by Nora Cobb
“You could have gone with them,” he says. “I would never give you a guilt trip for Christmas.”
“Not like other people,” I reply, and with those words it’s like summoning the devil. A black Lincoln Continental pulls into the driveway. The windows are tinted, and all I can see is my curious face looking back at me.
“Another friend, Vic?” asks Dad.
I press my lips together. “Not for me.”
Dad and I watch as the driver’s door opens, and my mother steps out. She’s dressed as if she’s going to a business meeting, with a black dress suit and red super-high heels. Mama loves those red heels. She pushes the door closed as a man leaps, and I mean leaps, out of the passenger side, running toward her. Maya turns to look at the man with barely concealed disgust, and I grit my teeth and tamp down that shudder.
“I would’ve gotten the door for you, Maya,” says the diminutive man.
She waves him off. “You can stay here. I won’t be long.”
Pulling his hand over his shiny scalp, the man shifts from side to side and waits by the car as Mom approaches us. Dad never lets go of me. He keeps his hand glued to my shoulder. Mom flicks her gaze up and down him, then switches her gaze over to me, arching her brow.
“You cut your hair,” she says to me.
Seriously, she hasn’t seen me in over a year, and she’s going to start in on my hair? Because we both know what that tone means. I don’t answer her only because Dad immediately jumps in.
“Maya, we weren’t expecting you.” Dad’s tone is chilly. “You just missed Troy, Natalie, and the baby.”
Thank God.
Mom stops short and makes a face in disgust. “I came to see them.”
I raise my eyebrows but say nothing. No one speaks, and after a long second, Mother realizes how that must have sounded as she glances back at the man we haven’t been introduced to yet.
“Of course, I came to see you too,” she backpedals unconvincingly as she looks at me. “I had expected you to call me when you arrived here on the West Coast. But you didn’t.”
“So, it’s on me that I haven’t seen you for a year?” I ask.
Mom frowns and turns toward her friend. “Let me introduce you to my partner, Dennis.”
Partner? That means Dad will have to keep paying the alimony forever. And I’m guessing it purchased that new car. I fidget by Dad’s side, but his grip stays firm on me. I realize quickly that he doesn’t want me to disappear. Dad reaches his hand out toward the man, and he hurries forward faster than a lapdog greedy for a treat.
“Nice to meet you, sir,” says Dennis.
Maya laughs. “Please, Dennis. That’s completely unnecessary.”
Dad smiles at the man. “Call me Greg.”
The man smiles. “Thanks, Greg.” He looks at me and holds out his hand. “Nice to meet you too, young lady.” He smiles widely as I smile at him. He seems like a nice man.
“Her name is Victoria,” interjects Mom.
“It’s Vicki,” I correct her, and shake his hand.
“That’s not what I named you,” she replies coldly.
Dennis awkwardly releases my hand and takes a step back. Maya looks at Dad expectantly, and then at the house. Her gaze travels up and down, and for a hot second, her eyes take on the hungry gaze of a thirsty guy checking out a scantily dressed girl in a club.
“Aren’t you going to invite us in?” she asks.
“No,” Dad replies casually. “You missed the baby, and I doubt you came here to visit us.”
Maya gets that look in her eyes as they narrow into lasers on Dad’s face. I hold my breath and wait for Predator to come after Alien.
“How rude,” she states plainly. “Not offering hospitality to your guest.”
“My guests have left, and it wasn’t an open invitation.” Dad holds out his hand to Dennis. “Nice meeting you. Sorry it was so brief.”
My name is coward. I turn tail and run back into the house before Mom can react. Dad is a brave man, daring her to do something as he casually turns his back on her and strolls back into the house. The door slams shut behind him.
I stand by the window and watch Mom pout as she climbs back into her car. She starts the engine, and Dennis hauls ass to get inside, or he’ll be left behind.
“How long do you think it will last?” I ask as we watch her back out onto the main road.
“The relationship, or the car?”
“Both,” I reply.
“Not long,” answers Dad.
Chapter Twenty One
Chase
The holidays suck. Dad drinks, and Mom whines while they aim, then throw presents at each other’s head around the Christmas tree. I really can’t remember it being any other way. The arguments and the drinking while Old Saint Nick flees up the chimney. It didn’t really change until one Christmas when Adrian refused to come down from his room. Mom tried to shame him into coming down and threatened to give away his presents. By that time, he was working at the studio as a gaffer. He had lied about his age, and we were both over six feet when we turned fifteen.
Adrian opened his door long enough to tell Mom that he’d buy his own presents. That was the day he became my hero. After that it was him and me, and I was grateful most of the time. But Adrian wasn’t around much, and Mom could be demanding on an eight-year-old.
The minute Christmas is over, I head back to Redwood. I should give a shit about being home, but it isn’t home anymore. It’s just a place where I store the stuff I can’t keep at school. Dad isn’t living at home anymore. If I want to see him, I have to check the rags for his current girlfriend. His new girlfriend says she’s uncomfortable around children. Even though I’m eighteen and Adrian is twenty-five.
