Hidden River Deception (Hidden River Academy Book 4)

by KT Strange

  “So,” I said, a few breaths later when we’d both inhaled half of our wraps and could start to think again.

  “It’s going to be okay, Mia,” Buck said, like he just knew that the world wasn’t going to go to shit and everything wasn’t going to come falling down around our ears. “We’ve got ways of making this okay. This isn’t my first rodeo, and it’s not Shawn’s-”

  I huffed, trying to beat down the feeling of annoyance in my gut of them knowing more than I ever could, and I almost hated the way he was brushing off my concerns before even hearing them.

  I closed my eyes. No. I was not going to wander down that path of not speaking how I felt, because in the end all that happened was pain.

  I’d made those mistakes. I was done being stupid. Stupid-ish.

  “Explain to me how this is not all going up in flames,” I said, challenging him with my tone. “Because right now two of our…” my lovers, I bit back those words, “friends are in police custody and where I come from that’s not exactly a great thing. Does great business for the bail bonds guy, but nobody else wins in this scenario.”

  “We don’t need to take out loans on our houses, and we can afford the best of lawyers. Colt will get the very best in legal counsel, and right now, he’s shutting up and not talking,” Buck said, eyeing something off to the side. I followed his glance.

  His cellphone was on the counter, plugged into a charger.

  “So trust me, when I say this will be fine. We got his back.” He crossed his arms, the thick muscles of his arms flexing under his skin. I swallowed for every other reason than having food in my throat, and flicked my eyes away.

  No dick. No guys. No… even thinking about things that rhymed with hex and dock. My vagina had gotten me into a pack of trouble lately. Time to shut the muffin machine down.

  “So you just wave your wads of trust fund money, and legal problems go away?” I asked, trying not to file down the edge in my voice too much. He needed to know that I took this seriously. That from my view, everything was fucked.

  Buck’s mouth thinned out and he sighed, lifting his hand up to his man-bun. He tugged out the elastic, threading his fingers through his hair, almost out of habit, as he tidied it back behind his ears.

  “You and I both know that wealthy people make… the bad shit go away. People do us favors. They owe us, we’ve helped them, or our grandfathers helped their grandfathers, especially in a small town like Hidden River.” He made a grim noise in the back of his throat. “And there’s more than a few skeletons under those running waters, let me tell you. Colt’s not from here, and nobody owes him anything except us…” He trailed off and squared his shoulders, like he wanted to talk but couldn’t quite say it.

  “Why?” I asked. Buck evaded my eyes until I stood on my tiptoes and poked my finger in the middle of his chest. “Don’t. Look at me. Tell me why. We’re here because we don’t talk, Buck, you know that. Because we’re stupid and we don’t open up.”

  “Yeah well, we both have reasons to never share what’s on the inside,” he said, not stepping back even as I closed in on his personal space. His chin dropped and he gazed down at me, his blue eyes dark and shadowed. “I owe him. He was the better man. He was the only man, there for you, when I wasn’t. I let bullshit get into my head, and I… did wrong by you. So fucking wrong, Mia, and I can’t even begin to apologize for it. I want to try, because not having you in my life… you’re the goddamn light. You’re everything.”

  He turned away, and the lines of his muscles were tense and stark, ridges and valleys of light and shadow.

  “You make the bad things go away,” he said, “and with you I forget everything that I promised myself I’d never do. I’m better for it. That’s selfish. I should want to be with you because I make you happy-” He coughed and swallowed, his throat dipping and swooping. “But I’m not that good a man yet to not be altogether selfish. I want to make you happy, and I want… if the guys, if you want the guys? Them too, to be with you, then I’m fine with that. Because together, we’re good. All of us.”

  My lips parted in surprise, the emotion welling up inside of me a mix of confusion and… painful hope. I didn’t want to believe the things he was saying because they were just… Words. Words. Words meant nothing without action, and without him proving he could actually follow through with what he was saying.

  I’d been let down too many times to just trust anymore.

  I couldn’t.

