Reckless at Westbrook High (The Kingston Brothers #2)

by Bethany Winters

  But why..?

  The thought hits me hard and I scrub a hand over my mouth, not missing the tiny little grin on her lips that tells me she knows exactly what I’m thinking.

  Fuck.

  She knows.

  “Wren?” Callie asks, frowning when she catches the look on my face. “What’s she talking about?”

  “Nothing,” I lie, still looking at Freya. “Come here.”

  Her lip twitches and she slides from Callie’s grip, walking over to me to do as she’s told. “Hi.”

  “Cut the shit,” I bite out, grabbing her upper arm to pull her away from them. “The fuck you want from me?”

  “I want you,” she whispers, bravely sliding her hands over my bare chest. “I want you back, Wren.”

  A light laugh leaves me and I shake my head at her, snatching her forearms to keep her off me. “That’s not gonna happen.”

  “I think it will.”

  I tense at that, sliding my eyes to the tattoo on the inside of her left wrist. Hers remains the same as the day we had them done – an antique style key with a princess crown for a handle, the word forever written along the edge in black, cursive ink.

  Mine says never forever now.

  Never feel, never fall.

  “And if it doesn’t?”

  “I’ll tell everyone,” she says simply, hiding a wince when I tighten my grip on her. “Your family, your friends, the press, the cops..” she goes on, looking up at me with a look I haven’t seen on her in years. “You’ll be mine and I’ll be yours, same way it was before, and if you tell me no, I’ll end your life as you know it. Gone.”

  I grind my teeth and bounce my eyes between hers, looking for the lie, searching for anything to tell me she’s bluffing, but I come up empty.

  Fuck, she’s serious.

  “Wren.”

  I swallow and look at Damon, failing to keep my features even when I catch the look on his face. A clear mixture of anger and confusion flashes in his dark blue eyes, but that’s not what I’m afraid of.

  He looks fucking terrified.

  “What did you do?”

  I hesitate, unable to form words while my family stares at me, not so patiently waiting for whatever comes next. Long seconds pass and I fight to think, but then Freya opens her mouth to speak and I panic.

  “Don’t–”

  “He killed someone.”

  Fuck.

  The silence that follows is deafening.

  Nobody moves or speaks for I don’t know how long, but despite feeling their eyes burning six holes through my skull, I keep mine on Freya, grabbing her fucking jaw and squeezing to pull her into me.

  “You listen to me, you little bitch,” I say quietly, leaning over her to crowd her space. “You’re gonna tell me everything you know and how you know it. Then you’re gonna give me a number, any fuckin’ number, and I’m gonna write you a check and watch you walk your twisted little ass out that door. You’re gonna leave this city today and you’re never coming back. Got it?”

  “No,” she says, looking me dead in the eye. “You can’t buy my silence, Wren. I don’t want your money. I want back in. You can threaten me until the sun goes down but I can assure you I’m not leaving.”

  “Goddamnit, Frey,” I growl, speaking through my teeth. “I don’t fuckin’ want you here. I don’t want you, period.”

  “Why, because I made a stupid mistake when I was sixteen?” she hisses, taking my face in her hands to pull me down to her. “You loved me once, Wren. I know you loved me. You can do it again.”

  I glare and shove her ass back because no, I can’t. “Don’t fuckin’ touch me.”

  “Or what?” she laughs. “I own you–”

  “The fuck you do,” Callie snaps, growling when Damon wraps his arms around her waist to hold her back. “You’re fucking lying.”

  “I’m not lying.” Freya throws back, turning to face my family. “I have proof.”

  “Alright,” Callie nods, holding her hand out to crook a finger at her. “Let’s see it.”

  “You think I’m stupid?” she raises a brow, crossing her arms over her chest. “I don’t have it on me.”

  “Where is it?”

  “Safe with a friend of mine,” she shrugs, stepping back out of fear when Callie struggles against Damon’s grip on her. “And just so you know, if anything happens to me, if I get hurt or turn up dead or something, the evidence is being sent straight to the cops and the press, so don’t even think about it.”

