by Jo Raven
“You wanna race? That get you off?”
“No, dammit. I need the money.” Ocean glances at me, his expression undecipherable. “I bet Kayla told you what for.”
“Motherfucker.” Zane advances on Ocean, and I clap a hand over my mouth, because I think he’s going to punch him. But he grabs him in a quick man-hug and lets him go. “You talk to me, and I’ll help you. Didn’t I say that?”
“You did.” Ocean’s answer is subdued. “But it’s too much money.”
“I’ll lend you the fucking money. Don’t do something you’ll regret, fucker. Don’t get yourself killed. We’ll figure it out.”
He’s instantly surrounded by the others—Rafe and Tyler are here, and Shane and Seth, Jesse and Micah. The girls have meanwhile arrived in another car, and they’re approaching us, too—Ev and Manon, Amber and Cassie, Megan and Erin.
“We have a problem,” Shane says as I near the group.
Ocean reaches for me and I press myself to him, his arm coming around my waist. “Only one?”
He nods at Duane who’s walking toward us, his face red and his mouth an angry line. “What’s going on here? Blue, the race’s about to start.”
“Well, Blue.” Shane turns back to Ocean, unruffled. “The problem is that this Doctor Yates who’s been visiting your mom is not a real doctor. He’s a conman.”
“What?” I gape at him, and Ocean jerks against me.
In the spreading silence, Duane harrumphs. “Blue. The race.”
“Fuck the race,” Ocean says, way too calmly, his eyes stormy. “And fuck you, Duane.”
“You’ll regret this,” Duane yells, shaking his fist at Ocean but not coming any closer—probably because Tyler steps in his way, thick arms folded over his chest.
“I’ve already regretted it,” Ocean whispers. “This can’t be, Shane. I called the medical center. I called…”
“There’s no such center,” Shane says.
Ocean’s arm tightens around me. “Fuck.” We exchange a glance. “We need to go. Now. I hope Mom didn’t pass him the money I gave her yesterday.”
Grimly, I nod, and we climb back into our car. I should be glad. I should be frigging ecstatic that Ocean didn’t race, that he’s okay—and I am.
But the bad feeling is back, and it’s not going away.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Ocean
My head is spinning. I raced against death, I almost drove Kayla away, and I’ve given all my money to a conman?
Fuck.
Does that mean Mom isn’t sick? Or at least that the diagnosis is wrong? What does that mean for her? We’ll need to get another doctor, a real one this time, to have a look at her.
Which means more costs, goddammit. I drop my head in my hands and struggle not to howl in frustration.
A hand lands on my shoulder, startling the fuck out of me. “Breathe,” Raine says. “We’ll get to the bottom of this. I told you I don’t fucking trust them.”
“That’s because you’re a bitter motherfucker,” I tell him. Hey, I’m pissed as all hell right now, pissed and anxious, and he’s not helping.
“And you’re too damn trusting.”
I press my thumbs into my eyes. “This isn’t Mom’s fault.”
He says nothing. His hand disappears from my shoulder, and I stare outside, at the gray day. The trailer park isn’t far. Kayla parks at the usual spot, and I spill out of the car, striding into the park and heading for my folks’ trailer, vaguely aware of Kayla and Raine following me.
My heartbeat is so loud it’s drowning out every other sound.
Something’s off. It takes me longer than normal to realize. As I turn toward my folks’ trailer, I notice it’s dark and closed, the windows shuttered.
What the fuck?
“Blue. Hey. Over here.”
I turn to find Floyd seated on his porch, like always. The contrast between the familiarity of him on his porch and the dark, shuttered trailer of my folks throws the world into a spin, and I have to keep my knees from buckling.
“Floyd.”
“Your folks left,” he says, and his words make no fucking sense.
I repeat them inside my head—your folks left, your folks left—and I shake my head, hoping that will help.
“What do you mean? When?”
“A couple of hours ago. They had a huge-ass suitcase on rollers. A cab came and picked them up.”
“I don’t… This…” I don’t understand.
This can’t be.