  I inhaled, ready to tell him it was too soon for that kind of talk, when his phone vibrated, nearly clattering right off the counter. He reached for it; a phone-call.

  “Yeah?” His voice was husky when he answered. His eyes closed, and he sighed. “Thank fuck,” he said. “Thank… fuck.”

  3

  Cael

  You can always count on people showing their weakness. And when they did? Me and Reid were there to exploit it.

  The flicker of fire exploded from between Reid’s fingers. He watched the match eat itself, before dropping it to the ground before it could burn him.

  “So do you think Buck’s getting his dick sucked right now, or what?” He asked. I rolled my eyes. There it was. Reid’s weakness, right on display. He should’ve known better than to tell on himself like that, but whatever, that was his problem.

  Mia Quinn had worked herself under his skin like a thistle, spread into his veins like a poison. If he was anyone else, I’d have ditched his obsessed ass and gotten a new best friend. But Reid had been with me since before, and I wasn’t about to give up on him just because he’d forgotten all The Rules and gone soft on me. Or gotten hard over Mia.

  “She’s not uptown, but she’s not going downtown right now, is my guess,” I said, leaning back against the side of my car, looking up at the stars cast across the sky above.

  “He’s soft,” Reid said, disgust dripping from his voice as he lit another match.

  “You set off a forest fire, and I’m not giving you an alibi,” I said, the warning in my tone making Reid look up. He stared at me, his lips parting before he stuck his tongue out slowly, the flames licking toward his finger. At the last minute, he spat on the match, dousing it.

  “You’re too much like your old man,” he said, “too good for this world.”

  “I’m not,” I said, and I knew he must’ve been losing his goddamn mind over Mia spending time with Buck that night. We never talked about our fathers. Mine because my dad had been everything and then became nothing. Him because what was the point in talking to someone who’d never existed in the first place? “Text him and ask him if he’s all lathered up, if you’re so fucking concerned for the state of her sex life.”

  “I’m not goddamn concerned, Cael,” Reid said. “Alright, here’s the deal. I’m tired of everyone playing kitty cat with some tramp from the city streets, alright? All those bitches have crabs.”

  I couldn’t help the smirk. Reid saw it and threw the box of matches at me.

  “Fuck off,” he said.

  “God you’re fucking obvious. Tramp? Really? Have you been hanging around that weird uncle of yours again? The one that pronounces whores like huu-ares?” I snorted and leaned down, picking up the matches. Forest fires were no joke and we didn’t need some punk ass kids coming through and deciding to play campfire. We did our best to keep a lock down on the stupid shit that the other football players and cheerleaders got up to, but we couldn’t be everywhere all the time.

  We had other shit to do.

  Like bailing out our friend from jail, our family lawyers working overtime with Buck’s family lawyers, to help Shawn and our current charity case, Colt.

  All because of one girl, and our inability to keep our hearts sewn shut. Even Reid, of all people who’d never loved anyone except himself, wasn’t immune.

  It wasn’t that she was different from other girls, because in my opinion, no one was really different from anybody else. We just had differing life situations, with the same goals. Make money, however that
happened, try to eke out some fucking happiness in the miserable world that we’d been dropped into, fuck a lot, have a few ungrateful kids, and then die shitting ourselves on the way out and leaving the mess for someone else to clean up.

  Unless, like my dad, we vanished into thin air and left nothing but questions and heart-ache behind.

  “You fucking bastard!” I jerked as Mia’s voice filled the air between us, and Reid grabbed for his phone.

  “Did you seriously make her cursing you out, your ring tone?” I asked, not able to do anything but give him a look. He was unreal.

  “It’s hot, okay?” He shrugged and flicked through his messages, a grin stretching his mouth. “Shawn’s out. Colt’ll be a few more minutes. Some shit about guardianship or whatever, but yeah, we’re good. The Company did good.”

  The Company. That’s what we, he, called it. The background machine that oiled our lives. That pulled us out of the fire at the last minute. That fished us from the water when we felt like drowning. The men and women that worked for our families in the background and provided us more loyalty and safety than our own flesh and blood ever would.