  “Fuck,” Damon growls. “How long?”

  “Forever.”

  He smacks the wall by the stairs and Callie continues to try to wiggle herself free, cursing him out when he refuses to let her go. Kai remains oddly quiet and I scrub my hands over my face, digging my fingers into my eyelids while I fight to think of a way out.

  There isn’t one.

  She’s got me.

  “How did you even get in here?”

  “I still have my key card,” she tells me, pulling it from her pocket to show me. “I’m gonna go unpack my stuff.”

  My head pulls back and I frown.

  The fuck..?

  “Are you outta your fuckin’ mind?!” Kai shouts, speaking for the first time since I came downstairs. “You’re not staying here.”

  “My parents are in New York, Kai. Where am I supposed to live?”

  “I don’t give a fuck,” he laughs, flicking his wrist at the elevator. “Go sleep on the fuckin’ sidewalk with all the other whores for all I care.”

  Her jaw ticks at the cheap dig but she hides it well, feigning indifference. “Is that any way to treat your brother’s fiancé?”

  He raises a brow. “My what?”

  “You heard me.”

  “Jesus, Frey,” I mutter, shaking my head at her. “I’m not marrying you.”

  “Why not?” she pouts, looking genuinely hurt by that.

  “Because he can’t fuckin’ stand you, you fuckin’ lunatic,” Kai snaps, looking at me like he’s waiting for me to set her straight and throw her out on her ass.

  I chew my lip and look away from him, tipping my chin at the stairs. “Go put your shit in Callie’s old room. Last door on the right.”

  She opens her mouth to argue, probably to demand she stays with me in my room, but then she catches the look on my face and snaps it shut, conceding. “Fine.”

  The four of us stay quiet while she grabs her bags and heads upstairs, not one of us moving until we hear the bedroom door closing behind her. I feel their eyes on me and drop mine to the floor, concentrating on the marble beneath my feet rather than the guilt threatening to climb up my throat and choke me. I swallow it down and lean back against the wall, automatically feeling for the phone in the pocket of my shorts. I can’t fucking tell him, but I can’t deny I want nothing more than to hear his voice right now, either.

  “Tell us.”

  “I can’t.”

  “Why not?”

  I don’t answer that.

  “Because you didn’t kill anyone,” Damon guesses, locking his jaw when my eyes hit his. “Who are you protecting?”

  I keep my mouth shut and move for the kitchen to put the coffee on, managing a light laugh when Damon and Callie both turn to look at Kai.

  “What?” he frowns, confused, but then it hits him and he pulls his head back, lifting his hands in mock surrender. “It wasn’t fuckin’ me.”

  Callie scrubs her hands over her face like she’s about three seconds away from losing her shit, then she takes a deep breath and moves for the sink to wash her hands, angrily tossing the towel on the counter before grabbing the bacon from the fridge.

  I’m not hungry anymore, and I don’t think anyone else is, either, but if she wants to cook to keep her hands busy and away from Freya’s throat, I’m not about to stop her.

  I pour her a coffee from the pot and place it down on the counter in front of her, smiling to myself when she grabs the instant hot chocolate from the cupboard overhead to add a
couple spoonfuls to it. I pass Kai his coffee and look at Damon, shutting my mouth when he glares like I’m stupid.

  Right.

  Damon hates coffee, but that’s not why he’s mad at me.

  “You can stand there and stare at me all you like, man,” I mutter, pouring a shit load of sugar into my cup. “I’m not tellin’ you shit.”

  He glares some more and snatches a bottle of water from the fridge, dropping down at the island opposite Kai. “Do you at least know who she’s got on her side?”

  “No,” I admit, leaning back on the counter to face him fully. “Derek, probably.”

  “It’s not Derek,” he shakes his head, glancing off towards the stairs. “Someone had to have given this to her to get her to come back today, and there’s no fuckin’ way he’s had this on you for fuck knows how long without using it already.”

