Fearless Like Us

by Krista Ritchie

  One of the T-Bags is here. Somewhere. I scan the drunken party. Security was given their photos. Tate is the tallest one.

  Xander is about to fling the curtains closed over the glass door.

  “Xander, no—” Ben stops him. “We have to go help Nona.”

  Xander gapes. “Are you nuts? We can’t open that door!”

  Ben tries to wrestle forward. He unlatches the door, and I pry it closed, letting this one fuckbag pound at my back with a fist.

  “Move, man!”

  Do not kick a kid.

  Pain is background noise to what happens inside the house. Xander shoves Ben back. “STOP!” he screams at him. “Kinney is in here! Your sister is in here! Vada is in here! We’re not letting strangers into your house!”

  “Winona is outside!” Ben screams back. “If your sister was out there, I’d be out there! You know what Tate told me he’d do to Nona—”

  “No,” Xander pushes him back again. “No, I can’t let you out, man. Please. Stop.”

  I shout to Ben, “Winona’s with Akara! She’s safe!”

  “See,” Xander says. “Banks and Akara have everything under—”

  “That’s him; that’s him!” Ben shouts in panic. He rushes forward to leave, but I physically force the door shut and try to spot Tate.

  “Where is he?” I ask in a wince over the punches. Alright, I kick at the one fuckbag who thinks I’m a punching bag.

  “Wrestle Bigfoot!” his friends goad.

  Hell to the fucking no.

  I drill the harshest glare. “You try, you’re getting kneed.”

  He tries.

  I knee him hard.

  He topples backwards. Everyone laughs, and I shake my head, hating everything about this.

  “He’s near the pool!” Ben shouts to me. “Let me out, Banks. I have to get out.”

  “Stop!” Xander tears Ben away, and they wrestle each other and fall onto the Cobalt’s coffee table. Shattering the glass beneath their weight.

  Fucking Christ!

  “FIGHT! FIGHT!” People chant and bump closer, hoisting their phones to record the Xander Hale and Ben Cobalt fight.

  Goddammit.

  Tate—I catch sight of him and his Dalton Swim beanie near the edge of the pool, heat rising over the water in a steaming layer. A few other guys in lacrosse letterman jackets flank him. He’s not far from Winona.

  I speak into my mic. “T-Bag at the pool.”

  No response.

  “T-Bag at the pool!”

  No response.

  My mic is fucked, I realize. The cord is ripped. “AKARA!” I yell as loud as I can while he’s working on the stereo. “POOL!”

  Sulli is holding her sister backwards, and Akara quickly guards Winona.

  “Winona! All talk!” Tate shouts. “Let’s see how big of a girl you are. You want to take me down! Come at me, bitch!”

  I grind my teeth, breathing hot through my nose. What a fucking vile garbage human.

  Winona is strangely frozen. Like his voice has scarred some fucking part of her. It shoots ire into my bloodstream. She shrinks back into Sulli, and it takes everything in me not to rage forward again.

  I’m the only one keeping this door shut.

  “Hey!” Akara glares, unable to confront Tate without putting the Meadows girls at risk. “The police are seconds away!”

  “Yeah, right. I’m not falling for that again.” Tate laughs, then shouts at Winona, “Go hide behind your bodyguard and your slutty sister! What a big fucking pussy you are!”

  “What’d you say?” That’s not coming from me.

  Or Akara.

  Or even Sulli.

  A new player has entered the ring.

  A shaggy-haired seventeen-year-old pumps up his chest against Tate’s chest. “Why are you taunting her, dude? This is her uncle’s house that you’re trespassing on. Stop bullying her.”

  “Who the fuck are you?” Tate sneers.

  “Jesse Highland.” He gets in his face. “Come at me, dick.”

  Tate swings, and Jesse shoves Tate into the pool. The T-Bag slips over the edge and splashes into the water.

  Some people actually applaud.

  And then the music cuts out to silence. Followed next by loud police sirens.

  “Oh no!”

  “Shit. Go, go!”

  Teenagers scatter in every direction. Trying to quickly jump over the garden hedge. Trampling over cans and broken glass.

