Cruel Money

by K. A. Linde

“Still trying to adjust to that being a job.”

  “Aren’t we all?” Lewis said with a laugh.

  “I think I’ll stick to writing.”

  “How is that going anyway?” He looked genuinely curious.

  “Well, I sent my agent the start of a new manuscript, which I’m in love with. But so far, not so great on the other two books.”

  He furrowed his brows. “Really? Did you send them to Warren?”

  “Uh…yeah. Yep. We sure did,” I said awkwardly, remembering the horribly worded rejection letter I’d gotten the day I first met him.

  “And?”

  “Honestly, they were kind of mean.” I shrugged. “Rejection is part of the job.”

  “Huh. Well, shit. I’m sorry.”

  “It’s not like you were the editor who rejected me. You don’t even work in publishing,” I reminded him.

  Not that I knew exactly what he did, but I had a feeling that working with hedge funds didn’t exactly mean he dipped his toes into the literature side of his father’s fortune.

  “That’s true. Though I do love to read. You can’t grow up in a publishing house and not love reading.”

  “Well, one day I’ll get published, and the work will have been worth it. But for now, I’ll continue working as a vacation home watcher and writing on the side. It’s a strange life.”

  He laughed. “You think your life is strange? I can’t imagine what you think of ours.”

  “It’s definitely different,” I said with a smile.

  “Speaking of different,” he said, sitting back up, “what’s up with your friend Amy?”

  I chuckled. “She’s a lot, right?”

  “I’ll be honest, I’ve never had anyone turn me down for my money.”

  “That sounds like Amy.”

  “So, you’re telling me that she actually prefers broke artists?”

  “I mean, she might be happy with a rich artist if he was hot and looked homeless on occasion. Also, if he was really manic.”

  Lewis shook his head in disbelief. “That is the oddest thing I’ve ever heard.”

  “Well, money doesn’t rule everything. Just because someone is rich doesn’t make them more appealing, and her interests are very particular.”

  “That’s fair,” he conceded. “I’ve just seen so many clingy and money-grubbing people that you start to expect it. Someone like Amy…or like you is refreshing.”

  “As I enjoy first row tickets to a concert that I didn’t pay for.”

  “Come on. That’s not who you are. I can tell that accepting this makes you uncomfortable. I saw it on my yacht when we first met. It’s not that you don’t want to be here, but you don’t want to owe anyone.”

  I stared at him in surprise. I hadn’t thought Lewis was really paying that close of attention. It was like he’d stepped into her brain and read her thoughts.

  “Yes, that’s true. I’m not used to this for sure.”

  “Well, people who are trying to use you for your money aren’t normally uncomfortable when people spend money on them,” he said with a nod.

  “That’s just how I was raised.”

  “It’s endearing,” he said with his signature smile that lit up his face.

  “I’m glad. Sometimes, I’m not sure if I really fit in with you all.”

  “Eh, I wouldn’t worry about it. I love that you keep everyone on their toes.”

  “Just what I want to be known for.”

  He nudged me with his shoulder. “It was a compliment.”

  Then his eyes gazed past me, and he groaned. “Don’t look behind you.”

  So, of course, the first thing that I did was whirl around to see what he was talking about. All I saw were two beautiful black girls. One was tall and thin with pin-straight black hair to the middle of her back. She had on a gorgeous black designer dress. The other girl was shorter than me with a sharp bob and an edgy leather dress that hugged her curvy figure.

  “Friends of yours?” I asked conspiratorially.

  “Yeah…my sisters.”

  “Oh!” I gasped. “Penn told me about them. Charlotte and Etta, right?”

  “That’s right. I knew they’d be here, but I thought that they had a box.”

  “I thought you were close with them. Penn said that they’re basically family to him.”

  “We are close. But, if they see me at this show, I’ll never live it down.”

  I laughed and then stood up, waving. “Charlotte! Etta!”

  The girls turned to face me with quizzical looks. Then they saw who I was seated with and broke into laughter. They strode over to our seats with a drink in one hand and phone in the other.

