by Nana Malone
Jinx winced. “Yeah, okay, that was dirty.”
I shook my head. “Sometimes, I swear I’m adopted, you know. I don’t even look like them.”
“Oh my God, back to this? You’re not adopted.”
I sighed. It was my favorite fantasy, that somewhere my real parents were looking for me and somehow, I’d been sucked in by these pod people of a family.
Yes, my parents were mostly good people. They just had a different set of values and didn’t seem to understand mine. They would do anything, and I meant anything to get and stay on good terms with the royal family.
My grandfather on my father’s side had squandered our family fortune and lands. My father had worked tirelessly to get some of that back and to keep his stature. He still had his useless title, but these days, ‘Lord’ didn’t mean much. Not unless you had the money to go with it.
He’d married my mother for her wealth, but my grandparents had been shrewd, securing her money away in trust funds, upon trust funds, upon trust funds, and she still only received a monthly stipend. They even bypassed her entirely and gave me my inheritance independently, as if they knew what my parents would do with that money.
“Jinx, I hear you. I really do. And I appreciate that you’re looking out for me, but I need to do this. I will die if I am trapped in this gilded palace of mine. I need out. Either you’re with me, or you’re not.”
Jinx didn’t even blink. “You know I’m always with you. Let’s get you on that ferry and to the airport. NYC awaits.”
3
Bryna
Sweat trailed down the nape of my neck, all the way down my back, barely slowing at my bra, and still I dragged the suitcase up one more step, then another, then another. It was unusually warm for September in New York. Beads of sweat rolled off my temples, under my tank top, and down into my boobs, pooling right there in that catch of the bra right where it clasped in the front. My tank top clung to me, and my hair matted and curled on my exposed skin.
This heatwave in New York was really no joke when you lived in a sixth-floor walk-up.
I’d already dragged my suitcase up three flights of stairs. I had three more to go. How hard could this be? I could do it, right? When I arrived, I was so excited, but the damned elevator was out due to a brown-out or something, and so was the air conditioner. Cue me, sweating my tits off.
‘New York,’ they said, ‘Follow the fun and adventure.’ All I wanted to do right then was lie down in an ice box and cool the hell off. But this was my adventure, like it or not, and I was free. No one would tell me what to do or who I was supposed to be. I was on my own, and it was going to be great. Just as soon as I got into my apartment.
I let myself in the front door, vibrating with excitement despite my sweaty state. My roommate and I had been talking through email and chat for three weeks. Her name was Charlotte. She’d grown up in upstate New York with fairly well-off parents, but she was also looking for freedom and excitement. I was pretty sure the two of us were going to get on like a house on fire.
Unfortunately, when I unlocked the door to my apartment, all I heard was a deep, low, sharp bark. I immediately jumped back and flattened myself against the wall in the hallway.
“Oh, Rufus, stop it.”
I peered at the short, pixie-haired girl in the door way. This was not Charlotte. Charlotte said she was 5’10”. In her picture, she was a blue-eyed blonde. Who the hell was this?
“Who are you?” I squeaked out.
“I’m Dana.”
“Where is Charlotte?” Maybe I was a little paranoid, but this was just the kind of stunt my parents would pull.
“Oh, there was some kind of roommate switch-up or something. That girl, Charlotte or whoever, her program tuition wasn’t paid for the term, so they shuffled me in here. And considering I almost didn’t have student housing, I’m lucky as hell. This is Rufus.” There had been a block of residences that had been reserved for intern housing close to campus and my new job. The program was run in conjunction with the NYU graduate program. The flat had cost a pretty penny, but it was totally worth it. Or would be without the killing machine in the doorway.
I stared at the massive Great Dane she held by the collar. “Um, you have a dog.”
“Yeah. Look, don’t narc me out, okay? He rarely ever barks. He mostly thinks he’s a lap dog. I didn’t have anyone who could look after him for the next month until my mother can take him. That’s it, then he’ll be off. I swear.”
