Chapter 11

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Lucas

Walking up to Kai, I slap my arm around his shoulders and pin him down with a fake-as-fuck smile. "You look nervous," I say with a laugh. "Don't worry, we just need to have a little chat."

Kai licks his lips, and nervously glances around at everyone else, like he's silently pleading for their help. But no one is going to help him. He thinks these people are his friends, but they're not. They're children of the Burning Crown, and like all good children, they listen to the voices that lead them. Most of the time.

But Kai didn't listen and now I have to deal with that.

I slide my hand across his shoulders, so I'm holding the back of his neck, as I guide him out of the room and down the hall to the kitchen. People step aside as we pass, a question on each of their faces. But no one intervenes.

Once we're in the kitchen, I stop at the basement door to unlock it.

"W-what's this about?" he asks.

I turn to look him in the eye. "Oh, I think you can guess."

He knows what he did. He knows he fucked up, royally .

"Lucas, I'm sorry, dude. Please let me make this right."

"Oh, don't worry," I say with a sardonic laugh. "We're most definitely going to make this right."

The lock gives way, and I tug the door open. Beyond the threshold, there's nothing. Just a black void. The staircase leading down to the basement is there, but it's been swallowed up by the darkness. Not a big deal for me. Christian and I have been coming to Rush House since we were in diapers and we know every inch of the place by heart.

Kai, however, has never been to the basement. Members don't have access. Only Sacred Sons. So getting down the steps safely will be trickier for him. I could switch the light on, but I'm not going to. That would spoil all the fun.

"After you," I say, shoving him forward. He yelps and throws his arms out, stumbling down the first couple of steps, then catching himself on the wall.

Hmmm. Wrist restraints next time.

I shut the basement door, which plunges us both into complete darkness, and that seems to freak him out even more. "Come on, man," he pleads. "We don't need to do this."

I say nothing as I prod him down the staircase. At the bottom, I take his neck again, and in the pitch black, I lead him past the gym to the rooms in back.

The Panic Room is hidden behind a large mirror, and on touch alone, I manage to slide that out of the way. Beyond the mirror is a bank vault door that's always left open, because unlocking it is a pain in the ass.

My footsteps echo on the cement floor as I step into the room and flip the light switch. Blinding fluorescent light floods the small space, and Kai shields his eyes from it. There's a metal chair in the center of the room, conveniently placed right above a drain. I gesture to it. "Sit down."

Kai shuffles forward and does as he's told. For once.

With his hands clasped in front of him and his spine curved forward, he looks up at me like a penitent child. "I'm an initiated member of the Burning Crown," he reminds me. "And you can't hurt me. That rule is in the bylaws."

God, this guy is fucking insufferable. He's not wrong, though. The bylaws state that no member can commit violence against another member. But the bylaws say a lot of shit that the Sacred Sons ignore on the daily. Hell, the men who wrote those rules ignored the fuck out of them. Those rules are for the boys who follow, not for the men who lead.

Without responding, I lean against a table that's positioned directly in front of Kai. "I hear you've been fucking around with Wyn."

Panic registers in his eyes. "No, listen. That's not what happened…"

My anger is rising. Just watching this cunt try to explain his way out of touching Wyn when I specifically told him she was off-limits, makes my blood pressure spike.

"People saw you at the club." I step forward and get right in his face, red seeping into my vision. "You touched her. You touched what wasn't yours."

He shakes his head. "No, I?—"

His words are cut off by my fist making contact with his face. His head whips back, and he groans. Blood pours from his nose, coating his mouth. When he coughs, blood spurts everywhere.

He straightens his head, looking dazed. "What the fuck?"

"I told you to stay away from her, and you didn't. Did you really think I'd let that shit slide?"

Christian and Ash come strolling into the room. Word must have gotten around that I'd brought Kai to the basement.

"Yo, bro." Christian's gaze falls to Kai, who looks like he's about to piss himself. To be fair, he's in a basement with three of the four Sacred Sons. I can appreciate how terrifying that might be. We're not exactly known for having a soft, patient approach to outright disobedience. "What's happening here?"

Ash leans against the wall, arms crossed over his chest, watching. By some miracle, he keeps his mouth shut. And thank God, because I really don't have time for his social justice bullshit right now.

I flick my chin at Kai. "I've told this cunt to stay away from Wyn, and come to find out, he was at her place a few days ago, fucking around with her."

"Oh, shit," Christian says casually, looking the guy over. I haven't filled my brother in on everything that's happened with Wyn, but he'll back me up regardless. "We can't have willful disobedience, now can we?"

Kai's hand flies to his chest, and he looks at Christian, eyes wide. "We just kissed, I swear to God. I was knocked out before anything happened."

I walk over to the table that we have pressed against the wall, and brush my fingertips over the various knives and implements we have lying there, the polished metal glinting underneath the harsh fluorescent lights.

Just knowing this guy touched Wyn makes me see red. He had no fucking right. Did she moan for him? Did she beg him to fuck her? The images flashing through my mind are making me feel very violent.

