Endgame: An Ocean Bay standalone novel

by Chloe Walsh

  If Coach found out I was eating this stuff, he’d throw a fit, but Six had perked up the moment the yellow M had come into sight.

  “Britt is a girl,” I finally said.

  That was all I was willing to say. Britt and I had a very complicated past. She was a touchy subject for me and I didn’t want to expose myself any further to the girl sitting beside me. It felt like Six already knew too much. I felt exposed around her and it fucked with my head.

  “Well duh!” She took a bite of a chicken nugget and smirked. “Elaborate, please.”

  “Okay. Britt is a girl I occasionally fuck.” I turned to her and smiled. “Better?”

  “Not really,” she whispered, dropping her half-eaten nugget back in its box. “Yuck.”

  “Yuck.” I snickered and took a bite of my burger.

  “The way the guys were talking, they seemed to think there was more between you and her?”

  The guys needed to mind their fucking business. Shaking my head, I muttered, “It’s just sex, Six. No biggie.”

  “So, you use her?” she asked flatly. “For sex? Ugh. That’s disgusting.”

  “What do you want me to say?” I shot back heatedly, unwilling to go there with her. Besides, she had no fucking clue. “You want me to make up some bullshit story and romanticize the situation? Tell you I fuck her because I love her?” I shook my head and sighed, annoyed at myself for losing my temper again.

  “That would be nice,” she shot back. “It would make you sound like less of a jerk.”

  I rolled my eyes. “I fuck her because she gives me what I need, when I need it.”

  “Do you love her?”

  It was a very good question. One I’d been asking myself for a long time now. “That’s none of your business.”

  “Come on, Rourke,” Six argued, probing further into shit that had nothing to do with her. “It’s a simple question. You either love her or you don’t.”

  I loved her, and she broke me, and because of her, I doubt I’ll ever trust another female again for as long as I live. “I love her pussy,” I said instead.

  “You’re sick, Rourke, you know that?”

  “What fucking ever, Six.” I finished my burger and rolled the paper up in a ball before tossing it into the back seat. “And trust me, it works both ways. Britt uses me, too.”

  “I don’t want to hear anymore,” she muttered in a tone of disgust. “Hanging out with you was a mistake, Rourke. Just take me home.”

  A mistake?

  “Fine.” Cranking the engine, I tore out of the parking spot. “Fucking suit yourself.”

  It was the last time I’d make an effort with her.

  She could wipe her own damn tears next time.

  I was done.

  Mercedes

  BRITT IS A GIRL I FUCK.

  I willed the words Rourke had spoken not to be true even though I knew they very much were.

  It hurt me, knowing he slept with other girls. It shouldn’t; it wasn’t my place to feel anything for Rourke Owens, but when it came to him, my brain seemed to click off.

  Deep down inside, I had a feeling Rourke was a much better man than the one he pretended to be. But he just kept proving me wrong.

  Rourke didn’t speak a word to me the entire drive back to the house. Instead, he blasted some god-awful, heavy rock music and drove like a raging lunatic.

  He was mad at me. For asking questions and for being mad at him when he answered me honestly.

  I was mad right back at him.

  I was mad at Rourke for having this unwanted and infuriating power over my emotions.

  And I was mad at him for making me care.

  Rourke

  “HAVE YOU THOUGHT THIS through, Dad? How are you going to time manage your work and home life once the twins are born?” My fifteen-year-old sister was in the kitchen when me and Six walked back into the house.

  Amelia was giving our father a lecture on responsibility. If the situation wasn’t so sickening, I would have thought it comical.

  “I’m going to bed,” Six muttered before hurrying to the staircase.

  “Whatever,” I shot back, not looking at her. I was still feeling angry about the way she had dismissed me earlier. I’d been trying to cheer her up. It was the first and last fucking time I would go out of my way to help that girl.

  “Amelia,” Dad sighed, rubbing his jaw with his hand. “I raised you and Rourke on my own just fine. I’m sure I can manage another two.”

  I snorted.

  He didn’t raise us.

  Our housekeeper fucking raised us.