“It’s fine. I just—he’s huge.” And also, I wasn’t really a dog person. Not so much didn’t like, but more terrified. I’d been bitten when I was six, and still had the damn mark on my ankle. Yes, the dog was a Chihuahua, but it was vicious. The stupid Duke of Essex’s daughter, Bridget, had let the dog run amuck. Ever since then, I hadn’t really warmed to man’s best friend.
Dana waved me in. “It’s okay. I have him under control. It’s fine, okay? Just don’t tell.”
Breathe, relax. It was fine. Control what you can control. “I—I sent some boxes ahead. Do you know if they arrived?” I was still sweating and needed a cool shower.
She nodded. “Yep. Hope you don’t mind, because I have Rufus, I chose the bigger room. But uh, he got into your room. Ate some of the food. And uh, destroyed some of your things.”
I blinked at her. “He what?”
She shrugged as if that was the end of the conversation and continued, “It only makes sense. He’s so big.”
I stared after her. My instinct was to let it happen. After all, that’s how I’d always been. But I’d fought for this.
Since the window jumping, I was a new person. You have to fight for what you want. No one is going to hand it to you. I wanted to do what I always did, accept it. Make do. But I took a deep breath. “I’m sorry, but no.”
She frowned. “What?”
I swallowed and swiped at some sweat on my brow. Why was it so hard to stand up for myself? Maybe if I did it more often, I’d deal with things instead of letting them fester and then blow up. Like your engagement party. “I said no. I paid for the bigger room, so I’d like to move into it, please. You and Rufus can figure it out. And please keep him out of my things.” God, I hated to think of his monster attack teeth tearing through my clothes.
Rufus cocked his head as if he could hear me. And I would have sworn her doggy smiled at me. I shuddered.
Dana’s gaze swept over me again, as if reassessing. “Fine. Whatever.” She muttered over her shoulder then slammed the door to her room.
I sighed. I missed Charlotte already, but there was no way this setback was going to ruin this experience for me. I was here to find out who I was, and I was going to do that.
Lucas
‘Stay out of trouble,’ he’d said. ‘Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,’ he’d said.
The thing about my brother was ever since he’d become king, he’d become a lot less fun. And yes, of course, he had to lead people now. But there was no reason why I couldn’t have fun.
What about the part where he said don’t slip your security detail?
Not that I’d slipped them exactly, but the club was crowded. Not my fault if they couldn’t find me.
That job looks really good now, doesn’t it?
The sounds of dub step pounded off the walls, making my head ache, but I was determined. I was out, and this was great. This was fun, never mind that my stupid drink cost nearly $30. And by fun, I meant I was bored out of my skull.
There was a part of me that was over this scene, bored with the endless flow of alcohol and stream of women, and the constant high of picking out a mark.
I might be a reformed bad boy, but sometimes for fun, I would still do the work of picking out the mark, the best angles, the best way to make his wallet bleed. But I never actually went through with it. Not anymore. Not since I’d walked away from my mother. It didn’t mean the temptation wasn’t strong, though. It didn’t mean that there was no itch to go there. So when I felt the itch, I came to places like
this. Places that would pretty much guarantee that I wouldn’t scratch the itch. No one in here was rich, and so far, no one had been an asshole. So that meant no scratching this particular itch.
It was fine though, just being out was good enough.
Why don’t you call a friend? Someone to actually kick it with?
Yeah, that was the next problem. I had no friends. Okay fine, I had a couple, but they were just surface friends. Not a single one of them knew me. How was it that my brother and my body guards were the only people who actually knew the truth about me? Sometimes, I just didn’t want to fake it.
“Hey, I’ve never seen you here before.”
I turned and found a petite blonde sidled up to me on my left side. She was mostly hair, tits, and a bright white smile. A little too done, a little too obvious, but hey, she was there. And I didn’t have to do any work to pick her up, so, bonus. And like I told the brunette at the wedding, there was something a little wild about her.