  We pointed at the mess, they cleaned up. I felt some security knowing that when I died, they’d be the one mopping the blood out of the corner of my mouth and making sure the world never saw me as anything other than clean, pristine, and perfect.

  “Let Buck know?”

  “He’s already been called,” Reid said, hopping over the door of my car, taking full advantage of the top being down. “Shall we convene at his place?” He looked itchy, almost anxious, to get going.

  “So you can perv on Mia and disguise it with douchebag behavior?” I asked. He hmmm’d and tapped his fingers against his lower lip.

  “Yeah, that sounds about right,” he agreed.

  “Hard pass. She’s had enough fucking trauma without you being an asshole for no reason to her, again. And pissing off Buck in the process, again. He’s gonna punch you right in the dick next time, and I’m not going to stop him.” Reid was my best friend, as close as you could be to someone who was pretty much a self-declared sociopath, but even sociopaths needed checks and balances.

  I was that check and balance. Reid fucked with everyone, regardless of money or social position, except for me. And I kept him in line, kept him from killing himself, wiped the vomit off his face when he had too much… just kept him upright so he could keep on living his life in the best-worst ways he knew how.

  Just like I did with my mom.

  The weight of that slid over my shoulders for a moment and I closed my eyes before opening the car door and getting into the driver’s seat.

  “So, no Buck’s?” Reid asked. I gave him a flat look. He drummed his fingers on the arm rest, impatient and needing to go somewhere, do something. “How about her uncle, the druggie,” he said, his voice pitching low and dangerous.

  “Are you fucking crazy?” I asked.

  “Yes,” he said without missing a beat. “Let’s find that fucker. Make his face come out his asshole. I think if hit him hard enough I could do it. Just like in the movies, whatcha think?” He reached over to turn the keys for me, and I swatted at his hand.

  “Fuck off,” I said. “The Company is good, but let’s not tax them too much in one night, alright? They deserve to go home to their families, eat food, sleep, whatever. Be human. They can’t be constantly rescuing us if we run them into the ground.”

  “But babe, I’ve been so good,” Reid, said and I grit my teeth at the teasing nickname. “I haven’t had any assault charges in so goddamn long. Give me this. Just let me have this. I really need it.”

  I reached over and grabbed him around the throat, my arm pinching off his breath.

  “Fuck. Off.” I said, feeling his body shudder as his hands came up, scratching at my arm. I had pounds of muscle on him and he squirmed in his seat, his eyes popping wide before fluttering shut.

  I let him go, shoving him back against his seat.

  “Settle the fuck down. Let’s just go for a roam around town, alright?” I threw the car into the drive and hit the gas, leaving the clearing we’d been parked in, behind us.

  Reid threw up his arms with a loud whoop, before putting on his seatbelt.

  “I’m being good,” he insisted when I eyed him up.

  “Like fuck you are,” I muttered. Every day with him was probably taking a day off the end of my life, but I needed him as much as he needed me.

  That was the one place I was weak.

  He thumbed through his phone, snorting to himself at something on the screen.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Oh some asshole on TikTok is waving the USA flag with like… it’s like the gay pride flag mixed with the US flag, and I gotta be honest, his ass is really nice in the jeans he’s wearing. Like, actually hot.”

  “You sound like a girl,” I said, fighting the smile from my face. I didn’t think Reid was gay, not in the slightest, but he never had a problem voicing his opinion that some guy was hot. Was it his secret trick to getting women? I’d never figure that out.

  “Sorry that I can appreciate the finer things in life, and also keep an eye out on what the competition looks like,” he said, giving me a pointed look before returning to his phone. “Y’know, I think you have some sort of BDSM kink, man, always choking me out like that.”

  “If you weren’t an idiot, I wouldn’t have to put you in the hold,” I reminded him, my eyes on the road as our headlights cut through the night, lighting up the trees. Reid was filled with restless energy and it spilled out of him, washing over me. I wanted to tell him to cool it, but I was feeling it too.