  I nod because yeah, he’s right about that.

  “My money’s on Katherine,” Callie says, cutting the bacon with a helluva lot more force than necessary.

  “It can’t be Katherine,” I tell her, dropping down in my seat beside Kai.

  “Why not?”

  “Because she wasn’t even in Westbrook that night.”

  “Where was she?”

  I hesitate, dropping my eyes to my hands when three heads turn my way. “The Bahamas.”

  “Goddamnit, Wren!” Damon snaps, making Callie jump when he smacks his water off the counter, only just missing the lit fireplace in the middle of the living room.

  Her mouth parts and she blinks, staring at him in shock while she struggles to put the pieces together. “What..?”

  “This happened the night you caught her fucking Derek?!” he shouts, jumping from his seat to step closer to me. “The same night you decided to go off on your own instead of calling us to come back and get you?”

  I nod once, chewing the inside of my cheek when he looks like he’s ready to strangle me.

  The summer before junior year, I came home from vacation three days early to surprise her. We’d been gone for almost two weeks, Katherine was pissing me off and I was losing my mind. I just wanted my fucking girl, so I caught the first flight home and drove straight to her house to find her. I walked right in on her and Derek mid fuck, knocked the stupid fucker out cold and left her crying her heart out on the bedroom floor.

  I didn’t call my brothers.

  Instead I found a dealer and bought a bag of weed – something I’d never touched in my life – then I went to the first bar that would let me in and swallowed half a bottle of vodka.

  Then Levi found me, and then shit got complicated.

  We might not have been the ones to do it, but it doesn’t really matter. We helped him bury the body, and if the body’s ever found, we’ll go down right alongside him.

  He made sure of that.

  “Wren.”

  “What, Damon?”

  “Tell me.”

  “I told you I can’t–”

  “You fucking–”

  “Damon,” Callie snaps, quickly blocking his path when he moves to rush me. “What the fuck is the matter with you?”

  “Move.”

  She scoffs at that, shoving his ass back towards the gym off the kitchen. “You wanna take your shit out on somethin’, go take it out on the bag.”

  He glares, working his jaw when she doesn’t move.

  “Now, Damon.”

  A few seconds pass before he rolls his eyes and backs away from us, snatching a fresh bottle of water from the fridge before he walks off to go do as he’s told. Callie chews her lip ring and turns to face me fully, her face falling when she catches the look on mine.

  “What..?” she trails off, following my line of sight to my little brother, my twin brother, my best fucking friend and the other half of my fucking soul.

  “Kai..” I plead, inching closer to him, but he just shakes his head and shoves me back, breaking off another piece of me when I see the hurt and betrayal there.

  He felt it when she broke me.

  He knew there was something wrong with me that night, even being almost three thousand miles away, he could feel it. He tried to call me a hundred times but I didn’t answer, and now he knows why.

  “I’m sorr–”

  A humorless laugh leaves him and he pushes himself off the counter, tossing his mug in the dishwasher before he leaves for the gym without a single word.

  Fuck.

  “Wren..”

  I say nothing and drop my head in my hands, closing my eyes when Callie slides her hand around my neck to pull me into her.

  “We’ll fix this,” she whispers, gently running her fingers through my hair. “I promise you we’re gonna find a way to fix this.”

  I nod against her but I don’t believe it.

  There’s no fixing this.

  Chapter Eight

  Wren

  The waves roll beneath me and I swing my legs off the edge, hovering my thumb over the call button for the hundredth time today.

  Just one minute.

  I don’t have to tell him anything, I can just make something up, pretend I called the wrong number by accident.

  Jesus, I really am a girl.

  I’m just about to say fuck it and call him, but then the phone rings in my hand and I jump, cringing when I see my dad’s name flashing on the screen. This is the third time he’s called me in ten minutes, meaning he’s probably gone home to find Freya fucking Thorne trotting about the house like she owns the place. Knowing I can’t ignore him forever, I hit the answer button and lift the phone to my ear.

  “Hello?”

