her lap and the bottle in her hands, then up at him. “I hate being so small. I’m useless.”
Kes squatted down and waited until she looked him in the eyes. “Where is this coming from?”
Like a marionette controlled by her strings, she lifted one shoulder and let it drop dramatically and then proceeded to do both as he continued to stare.
“Where is the girl that followed me around until she found out what I was up to and managed to sneak into a warehouse as quiet as a church mouse? Where is the girl that offered to help bury a man and helped me free eight young girls no older than herself from a bunch of traffickers? We gave them a new try at life. Where is the girl that finds ways to better herself despite the shit hand she’s been dealt?” A single tear trickled down her cheek. “What’s really going on, Zumi?”
“I didn’t really help.” Her voice was soft as the morning breeze. Her dark eyes found his. “At the trafficker’s place, I didn’t really help.”
“Says who?” he asked, and she looked away at the water as it slowly came onto shore and then back out to sea. When it was clear she was going to remain silent, he continued on. “Zumi, the girls that we helped only felt safe getting into my friend’s bus because of you. I think they would’ve tried to run if it had just been me there. I’d say you did way more than enough.”
“That was nothing. I only talked to them.”
“And? Helping people isn’t always about smashing bad guys’ faces in. You know that. So I’ll ask again, what is this really about?”
“I was supposed to go for my check-up for my heart next week, but my mom is refusing to take me. She says I’m fine, and if I need to go, I can go by myself.” Her eyes lifted to his, and there was way too much sadness in them for someone so young. “Do you really think the doctor is going to let me wander in without a parent? I’m a minor, but no matter how much I beg, she says no. It’s her fault I even have a heart problem. If she’d just gotten a normal job and eaten healthy food, maybe I wouldn’t be so weak, so tiny, so…me.” Letting out a wail, she slammed her fists down into the sand over and over until she was panting hard. “I hate her. Why did she have to have me in the first place?” The tears were quick, but Zumi scrubbed them away, the anger overriding the sadness.
Kes waited until Zumi calmed down and then slowly stood and held out his hand to help her up. “Come on, Kid. You’re going to keep working at this until you can kick my ass.” She sighed and rolled her eyes. “I’m serious, get your ass up now,” he barked out, and Zumi’s eyes went wide, but she pulled herself to her feet and dusted off the sand.
“I wish I could offer you pretty words about how everything will find a way to be alright, that your mother will turn her shit around, but I can’t, because honestly, I don’t have a fucking clue what will happen and there will always be someone or something wanting to grab your leg and drag you under if you let them.” Clutching his sweater with his hand, he yanked up the side that showed off the large area that still held scars from his narrow escape from death’s fiery grasp. “You see this?”
Zumi’s eyes went wide as she stared at the scarred skin that he’d never shown her.
