The Fight In Us: A Brother's Best Friend College Romance (The Four Book 4)

by Becca Steele

  Precautions. Just as Promethium had drummed into me.

  Switching on the torch, I took a moment to get my bearings, then angled my head around so the light shone into the corners. The part of the lorry I was in was stacked with boxes, so I moved deeper inside, following the noises of animals in distress.

  There.

  A pair of eyes stared out of the bars of a large dog carrier. I watched as the dog lunged for the bars, snapping and snarling. There was already a large smear of blood on the outside of the carrier, and I steeled myself against the sight. I knew I normally came across as confident and able to handle shit, but I’d never lose the sick feeling that bubbled up inside me every time I saw an animal suffering.

  I filmed as much as I could, taking care to show the signs of distress, and the chalk markings that denoted which dogs were which—names followed by codes: Gr Ch, Ch, and so on, which showed how valuable they were based on the number of fights they’d won. Then there were the cages with the dogs that had already seemed to give up hope—those destined for the death matches. None of those would survive for long.

  Once I’d got all the footage I needed, I slowly made my way back to the exit of the lorry, pausing at the top of the ramp when voices reached my ears. Quickly, I flattened myself against the side, keeping back and waiting to see what would happen.

  “Do you have the money?” That was Jaroslaw speaking.

  Portia was the one to answer, her voice all faux sweet. I nearly gagged. “Of course.”

  Inching forwards, I was able to see her placing her hand on his arm, while Martin kept his arm clenched around her waist. “We are discounting the buyers for the inconvenience. This is your mistake, so we will deduct 20 percent from your payment.”

  “No!” His rebuttal was swift and sharp.

  “I’m afraid so,” Martin chipped in, with the poorest attempt at a regretful expression I’d ever seen.

  Jaroslaw stepped forwards, bristling, and I leaned further out from the side of the lorry so I could get a better view.

  At the same time, Portia raised her head and her eyes met mine.

  Horror filled her gaze.

  And then she screamed.

  FORTY-THREE

  The scream reverberated around the area, making everyone freeze. Then there was a loud, masculine shout, and I was gone. Thrusting the drone controls at Winter, I scaled the crates, jumping off the other side and landing heavily on the cracked concrete. I made a run for the warehouse, uncaring about the need to be cautious. The only thing that mattered was getting to Lena.

  From behind me I heard a shout, but I paid it no attention, running headlong straight into the warehouse. My eyes took everything in an instant—a screaming Portia pointing a finger up the ramp, Jaroslaw Milosz leaping inside, and Martin Smith being completely fucking useless and just standing there, opening and closing his mouth like a fish.

  I had no plan, no weapon. All I knew, based on the information my brain had processed as I entered the warehouse, was that Lena was inside that lorry.

  My feet pounded up the ramp, and I leapt inside.

  “Lena?”

  “Stay there.” Her voice seemed to echo around us. She fell silent, and I listened. The dogs were getting louder, frenzied, and it was impossible to hear anything else. Then, she was there, next to me, Jaroslaw hot on her heels. “Go!” she shouted, taking a running jump off the ramp and dropping into a forward roll.

  So fucking hot.

  Then Jaroslaw was on me, and he took me down with him. We rolled down the ramp, grappling with each other. Yeah, I could fight, but it wasn’t like I was a trained ninja or anything.

  What I did know was how to fight dirty. Bringing my head back, I slammed it into his nose as hard as I could. There was a loud crunch, and blood began pouring from his nose. He screamed, a combination of pain and rage, and twisted us both, knocking us off the side of the ramp. My shoulder slammed into the sharp metal edge, and the sudden pain made me lose focus. I landed on my back with a jarring impact, my head smacking into the floor.

  Dazed, I watched as a savage Lena came up behind Jaroslaw, swinging a thick, heavy chain in her hands. She launched herself onto his back, wrapping the chain around his throat and yanking, hard. A gagging sound came from his throat as blood continued to spurt from his nose, and as she kept up the pressure, his struggles slowed until he fell limp, still breathing but unconscious.