“Come here.” When I don’t move, he gets up, climbs down the steps and limps over to me. He grabs my arm and hauls me to his porch, pushes me down on the steps. “You okay?”
“No.” I suck in an unsteady breath. Behind Floyd I see people gathering—not the people of the park, but Kayla, Raine, Ev, Shane, everyone else.
“Boy, did you give that doctor fellow any money?” Floyd asks, leaning over me. “Or your parents?”
Breathing is failing. “Yeah, I did.”
“Shit. Was it a lot?” When I don’t reply, he curses. “Listen, boy. This ain’t an easy thing to say, but here goes.” His brow wrinkles. “Your mother looked just fine when she walked out. And in the cab that drove up here to pick them up was that doctor fellow who came here a few times. I think… yeah, I think your folks set this up. To take your money.”
I bend over, trying to breathe. The truth is like a kick to the chest. “No.”
Someone sits beside me, and Kayla’s fruity scent hits me just as her arms wrap around me. “Hey.”
“Told you I didn’t trust our folks,” Raine says, kicking at a stone. “People don’t change.”
“They just took off?” Ev asks. “Do you know where?”
“We’ll find them,” Tyler says.
“No.” I look up, not really seeing anything. “No.”
“You don’t want to find them?” Raine huffs. “Get your money back?”
“I don’t,” I start and have to stop and start again, my lungs not getting enough air. “I don’t want to see them again.”
“Ocean…” Kayla strokes me hair. “Blue. Breathe.”
“Fuck them,” I say. “Fuck them for this. And for everything. For hurting Raine. For making me give him away. I’ll never forgive them. I’ll…”
“Shh.” Kayla wipes at my cheeks with her hands, and dammit, I don’t know what’s going on and why everyone is staring at me.
“Dammit, Shun,” Raine finally mutters and leans down, wraps an arm around me and lifts me to my feet. “Come on. We’re going home.”
Kayla slips her arm around my hips and smiles up at me, a small, watery smile. “Ready?” she asks.
“If you’re coming with,” I whisper, my voice raspy.
“There’s nowhere else I’d rather be,” she tells me, and despite the fact the world’s still tilting, off axis, that’s all I want.
To go home with my brother and the girl I love.
***
The medical center doesn’t exist. The doctor is a fake, as was his receptionist. My mom wasn’t really sick. I have no fucking clue what suddenly clicked in her mind, and she decided I could be used as a damn ATM.
Maybe my dad got into more debt than usual, and they concocted this plan together? Maybe she decided she was fed up with living in a trailer?
How long had they been planning this? Was it Mom’s idea, or did she just play along? Where did they go?
I want to hate her for this. For breaking my trust. For taking my money and leaving me to figure this out alone.
But I’m not alone. Raine is here. My friends are here. And Kayla is here, right here by my side. Oh, sure, I’m mad. I’m flaming pissed. But I can’t hate Mom. She’ll never know what real love is, while I’m surrounded by it.
And I grin as Zane lifts his tattoo gun and waggles his brows at me. “Ready, fucker?”
“As ready as ever.”
“It’s a good sting,” Shane tells me, poking his head into Zane’s cubicle. “You’re
the last one to get the dragon tat, so suck it up, man.”
“Last one for now. Who’s to tell Z-man here won’t decide to bring in more people into the Brotherhood?”
“Nah. I’m good.” Zane drags his stool closer and starts inking the dragon on my back. “Don’t need more of you fuckers driving me insane. Man needs some peace.”
“Do I get a dragon?” Kayla asks, turning from her perusal of Zane’s drawings on the walls of the cubicle to grin at me.
“Depends,” Zane grunts. “What did your parents do to you?”
“They’re homophobes. And hate tattoos.”
Zane whistles. “They sound like assholes. I could ink a dragonfly on you, if you want.”
“They’re not bad enough, huh?”
“Be glad, Kay,” I whisper.
“I am,” she whispers back and smiles at me.
I close my eyes as he moves the tattoo gun over my skin, the pain lulling me. Shane is right, it’s a good pain, and it reminds me I’m officially part of the Brotherhood now.
