Love and Decay, Kane's Law by Rachel Higginson Page A

own
beliefs.
    No wonder my father kept pushing her- he saw
her as an enemy.
    But he had nothing to worry about. She would
be with me, stay by my side and not rock his carefully constructed
boat. She’d help him build his civilization. She’d work for him,
not against him.
    She caught me staring at her, my emotions,
feelings and hopes for our future visible all over my unguarded
face. I felt a flush of embarrassment creep up my neck and I
resisted the urge to rub my contacts into place.
    Luckily my father broke the spelled silence
with sarcasm, “Well, hells bells ya’ll! I do believe we have a free
thinker on our hands.”
    “Matthias,” my mother chided him.
    He ignored her, “Kane, you are one lucky man,
Son.” I met his gaze a little reluctantly, but was pleasantly
surprised to see him beaming with pride. “Best to hold on to her,
break that spirit as quick as you can.”
    Miller made that disgruntled sound in the
back of his throat again, but I was too focused on the girl next to
me to mind. I put a gentle hand on Reagan’s shoulder, like I was
calming a frightened animal and let my fingers rub along her
shoulder blade to the nape of her neck. I absorbed the heat of her
body into my fingertips, relished in the touch of her body beneath
my hand.
    In my most honest voice, I said, “I’m not
interested in a broken woman, Father. I like Reagan’s spirit. I’m
drawn to her spunk and defiance. She’s like the life that’s missing
in this dead world, the fight that has depleted and rusted away. I
would never take that away from her.”
    She looked up at me, surprised and unsure,
but I did my best to comfort her with an easy smile. She got a
little lost staring up at me. Her brow furrowed over those dark
eyes and her mouth wasn’t quite sure whether to smile or frown.
Instead, she pressed her lips together to take the decision away
from them completely.
    We had a moment. This was another one of our
infinite minutes, when time became irrelevant and we just watched
each other, trying to fit the other one into our individual lives.
She worked to make me the villain and I desired to make her my
fearless heroine. We weren’t quite in sync yet, but we would be.
She couldn’t deny the something between us, even if her something
didn’t have a name yet.
    Mine had only just developed into something
substantial and tangible.
    My something had become future . Reagan
was my future- in every sense of the word.
    “How cavalier,” I heard my father tease. “My
son, the gentleman.”
    I’d been too lost to respond though. Was I a
gentleman? I didn’t really know. It’s not like I’d been accused of
that before. Insane. Heartless. Cruel. Monster . Those were
the words I’d heard lately to describe me.
    So why did gentleman feel right? More right
than any of those truer descriptors?
    It was Reagan. She was the reason, the
difference.
    And now that she stood watching herself in
the bathroom mirror, I couldn’t keep my eyes off her. So
lovely.
    I watched her brush her teeth as if it were
normal for us. And then she took care of her hair and face and I
wanted to help her. I wanted to take the washcloth and press it
against her skin, I wanted to trail it down her throat, wash away
the dirt of the day and help her feel as beautiful as she
looked.
    The only black mark on the whole evening was
when I offered her clothes to sleep in. She declined, although I
wasn’t sure I expected her to accept. Still, the strong current of
paranoia reminded me she was a fighter and she wasn’t finished
fighting with me.
    My guard might have started to drop, but that
was all I needed to remember her friends locked away tonight.
    As if to confirm my thoughts, she said, “You
cannot possibly expect me to give up my freedom so easily and
accept this… this imprisonment, can you?”
    I grinned at her and shook my head. “I guess
not.” And that was the truth. I slid past her into the bathroom and
pulled out my own toothbrush. “Wait for