  Our father simply funded us.

  Asshole.

  “Have you got something you’d like to say, Rourke?” Dad snapped, clearly hearing my reaction.

  “Nope,” I replied as I walked into the kitchen and grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl on the counter. “Not a thing.” I wasn’t getting involved in this. Dad knew what I thought of the situation; it was a fucking mess. I wasn’t giving him an excuse to blow up on me. I didn’t need the hassle.

  “I know money isn’t an issue,” Amelia continued to say, “But babies? They take up time, Dad. A lot of time.” Shrugging she added, “Have you thought about hiring someone to help you and Cass when they’re born? I presume you’ll take a couple of weeks’ paternity leave, but what happens when you go back to work? How is she supposed to cope on her own with two babies? Especially since she’ll have to have an elective C-section. Mercedes was born by emergency section, you know. That kind of surgery takes weeks to heal from.”

  “Wait, what?” Dad held his hand up. “How do you even know this stuff?”

  Amelia gaped at him in bewilderment. “Maybe because I ask questions and actually listen to the answers people give me.” She frowned and crossed her arms. “Come on, Dad, this is information you’re supposed to know.”

  Dad looked affronted, and a little nauseous, as he stared at my sister. “Look,” he finally said. “Cass and I leave in the morning for a couple of weeks. I promise you I’ll read up on all the baby stuff then, okay?”

  Seemingly mollified, Amelia nodded. “Okay. Night, Dad. I love you. Have a safe trip.”

  “I love you too, sweetheart,” he called out after my sister as she retreated to her room.

  “What? No I love you, Rourke?” Folding my arms across my chest, I cocked a brow and smirked. “Talk about favoritism.”

  Dad smirked. “Like you would believe me if I told you.”

  It would still be nice to fucking hear it,

  “So, you guys are leaving tomorrow?”

  Dad nodded. “First thing in the morning, and I’m counting on you to take care of your sisters while I’m gone.”

  I stiffened. “She’s not my sister.” How many goddamn times…

  “Fine. My wife’s daughter.” Dad waved a hand wearily. “Better?”

  I nodded. It was better. Slightly.

  “Fran will be popping in and out to check in on you guys while we’re away –and Sergio, too. And look, I know Mercedes has a prickly personality and you two butt heads,” Dad added slowly, obviously choosing his words carefully. “But she’s not as tough as she makes out to be.”

  “She’s not?” I laughed. “Could’ve fooled me.”

  “Please, Rourke.” Sighing, Dad ran a hand through his hair and sighed. “Just… just look after her, okay? Make her feel welcome at school on Monday and try and keep her out of trouble? At least until me and her momma get back.”

  Dad must have smoked some strong shit if he thought Six needed my protection.

  Girl had steel in her veins.

  “I’m not making any promises,” I finally replied. I couldn’t.

  Six was uncontrollable and I lost control around her.

  Together, we were a bad fucking combination.

  Rourke

  AFTER MY TALK WITH my father, I was still feeling riled up over the incident with Six and in no mood for sleep.

  Deciding I needed to cool myself down, I
stripped off and went for a swim. Forty lengths of the pool usually helped ebb the tension in my body. But not tonight. Not with the image of Six’s face weighing heavily on my conscience.

  Fuck, why did I even care?

  She wasn’t my problem and I sure as shit didn’t need another girl to take care of. Especially since I’d done such a piss poor job protecting Millie from the monster in our home. Josh Trident’s face entered my mind and I balked.

  “Fuck!”

  Refusing to drive myself crazy by thinking about that piece of shit, I shook my head and climbed out of the pool, deciding to hunt down the other girl in my life right now as a distraction.

  A weird feeling came over me when I reached her bedroom door, one I wasn’t familiar with, and I quickly shook it off before knocking on her door.

  Nothing.

  She must have had her television on because I could hear the low hum coming from behind her door.

  I knocked again; harder this time.

  Again, nothing.

  Feeling unreasonably annoyed at the prospect of being ignored, I tried the handle.

  It was locked.

