Free Vengeance by Kelly Carrero Page A

looked down at my clean clothing, I pulled Aiden in front of me. “See?”
    Kai grinned. “Yeah, okay, so that’s what you were doing in there.” He gave me a dramatic wink.
    “Anyway,” I said, “what did you come up here for? I’m sure it wasn’t just so we could have this conversation.” But then again Nathan could have made Kai come up just to make sure Aiden and I were really okay together.
    “Okay, okay.” Kai transported across the room so he was sitting on the couch with his feet up on the coffee table. “I just thought you might want an update on the Chrissy situation. And since you’re stuck with Sleeping Beauty over there”—he cocked his head toward Chelsea—”I thought I’d come up here instead.”
    “What’s happened?” I asked, rushing over to the couch.
    “Nothing, except I’m a genius.” He chuckled.
    I sat on the armrest. “I guess I owe you another one.”
    “Yep, you can add it to the list. What are we at now?”
    “Too many to count.”
    He laughed.
    Aiden sat on the armrest beside me and wrapped his arm around my waist. “So what do the police think happened?”
    “They’re clueless. Every fingerprint they picked up somehow disappeared from their systems and—”
    “What about the physical evidence?” Aiden asked.
    Kai smiled. “What physical evidence?”
    “You stole evidence?” I asked.
    Then I realised he was only kidding when his thoughts turned to how he actually did get the evidence. But again, I couldn’t call him on it without him knowing I could hear his thoughts.
    “Sure did,” he said proudly.
    Aiden laughed as he pictured Kai sneaking around like a ninja. “I knew you were all in for disobeying every law there is when it comes to cyberspace, but I never saw you as they type who would go in all covert and stuff.”
    “Yep, you should’ve seen me. I was like a ninja ghost, unseen as I walked amongst them.”
    “Really?” I asked, pretending to believe him.
    “Jesus Christ, you two would believe anything I told you, won’t you?”
    “You’re an idiot.” Aiden smacked Kai on the back of his head, just as Anna had done so many times before. “So how did you get it?”
    “I made them destroy their own evidence and then delete all footage of it on the systems.”
    “Not bad,” Aiden said. “But not as good as me imagining you dressed up like a ninja.”
    Kai stood and started doing some fake karate moves.
    “Is there anything else we should know?” I asked, trying to get the two boys back on track.
    Kai’s everlasting smile disappeared. “I thought you might want to know that Chrissy’s funeral will be held in two days’ time.”
    “Oh,” I said. Even though I knew what Kai was going to say before he said it, hearing the words out loud threw me back to the room splattered in Chrissy’s blood. “It’s going to be a closed casket,” I mumbled, thinking about just how deep Nathan had cut her. He had practically severed her head.
    “Are you going to go?” Kai asked.
    I thought about the sweet girl I had grown up with, the very same one who had turned into a bitch after Aiden came into our lives. “I don’t know,” I said, looking down at my hands clasped in my lap, my fingers turning white from the oxygen I had cut off to them.
    Aiden put his arm around my shoulders. “You don’t have to decide straight away. Maybe you should wait ’til Chelsea wakes up, and you can decide together.”
    I nodded but didn’t say anything.
    “So are you two just going to hang around in here all day?” Kai asked.
    “At least until she wakes up,” Aiden answered.
    “Right.” Kai swung his legs off the coffee table. “I’m off.” He disappeared before we could say goodbye.
    I edged over the armrest and slipped down onto the sofa.
    “I’m just going to get changed out of this,” Aiden said, gesturing at his coffee-soaked shorts and tee.
    I pulled my feet up onto the seat and hugged my knees against my chest as I once again thought about all