  “Brother, you are at a Chloe Avana show,” the tallest girl said. “How embarrassing!”

  Lewis vaulted to his feet, towering over his little sisters. “Charlotte, Etta, this is my friend Natalie.”

  “Natalie, this is Charlie,” he said, pointing out the taller of the two, “and my youngest sister, Etta.”

  Charlotte shook my hand. “Any girl who can get my brother to a concert like this is a girl we like, right, Et?”

  “Hell yes. Please take a picture with us, so we can put this on Crew later,” Etta said.

  We snapped a few shots. Most of the time, Lewis looked miserable.

  “Okay, get out of here, you hellions,” Lewis said, ushering them away.

  “Message us later, Natalie,” Charlie said. “We’d love to do brunch sometime.”

  “We can fit you into our social calendar,” Etta agreed.

  “Yes. Sure,” Lewis said. “Bye now.”

  “We love you, too,” Charlie said.

  “Make sure to sing every word,” Etta teased. “We know you know them all.”

  They left with a trail of laughter, and I decided that I loved them on the spot. It was the most normal familial relationship I’d encountered since being on the Upper East Side.

  “They’re amazing!” I cried.

  “They are. Though they’re also the worst,” he said with a shake of his head that said he loved them fiercely.

  “How old are they? They can’t be that much younger than you. They look like supermodels.”

  Lewis chuckled. “Uh, Charlie is twenty, and Etta is seventeen.”

  “Oh my god!” I gasped. “Do girls on the Upper East Side just come from a different planet? Etta is Melanie’s age, and she seems so much more grown up.”

  “You have to grow up fast to live here. Be glad that Melanie is still so young and innocent.”

  I still couldn’t believe it. If Melanie dressed and acted like Etta, my dad wouldn’t let her leave the house. What a different world.

  “Also, that’s quite an age difference,” I noted. “Mel and I are seven years apart, but you guys are, what? Nine and twelve years apart?”

  “Yeah. My mom and dad fell in love young. When my mom had me at eighteen, everyone said she’d never amount to anything. That they’d only gotten married because he’d knocked her up. Thirty years later, and she’s the ambassador to the United Nations and the most incredible person I know. She waited to have Charlie and Etta until after her career took off, just to prove everyone wrong. She’s pretty much goals for everything in life.”

  “Wow! She sounds amazing. Like someone you’d read about in a textbook.”

  He grinned, clearly proud of his mother and all she’d accomplished.

  The lights flickered, announcing that the opening show was about to start, and the crowd erupted in applause.

  “How long have Penn and Katherine been gone for to get that drink?” I asked. “They’re going to miss the opener if they don’t hurry.”

  Lewis leaned back again. “I’d get comfortable. They’ll likely be gone forever.”

  I arched an eyebrow in question. “Why?”

  “Katherine hates waiting before the show. Usually, she shows up right as it starts or waits backstage or in a lounge or something. I’d be shocked if we saw her again before Chloe comes on.”
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  “Oh,” I said, disappointed. I’d wanted to spend time with Penn. I’d thought we’d have the night together even if we were with his friends…and he hated the music.

  “Oh boy,” Lewis said. “So…you and Penn, huh?”

  “What? No. Why would you think that?”

  “You have that…look. Trust me, I’ve seen it a lot.”

  I frowned at that. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “You’re together, right?” he asked, leaning away from me.

  “We’re not together. We’re just, you know, casual.”

  “Uh-huh,” he said disbelievingly as he rose from his chair.

  I bit my lip and turned back to the stage as the lights faded completely. A minute countdown showed on the screen for the opener. Penn and Katherine weren’t going to come back for this. They were going to stay out wherever they were. Alone. And I didn’t know if something was going on.

  “Can I ask you something?” I asked when I got to my feet.

  “What’s that?”

  “Are Penn and Katherine…you know, something?”

  He grimaced. “Define something.”

  “Together? Or have they been together?”