  “Where are you?”

  “On the pier.”

  “What are you doing on the pier?”

  “Smokin’ a joint.”

  He sighs at my honesty, probably rolling his eyes. “Can you please explain to me why your ex–girlfriend is currently ordering room service to my front door and watching some girly ass chick flick on my couch?”

  “She’s not my ex-girlfriend,” I mutter, blowing my smoke up to the stars. “She’s my fiancé.”

  He chokes on what sounds like fresh air, quiet a minute before he speaks again. “I’m sorry, what?”

  I shrug even though he can’t see it, playing it off despite the stupid tears filling my eyes. “We’re getting married at the end of August.”

  Silence follows and I pull my heels up to my ass, waiting for him to tell me how much of an idiot I am, how weak and pathetic I am for allowing her back into my life after what she did to me.

  He doesn’t say any of that, though.

  “Did Damon tell you Derek’s missing?”

  My brows snap in the center and I straighten up, confused. “What?”

  “Turns out he checked himself out of the hospital yesterday despite the fact the doctors told him he needed to stay a few more days. I can’t find him.”

  “Did you call Maverick?”

  “Maverick’s a prick,” he throws back, still pissed at his little brother after nearly forty years of hate and resentment. “He has no idea where his son is, and honestly, I’m not even sure he cares anymore. Derek’s.. well, he’s fucking Derek, you know?”

  “I know,” I say quietly, locking my jaw at the thought of him out there, hiding from us in the shadows. “You think he’s gonna come after Callie again?”

  “I don’t know, son,” he sighs heavily, still exhausted, it seems. “I hope not.”

  “Me too, dad.”

  A long silence follows and I tense, already anticipating his next question before he asks it.

  “You love this girl, huh?”

  I shake my head, squeezing my eyes shut so hard it burns, but I can’t tell him the truth.

  Not now, not ever.

  I told her I’d marry her after my eighteenth birthday, let her live with me and buy her whatever she damn well pleases for the rest of my miserable life, but no one else can ever know why. We’ll tell people we’re for real, allow everybody at school to talk shit
about me behind my back for getting back together with the girl I publicly told to go fuck herself on the first day of junior year, and she’ll live happily ever after as Freya fucking Kingston, just like she always wanted.

  “Yeah, Dad,” I lie, the words burning my throat like a shot of acid. “I love her.”

  “Okay,” he says simply, although I’m not entirely sure he believes me. “Then you can consider me letting you keep your car and your credit cards your engagement gift.”

  I laugh lightly at that, relaxing a little bit for the first time in hours when I hear footsteps coming up behind me. “You heard about the video?”

  “You mean the one of my half naked son making a dick of himself in front of.. three point one million people and counting?” he asks, probably raising a brow at thin air. “You gonna rat him out?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talkin’ about.”

  “Of course you don’t,” he deadpans, knowing I’m full of shit. “You coming home soon?”

  “Nah, I’m gonna hang out here a while.”

  “Alright. Be careful and–”

  “No fighting.” I finish for him, rolling my eyes at his dramatics. “Night, Dad.”

  “Night, Wren.”

  I hang up and toss my phone down on the wood beside me, leaning my elbows on my knees to relight my joint. Damon’s still standing behind me, watching me smoke away the pain in our mother’s favorite spot, but he doesn’t say anything.

  “You gonna punch me now, brother?”

  He steps forward and drops down beside me, dangling his legs off the edge next to mine. “You lied to him.”

  I nod, keeping my eyes on the ocean while I take another hit. “I know.”

  “Why?”

  I don’t answer that, but I don’t miss the way he sighs like he gets it. He knows as well as I do our dad wouldn’t hesitate to use every resource and spend every penny he has to find whatever evidence she has on me, but I can’t risk letting him dig deep enough to make it happen.

  It’s too dangerous.

  He’s too dangerous.

  He’ll kill us all without blinking if he finds out someone’s blackmailing me for this, and I’d rather marry the bitch who broke my heart than risk putting my family on his radar.