  “West!” Lena was suddenly in front of me, cradling my face in her hands. “Are you okay?”

  ‘Y-yeah,” I croaked out. “Are you?” I reached up to touch the side of her face, to reassure myself she was still here with me.

  She smiled, a smile of relief, tears gathering in her eyes. “I’m okay.”

  I struggled into a sitting position, ignoring my pounding head and throbbing arm. “Come here.”

  She crawled into my lap, her body shaking, and I held her tightly. Right then, I knew exactly how much she meant to me.

  “It’s probably the wrong time to tell you this.” I buried my face in her shoulder. “But I want you to know that I love you.”

  “What?” Drawing back from me, she stared at me, her eyes wide. “Say that again? Because I think I misheard you.”

  “I said…” Stroking my thumb down her cheek, I met her gaze. “I said that I love you.”

  “You do?” Her voice was unsure, yet so full of hope that it made me smile.

  “Yes I fucking do. It’s okay if—”

  She shut me up with a finger to my lips, a smile breaking out over her face. “Oh, Weston. Don’t you know? I’ve loved you since I was eight years old. It just took you a while to catch up with me.”

  While we’d been busy with Jaroslaw Milosz, the others had not only managed to incapacitate Martin Smith and Portia, but a tearful Portia was busy confessing everything to anyone and everyone who’d listen, clearly afraid of the threat of arrest. The buyers never showed, most likely scared well away by the police presence, thanks to Winter’s call to my dad. He in turn had called in one of his detective friends, who was liaising with the RSPCA to take care of the dogs, while the police dealt with Martin and Portia.

  When my dad had shown up, he had a look of resignation in his eyes as he saw me seated on an upturned crate, covered in Jaroslaw Milosz’s blood while Lena tended to the cut on my arm courtesy of the first aid kit that had been stashed in Cassius’ SUV. He came and sat on the crate next to me, waiting until Lena had finished cleaning my wound.

  “It’s just a scrape,” she told me, pressing a kiss to my shoulder. Her eyes went from me to my dad, and she nodded. “I’m just gonna check on my brother.”

  “Thanks. For, y’know.” I squeezed her hand, then lifted it to my lips. She smiled, then disappeared, leaving me with my dad.

  “You can say it.” I waited, fully prepared for him to come down hard on me.

  “I’m proud of you, Weston.” He squeezed my uninjured shoulder. “So proud of you. Don’t you forget it.” Then he stood, leaving me gaping at him.

  Before he left, he looked down at me, a small smile tugging at the corners of his lips. “Bring Lena over for dinner next week.” It wasn’t a question.

  “Uh. Yeah. I will. Thanks, Dad.”

  With one last parting smile, he went off to talk with his detective friend.

  One by one, the others drifted over, once the detective had spoken to each of us. First Winter, then Zayde and Caiden, then Cassius, and finally, my girlfriend. We’d agreed to turn over the evidence we had—while they couldn’t use the illegal evidence in court, our footage from both tonight and the dog fight we’d attended before would be enough to build up a strong case.

  Lena tugged me to my feet, wrapping her arms around my waist.

  “Let’s go home,” I said.

  Together, the six of us headed into the night.

  EPILOGUE 1

  ONE WEEK LATER

  “Ha. Look at this.” Curled up in an armchair in the lounge in my house, Lena shifted in my lap, an
gling her phone so I could see the screen. There was a message from James Granville.

  James: I’m glad it’s over. Let’s agree to never get dragged into anything like this again

  “I hate to say it, but I agree with him.” I dropped a kiss on my girlfriend’s head. “I’d like to just enjoy being with you for a while. Without all the other shit. No more fighting or chasing down shady guys. Just you and me.”

  She laughed. “A quiet life is overrated.”

