by Cotton, L A
She cast me a sideways glance and nodded.
“I didn’t want to go tonight. I don’t really want to do anything now Maverick is gone. Before you say it, I know it’s lame that I’m moping over him. He’s only a forty-minute ride away. It could be worse. But Maverick isn’t just my boyfriend, Kiera. He’s so much more.”
More than anyone would understand.
“I don’t think it’s lame.” Her lips curved a fraction. “I want that one day. He gets you, and you get him. You’ve both been through stuff and survived.”
“Yeah, we have,” I choked out. “Kyle loves you. His over-the-top-big-brother bullshit, it’s his way of showing you he cares. I wouldn’t worry about when he’s giving you a hard time over who you hang out with, or what you’re wearing. I’d worry when he isn’t.”
Kiera didn’t answer but I could see her mulling over my words.
“Listen, I didn’t want to go tonight but how about this. We’ll go, we’ll hang out, and who knows we might even have fun? Kyle will lighten up. He just needs a couple of beers and to get laid.”
“Whoa! Too much information.” Kiera’s eyes grew to saucers, and I laughed, slipping my arm through hers.
“If you’re going to be a part of this family, you need to get used to it. If you haven’t already noticed, your brother is head-over-heels in love.”
“Yeah, it’s kind of gross.” She shuddered and shirked out of my arm. But that was okay. I just wanted her to know I was here, and I meant everything I said. “Thanks, Lo. For everything.”
“Hey.” I smiled. “That’s what family is for.”
“Okay,” Kyle said from behind us. “Who’s ready to partay?” He sounded lighter but there was still a tightness to his words. He stopped in front of Kiera. “I was a dick. Laurie’s right, you look pretty, Sis.” He held out his hand. Kiera stared at it but then grabbed hold and let him pull her up. Hooking his arm around her neck, he steered her toward the Jeep. “You can have one beer. One.”
“Yes, Dad.”
“I’m totally going to slip her two. She deserves it after the way he acted,” Laurie whispered as she passed me and climbed upfront. I slipped in the back with Kiera, and Kyle was last. He hit the stereo and Imagine Dragons blasted out. Pressing my head against the window, I watched the scenery roll by. Looking out for Kiera tonight would give me a distraction from thinking about Maverick. He was at a party tonight too. A team party. Of course he’d told me not to worry, but the funny thing about someone telling you not to worry...
It only made you worry more.
LONNIE BREAKER’S HOUSE reminded me of Brendon Palmer’s. It was a big sprawling place that backed onto the beach. Since Brendon Palmer had moved to college, the team needed a new place to party and Lonnie’s house fit the description.
“Holy shit,” Kiera said as we made our way up the winding drive. “This is...”
“Something, right?”
“Yeah.” She nodded at me, eyes glittering with disbelief and wonder. Laurie and Kyle were walking ahead, hand-in-hand, whispering and laughing. It was vomit inducing, but I was glad to see he’d calmed down. When we reached the porch, he spun around and addressed the two of us. “Rule number one: don’t drink more than you can handle. Rule two: No guys. None, Kiera, I mean it.”
“Like that’s ever going to happen,” she grumbled under her breath as he went on, “Rule three: we arrived together, we’ll leave together. I’m drinking so we’ll have to walk home or get a cab. Unless Laurie wants to be designated—”
“I’ll do it,” Laurie said.
“You sure?” He cocked his eyebrow, and she shrugged.
“I’m not bothered about drinking.”
“If it makes you feel any better, I won’t drink either,” I said. It rarely ended well for me and the last thing I needed was to get wasted and have an emotional breakdown over Maverick. “We can be Dave tonight.”
“Dave?”
“Yeah, designated Dave, it’s what we say back in... never mind.”
Kyle gave me a funny look. “Okay, where were we? Drinks... guys... ah yes, no cat fights. Rumor has it Caitlin is coming to make peace. If she does, I don’t want you two,”—he looked between me and Laurie—“causing a scene. I’ll handle Caitlin, okay?”
“Fine,” I mumbled, and Laurie agreed too.