“I want you to ink me,” Kayla says inches from my face and blink. “You, Ocean.”
Her eyes are sparkling.
“Oh yeah?” The thought has my dick hardening, and I shift uncomfortable on the chair. “With that?”
“Something blue,” she says, brushes her mouth over mine and straightens, wandering back to the drawings.
Zane laughs. “That was awfully specific.”
“Wasn’t it?” She smirks. “No racing cars, though. And no parts of things. I want a whole drawing.”
“Demanding today, aren’t we?” I grumble as Zane keeps laughing and inking my back.
“You never really explained why you only draw parts of things,” she says.
“Because love was broken,” I whisper. “I was trying to put it back together and failing every single time. But I’d draw you, Kay. The whole of you. You put love back together. You put me back together so I could love you.”
The tattoo gun stops moving. It’s silent.
I open my eyes, confused as to what happened, and Kayla grabs my face and gives me a deep kiss, with tongue and teeth, that shoots sparks of pleasure down my spine and makes me moan.
“Well, well,” Zane drawls as he puts the gun back to my skin. “Didn’t know you were a fucking poet, Ocean Storm.”
I have no clue what he’s talking about, but Kayla is still smiling at me, her eyes hidden, so everything in the world seems fine to me.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Kayla
“So Mom showed up at Allie’s place and took her away,” Wyatt is saying, holding on to the hand of a slender girl who looks painfully shy. “And told her that we don’t care what the neighbors say, if a guy beats us, we report him to the police and get the hell out of Dodge.”
“That what she said? Verbatim?” Ocean grins from where he’s opening a bottle of wine. We are at his apartment, and Wyatt is visiting with his girlfriend. She’s willowy and super pretty, with big dark eyes and long black hair. Plus she’s wearing a long beige dress and a crazy knitted necklace, and she even has a tattoo of a phoenix-like bird I’m dying to ask her about.
She’s polite, smiles a lot, and seems to worship my brother. All in all, what’s there not to like?
“No, man. But that’s the gist.” Wyatt grins back, and when Ocean turns his back, mouths at me, “Good choice!”
I snicker and bend to pet the two plants I’ve placed by the window of the living room. I brought them over from my apartment, and I hope they’ll survive the heat. Ocean named them Dom and Brian after the protagonists of The Fast and the Furious.
Big surprise.
“What?” Ocean carries the bottle and wine glasses to the dining table. “What did I miss?”
“Wyatt says you suck, and he’ll never approve of you and me together.”
“That right?”
Wyatt nods vigorously, his face a mask of innocence.
“Then we’ll have to elope,” Ocean says and grins at me before going back into the kitchenette where Raine is puttering about.
Wyatt’s girlfriend—Grace—excuses herself to the bathroom, and Wyatt pounces on me.
“So do you like her? Kay, say something.”
“She’s nice. And cute. Well done, Wyatt.”
He smiles widely. “Ocean is a cool guy, too. I like him.”
“Thank you, Wyatt. Don’t sound so shocked. I do have a good taste in people.”
He sticks out his tongue at me.
“I doubt Mom and Dad will be thrilled. He’s not a doctor or a lawyer.”
“Screw them,” Wyatt says cheerfully. “Listen, if our parents don’t approve, hey, they’ll eventually come around. And if they don’t… who cares as long as I approve, right?”
“Brat.”
I’m so lucky, I can hardly believe it, with my great siblings, and great friends—even more so when Raine and Ocean come out of the kitchenette, carrying a platter of glazed ribs and a bowl of potato salad, both handsome and smiling and happy.
I haven’t looked at my Tarot cards in so long I don’t even know where I left them, and the only thing I’ve learned from Ocean’s palms is that they feel good on my skin.
He feels good everywhere. And his smile is the best sight in the whole world.
***
The night sky is clear. Despite the city lights, I make out a few twinkling stars.
Then strong arms come around me, pulling against an equally strong body, and his breath ruffles my hair.