  Tate struggles out of the pool. Urgency to leave draining color out of his face.

  Thing is, we know where he lives. Rose and Connor even know his parents.

  “Busted!” Kinney shouts through the window.

  What a fucking shitshow.

  I’m still on guard. Not everyone has vacated, and Akara lowers the volume on the sirens. He played the prerecorded sound over the stereo system.

  Sulli tells him, “Boss move.”

  Yeah, at this point, Akara’s resumé is stacked to heaven with boss moves. Makes it easy to follow him.

  I almost smile, but I shout at the lingering teens, “You all need to go. Except Jesse.”

  Jesse is with us.

  A girl in a pink sweater says, “We were, um…” She pushes up her glasses. “…invited to the sip-in-snow for Audrey’s pre-birthday party.”

  “They’re with us!” Vada shouts, right outside the glass sliding door. So is Kinney.

  “You sure?” I ask, counting about six teenagers left.

  “Yeah!” Kinney chimes in.

  So I let go of the door.

  Ben and Vada rush outside to Winona, and Xander is trying to sweep up the shards from the glass coffee table. He gives up midway through. Kinney stays with him.

  I want to help the Hales, but too much involving security isn’t resolved or secure. Stereo is turned off. Sulli, Akara, and I meet up at the firepit to extinguish this blaze. Orion happily circles Sulli’s feet.

  “Careful,” she tells him. Empty wine glasses and bottles litter the area. A couple forgotten scarves hang over chairs.

  And suddenly, a tense noise cuts into the cold air.

  Knock knock.

  Knock knock.

  Akara and I share an uneasy look.

  We take out our phones.

  “Was that a notification for the Royal Leaks?” Vada asks too loudly. Those six strangers start checking their phones like us.

  Akara frowns. “This doesn’t make any sense.”

  Sulli peers closer at his screen.

  For fuck’s sake. How…?

  THE ROYAL LEAKS

  We reveal all the truths about the American Royals. These are verified and come directly from the source.

  ROYAL LEAK #1: Sullivan Meadows bought Plan B.

  #TodaysLeaks #TheCondomBroke #OopsieBaby #poundtown

  Winona, Vada, Ben, and Jesse look up at the three of us in wide-eyed shock. Inside, Kinney and Xander are staring out. And the six strangers gawk in Sulli’s direction.

  Like our drama has eclipsed and outclassed their drama. Gotta say, this is a first for me.

  “I’m not here. This isn’t fucking happening,” she mutters, a hand to her forehead.

  I wrap an arm around Sulli.

  “Show’s over!” Akara yells, and they try to pry their beady-eyes off us.

  The leak confuses the holy hell out of me. The three of us turn more towards the fire, and I ask Akara, “How’d they know the condom broke? We didn’t say a fucking thing in the penthouse.”

  “I know,” Akara breathes, running a tensed hand through his hair.

  “The car can’t be bugged,” Sulli says. “None of the other leaks came from Booger. They’ve all originated from the penthouse.”

  Orion lets out a bark.

  The three of us lower our gazes.

  Cold nips at my skin, and I ask, “Has anyone checked the dogs?”

  57

  BANKS MORETTI

  We leave Orion inside the mansion, secured in a bathroom. With a very
peculiar-looking device on the inside of his collar. Translucent, three little wires protruding.

  I’m no genius, but I’d bet my firstborn that the dog is bugged.

  Firstborn.

  God, my thoughts. Of course, I’m thinking about babies since the condom broke. Being a dad hasn’t been on my radar. I’ve been thinking about being an uncle. But I’ve always figured if I did have a kid, my dumbass would probably have an accident.

  While Sulli is checking on a drunk Audrey Cobalt, I’m securing the perimeter of the Cobalt Estate with Akara. We walk down the driveway, ensuring no one is in the bushes or behind tulip trees. All the cars are gone. Akara already called Rose and Connor, and they’re headed home from a Cobalt Inc. engagement in Center City.

  They thanked us for keeping the party crashers out of the mansion and clearing the backyard. Epsilon has been called in to inspect the perimeter with us, but we all know this is a win for Akara’s security firm.