“Now can we please go inside and have fun?” She tugged his hand, but before we went inside he looked to me and then Kiera and said, “Please, don’t make me regret this.”
I glared at him and he ran a hand over his face and through his hair before following Laurie inside.
“Ready?” I turned to Kiera who looked a little green.
“I’m not sure I can—”
“It’s fine. You’ll be fine. If I can do it, so can you.” I held out my hand and raised a brow. On an exasperated breath, Kiera slid her hand into mine, surprising me, and we followed Kyle and Laurie into the house.
The place was crammed. After Kyle said hello to a few people he found us all drinks: a beer for him, a Bud light for Kiera, and a soda for me and Laurie. Then we wandered through the house out to the yard where most of the senior class, and a few juniors, were gathered.
“Stone is in the house,” someone called, and Kyle raised his beer in the air, keeping his arm tight around Laurie’s waist.
“And he brought fresh meat,” someone else yelled and the easy smile on my cousin’s face slipped, revealing a twisted snarl.
“Whoever the fuck just said that better start walking.”
“Kyle,” Laurie tried to reason with him, but he looked ready to hulk out. We’d only been here for five minutes and things were already going to shit.
“Watch your mouth,” a voice said from behind the gathered group. “That’s Prince’s girl you’re talking about, and Kyle’s sister. Show some goddamn respect.” Trey Berrick appeared, smacking one of Kyle’s teammates upside the head as he made his way over to us.
“Stone, I see you’re filling Rick’s shoes with no problem.” His gaze skirted over me but lingered on Kiera a little too long.
Thankfully, Kyle didn’t notice.
“Good to see you, man. How’s it going at UCLA?”
“Good.” Trey folded his arms over his chest. “It’s good. But it’s my mom’s birthday this weekend. She’s fifty. Dad’s throwing a big dinner tomorrow, so I made the trip back.”
“Nice.”
He shrugged. “What can I say? I’m a momma’s boy.” His cheeks colored as his eyes flicked to Kiera again. She was pretending not to listen. Her eyes anywhere but on Trey. But I saw her straighten when she felt his eyes linger in her direction.
“How’s Rick?” It was a question for me.
“He’s... Maverick.” I didn’t want to give too much away even though he and Maverick were good friends. Maverick preferred to keep things private, and I didn’t know how much they would stay in touch now they’d gone off to college.
“No need to say more.” Trey smirked. “Well, I’ll leave you guys to it. I just wanted to say hey. See you around, Stone. Laurie, Lo.” He hesitated, his eyes flickering in Kiera’s direction, and I wondered if he was going to acknowledge our fourth member or ignore her. So when he finally said, “It was nice seeing you again, Kiera,” his gaze lingering a little too long, I smiled to myself.
Hell had frozen over, but it seemed Trey Berrick had a crush.
Kyle frowned, watching as he wound through the crowd. I knew what he was thinking, and I knew how he felt about the idea of Kiera with anyone, let alone a guy two years her senior, and one of his and Maverick’s good friends. And Trey Berrick didn’t exactly have a stellar reputation around Wicked Bay.
But my cousin should have known by now that you couldn’t help who you liked. Sometimes you had no control over it. And even if you fought it, even if you told yourself it was wrong and couldn’t happen, chances were, you would lose eventually.
Chapter 17
Maverick
BEER IN HAND, I STO
OD in the yard of the Delta Pi house watching. Learning. Storing away my teammates quirks and traits.
It had been a long week. After the meeting on Tuesday with Coach Baxter and his training staff, we were all issued with a conditioning program by none other than our team captain and narcissistic asshat, Zac Lowell. Just doing his bit for his team.
What a fucking joke.
He played his part well though. Morphing into someone else around Coach. It was a total cringe fest watching him kiss his ass as we all sat there. Awaiting our fate. We couldn’t officially start training with Coach and the training staff until the end of the month, but Zac’s proposed program put us in the gym three times a week and then we had conditioning drills twice a week. Of course, no one argued. SU was a Division 1 school. Its athletic department competed against some of best teams in the country, and that came at a heavy price.