She’s not brunette. Funny thing was, since the night of Sebastian’s wedding, I’d been more interested in brunettes.
“Well, would you believe it if I said I was a stranger in a strange land?”
“No, of course I wouldn’t believe it. You might be new here, but you’re a player. I can tell.”
Oh okay, I got it. It was time to dance. ”Who, me?” I placed my hand on my chest and managed to fake an incredulous look. “I am shocked and insulted you would insinuate such a thing.”
She giggled. “You’re funny. Come on, take me to the dance floor.” She stumbled on her heels, and I steadied her.
I wasn’t in the mood. But, she at least kept me somewhat interested to pass the time. There’s no way I wanted to go home and face the empty penthouse. Roone was just across the hall, but even he didn’t know what lay deep inside. “Don’t worry. I practically live in these things. I fuck in them too, just in case you were wondering.”
Jesus. Okay then, we were doing this. Not my first choice, but I wasn’t going to complain. Besides, screwing her would take my mind off of all the other shit that was looming in the distance. I had one class left that I’d missed in my third year taking time off to help my mother. Then I had to figure my shit out. Was I going back to the Winston Isles? I needed to decide. The previous plan of taking a consulting gig and making a lot of money was moot now.
The tune changed to something only slightly more recognizable. At least this song had lyrics to it, a recent pop song. Most of the time, I didn’t pay attention to what was on the radio. I would just set it to some iHeart Radio rap-pop nonsense and let it play in the back ground. I didn’t care that much for the most part. A lot of it sounded the same to me—some wannabe princess, shaking her ass to some tune that was catchy but not that meaningful.
The blonde shook her ass, turning around in my arms, backing up into me, making sure I could feel every swell of her curves. Yep, it would be almost too easy.
What, now you want a challenge like the brunette? I needed to get that girl out of my damn head before I broke and asked Sebastian to pull the security footage and tell me who she was.
We danced some more, and after a few minutes I started tugging her off the dance floor back toward the bar. I really couldn’t stand this music. Note to self, no more dub step or electronic. And also, next time, find a partner who can actually dance, because Sexy-and-a-Smile, as hot as she was, couldn’t move at all. Or maybe that was just the dub step. I wasn’t really looking to figure it out.
“Hey, where are we going?”
“Let’s head back to the bar. I’ll get you a drink.”
She glanced over her shoulder as if waiting for something. “Are you sure you don’t want to dance anymore?”
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure. You go ahead though, if you want.”
She took one of my hands in both of hers and tried to pull me back. “Please?”
I sighed. “Okay fine. One more, but then I’m probably going to get out of here.”
“But the night is young. We haven’t even had any fun yet.”
“Yeah, tell me about it.” I let myself be pulled back. It was fine. But mostly, my attention kept wandering over the crowd. And then I felt it. Like the faintest hint of a brush. But, in that moment, I knew I was light one wallet.
Son of a bitch.
My head snapped to the left, and I saw the guy turn and wind his way through the crowd. Oh no you don’t you fucker. I didn’t even let Miss Tits-and-Smile know where I was going. I just headed straight for him. She tried to tug me back, but I shook her off. I was irritated now that I’d slipped Roone and Marcus.
“Hey, where are you going?”
I spotted my babysitters’ heads over the crowd. They’d spotted me. Neither looked pleased. I didn’t even slow down, but instead I followed the guy through the throng of people toward the back of the club. In one of the darkened hallways, I made a quick move, kicking out my leg and hooking it through his legs onto one of his feet. He immediately stumbled forward, crashing to the ground. “Hey, what the hell are you doing?”
“Hand over my wallet. We don’t have to do this.” I couldn’t even muster actual anger.
“I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about. I’m just here looking for the fucking bathroom.”
“No, you’re not. You lifted my wallet on the dance floor. I have to tell you your pick needs work. I felt you. I swear, who’s teaching you kids these days? Hand it over.” The last thing I needed was my ID out in the wild. Not the brand new one I’d been using for the last year that called me Lucas Newsome. Or the other ID I had, the one that was from the Winston Isles. It’s not like it said, ‘hey, this guy is a prince,’ but it did have the family crest on it, and then an in-case-of-emergency call number. I didn’t need any of that shit getting out. “You have three seconds.”