  I wanted to run, the air streaming past me, filling my lungs. I wanted to blast music at the highest volume my car would let me, and feel the bass thudding through my veins. Everything had come so close to crashing down on us…

  I closed my eyes for a moment as I drove, feeling the road under me, the cold wind lifting my hair away from my face. The look on Mia’s face as the better men had stood up and defended her, protected her- she’d been shocked.

  She wasn’t different from other girls, but maybe it was us who were different. We were all broken in our own way, and it felt like through her we’d find absolution.

  At least, that’s what I thought anyway. I hadn’t exactly had in-depth conversations with the other guys about it. Seems like we needed to though, if we were going to collectively haul Shawn and Colt out of the shit.

  Normally Reid and I wouldn’t bother, but Shawn was our people, and Colt… well you didn’t need to even ask how Mia felt about Colt. It was obvious from the way she stared at him like he hung the moon.

  A pang of jealousy snatched at my heart and I exhaled, refocusing my eyes on the road again. One thing my dad had hammered into me? Love was earned. Mia’s love was something to be earned. Not bought, like Reid would try to do, or stolen like Shawn had tried. Fucking idiots.

  “You’re awfully quiet tonight, el capitan,” Reid drawled, giving me a sly look.

  “It’s been busy,” I said, not taking the bait. It was always better off not to give in to Reid’s urge to poke and pick at your sore spots. The guy could smell weakness a mile off, and he had the dogged determination of a wolf doing a slow hunt on a wounded deer.

  “Let’s go to Buck’s. His dad has the good shit in the humidor,” Reid said. I buried the groan I wanted to let out.

  “Fuck, would you quit it? Let them be. Let Mia have one night without you orchestrating something, or getting involve with something, or interrupting her life,” I said. Reid sat forward in his seat.

  “You’re a fucking killjoy, you know that?”

  My anger boiled over and I yanked at the wheel of the car, slamming on the brakes. We skidded off the road and onto the gravel shoulder. I turned on my best friend, trying not to breathe fire at him.

  “What?” Reid asked, his eyes dark in the pitch black that surrounded us, his face highlighted by the blowback from my car’s headligh
ts. “You’re gonna play good guy now? After everything?”

  I swallowed.

  “There is no everything,” I said through gritted teeth. “You organized that little bullshit strip tease…” I shook my head and looked away. “That was all you.”

  “Mmhmmm,” Reid agreed. “And I still say it was fucking hilarious.”

  “And that’s why it doesn’t matter how hard you push, a girl like that is never gonna go for an asshole like you,” I pointed out. “You notice? The one guy that she’s stuck with is-”

  “Buck. She’s stuck with Buck, even after the shit he pulled.”

  I looked heavenward.

  “Well maybe she has bad instincts,” I said.

  “Buck’s not bad,” he replied. “Just made mistakes.”

  “Listen to you, excusing everyone and their bullshit,” I said, watching the road ahead for any lights slicing through the dark.

  “Yeah, I sound like you, mopping up my messes again,” Reid said, sounding like he was trying to make a point but not getting there.

  “Are you gonna just say it?” I asked.

  “You’re the one who pulled the car over,” Reid pointed out, making like he was the reasonable one, and I was the one being crazy.

  “Because you keep fucking insisting we go over to Buck’s so you can what, wow Mia with your family’s lawyer? Your money? In case you haven’t noticed, she doesn’t give a shit about that.” I turned to glare at him, wishing he’d get the goddamn clue. Our money didn’t matter to her. She’d proven that. She’d gone after the one guy who couldn’t give her what we could.

  “And there it is,” Reid said, folding his hands behind his head as he twisted comfortably in his seat, shoving his knees against the dashboard of my car. He knew better to put his feet up. He’d be walking home in the dark if he did.

  “There what is?” Frustration was tempting me to just punch him. That had solved a lot of our friendship problems in the past, but I was trying to do better than that now. Live up to the family name, and all that shit.