“Hey, baby.” His hands slip under the oversized T-shirt I’m wearing—one of his, naturally—and glide up my naked belly. “What are you doing up? It’s past midnight.”
“Just thinking.”
“About?” His hands slide higher, find my boobs and stroke them.
I gasp. “My sister. And my brother. How different they grew up to be. How our parents don’t necessarily make us into who we are.”
“Thank God for that,” he whispers fervently.
I turn around in his arms. I trace his lips. So full and soft in a face made of straight lines and sharp angles. “Do you remember that night I was drunk and you carried me home?”
He grins. “Are you fucking kidding me? I jacked off to the memory of you in my arms for a week straight.”
I fight a smile. “Well, remember you said Jesse tricked you? That he told you I wanted you to take me home? And I said no?” I wait for his nod before going on. “He didn’t lie. He’d asked me one time we all went out together, who I’d trust to take you home if anything happened. And I said Ocean. Without any hesitation. I knew already I trusted you with my life.”
He dips his head, his breath washing over my lips, warm and minty. “I like that. God, you have no idea how much I like that.”
His cock is hard, pressing between us. I guess I have a good idea of how much he likes it.
“And what are you going to do about it?” I roll my hips a little, and he grunts, his mouth going slack.
I love that I have that effect on him.
“I’m gonna eat that sweet pussy of yours,” he says, “and then I’m gonna sink inside you as deep as I can go, and you’re gonna make some noise.”
“Am I now?”
“Yeah. But first…” He licks his lips and I lean in, mesmerized. “First I’m gonna kiss you.”
He backs me up against the wall and I inhale, bracing for our usual near-violent encounter. Don’t get me wrong, I love it. Love everything he gives me.
But he brushes his lips over mine, once, twice. Then again. This kiss is soft and sweet and slow, an infinity of a kiss, light like a cloud, warm like summer rain.
It breaks my heart and puts it back together.
“Ocean?” I wet my throbbing lips with the tip of my tongue, try to marshal my scattering thoughts. It’s like trying to capture a flock of sparrows flying in every one direction. “I’ve made up my mind. I’d totally marry you and have your blue-eyed, blue-haired babies.”
He laughs. “Good to know.” He falls quiet. “I love you, Kay.”
My eyes sting.
“Kiss me again,” I whisper and sweep my mouth over his. “I want to touch you. See you. All of you.” And I’m not just talking about his awesome body. I want all that he is. I wonder if he knows it, if he hears it in my words. “Kay loves Blue.”
More than she ever thought possible.
Acknowledgments
This has been an amazing journey, and I have so many people I would like to thank for their help, advice, support and friendship.
Without the help of my wonderful editor this story wouldn’t be readable. Any remaining errors in the text are my fault as I tend to change things last minute.
Huge thanks to Nathalie Aynié for the constant help and support, and for the brainstorming sessions. She rocks bears in tutus! Big thank yous also to Amber Burning, Zelah Meyer and Ashley Paternostro.
Also huge thanks to Kia Zi Shiru for her support and help, and to 5t Times Formatting for the great formatting.
I also want to thank very much my author friends J.A. Beard and Jade West, and my PA Tracy Smith Comeford for their support.
Huge thanks to two ladies: to Leah Joslin who has co-written with me the openings of Parts I, II, and III of this book and discussed with me loads of aspects of my stories – and to Kerry Fletcher who is head of my street team and does wonders. Thank you for also for leading my readers group and making Facebook such a fun place to be.
Also hugs to Stephanie Witter, Alison Foster, Lilian Flesher, Emma Parrott, Catherine Bibby, Lainey Da Silva, Michelle McGinty, Lisa Anderson and Erin Beth Zehm for their enthusiasm and friendship. I am sure I am forgetting loads of people who have been amazingly nice to me.
Many thanks to my great reader and review teams for their amazing energy and commitment—love you ladies!—and to all the bloggers and reviewers who send me messages asking to feature my books and spread the word. I owe you.
Finally I want to thank my readers. Your messages, emails and Facebook posts telling me how much you like my stories motivate me, keep me writing and put a smile on my face. You are all amazing and I love you all.