The Lamborghini was a bribe from my dad. Mom wanted me to talk to the lawyer and squeal. She wanted me to confirm that Dad had been seeing other women for years. But I wouldn’t do it. Not because I’m loyal to Dad but because Mom has been running around for just as long.
I’m the heir apparent. The Evans Talent Agency will be mine someday by default. I don’t have Adrian’s talent, but I have my father’s looks and my mom’s business acumen. She can talk a contract into her favor while her target can barely keep up with the lingo. Jagan knows that firsthand.
I pull my car into the parking spot next to Dom’s Mercedes. Vicki’s Mustang isn’t back yet. I wonder if Dom really gave her my gift. He swears he did, but I haven’t heard from her yet. It wasn’t anything too special, just a microphone that hooks with her phone. She has a good voice, and it can improve with training. I wonder if it creeps her out when I stare at her while I’m playing my guitar. I can’t help how I feel, and it pisses me off.
The door to the suite is locked, and I have to search for my keycard. The TV is on high volume because I can hear it all the way out in the hall. When I step inside, Dom isn’t even in the room watching it. He must be off by himself, jerking off. The boy has a problem with his urges.
“Hey.” I shake his bed, and he frowns. He’s fast asleep, with everything electrical on.
“Hey,” he blinks his eyes and frowns at me. “What time is it?”
“It’s almost six. You want to grab something to eat?”
He sits up and holds his head in his hands. That’s when I notice the empty beer cans on the floor. No way he drank a whole case alone. “Was your uncle here?” I ask.
“Yeah,” he sighs, blinking his eyes. “I slept in your bed a few nights.”
My shoulders sag. “Did you change the sheets?”
He frowns at me. “Don’t be a girl.”
I walk out of the room and flip the light on in my bedroom. The fucker didn’t even make the bed. I don’t know what to do. The two people I despise the most are my best friends. My dad may have a new girlfriend, but Dom’s dad? It’s a job requirement to sleep with him. The guy is hairy and gross. Silas knows. Dom keeps sucking down beer, and he’ll end up with a gut like his old man.
Dom steps into my bedro
om as I pull the sheets off the bed. “I’ll do it,” he says. He goes to grab the sheets out of my hands, and I push him away.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” he glares at me.
“Did you give Vicki my present?” I ask. “Or did you say they were both from you?”
Dom laughs. “You are such a girl. You want to braid our hair later and talk about boys?”
I grab him around the arms, and he pushes against me. We struggle for a few minutes. We’re equally matched. That’s the downside to going to the gym with the guy almost every day. There’s no way to beat him. I let go of him, and his face is red and sweaty as he glares at me.
“What is it?” he asks. “Why are you in another pissy mood? I gave her your present. It’s not my fault she didn’t like it. Are we going to go eat?”
Shaking my head, I laugh. “You fight one minute, and then you’re friends the next. Let’s leave campus. I don’t want that fried shit.” I look at him hard. “We can talk in the car.”
We take my car because I need to blow off steam. Dom takes it in stride as the speedometer hits eighty and keeps climbing. He scans the channels on the radio. “So, are you upset with her?” he asks. “Or with me?”
“I don’t know yet,” I reply. “So, are you into her?”
Dom sits back in his seat. I keep my eyes on the road and wait to hear what he’s thinking.
“I want to get into her, but you’re in my way,” he replies.
I scoff. “Maybe I’m in your way because she doesn’t want you.”
“She may not get a chance to choose,” replies Dom, turning off the radio. I pull into the lot of a Mexican place that serves entrees on a plate, not in a greasy wrapper. Dom looks at the building and sighs. “You mind if I drink?”
“Don’t puke in the car,” I scowl.
Dom looks at me in the dim light. The lights in the parking lot intensify his morose expression in stark shades of gray and white. “I’m not in your way,” he continues. “Silas is in our way. You know what he wants.”
I stare off into space. I don’t even want to think about the looks Silas gives Vicki. I noticed at the ball how his gaze moved over her body. Every time she talks, he shuts up to listen. He waits by his door and listens for her to come up the steps, then steps into the hallway in her way. He hangs out at our suite and watches out the window.
Dom sighs. “He wants Vicki, and sooner or later, he’ll get her. Unless we take him out.”
END OF BOOK 2
Vicki’s story continues in BOOK 3 – Savage Boys
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BOOKS IN THE ELITES OF REDWOOD ACADEMY SERIES
Vicki’s story continues in the exciting 5-book Elites of Redwood Academy series.
Power struggles, drama, dark secrets, and even darker scandals.
Three drop-dead gorgeous boys who rule Redwood Academy with impunity and cruelty.
One girl who’s been through hell and back.
Nothing could prepare her for what the Elites of Redwood Academy will do to her.
But no way in hell is she going down without a fight.
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