That sounded like a double entendre. One that just made my chest flutter, damn him. And no, I’m not good at fixing things. “Fine. If I win, forget repairs—you can build me something. Since you’re so good with your hands.”
Oooh, I’d just love to see this pretty boy try to build something—anything. I bet he’d hammer a nail in his thumb, cuss a few times, and pay someone to take over. That in and of itself would give me ammunition to use against him for months. Worth it. Besides, there is no way he’s winning this bet.
He raises an eyebrow. “No hints as to what you need built?”
“You’ll see. After I win.” I glare at his arm beside my head, caging me in and causing ripples of heat to spiral down my body.
He drops his arm and I open the car door. I slide in the backseat, ready to get away from Adam’s scent, which is doing funny things to my head.
Tyler waves to Adam, who’s rounding the front of the truck, and puts the car in reverse.
“Everything okay?” Mira asks.
“Yup. Just a little friendly bet I plan to win.”
Chapter Five
Adam
I return to Zach and Nessa’s living room, my chest puffed up, hands clenched and tingling from adrenaline. The only reason I agreed to Hayden’s bet is because there’s no way I’ll lose. And I need her to stay out of this business Blackwell has me on.
There’s nothing wrong with hiring a few people, but Paul and William have been acting shifty about this venture for months, and I don’t trust them. That’s not enough reason for me to back out—it would take a hell of lot more for me to pass up the opportunity to sever myself from the Cade money—but I will keep Hayden out of it just to be safe.
Jaeger stares at me like I’ve lost my mind. “What the hell was that?”
Did he overhear my conversation with Hayden? Because I’ve gotta say, I enjoyed our mental tussle. Always gets my blood firing, but I don’t want Jaeg to know about that. He might get the wrong idea. I shrug it off. “What are you talking about?”
“You. And Hayden. What’s going on?”
“Nothing. We argue. That’s typical for us.”
Jaeg’s head tilts. “I’ve never seen you chase after a woman.”
I scratch my neck. “I wouldn’t say I chased her.”
“Chased.” Jaeg enunciates the word very deliberately.
When I wasn’t working for my father, I taught snowboarding with Jaeg and a couple of buddies at Heavenly during winter breaks. We were inseparable then and have been close ever since. The guy knows me, which, in this case, is inconvenient.
“Fine. She drives me batshit crazy, but I work with her. I don’t want there to be tension tomorrow. I went out to smooth things over.” Sort of. I also might have antagonized her, but that’s her fault. She brings out the animal in me.
Everyone is silent—Jaeg, Cali, Zach, Lewis. And they’re staring. “What, already?”
Jaeg looks to Zach, who purses his lips and shakes his head, as if he doesn’t believe me either, or can’t believe what he’s seeing. He turns toward the stove and collects pans, placing them in the sink. Lewis wraps a long arm around Gen’s shoulders and continues to stare like he’s never seen me before.
Jesus, can’t a guy have a chat with a woman without his entire gang labeling it?
I walk over to Zach’s dining table. It’s new, and a vast improvement on the previous garage sale piece of crap. I’ve come to Zach’s taco dinner a few times now. Typically, I don’t give a shit what furniture people have. I know how lucky I am to afford what I do. But Zach’s old furniture defied human decency. That shit had to be sixty years old, and gaudy as hell. Thankfully, his girlfriend, Nessa, has good taste. I’ve noticed a distinct upgrade in a few key pieces since she’s moved in. As far as I’m concerned, she’s a keeper. He’s also all gooey over her, just like Jaeg is with Cali. That part I could do without, but them’s the breaks.
Cali plops into the chair next to me. “So, Adam. Hayden.”
Here we go. I shuffle a stack of cards I snatched from the bookshelf near the table. “I thought we were finished with that conversation.”
“We were, we were. But I thought you might want to—you know, confide. Because I’m a girl. We’re intuitive, us girls. Just ask Gen. I’m a genius at dissecting the female mind and helping couples come together.”
Gen chokes spastically a couple of feet away. Lewis pats her back as she reaches for her chest, her eyes bugging. “Cali!” she says.