  “You’re asking this because you and Penn are so casual?”

  “Ugh! Never mind.”

  “Look, Penn doesn’t want Katherine,” he told me. “They’ve been this weird thing for years, but if he wanted to be with her, he already could be.”

  That helped marginally. At least it mirrored what Penn had said.

  “And Katherine?”

  He stared down at me, and I could see that he didn’t want to answer.

  “Katherine only wants what she can’t have.”

  “So…if Penn and I weren’t casual?”

  “She would be worse. So much worse.”

  Great.

  Peachy.

  Fuck.

  Penn

  23

  Katherine lounged comfortably in the private room she’d dragged me into. I should have known better than to think she wanted to get a drink and then go back to our seats. She detested waiting. She was the kind of woman who always had to arrive fashionably late. Make an appearance.

  I’d only come for Natalie. And I wanted to head back already.

  Normally, she couldn’t even drag me to this kind of show. She knew that I didn’t really like mainstream music. Not that Chloe wasn’t talented, but it just wasn’t my normal music.

  It wasn’t like I was going to try to get Katherine to an acoustic show at a small venue. I knew that she would never show up for that. So, it was particularly painful that I had to be at this one. If Natalie hadn’t seemed so excited, I’d still be back at the beach house, working on my book.

  “Oh, don’t look so glum. Just one more drink, and we can go,” she said with an eye roll as she raised her hand for the bartender.

  “Why are we even here, Ren?”

  “I had to make it up to Natalie.”

  “Ah yes, calling her a project to her face probably wasn’t your best move.”

  “I didn’t mean it like that.”

  I snorted. “Yes, you did.”

  “Honestly, I didn’t. I like Natalie,” Katherine said, and it almost sounded sincere. “It was just fucking Camden.”

  “How is fucking Camden these days?”

  She bared her teeth at me. “Don’t get me started.”

  “Still as good in bed as ever?” I teased.

  “If you consider hate sex good, then sure.”

  I shrugged. “It can be if the person you’re hate-fucking isn’t a devious, manipulative, downright evil son of a bitch.”

  She patted my cheek twice. “Ah honey, are we jealous?”

  “Just don’t understand how you put up with it.”

  “A lady never spills all of her secrets.”

  “Are you considering yourself a lady now?” I said with a grin.

  “Don’t mess with me, Kensington.”

  The bartender appeared then, and Katherine asked for another round. I finished off my bourbon with pleasure. I’d need at least another to make it through the show.

  Katherine’s hand landed on my knee, and I arched an eyebrow. She just grinned devilishly and slowly crawled her way up my pant leg. She was dangerously close to my dick. And goddamn her, she couldn’t just let it go. She had to keep going.

  I grabbed her wrist hard in my hand. “That’s not a toy you get to play with, Ren.”

  “You never like to have fun anymore.” She crossed her legs and let a creamy white leg spill out of the slit in her skirt. “I’m not wearing any underwear.”

  “That’s great,” I said hollowly.

  She sighed dramatically. “So, how’s it going on your end? Is she in love with you yet?”

  “Guess you’ll have to wait and find out.”

  “Well, that’s a no. Are you even fucking?” she asked with an edge to her voice.

  Our drinks appeared, and I watched her down nearly her entire martini. She was pissed. I relished in it. Upsetting Katherine was like watching a ticking time bomb without the countdown. You never knew when she was going to explode.

  “I have an idea,” I told her, ignoring her question. “Why don’t we end this bet?”

  “Excuse me?” she gasped.

  “I’m being a gentleman here. The stakes are high for you. And you’re going to lose. So, I’m offering you the chance to back out.”

  “No.”

  “It’s a stupid bet. And you don’t have to go through with it.”

  In all honesty, I didn’t want her to. Things with Natalie were so natural. And that had nothing to do with the bet. I didn’t have to be anyone but myself with her, and we enjoyed each other’s company. Not to mention, the sex was incredible. Katherine was destined to lose this thing.

