by Reid, B. B.
“I don’t know,” he replied with a deep sigh. He ran his fingers through his gorgeous hair, and I could tell he was two seconds from tugging on the ends. “Maybe you should go talk to her.”
“About what? She’s said enough. She’s done enough.”
“I don’t think that was her intention, pip. People fuck up more than usual in the heat of the moment. I’m sure she’s just here to apologize.”
I pursed my lips, hating the fact that Vaughn was being rational when I wanted to rage. I didn’t want to talk to her. I wanted Selena gone so I could get on with pretending she’d never existed. I still hadn’t gotten up the courage to confront my father, not even when he texted me this morning to make sure that I was okay. All I could manage at the time was a thumbs-up emoji. If I’d tried using words, there was no telling what might have come spilling out.
My father lied to me.
My entire life, I was led to believe he and my mom had something special when all along he’d been nothing more than her goddamn sidepiece. Did that mean what I felt for Vaughn weren’t real, either? My parents had been the reason I believed in true love and soulmates. What if the feeling I’d gotten when Vaughn kissed me for the first time had only been…I don’t know, gas?
I felt strong fingers curling around my own and that same feeling, like watching a flower bloom on a warm, spring day, returned. It was real.
“Come on,” Vaughn gently urged. “We’ll do it together.”
“Fuck, you’re sweet,” I blurted, making the corner of his lips turn up in a crooked grin.
Leaning over, he slid his other hand between my thighs, and I gasped when he roughly cupped my pussy through my shorts. “Remember that when I want more of this later on,” he whispered before kissing my cheek.
I was still sitting there, blinking stupidly and feeling my temperature rise when he came around to open my door. He ended up having to lift me out when I couldn’t seem to move my legs. His hands stayed around my waist, making sure I was steady before taking my hand and leading me up the stairs where my long-lost sister waited.
“Is she okay?” Selena asked when I swayed on my feet.
I was sure it seemed like I was a bit dramatic, but only to those who’d never had themselves a Vaughn Franklin Rees.
“She’s fine,” Vaughn answered when I only stared.
Selena was the one who’d shown up unannounced. Twice. If she hadn’t come here to apologize, I wasn’t about to beg for one.
“Oh…okay.” She started wringing her hands as she searched for words, but I wasn’t falling for her shy act again. “I know you probably don’t want to speak to me, but I’m heading back home today, and I was hoping we could talk.” She glanced at Vaughn when she said the last part, and I heard the unspoken “alone.”
I could tell by the way he smirked and made himself comfortable against the railing that he did, too, and made it clear he wasn’t going anywhere. I’d never been so grateful for his arrogance before.
“I’m pretty sure I’ve learned all I need to,” I told her. “Let’s recap. My father was a home-wrecker, my mother didn’t love him, and I ruined your life.”
“But you didn’t ruin anything!” she said. A moment later, she was rushing toward me and taking my hand. For some reason, I didn’t push her away. Her skin was warm and soft instead of cold and scaly like I had imagined it would be. “How could you say that?”
“It’s what I would think if the shoe were on the other foot.”
She paused at that before nodding. “I’m sorry about the other day. I didn’t mean to turn your life upside down like that. I just wanted to meet you. You’re—” She turned away but not before I saw the tear that slipped as she swallowed hard. “You’re all I have left.”
I found myself squeezing her hand and moving to stand closer. I didn’t want to believe her, but how could I not? The pain in her eyes… No one could act that good. “What do you mean?”
“My father, he…he died.”
“Oh.” Before I could consider if it was a good idea, I pulled Selena into my arms and held on for dear life. I couldn’t imagine what I would do if I lost my father. It made me even more grateful for my friends. I wondered about Selena’s friends and if she had any to come all this way in search of comfort. My back was to Vaughn so that I couldn’t see his face, but I figured if he thought this was a mistake, he would have pulled me away by now. For someone who claimed I wasn’t his girlfriend, Vaughn sure protected me like I was.