Cali waves Gen off, her gaze intent on me, and me alone. “I got this, Gen. Why don’t you and Lewis take a walk, or something?”
Gen rubs her temples, and Lewis hugs her with a grin.
I sense a history here. As long as Cali and Gen duke it out, with any luck, Cali will forget about Hayden and me. I deal out a game of solitaire and wait for Zach to finish the dishes so he can whip us up some dessert. The last time I was here he made ice cream sundaes. I saw that someone brought brownies. I could use some double-chocolate brownie with a pound of vanilla on top.
Cali folds her hands and eyes me. “Jaeger’s right, Adam. You are different. I remember how you were a couple of summers ago with your last girlfriend. I don’t want to say you were a jerk, but…”
I count three cards from the deck in my hand, and flip. “But you thought I was an ass?”
“Maybe a little.”
My last girlfriend was like all of my girlfriends. Beautiful. Entitled. And never happy with the amount of attention I gave her. I can’t blame her, or any of the women I’ve dated. I was an ass. But they also had high expectations—expensive trips, nice gifts. I could afford it, but I got tired of ulterior motives. Even the rich women hanging around Club Tahoe and tucking their key cards in my khakis were using me for something.
By the end of my last relationship, my ex thought I had a wandering eye. I wouldn’t say it wandered, so much as I could see when the writing was on the wall. If I thought a relationship was nearing its end, I moved on immediately and made sure I was the one who got out first. And Jaeg’s right. I don’t pine for the ones I’ve left behind. Once they’re out of my life, they’re out of my mind too. Which, now that I think about it, is incredibly fucked up.
I’ve always been a moody bastard after a breakup, but it’s never for the reasons people think. I wasn’t upset because the relationship ended, but because I felt nothing. Not one damn thing. And when you feel nothing, sometimes—occasionally—it seems like there’s nothing to live for. I’ve never been suicidal, but I can relate to the desolate, dark places people mentally go to when life sucks.
I’ve flown solo these last couple of years because I don’t want to deal with that bullshit. Why get tangled up when it leads to frustration on both sides? I’ve been taking a page out of my younger brother’s book. Hook up and make no promises. Easy.
So if Jaeg’s right, why am I chasing Hayden?
I think about her more than I should. She’s beautiful, smart—but there is no way I am going near that. I enjoy the banter, because she dishes out as good as she gets, and she puts me in my place the way my brothers do. But Jaeg is right about one thing: I feel too much around her. And that’s not good. I’ve got to keep things under control. Keep a cool distance.
Cali stares at me as this shit flies through my mind—one disturbing realization after another leading too close to a bull’s-eye I didn’t see coming.
Do I like Hayden?
I shake off the chill that runs down my spine. Not happening.
Just when I think Cali might probe further into my feelings, she switches directions like a flame-haired samurai, knocking the breath from my lungs. “I like her, Adam. Don’t hurt this one.”
My mind works as I try to respond to that curveball. “Hayden isn’t a this one. She’s a work associate.”
But I’m not making a good argument for myself when I do stupid shit like run after her into the driveway. Cali’s right—the last thing I want is to hurt Hayden. I did that before, and dic
k that I am, I didn’t even realize it. The woman who drives me nuts at work is the same girl whom I subconsciously noticed in high school. And who was dating my best friend.
This Hayden—the confident, sharply dressed power executive at Blue—is nothing like the Beth that Jaeg dated. But she has the same effect on my instincts.
I left a message for one of my soccer teammates and hit END on my phone, waiting for Jaeg by his red pickup in the high school parking lot. My brother scored tickets to a band in town, and I wanted to give Jaeg his before I went to the mandatory employee meeting at Club Tahoe. I was working as a cabana boy, serving poolside, while discreetly getting patted down and padded up with tips by the frisky women who could afford to vacation at my father’s resort. My job kicked ass.
My dad wanted me to gain experience in the business. Little did he know I was gaining experience in how to pleasure bored housewives while their husbands played eighteen holes. If I timed my afternoon right, I could use both of my breaks to score. Sixteen and six foot one, and women noticed. And I had lots of energy to entertain them.