  “Six?” Banging the palm of my hand against the door once more, I pressed my ear to the door. “Open up.”

  A minute or so later, the door jerked inwards.

  Holding onto the front of the towel she had wrapped around her otherwise naked body, Six angled herself so her lower half was hidden behind the doorframe.

  “What?” she asked, cheeks flushed, as she looked up at me with a hardened expression.

  “You never thanked me for dinner.” It was possibly the lamest thing I could have said, but my words weren’t coming to me. I’d been struck fucking dumb by the sight of my stepsister in a towel. Clenching my eyes shut, I shook my head and tried again. “The chicken nuggets?” Oh, much better, dipshit… “Did you enjoy them?”

  “Are you on medication?” Her grey eyes bugged in her head as she gaped up at me. “We just had a fight earlier and now you’re asking if I enjoyed dinner?”

  Yeah, I had no answer for her.

  She was right; I probably needed some medication, but I wasn’t about to tell her that.

  Instead, I folded my arms across my chest and met her indignant glare with one of my own. “It’s customary to thank someone when they buy you dinner, Six.”

  She cocked a brow. “Fine. Thank you for buying me dinner, Rourke.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  “Uh-huh. Okay By-bye now.”

  “Wait,” I called out, blocking her from closing the door.

  Why the fuck did I block her from closing the door?

  She looked up at me impatiently. “Yes?”

  “Are you working tomorrow?”

  “Yes.”

  “Yes?”

  “That’s right, Rourke. Yes.”

  “What time?”

  “Omigod, will you just go away!”

  “Why?”

  “Because I’m busy, okay?”

  “What exactly are you doing in there?”

  Six flushed bright red. “Nothing.”

  “Then why are you blushing?”

  “I’m not blushing!” she denied quickly – too quickly. Her voice was an octave higher, too, and her pulse? It was fluttering in her neck.

  “Liar,” I taunted, leaning a hip against the door frame. “Tell me.”

  “I don’t have to tell you anything,” Six shot back, growing more flustered by the second. “We hate each other, remember? We don’t do civilized conversation.”

  I grinned. I’d seen that expression before. It was the one girls usually wore when I was balls deep inside them. “You’re fucking yourself.”

  “What?” she half-screamed, half choked out. “I am not!”

  My grin widened.

  She so was.

  Unable to stop myself, I slipped through the crack in the door and walked straight over to her bed; ignoring her protests along the way.

  “No, Rourke! Get out of here… Please. Get the hell out…”

  My eyes locked on her purple pal still vibrating around on her unmade bed and I threw my head back and laughed. “I knew it!”

  Reaching down, I grabbed the vibrator off the mattress and clicked the button. Immediately, the rubber dick starting spazzing out of control, the head jolting back and forth rampantly.

  “Fuck me, Six. I heard a humming sound, but I thought you were watching TV or drying your hair–”

  “Give me that,” Six hissed. Grabbing the vibrator out of my hand, she switched it off and stomped over to her nightstand before shoving it inside the top drawer.

  “Is this what you stole my condoms for?” I teased, laughing my ass off. “Because I think you’re safe.”

  “Get out of my room,” she screamed, red faced, as she stalked towards me, still clutching that tiny fucking towel. “Now, Rourke.”

  “Or what? You’ll set your dick on me? I need to know, Six; who do you visualize when you’re plunging that thing inside your pussy?”

  “It’s not funny,” she screamed, punching my chest with her tiny fist. “Stop laughing at me, you bastard.”

  Maybe it wasn’t, but I couldn’t stop laughing. “Come on, Six, you can tell me.”

  She opened her mouth to say something and then quickly closed it.

  “If you don’t tell me, I’m gonna presume it’s me,” I teased.

  Her face turned purple.

  “Is it me, Six?” I purred. “Do you fuck yourself with the rubber dick and pretend it’s me?”

  “I hate you, Rourke Owens,” she choked out, hiccupping. “You’re a piece of shit.”

  My laugher faded fast the moment I saw tears appear in her eyes.

  Shit.

  “What is this?” I gaped at her. “Are you seriously crying over this?”