  “Yeah. You’re probably right.” Stroking my fingers down her arm, I smiled as she settled back against me. “Promethium will probably have something else for us to do soon enough, anyway.”

  “I hope so.”

  I laughed at the enthusiasm in her voice. “Maybe not just yet, huh?”

  She twisted around to face me, suddenly serious. “Not just yet. We have our appointment to get through, and that’s gonna be…” Her words trailed off.

  “Yeah.” We’d booked an appointment with her therapist. Two, in fact. We were seeing the therapist together, to talk in more depth about her assault and what I could do to support her, and I had my own appointment in addition to that. I hadn’t had much of a chance to come to terms with the fact that my mum’s death hadn’t been as it seemed, and while I’d been able to push it aside with everything else that had been going on, it had kind of hit me all over again. A couple of days ago, I’d had a long talk with my dad and brother which had helped a lot, but I wanted to talk to a professional to get things straight in my head, to work through my thoughts.

  “I’m gonna be here for you,” I promised her, running my fingers through her silky hair. “Whatever I can do. I just want to make you happy.”

  “You do. People keep asking what’s wrong with me, because I’m smiling all the time.” She pulled a face, making me laugh.

  “I fucking love you. My badass girl.”

  “Is this in reference to the chain again?” Humour danced in her eyes. “Look, Jaroslaw used that chain on the dogs. It was poetic justice that I used it on him.”

  “You’re right,” I agreed.

  “Anyway,” she continued. “You’re the one who broke his nose.”

  “That was so fucking satisfying.” I grinned. “He deserved it.”

  “He did.” She reached up, curling her arms around the back of my neck and tugging my head down to hers. “A kiss before we have to go?”

  As soon as her lips met mine, nothing else existed.

  Only her.

  Just over fifty minutes later, we were walking through the front door of my dad’s house, only ten minutes late.

  It wasn’t my fault that my girlfriend was so addictive.

  “Nice of you to join us.” Caiden smirked at me over the top of his glass. My dad, seated at the head of the long dining table, shot him a warning look.

  “Take a seat.” He indicated the empty chairs on either side of the table. Lena slid into the seat next to Winter, and I dragged the chair out next to my brother.

  “It’s not like you’ve ever been late to anything because you’ve been too busy with Winter.”

  “Yeah, alright.” He shrugged. “You might have a point.”

  I grinned at him, and he rolled his eyes. Watching us both from over the top of his wine glass, my dad cleared his throat pointedly, but he was unable to hide his own grin.

  The staff began serving up our food. When we were all eating, my dad told us how they’d manage to trace the Alstone Holdings discrepancies after the police had raided Martin Smith’s flat and recovered sensitive information, including a paper trail that led back to Alstone Holdings. We spoke about the situation for a bit, then my dad turned to me and said something I hadn’t expected to hear from him.

  “Our systems have always been handled by an external company, as you know. Now, nothing is set in stone, but perhaps we should consider bringing it back in-house when you graduate, Weston.”

  “What?” Everyone turned to stare at him, and he smiled widely, clearly loving our shock.

  “It’s about time Alstone Holdings had its own proper IT department. Maybe you’d be interested in something like that? Who knows, maybe you could even come up with security systems for our properties, as well as making our own system secure.”

  I gaped at him, unsure of what to say. Lucky for me, he continued speaking. “I know and you know that you’ll be taking your place at Alstone Holdings when you graduate. But I get the feeling that you’d much rather work with computers than with business dealings. Am I correct?”

  “Yes,” I managed, then, “Fuck, yes.”

  “Language,” he said automatically, before turning his attention to Lena. “You too. I hear that you’re very handy with computers.”

  “I am,” she stated confidently, grinning at him. “Count me in.”

  “We still have plenty of time to put things into place, but I want you to know that if this is something you’re interested in, we’ll make it happen.”

  “Thanks. I’d like that.” A smile spread across my face, my head already filling with ideas. Suddenly, I couldn’t wait to graduate.

  “Proud of you, bro.” Cade squeezed my shoulder.