  “Are you afraid you’ll lose?” she scoffed.

  “Hardly. I know I’ll win,” I said confidently. The competitive side of my personality reared its ugly head. I wished that I could control that part of my character, but things like this just set me off. “But I’m giving you a chance to get out of marrying Camden. I’m giving you an out.”

  Katherine leaned forward until we were mere inches apart and smiled provocatively. “You should know me better than that by now.”

  “I do. But I thought I’d offer.”

  “No need. I’m still going to win,” she said confidently.

  I leaned back and downed my bourbon. “Lark was right. We shouldn’t have done this.”

  “Fine. Then you back out of the bet,” she said hotly.

  “You know I’m not going to.”

  “Jesus, Penn, do you actually like her or something?” Katherine asked, fury in her voice. “You seem almost upset that we won’t back out. Who the hell are you, and what have you done with Penn Kensington?”

  “You like her. You just said you did.”

  “Of course I like her. She’s gawky and strange. She has silver hair. She speaks her mind. She’s not afraid to be whoever the hell she is. She’s hardly competition, Penn!” Katherine said in exasperation. “Who would ever look at her when we’re in a room together?”

  I would.

  I didn’t say it, but the urge to nearly ripped through me.

  There was a difference between upsetting her and pulling the pin on the grenade yourself.

  “But you…why would you like her?” Katherine asked with an eye roll. “She’s nothing and no one. She’s not special in any way. She’s like a cute small-town girl who stumbled on a gold mine.”

  “That’s an interesting theory,” I said dryly. “Considering that your fiancé hit on her, Lewis finds her fascinating, and I’m fucking her. There’s clearly something special about her.”

  Katherine narrowed her eyes. And I knew that look. It was a possessive, dangerous look that said I’d said the wrong thing. Maybe I’d kicked a hornet’s nest, but I just couldn’t bring myself to care.

  “I’m going to
head back. Are you coming with?” I asked.

  She downed the rest of her martini, dropped two hundred-dollar bills on the bar, and then swept out of the private lounge in front of me. I chuckled under my breath and followed behind her.

  The opener had just finished by the time we made it back to our seats. Lewis and Natalie were grinning like fools and laughing at whatever the other had said. It almost looked like they hadn’t missed the two of us. I would have much preferred to be out here than dealing with Katherine’s scheming. She was one of my closest friends, but she never knew when enough was enough.

  “Hey!” Natalie said, whirling around. She had a half-finished beer in her hand, and her blue eyes were wide and excited. “You made it back!”

  “Sorry about that,” I said. “We ended up in the lounge.”

  “Lewis warned me. It’s no big. We just had the most amazing time. The opener was hilarious. I only knew one of her songs, but we’re downloading the rest and listening to it the entire way back to the beach house.”

  “Oh god, what fresh level of hell have I entered?”

  She and Lewis both burst into laughter.

  “You were right,” Natalie said, clutching her stomach. “Look at his face.”

  “Classic,” Lewis said.

  “What?” I asked in confusion.

  “Lewis said that you’d go crazy if I suggested us listening to this music in your car.”

  “Hopefully, this is a joke because this music does not belong in the Audi.”

  Natalie giggled. A flush heated her cheeks from the beer and the show. She looked so unbelievably beautiful in that moment. I didn’t know if it was just because she was so relaxed and so jovial or if it was the aftereffect of dealing with Katherine who was so uptight. But I wanted her right here. I wanted more of that carefree joy in my life. I wanted her for all the reasons that Katherine thought Natalie wasn’t special. For all the reasons Katherine was wrong.

  I wrapped an arm around her waist and tugged her tight against my chest. Her beer sloshed and nearly spilled over, but she’d forgotten it as she looked up at me. She seemed surprised and happy. As if she had been wondering where exactly we were around my friends. And truthfully, I hadn’t figured it out until that moment.

  I didn’t give a flying fuck what anyone else thought. Or that she wanted this to be casual. Or that we were just supposed to be fucking.