Mentally mapping which discreet storage closets were located poolside for the leggy brunette who had been giving me the eye yesterday, and whom I expected a return visit from today, I finally caught sight of Jaeg loping down the concrete steps toward the parking lot. His mouth was spread in a wide smile as he veered toward the girl in jeans and a baggy T-shirt standing near a metal bench.
I’d noticed her, of course, and had quickly labeled her a shy nerd with no curves under that baggy shirt. Not my usual type. Her backpack was nearly as big as she was, the glasses she wore overpowering her features. But her long, sandy blond hair was thick and silky in the ponytail she wore, and I could tell she had nice legs through her jeans. Despite her not being my type, I’d kept track of her while I waited for Jaeg.
She smiled and ducked her head as Jaeg approached. He stopped in front of her and reached for her hand. A strange twinge pinched my chest, which I chalked up to the double-double cheeseburger I’d eaten for lunch. They talked for a moment, then Jaeg gave her a hug and walked away. The girl turned and watched him leave, this beautiful smile—like a fucking ray of sunshine—beaming from her face.
I’d never seen a woman smile like that. The smiles I received were licentious, calculating—just the way I liked them. There was too much to lose in a smile and a face that split you in two and left you vulnerable.
Despite my disinterest in the shy girl, and Jaeg’s obvious claim on her, I found myself searching for her on campus. And that was as far as it went. I never asked who she was, or who her friends were. Never asked Jaeg about his interest in her. Even if Jaeg hadn’t been spending time with her, I would have never gone near a girl like that. She was different from the girls I spent time with back then. She was the real deal. And at sixteen, that scared the shit out of me.
It still does.
A small part of me is happy things didn’t work out between Hayden and Jaeg. Not that I wouldn’t take away the events that had her fleeing town if I could. But even back then, when I was an extremely selfish prick, I would have spared Hayden the pain of dating me. I would have hurt her in the end, and Hayden endured enough bullshit in high school. She didn’t deserve my brand of emotional baggage on top of it.
Things are different now. I’m older. Smarter, I hope. But that just means I know better than to even consider a relationship with her. Like Jaeg pointed out. I feel too much around her. That doesn’t mean I like the idea of her with someone else. Damn her for avoiding my question about whom she’s dating. That ate at me, but I let it go. I have no claim on her. Not then, and not now.
I set the cards down and stare at Cali. “Are you finished grilling me?”
“Yup,” she says cheerily. “Just wanted to make it clear that you need to watch yourself around Hayden, or experience my wrath.”
That was obvious. And not because I’m afraid of a pint-sized Cali, though she is a formidable fireball I don’t wish to piss off. I could never hook up with Hayden. Even I draw the line at going into something, knowing I might hurt someone. I have a history of leaving women behind, and Hayden is the last person I want to cause pain.
Chapter Six
Hayden
I load up my tray with a salad, chicken fingers, and a cookie. Some women forgo desserts, but that’s madness. If my sweet tooth doesn’t get quenched once a day, I’m cranky. I accommodate by eating my delectables at noon instead of right before bed. Gives me plenty of time to work it off while running around this crazy casino.
Mira plops a tray in front of mine on one of the cafeteria tables. Her meal is about as sensible as the one I have, minus the salad. Our metabolisms, however, are not the same. Mira has a supermodel’s figure, while I’ve got what some might call an hourglass. Or a pear shape when I’m hard-core PMSing. “What have you found on Blackwell?”
“Nothing,” I grumble.
Mira pauses mid-chew, her cookie dangling from her hand. She eats her desserts first, which I’ve got to admire. “Nothing? It’s been months since Drake was convicted.” She sets her cookie down. “He’s already serving time for the assault and that bullshit money-laundering thing the casino pinned on him. Drake was a bully, but no one gets caught that spectacularly unless they’re a pawn. Someone else is in charge.”
“I know.” I dismiss the healthy food and eye my cookie. Maybe Mira’s got the right of it. Dessert first.