The guy pushed himself to his feet. “Or you’ll do what?”
Or Roone and Marcus were going to be on him like white on Wonder Bread.
“I really think it’s not necessary to elaborate on that. Look man, I’m not in the mood. All I’m telling you is your lifts are weak. If you really want in on the game, I have some people you can train with, but you’re not going to make it very far if you keep messing up passes like that. Give my wallet back.”
The guy scowled, and I could tell this was going to be a fight. To be honest, I was not looking for one. I swear to God.
The guy made his move, coming at me with a wild, pseudo hook punch. I blocked that easily enough and sent an open palm straight for his nose. He howled and staggered back.
“You broke my nose. You fucking broke my nose.”
I sighed. “Plus, you suck at self-defense. Hand over the wallet.”
Did he listen? Nope. The world would be a lot easier if he had. But oh no, he came at me again, this time with blood spurting out of his nose and sliding down his chin. He tried to just plain old push me then grabbed me around the waist and lifted.
I delivered a series of elbows over his shoulders and on the back of his neck. He let go quickly and staggered a little bit. Yeah asshole, I’m not your average lightweight.
And I wasn’t. From the time I was a kid, I’d learned to fight and fight well. I refused to be deadly about it, but I knew how to defend myself. It was one of the few perks of growing up with my mother’s boyfriend.
“We don’t need to do this. Hand over what’s mine, and you get to walk away. No harm, no foul. I won’t even call the cops.”
He staggered as he came for me again, and I sighed. Why couldn’t he fucking listen? He came with another feeble attempt at a punch. I delivered a steady rhythm of combination, basic punches, and he went down like a sack of bricks. He groaned a little as I stepped over him.
“See, this is what happens when you fuck up. I just want you to learn this lesson right now. This was your doing. I had nothing to do with this. Next time, make better life choices.”
I reached inside his jacket and found my wallet. Everything was still
intact, cash, cards, fucking IDs. It seemed that the guy had been a little busy tonight because I found three other wallets, too. I considered lifting them from him, just to teach him a lesson, but hell, the kid had to eat, right? I turned to find the blonde in the middle of the hallway staring at me.
“Oh my God, what did you do to him?”
I shrugged and rolled my shoulders. “He’ll live. Listen, let me take you home or something.”
She looked from me to him and back to me again. “Okay, but listen, I kind of find it hot, what you just did. I thought it was really sexy. Where did you learn to fight?”
I frowned at her. Was she insane?
She started rubbing herself all over me, and look, I’m not proud of it, but it was pure adrenaline. It was coursing through my veins. And well, her tits were pretty much out. I could almost see nipple. It wasn’t my fault. I swear. But when she pressed into me, basically bringing her nipples across my chest, I responded.
I lifted her up and planted her on the filthy counter nearby. My tongue slid into her mouth, and the adrenaline that led to most bad decisions of my life basically took over. Yes, I was making out with some random chick I would most certainly never be calling again in the back hallway of a club. Yeah, pretty princely, I know. And so much for me worrying about this girl’s virtue, because she was basically taking off my shirt, hands all over my skin, cold, a little bit clammy, but part of me didn’t care because this at least was familiar. I felt like me, the old me. Her thumbs brushed over my nipples, and I shivered before murmuring, “Let’s get out of here.”
She moaned and nodded her head. “Let me just head to the bathroom. I’ll be right back.”
I nodded and leaned back against the wall, giving her space to shimmy around me.
What are you doing? All in all, a really good question. But right then, I didn’t care because I just wanted to drown it all out. It was only after she’d been gone several minutes that I looked at my watch. Hell, she’d been in there ten minutes already. I knew the lines to girls’ bathrooms were ridiculous, but come on.