  Was she cracking already?

  Over a rubber dick?

  Hell…

  “There’s no need to be so damn sensitive.” I scratched my head, feeling at a loss. “I think it’s hot.” I didn’t just think it; it was hot. The thought of Six working herself over with that vibrating dick made my own spring to life in my shorts. “I fuck myself too. Daily. It’s natural. No need to cry about it. Hell, if they sold vibrating hands, I’m pretty sure I’d use that, too –”

  “I’m crying because I’m frustrated, Rourke,” she shot back angrily, interrupting my attempt to console her. “Because you are driving me crazy.” Her towel slipped then, revealing one of her overly generous sized breasts. “And I don’t know how to deal with you!”

  Fuck me.

  “You blow hot and cold,” she continued to rant. “One minute, you’re treating me like I’m the shit beneath your shoes and the next, you’re making me breakfast! I don’t know where I stand with you at any given time and it’s driving me insane.”

  Fucking hell.

  Nipple. I could see her nipple. It was calling out to me.

  Immediately, I was hard as a fucking rock.

  “So, yes, Rourke,” she hissed out. “You frustrate me. Okay?”

  “Christ, Six,” I groaned when she didn’t move to cover herself up. “Are you trying to kill me?”

  She gaped at me. “What are you talking about?”

  Unable to stop myself, I reached out and cupped her breast. “If you don’t cover it up, I’m gonna assume you want me to put it in my mouth,” I growled, voice thick and gruff. Her breast was full and heavy and felt fucking perfect in my hand. “Which in my frame of mind, knowing you’ve just been fucking a rubber dick, I’m about two seconds away from doing.”

  This was a bad fucking idea.

  My heart was hammering in my chest.

  My brain was telling me this was fucking wrong, and my body was roaring don’t fucking stop.

  I wanted her.

  There, I finally admitted it to myself.

  I wanted Mercedes Owens more than I’d wanted my next breath and it wasn’t a spur of the moment thing either. I wanted my stepsister
from the moment I walked into that church and laid eyes on her. It was wrong and all fucked up, but there it was. I didn’t want to want her. I didn’t fucking want to like her, period. But she got under my skin.

  From the moment I saw her, standing next to her mother in that pretty red dress and sulky as fuck expression, I knew she was going to cause me problems…

  “Rourke,” she whispered, swaying a little, as I circled her nipple with my thumb. Immediately, her nipple hardened in my hand.

  Fuck.

  She actually wanted this.

  Eyes rolling back, Six moaned loudly and took a shaky step closer.

  To me.

  The towel had slipped to her waist now, giving me a perfect view of her full breasts. Christ, I’d never seen real ones this big. The girls I’d been with in the past that had tits as big as Six’s had all been enhanced with a shit ton of silicone.

  Losing my fucking mind, I hunched forward and pulled one erect nipple into my mouth as I continued to probe the other with my hand.

  “I…omigod!” Six cried out, clutching my shoulders to steady herself.

  Unsure of what to do, and knowing I couldn’t stop myself either way, I clamped my hands around that tiny fucking waist of hers and lifted her up, mouth still wrapped around her nipple.

  She came willingly, pliantly, wrapping her legs around my waist.

  Fucking perfect.

  “Get rid of it,” I instructed, voice gruff, still suckling on her nipple. Immediately, Six dragged the towel away from her body and tossed it on the floor.

  “Fuck me.” Pulling back, I dragged my teeth over my bottom lip as my eyes roamed over her naked body.

  She was perfect.

  Her body.

  Her breasts.

  Goddammit, she was curved to perfection.

  “What do you want, Six?” She needed to make a decision. She needed to initiate this. I wasn’t taking her without her full consent. She needed to prove to me this was what she wanted. This wouldn’t happen until I got that guarantee.

  “You,” she whispered, wrapping her arms around my neck. The only thing separating her naked body from mine were my shorts. “I want you, Rourke.”

  Goddamn…

  “Are you sure?” I pressed a kiss to her collarbone, moving my hand lower to feel that fucking peachy ass of hers. “One hundred percent?”