  After Akara updated SFO about the high school party, Oscar spoke on comms, “Kitsuwon Securities 2 – Triple Shield 3.”

  “Moving on up, boys,” Farrow chimed in.

  Except Akara hasn’t unleashed what we found on Orion’s collar yet. It’s hard to believe the Royal Leaks could be over tonight.

  Feels good to be headed there.

  Feels like hell knowing it took us this long. “How’d we miss this?” I ask him quietly while we check behind a rose bush. Just a handle of vodka here and a shoe. Someone took off without their Nike.

  Akara shakes his head. “It had to have been a cat sitter. That’s the only person who would’ve had access to the animals.”

  “Grandmother Calloway?” I theorize.

  “She avoids the pets like the fudging plague.”

  I furrow my brows. “What motive would a cat sitter have?” Seems unlikely they’d really want to harm the families’ stocks and businesses.

  “We still have to figure that out,” Akara says, texting quickly on his phone. He’s either contacting Connor Cobalt or Price. Probably both.

  What might’ve saved us is Sulli dog-sitting during a Plan B run. If that hadn’t happened, if she hadn’t gone outside even with the potential threat of paparazzi—there’d be no leak and we never would’ve found the device on Orion’s collar.

  “She saved us,” I tell Akara what I’m thinking.

  He slips me a brief glance. “Your big dick saved us.”

  I let out a laugh.

  “And she did too,” Akara adds with a smile, but we’ve fallen quiet fast as his phone buzzes. He checks the text. “Jack is asking about his little brother.” Jesse.

  “What was Jesse Highland even doing here? I thought he’d be in California.”

  “From what I gathered, Ben heard Jesse was in town and invited him to the party. Ben is friendly with everyone.” Akara scopes out another bush. “Jack said that Jesse skipped school and flew out to Philly to come help him with post-production for Suddenly Famous.”

  The docuseries about Oscar and Jack must’ve stopped filming. I don’t pay too much attention to production’s schedules unless they get in my way.

  I nod a few times. “Skipping school, huh?”

  Akara smiles. “Evidently, Jesse’s mom gave him an earful about it.”

  I surprise myself as I say, “The only person I probably would’ve skipped school for is my big brother too.” Skylar.

  Even in the dark, I see Akara’s gaze softening on me. “You love him.”

  “I love him. I hate him. I don’t know if that’ll ever change, Akara.”

  He squeezes my shoulder as we move forward together. We quiet as SFE shines their flashlights close to our area of operations, and Akara shouts, “It’s all clear here!”

  They nod, but Winona’s bodyguard—Greer Bell—sends us a death-glare. The Meadows bodyguards aren’t that happy we’re banging Sulli. And they just found out she needed Plan B.

  I wave at him to keep the peace. What I think Akara will want.

  Greer flips me off.

  Akara flips him off with two middle fingers.

  I end up smiling.

  He whispers to me, “Meadows family trips with Greer and Wiley are going to be such a blast.”

  Meadows family trips. To think I could be going on those someday as Sulli’s bodyguard and boyfriend—I must’ve really hit my head. Maybe a migraine fucked me over and I’m actually dead. Seems more fucking believable.

  I smile more. Guys like me end up in early graves. Living for the long-run is the most exciting adventure I could ever take.

  Akara’s statement reminds me of something. “You’re back together with Sulli?” If he’s going on a Meadows trip, it’d be as her boyfriend. He’s still Luna’s bodyguard.

  “Yeah. We’re a triad.” He frowns. “Isn’t that obvious?” He drops his voice. “We all had sex.”

  I smack his chest. “I know that. She doesn’t.”

  “What?” His face screws up. “She knows. Sulli knows. We said we missed each other…we hugged…it was obvious.” He contemplates longer.

  “Did you actually say the words? ‘Cause she needs it spelled out, Akara.”

  His face slowly falls. “Shit.”

  I punch his arm lightly.

  He curves inward, already expecting the hit for the curse. “I have to tell her.” He glances back up the driveway. We still need to secure the area.

  So we move faster, and I laugh.

  “What?”

  “For someone that’s so damn good at communicating with your men, you kind of suck at it when it comes to your girl.”