I ended up inviting Selena in and offering her a cup of tea. I didn’t really drink it myself, but it was what you made someone when they were upset or sick, right? Vaughn followed me into the kitchen after she accepted, and I felt his gaze on me the entire time as I filled a kettle with water and set it on the stove to boil.
“You don’t have to do this, you know? She’s not your responsibility.”
“You’re the one who told me to talk to her, and if she really is my sister, I can’t just turn her away.” I finally looked up to meet his gaze and melted at the worry there. “She already told me the truth about our mom and my dad. What more harm can she do?”
Vaughn chewed on his lip as he stared into space, and I had the feeling he was actually trying to figure that out. Walking over to him, I wrapped my arms around his trim waist and listened to the steady rhythm of his heart beating—the heart that belonged to me. He just wouldn’t admit it.
“It’ll be okay,” I whispered when I felt him run his hand down my back.
Tugging on my ponytail, he pulled my head back until our gazes met. “It fucking better be,” he said after he’d kissed me. “Otherwise, sister or not, I’ll make her ass disappear.”
My heart squeezed, but it wasn’t a lighthearted feeling. No, I was wondering where the hell that had come from, and why did it sound like he meant it?
“Vaughn?”
His phone pinged, and I watched, feeling dumbfounded, as he casually pulled his phone from his pocket as if he hadn’t just threatened my sister. His lips flattened as he read the message, and I could see the battle waging in his green gaze.
“You don’t have to stay,” I said, realizing his dilemma. “I’m a big girl. I’ll be fine.”
He looked like he wanted to argue, but instead, he sighed before looking me over. His lips twisted in amusement, and I was relieved to see the Vaughn I was hopelessly falling in love with.
“You’re tiny as shit, pip-squeak, but I get your point.” Only after tonguing me while groping my butt like a horndog did he let me go and head for the door. “Call me if anything changes.”
He was gone seconds later, and I pretended not to notice Selena watching him as he left. I guess I couldn’t blame her. Sometimes I still found myself drooling even after all of this time. Taking a deep breath, we stared at each other awkwardly until I broke the silence. “So…how do you like your tea?”
“I still can’t believe you’re going to Harvard,” Selena gushed as she slid on a pair of oversized sunglasses. She then lay back on a beach towel in my borrowed bikini, and I had to admit that it looked better on her than me. While I was mostly skin and bones, Selena was artfully toned. She’d obviously spent a lot of time perfecting her body. We were currently soaking up the sun on the crowded beach after staying up all night talking. Somehow, I ended up letting her crash on our couch instead of driving back to her hotel at the two in the morning. “That’s amazing. My baby sister is going to be a surgeon.”
“I hope so,” I mumbled, humbly admitting my fears. “To be honest, I’m a little worried.” Not only would the coursework prove more challenging, but the competition would also be stiffer. It would be ten times harder to stand out. And I didn’t just need to get through undergrad. There was also medical school and then finding a good residency and fellowship.
“You have no reason to be.” There was so much confidence in her tone when she spoke that I had no choice but to believe her. “I saw those trophies your father keeps displayed, girl. You’re going to
kick ass at that stuffy school.” I snorted because most of those trophies were from spelling bees when I was in elementary school, but I appreciated her trying. “And,” she said in a sing-song voice, “you already have a man, and he’s to fucking die for. At least you won’t have to worry about those nerds at Harvard distracting you.”
I frowned at her assuming everyone at Harvard was a nerd but pushed it aside for a subject more pressing. At least to me. “He’s not my man,” I whispered, my gaze fixed on the sand. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Selena pause before she lifted her sunglasses enough to see me clearly.
“What do you mean?”
“We’re just…friends.” The word tasted like acid in my mouth, and it only seemed to be that way whenever I was referring to Vaughn.
“Friends? That’s not how he acted when you were together.” She lifted a brow skeptically. “Is he seeing anyone else?” I shook my head before hugging my legs and resting my chin on my knees. “So how long have you two been just friends?”
“Ten months next week.”
“So, are you fucking him?”