  “Cheers. Same.” I leaned over and gave him a hug, which was kind of awkward because of the angle we were sitting at, and also for the fact that he clearly wasn’t expecting it. After a couple of seconds, though, he hugged me back, and then Winter was joining us, then Lena and my dad, and yeah…it turned into one of those cheesy as fuck moments where everyone hugs each other and congratulations get thrown around.

  Secretly, though, I loved it.

  EPILOGUE 2

  TWO MONTHS LATER

  Somehow, Portia had managed to get out of a jail sentence, thanks to her highly paid lawyer spinning a story of her being an impressionable young girl seduced by the older man. Maybe that was true, but she was still guilty of facilitating things. My opinion didn’t matter, though, because she also had enough information on Martin Smith’s shady dealings to have him locked away for a long time, and the courts looked very favourably on the evidence she’d provided.

  On the plus side, she’d been kicked out of Alstone College, and last I’d heard, her family was selling their house and moving to the other side of the country. The evidence I’d managed to obtain from the group on the dark web had helped to convict a number of additional people, and the dog-fighting ring had been broken up. Although I knew that it still continued on elsewhere, the fact that we’d managed to eradicate it in Alstone was a huge deal. It was something I’d been working towards for so long.

  It was a gorgeous summer day, and I was reclining on the uncovered part of the deck outside the back of the Four’s house, basking in my bikini in the sun’s rays.

  My house, too, as of this morning. I’d agreed with West and my parents that I’d trial living here over the summer, and if it didn’t work out for whatever reason, I’d move into university accommodation when my first semester began in September (not back in with my parents. As much as I loved them, I wanted to experience new things). Plus, Winter was beyond excited to have another girl living in the house.

  The buzz of my phone pulled me out of my thoughts, and I unlocked the screen to find a message from my mum.

  Mum: Hope moving in went ok. Come for dinner this week, I miss you! xx

  Me: I’ve only been gone for a day

  Mum: Even so. Dinner. Wednesday? Bring my favourite son-in-law too! xx

  Me: MUM. STOP.

  Me: I will come, as long as you promise not to call West your son-in-law

  Mum: I won’t say it to his face. How’s that?

  Me: I guess it’ll have to do. See you Weds then. Love you xx

  Mum: Love you too xx

  Placing my phone back on the deck, I slipped off my sunglasses and laid them on top. Then, closing my eyes, I lay back again, enjoying the sun on my face.

  My eyes flew open and I shrieked as cold droplets hit my bare stomach. Weston was standing over me with a huge grin on h
is face, brandishing a dripping ice cube.

  “You’re going to pay for that,” I warned, bounding off the chair and attempting to wrestle the ice cube out of his grip.

  “Slippery fucker!” he shouted as the ice cube fell, landing in the grass below. Before I could dive for it, he picked me up and spun me around, carrying me back into the house.

  “Where are you taking me?” Locking my legs around his waist, I buried my face in his shoulder, holding him tightly.

  “I told everyone that we needed to celebrate you moving in, so we have the house to ourselves.”

  “We’re celebrating tonight, aren’t we?” My stomach flipped with the sensation that I always got around my boyfriend—the heady combination of lust and something far deeper. The connection between us was so strong that I constantly wondered how I’d managed to get so lucky. How the boy I’d always loved, loved me back.

  “You know what I’m referring to.” I could hear the amusement in his voice, and I smiled against him.

  “I know, and I’m already sure that I’ll prefer these celebrations to my housewarming party later.”

  “I’ll make sure of it,” he promised, his voice going all dark and raspy as we reached our bedroom door and he kicked it open.

  “West…” Drawing my head back, I took his lower lip between my teeth, watching his pupils dilate as he stared at me.

  “Fuck, Lena. You’re so fucking beautiful.” He pressed me up against the wall, his mouth coming down on mine. I moaned into his mouth as his tongue met mine, all hot, devastating kisses.