I grab a couple of zip ties off the table and walk back over to Kai. "Hands at your sides," I command.

"Please," he whispers as I secure each of his wrists to the sides of the chair. "It won't happen again, I swear to God."

Straightening, I throw a punch that catches him in the jaw. There's a loud crack, and his head whips to the side again. Shit, that one fucked up my knuckles. I shake my hand out, then I grab his bloodied face, so I can force him to look at me.

"That's right, it will never happen again," I say it like he's a goddamn toddler. "I don't care if she's naked and begging you to fuck her, you're never touching Wyn Barker again, got that?"

He nods emphatically, blood still gushing from his nose.

"And when all this is over, you're going to tell everyone that you came onto her and she knocked your ass out. None of this shit about her lying to the police to set you up."

"Y-yes," he stutters in response.

I shove his face away and land another blow, then another, and another, until his anguished moans fill the otherwise empty room. Blood is flung in all directions, but the thick metallic smell only feeds the rage boiling over inside me.

It takes both Ash and Christian to pull me off him, and when they do, my fists are coated with blood, and Kai is slumped in the chair.

"Goddamn, dude," Ash says, reaching over to make sure Kai is still breathing. He looks back at me. "Have you ever thought about therapy?"

"It's been mentioned." Grabbing a rag we have lying around, I wipe my hands off and work on catching my breath. "But who needs therapy when I have this asshole's face?"

Christian claps a hand on my back as Ash works to free Kai's wrists.

"Feel better?" Christian asks.

I glare at my brother. "I'll feel better when he gets the message out that Wyn is off limits."

With Kai's hands now freed, Ashe straightens and turns to me. Kai is still passed out. "What's all this shit with Wyn?" Ash asks. "I thought she was Gabriel's chick. Are you fucking her now?"

Clenching my jaw, I ball my hands into fists and take a menacing step toward Ash. He and I have never really gotten along, not since he turned his back on my best friend, Roman, a few years ago. Roman and Ash have resolved their beef, apparently, but I'm a harder sell. I hold grudges, and I don't like being reminded that I'm being possessive of my cousin's chick.

Ash notices my aggressive stance and holds his hands up. "Whoa, sorry, hot button?"

Christian pulls me back with the hand that's still resting on my shoulder. "Lucas, why don't you go upstairs and get cleaned up? Maybe take a fucking horse tranquilizer. Ash and I will tidy this all up and get Kai on his way home." He takes another look at Kai. "Or to the hospital."

With one last lingering scowl at Ash, I nod and head upstairs. That shit with Kai may have been brutal, but it was necessary. It's how this place runs. It's why we're the most powerful guys on campus. Money, power, and blood are what make the world go ‘round. I learned that when I was young.

And I'd warned Kai off Wyn at the Founders Day party. Hell, he whined about my intervention to anyone who would listen that night. Then he had the balls to try and fuck her two days later? There's no way I could let that bullshit go unanswered.

But if I'm being honest, his disrespect isn't what drove my fist into his face. It was the rage inside me. It was the fact that he dared touch Wyn. The fucking audacity. He's lucky he's walking out of here tonight.

As I emerge from the basement, I realize everyone in the kitchen is staring at me. Fuck, whatever. Kai's blood stains my skin and I'm sure they heard his anguished moans. The basement isn't soundproof. Maybe it should be, but our forefathers wanted to send a message to anyone listening— Don't fuck with the Sacred Sons.

Fortunately, no one tries to talk to me as I make my way up the back staircase and down the hall to my bedroom. I glance down at my hands. Blood has settled into the crevices of my skin, coating my knuckles and the beds of my nails, and a question occurs to me. Would I have reacted so violently if it was Ava that Kai had touched?

No. I'd be pissed on principle, but not because I have any real objection to anyone touching Ava. And that may sound heartless, but I've never been possessive of the girls I fuck. Why? Hot chicks are crawling all over ExU, and in my experience, they're more than willing to fuck. So why be possessive of one chick in particular? They're all carbon-fucking-copies of each other, anyway.

Not Wyn, though. I'm not even sure how she's different, but there's something in her "fuck you" personality that snagged my attention a year ago. I'm like a shark caught in a net—thrashing around, but powerless to break free of her. The more I resist, the more hopelessly entangled I become. I'm powerless against her pull, and I'm never fucking powerless.

The door to my bedroom is open a crack and I push it open, stopping short when I see someone in my room. It's dark, and the person is turned away from me, but I can see it's a chick. My eyes trace the curve of her hips, and the generous swell of her ass. My cock swells in my jeans.

I've studied that ass. I could close my eyes and recreate those plump globes in my mind's eye, down to every last dimple and crease. I've masturbated to that image more than a dozen times in the past year.

"Wyn," I say, prompting her to turn around.

It's like she was conjured directly from my thoughts. Her eyes are wide and those pretty pink lips are parted in surprise. She clearly wasn't expecting to see me here.

In my own bedroom.

Well, well.

Stepping in, I close the door and lock it. I'm still bloody from the painful lesson I just taught Kai. Now I guess it's Wyn's turn…