My eyes widened at how quickly she’d gotten personal. I wasn’t as prudish as Jamie accused me of being, but sister or not, I barely knew her. Suddenly, I wished for my friends. I’d invited them to the beach, but no one had been able to make it. Four and Ever had gone to visit her mom in psychiatric care, Wren and Lou were spending some much-needed alone time together, Jamie and Bee were still honeymooning their new relationship, and Vaughn was MIA. Once again, he hadn’t answered any of my phone calls or text messages. Something was definitely up. Training had never kept him this busy before.
“I know what you’re thinking, baby sis, but I’m not going anywhere, so you better get used to my bluntness. Besides, it’s just between us girls.” She nudged my shoulder with her own before offering me a conspiratorial smile.
I briefly considered her point before deciding not to be so uptight for once. “We’ve done stuff but…no. We haven’t gone all the way.”
There was a twinkle in her eye that I didn’t know how to interpret as she sat up. “Well, it sounds like you’re in a relationship to me. If he were just in it for sex, he wouldn’t be waiting a year for you to give it up. Especially not a guy that looks like that.”
I started to tell her that there was so much more to Vaughn than his Adonis looks, overwhelming popularity, or the fact that his parents were as well-connected as they were rich. For some reason, I held back. I guess I wanted to keep those hidden treasures, the parts he’d only shared with me, all to myself.
“He said we couldn’t be together even if he wanted to,” I told her instead.
She frowned at that but didn’t seem surprised. I was starting to see the benefit of having an older sister. Obviously, Selena was wiser and had experienced more. Maybe I should pick her brain and figure out how to make Vaughn mine once and for all. “Why?”
I shrugged even though he’d told me why. I also knew he’d been lying, so I wasn’t quite sure what to think. There wasn’t much that could top a bigot on the despicable-human ladder—except a child molester or maybe a serial killer. I had a hard time picturing the man who could sire Vaughn Rees as either of those.
Sticking to my original theory, I said, “I think he wants to keep his options open for when he goes pro but doesn’t want to hurt my feelings.”
“Pro?”
“Yeah. He got a lot of offers to play college ball. It’s only a matter of time before the NFL picks him up.”
“Shut up!” Selena said, sounding even more excited than when I told her I’d been accepted into Harvard. “He’s that good?”
“He’s amazing,” I said, meaning that in more ways than one. I never expected Vaughn to stick around when he realized I wouldn’t be an easy conquest. I certainly hadn’t expected him to be so patient with me. Even though it was looking like we’d never be a couple, I was lucky to have him as a friend.
“Well, then you have to show him what he’ll be missing if he lets you get away. Vaughn might be the coveted football star, but you are the real prize.”
I am the real prize.
I met Selena’s gaze, and it was like looking in a mirror. “How do I do that?”
Her lips slowly spread in a smile that almost seemed triumphant. I blinked at that. “For starters, you said you two had done stuff before?”
“Yeah…”
“In the bedroom?” she clarified at my confused look. I had a hard time meeting her gaze as I nodded. “Then you can start by telling me what he likes. Down to every dirty detail.”
I STARED AT THREE DAYS’ worth of missed calls and messages from Tyra and knew that she’d be pissed. I hadn’t meant to ghost her, but my father had insisted on starting my training, despite me maintaining that I’d never work for him. Unfortunately, there hadn’t been much I could do with a gun pointed at my head, so I sat dutifully by his side, pretending to soak it all in as he slowly opened the door to his world.
My father liked to kid himself, but he was nothing but a low-life thug dressed in a fancy suit. He stood for nothing except the motto under Thirteen’s insignia, and that was only because it benefited him the most.
Honor thy Father.
Its meaning was clear. To obey him, and I wasn’t talking about God, in all things. Essentially, to kill and bleed for my father whenever he commanded it. Thirteen was nearly seven decades old, formed in 1949 by the original thirteen members. From there, a round table began, like King Arthur and his trusted knights, except there was nothing heroic about the men around it, and Thirteen’s table was more like a pit of snakes. Whenever the presiding Father died, because there was no such thing as stepping down, another took his place. The thing was, that person could be anyone—literally anyone willing to fake their death and give up their identity to become a myth.