I’ve tried to find something on Blue Casino to take to the police. I’ve scoured every database and file I have access to, which has taken weeks in between working. I’ve even spent my personal time at functions the casino holds, thinking I might catch something. But nothing. Not one darn thing has gone down lately that I could label as suspicious, unless you consider Adam’s promotion. Which I do.
Unfortunately, it’s not illegal to promote someone, just like it isn’t illegal to fire someone for poor performance. Adam’s boss was fired after the file that held information on the suite Mira and Tyler found landed in my hands while the woman was out sick. It’s clear the old hospitality manager got fired for inadvertently leaking information—information that went mysteriously missing from my desk.
On paper, Blue Casino is as clear as the lake it’s named after. But dig deep enough, and there’s a murky center. I just know it.
Like Mira said, it’s hard to believe Drake was the only criminal in this place. Maybe I’m allowing past bullies to tarnish my relationship with the CEO. There are shitty bosses out there who aren’t involved in illegal activities. And I might believe that—if Blackwell wasn’t so adamant about keeping me out of the business he has going on with his Blue Stars, and if Mira and Tyler hadn’t found the suite filled with drugs the casino seemed to be supplying.
“I can’t pin anything on him, and believe me, I’ve tried.” I bite into my cookie. I don’t believe for a minute that the Blue Stars quit what they were doing in that suite just because it was suddenly stripped. And there’s something about these guys getting away with it that really pisses me off. Maybe it’s because I was on the receiving end of people ruining lives—different bullies, same town—but there’s no way I can walk away from this.
I set my half-eaten cookie down. “I can’t find a paper trail. Blackwell and his Blue Star assholes have been extra cautious since Drake Peterson was jailed.”
Mira winces. “I’m glad, in a way. Maybe they’ve cleaned things up?”
I shake my head. “I’ve considered that, but you said they were clearing things out when you and Tyler found the suite, not closing up shop. I’m happy there haven’t been recent reports of assaults and that we haven’t found another suite with drugs, but the casino is hiding something. Why else would Blackwell keep me out of the hiring of new employees? It’s like he’s setting something up he doesn’t want me involved in.”
“You’re right. That is strange.”
“I’ve given up looking internally. Blackwell keeps everything buttoned up around me. I can
’t get into his little Blue Star crew, so I’ve started researching his background. Maybe I’ll find something there.”
“Can’t hurt.” Mira takes a bite of her main dish, now that she’s eaten her cookie. She studies my face as if deciding something. “There is one person among Blackwell’s sapphire ring boys you could get close to.”
I take a bite of the chicken finger. Okay, maybe grease is just as good as sugar for a pick-me-up. I swallow the bite in my mouth. “Pretty sure there isn’t. I’ve tried, and not without a good deal of humiliation. Those jackasses who kiss Blackwell’s ass taunt me. They let me know I’m not welcome, all while flirting shamelessly. I’m sure one or more would be game to sleep with me, but I wouldn’t be getting any information out of it. Not that I would ever consider doing something so disgusting.” I shiver at the thought of sleeping with Paul, or any of the men who walk around the casino wearing Blue Star rings.
“I wasn’t referring to those guys.” She smiles knowingly.
“Oh no.” The sparkle in her eye should have warning signs. “Don’t even go where I think you’re going.”
“Come on, Hayden. What do you have against Adam? I know you want him.”
I choke on that last bite of chicken. “Want him? I’d rather have my eyebrows shaved than get close to that oily bastard. He’s all charm and good looks, but you can’t trust him.”
Mira takes a sip of her lemonade. “Your eyebrows, really? I’m just saying, you should try. Does he push you away like the others?”
“Not exactly,” I say warily.
“Right. He doesn’t. You even said last night that it wasn’t him you were angry with, but some of the things you’ve had to put up with at Blue. From what I’ve seen, Adam has tried to be your friend. Granted, he pushes your buttons, which I think he does intentionally to get a rise out of you. He’s not a bad guy.”
Cocky Prince Page 5