You didn’t get to be the best without sacrifice and I was used to intense training programs in high school. But this was going to be on a whole other level. And with Zac running the show, one slip up could cost you. So all week, I’d kept my head down, worked hard in class and pushed myself hard in our training sessions. And Zac had eased off. But I hadn’t forgotten my outstanding punishment, and unlike Kawinski—who had been running his mouth off to some of the other guys about how we’d escaped the wrath of our captain—I wasn’t stupid enough to think Zac had forgotten.
“Come on, Maverick, you’re killing me here,” Darnell shoulder checked me, and my head snapped up to meet his. He shook his head at the frown painted on my face. “I’m just saying, if we’re expected to keep attending these things, shouldn’t we at least try to have fun?”
“This is not my idea of fun.” Not in the least.
“Jesus, you need to get laid.”
“Really?” I said incredulously. “You want to go there?”
“Shit, sorry, that was a shitty thing to say. I know it’s tough with Lo there and you here. But life has to go on, man. It’s not healthy to be so all up in each other.”
“You wouldn’t understand,” I said running a hand down my face.
Fuck, sometimes I didn’t understand. Understand how she’d buried herself so deep. How one day, Lo became the center of my universe. But she was. And I didn’t want to change a damn thing about it.
I needed her.
We needed each other.
I just wished the situation was easier.
On both of us.
“Try me,” Darnell said.
“Maybe another time.” I shut the conversation down. I didn’t want to talk about Lo when she wasn’t here. Talking about her only made me miss her more, and I was about one conversation about her away from getting in my Audi and driving back to Wicked Bay.
“At least Kawinski’s having fun.” I tilted my bottle toward the group over by the hot tub. One of the senior players had a beer bong funnel over Kawinski who was chugging down whatever concoction they’d created for him to drink.
“It’s like he wants to end up passed out in a pile of his own piss.” Darnell frowned. “Someone needs to stop them.”
“Are you going to?” I challenged.
“You’re right,” he grumbled. “This isn’t fun.”
“What’s happening?” Jamie and Jonas appeared with more beers, but I declined. I didn’t intend on dropping my guard even for a second. Zac hadn’t paid me any attention since I arrived, but the guy was Jekyll and Hyde. I didn’t want to poke the beast.
“Kawinski is heading down a one-way street to pissville.” Darnell deadpanned causing Jonas to spray his mouthful of beer into the air.
“Shit, D, say it how it is.”
Darnell shrugged. “It’s not going to end well. It’s like he’s totally forgotten what happened in the test.”
Not possible.
His new nickname amongst Zac and the senior players was Pissinski. You didn’t just wake up and forget that. I knew guys like Kawinski. They wanted to fit in, to be one of the popular crowd. Even if he had to suffer repeated humiliation to get there. Some people would rather get shit all over if it meant in the end they got to hang at the cool table.
Not me.
Back in high school, I’d been head of the cool table. But I didn’t abuse my position, and I never treated people the way Zac Lowell did. Sure, I didn’t spread the warm and fuzzies either, but that’s because I didn’t ask to be put on a pedestal by my peers. I just wanted to survive classes and play basketball. The rest was inconsequential.
As I watched Kawinski lap up the attention, grinning like a fool as the senior players high-fived him, unaware they were laughing behind his back, I rubbed my jaw. Maybe we weren’t that different, after all. We both wanted to play basketball. To survive Zac’s initiation.
We just had very different ways of going about it.
AT SOME POINT DURING the night, we moved into the kitchen. Some of the guys were playing beer pong on the island in the middle of the house’s huge kitchen. It still wasn’t my idea of fun, but it beat watching Zac and his guys humiliate Kawinski.
I checked my cell phone, fighting a smile when I saw her name. Lo was at a party with Kyle and Laurie but she’d texted me.
Lo: Is it wrong I think Kiera is my new favourite?
I leaned against the counter and texted back.
Me: I thought I was your favorite?
Lo: You don’t count
Me: I don’t?