Franklin Rees was an alias, a person who did not exist. I didn’t even know my own father’s real name and wondered if I even cared.
My mother, realizing she’d given birth to a monster’s child, fled to Paris when I was six years old. I barely remembered her. I couldn’t recall what she sounded like, looked like, or if she ever loved me.
Shaking off the familiar anguish, I ignored the notifications and let “Wrong Side of Heaven” by Five Finger Death Punch burst through the speakers. Without my father’s blessing or knowledge, I’d set up a private gym in one of the unfinished spaces in the basement. He hadn’t bothered tearing it down, but I didn’t kid myself. I knew it was because he had hopes of putting my brute strength to use one day.
Never gonna happen.
Lying down on the bench, I forced myself to focus on benching the two-hundred-pound weight. The players at USC were already lifting three-hundred pounds, maybe more, and if I were lucky, I’d be at two-eighty by the time camp started in August. I’d also be taking hits from much bigger guys and would need to pack on more muscle. The Trojan’s head coach had already emailed me a training plan to prepare. Unfortunately, I’d been too busy sniffing after Tyra and the little scraps she threw my way to start. They tasted ten times better than the smorgasbord I’d grown accustomed to, and maybe it was knowing that no one else had eaten off my plate.
This analogy is getting weird.
I thought about my theory as I lifted the weight before bringing it back down and admitting that virgin or not, I’d still be obsessed. There was something so pure about Tyra that went beyond the physical. Something that made me wonder if I wasn’t without hope, after all. Tyra didn’t know it, but she could have had anyone. She’d chosen me instead.
As if on autopilot, I set down the weight, stood, and grabbed my phone and keys before rushing from the house. My sudden urge to be near her was almost unbearable. I dialed her number as soon as I got behind the wheel of my car, but it rang once before going straight to voicemail.
See? Pissed.
Ignoring Tyra’s hint to steer clear, I sped all the way to the little house on Tigerwood Lane only to find her
car gone. I wondered how she’d gotten it back from Wren and Lou’s in the first place and assumed Selena must have given her a ride. Remembering the girl who’d shown up claiming to be her older sister, I understood why Tyra was pissed. I promised her I had her back only to ghost her when she needed me.
Snatching my phone from the dash, I tried calling her again only to get the same result. Ignoring Einstein’s definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, I tried three more times. I bet ole Albert never had himself a girl as stubborn as Tyra Morgan Bradley.
Gritting my teeth, I finally gave up calling and tapped the tracking app I installed on her phone on the sly. Yeah, it was an asshole move and a little creepy, but dare to ask me if I gave a fuck. Tyra had made it easy with all the apps on her phone that she never fucking used. After installing the tracker, I hid it in one of the folders she kept to organize them. It had been there a month now, and Tyra had yet to realize it.
I’d taken a page from Ever’s book, but in his creepy defense, Four had almost gotten herself killed racing in that junkyard. Had Ever not been there, he would have lost her.
Still, up until a few weeks ago, I thought that installing the app was hilarious and a little much—something I sure as fuck would never do. Ever, the smug prick, had simply smirked when I asked him for the name of the app.
Desperate times…
I hit the refresh button and waited while the app searched. This was my first time putting it to use, so I had no idea how accurate it would be. After a few agonizing seconds of searching, it finally gave me her location, and I frowned, recognizing the road. What the hell was she doing in the middle of nowhere?
Assuming it was wrong, I hit refresh again only to get the same result. Confused, I sat there fuming for a few seconds before I realized what day it was. Tomorrow was the Fourth of July. The fair had come to town.
I was only a couple minutes out when I got a call from Jamie. “Dude!” he greeted over the sound of the fair in full swing. It was always a highlight in our sleepy, little town, so everyone came out. “Where the fuck are you? Gang’s all here.”