  He shoots me a glare and corrects haughtily, “Our girl.”

  “Excuse me—our girl.” I wear a crooked smile that disappears. Logistics are hanging unkindly over me. Not a fan of them, but I have to ask, “What about publicly? Are we confirming we’re all together then?” It’s the biggest jump we’ve all been avoiding.

  Akara comes to a halt at a naked tulip tree. His heavy breath visible in the night. “The threat hasn’t changed, Banks. We confirm the poly relationship; she’s in danger. Those are the facts.”

  “I know,” I breathe, scraping a hand along my jaw. “But it’s not fair if her and I can kiss in public and you two can’t do a damned thing. And how long will that really last? You two are never careful out there—”

  He rolls his eyes, and I add fast, “SFO literally thought you two were together for years.”

  “We weren’t,” he combats but then sighs out, knowing now how they flirt. Even as “just friends” they flirted like they were screwing behind closed doors.

  “Look, your dynamic won’t change—and I wouldn’t want it to. Neither would Sulli.”

  “What are you saying, Banks?”

  I raise my shoulders. “Maybe the least messy, complicated solution is to tell the full truth. We’ll handle the fallout. It’s what we do.”

  “You say our dynamic won’t change, but you know everything will change,” Akara whispers strongly. “Just leaving the house will be a warzone. Every single day, Banks. She’s not a Marine like you. She could be scarred for life—you saw Winona tonight just dealing with a neighborhood bully. That’s going to stay with her for years. Intensify that by a thousand for Sulli—that’s what we’d do to her.”

  My eyes burn. “You don’t need to convince me it’s a dangerous path. I just see things differently. Her safety vs. her happiness—I’m throwing myself towards her happiness.”

  “That’s the thing, Banks. She’s not happy when she’s not safe.”

  “She’s not happy living a lie—”

  “A half-truth.”

  “Six of one, half a dozen of the other—it’s the same shit.” I can see guilt eating at her for giving me more and giving Akara less. I can see frustration eating at all of us.

  Akara stares up at the crescent moon. “She might not even want to publicly confirm all three of us, and then the point is moot.”

  I bob my head. “That’s true.” If she’d r
ather be more cautious, I’d go down that road with Sulli and Akara.

  He speaks even quieter. “Leaving things how they are publicly might be the best route, especially if she’s pregnant.”

  I go still, no muscle even twitching. “She’s taking Plan B.”

  “She hasn’t yet, Banks,” Akara whispers. “She can change her mind.”

  On the car ride here, Sulli talked about her mom’s fertility issues, how difficult it’d been for Sulli to come into the world. If she has a last second change of heart, I’ll ride that change with her. But she still seemed set on taking Plan B.

  “I think she’ll take it,” I tell him.

  Akara thinks this over. “Even then, Plan B is only 87% effective. We can’t be shocked if weeks later she’s pregnant.”

  We hold tighter, grimmer gazes. We haven’t talked about babies. What that’d even mean for our relationship, but we understand what it’d mean for Sulli’s safety.

  Pregnancies provoke media attention. It’s set in history.

  “Highest threat level,” Akara says with severity.

  “We’ll protect her in public, no matter what. We always will,” I remind him, and our heads turn as SFE shines their flashlights towards us again.

  “Let’s finish this,” Akara declares. We go back to work, and after the perimeter is secured, he calls Sulli, “Can you meet us at the end of the driveway? We need to talk.” He listens. “Okay, great. See you.”

  We need to talk. His choice of words is something.

  I’d bet my second-born that Sulli is freaking out right now.

  58

  SULLIVAN MEADOWS

  I sprint with all my fucking might down the winding driveway. Hair whipping behind me, cold numbing my cheeks—I just run towards Kits.

  He’s going to say goodbye. He’s leaving.

  I run like I’m losing time with him. Like there’s no time even left. Why can’t I have eternity? Why is the world standing in our way?

  Let us be.

  Heart slamming, legs pumping fiercely, I weave down the path, and the mailbox comes into view. Banks and Akara rotate to face me at the same handsome fucking time—like I’m Kate Winslet on the Titanic, dreaming as two Leonardo DiCaprios spin and extend a hand.