Lo: I love you. I don’t love Kiera or Kyle. Well, Kyle a little bit. But only in a way that someone loves their pet
Me: Did you just call Kyle your pet? Are you drunk?
Lo: I had like one beer.
Me: I wish you were here
I glanced up. Jamie and Jonas were playing now. Darnell and a couple of guys laughing from the sidelines. His eyes slid to mine, and he tipped his head. You okay?
I nodded back. Yeah.
I had a serious case of blue balls and a permanent ache in my chest, but I was okay.
When Zac and the others burst through the back door though, and he declared, “Let’s move this to the basement,” my senses went on high alert. I’d known the party was a front. An excuse to get us all in one place. Which only spelled one thing.
Trouble.
THE BASEMENT WAS CRAMMED, guys and girls lining the walls, their attention focused on the center of the room where Zac stood like a smug fucking King ready to deliver a royal decree on his loyal subjects.
“This doesn’t look good,” Darnell said in a low voice as we found a space on the edge of the gathered crowd. He folded his arms over his chest and I had to smirk at our similarities because when I looked down, I’d done the same without even realizing.
“Welcome, friends. Players. Ladies.” Zac smirked, throwing serious fuck-me-eyes toward a petite blonde over by the wall. “Tonight, we have something special lined up.”
“Vinnie, Balor, bring him in.”
Everyone craned their heads to see what Zac was talking about, but I knew. The pieces had slowly been falling into place all night. Them taking Kawinski under their wing. The passive-aggressive drinking games. It was all leading to this.
“Ah, there he is. Pissinski, get over here.” Fat chance of that, the guy could barely stand, his limp body wedged between Vinnie and Balor. They shoved him forward, and he went down onto his knees like a ragdoll.
“Shit man, wha was int that be-heer.”
A low rumble of snickers filled the room.
“Jesus.” Darnell rubbed his jaw. “He’s wasted.”
Zac and Mac hoisted Kawinski to his feet. “For those of you who don’t know, our good friend Sam Kawinski had himself a little accident in class, isn’t that right, buddy?”
Kawinski’s head sagged off his shoulders as he tried to reply, drool trickling out of the corner of his mouth.
“What was that?” Zac leaned in. “You think it might happen again? Someone get the guy a diaper, quick.”
Someone handed Zac a full-grown diaper and between
the two of them they managed to wrestle Kawinski out of his cargo shorts and into the giant white pants. “Much better. Now, what do we do with toddlers when they’ve been naughty?”
“Put them on time out,” someone yelled.
“Take away their toys,” another called.
“All valid options,” Zac mused. “But in Delta Pi we like to do things a little differently.” He leaned behind him, taking something from someone. When my eyes landed on the gloves, my spine straightened.
“Fuck,” Darnell breathed out.
We both watched as Zac and Balor fitted the gloves onto Kawinski’s hands.
“This is twisted. They’re not going to let him fight like that.” Darnell stepped forward, but I stuck my arm out in front of him.
“In this house, my house,” Zac’s voice reverberated around the basement. “When you screw up, you have to own that shit. You have to be prepared to take your punishment like a man.”
“Vinnie, if you will.” He motioned for the six-foot-four giant to come into the circle. “This, friends, is what we like to call Last Man Standing. Five minutes on the clock, no holds barred, last man standing wins.”
The crowd grew hungry. Cheering. Chanting. It rippled in the air fueling the moment, giving it credence. And someone had to put an end to it. Kawinski wouldn’t last two seconds against Vinnie. But something told me Zac already knew that. In fact, he probably banked on it. This wasn’t about beating the shit out of a half-cut guy, it was about luring me into the game.
The second I stepped forward, Darnell hissed, “What the fuck, Maverick?” But it was too late. I wasn’t about to watch an innocent guy—my teammate—take my punishment. Because that’s what this was. The humiliation and giant diaper, that was all for Kawinski. But Last Man Standing was all for me.
“Stop,” I shouted, bursting through the crudely formed circle.
“Prince, how nice of you to join us.” The glint in Zac’s eye, the smug satisfaction plastered on his face, told me all I needed to know.