by Mina Thorne
“Where were you?" I asked. “You left me alone here with all of them…you know what they’re like and you left me…”
“I’m so sorry,” Barrett said, holding me tighter. Roland watched us with interest, he was taking it all in and probably trying to catch up with all the drama that was unfolding in front of him.
"We were in Harrisburg. I drove Barrett home yesterday. For what it’s worth, he was frantic to talk to you after I let him know what a stupid asshole he was being with you. And I can see why he wanted to come back, you’re stunning,” Roland said and watched me still.
He was a gorgeous man, but that’s the difference. He was already a man and I sensed complicated layers of thought going on under the surface of his mind. He wasn’t for me, but he was going to be important in my life.
"Yesterday? What time is it?" I asked and rubbed my eyes. I noticed a sliver of light along the horizon as the sun began to rise across the lake.
"It's not even six. We drove straight here from Harrisburg. This is the only beach we party on so I had a feeling you’d be here,” Barrett said.
"We found Whitt on the road, believe it or not. He was waiting for us but I wouldn’t let him come to get you,” Roland said with a look of disgust. Then he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out my phone. “I did get this for you though.”
“Oh thank god, I felt like I lost a limb or something,” I said, as my mind began to thaw out and it all started to make sense. I was working out the sequence of events as they must have unfolded. “You came back for me,” I added, looking at Barrett.
"We did," Barrett replied. "God, I wanted to fucking kill him, Steph, but I wanted to make sure you were okay before I did anything."
I twisted in his arms, he cupped my face in his hands then and kissed me, his mouth was warm and careful as if he thought I was delicate and might break under the weight of his passion.
But just then, I might have. The night had left me feeling fragile and uncertain about everything.
Barrett's arms tightened around me as he kissed me and I was in heaven, having him back to me.
I broke away from his mouth and pulled away from his body to look up at him. "I'm still mad at you," I said. "You were a real asshole...but thank you for coming back to me."
"I could never stay away," he replied and kissed me again.
His lips were more demanding, as if he had to prove himself, to erase the memory of his abandonment and remind me of the depths of his passions.
I needed his passion now; I needed him to need me after everything I’d been through
When we finished kissing, I realized Roland was watching us with amusement in his eyes. It sent blood rushing to my cheeks and forced me to avert my eyes.
I wasn’t used to kissing anybody, let alone my step brother…let alone in front of my other step brother. It was a bizarre situation that left me a little foggy and uncertain.
"Can we go home?" I asked at last. "I want a long, hot bath and a big breakfast."
"Of course, Steph,” Barrett said and leaned forward to kiss me again, quickly this time. He jumped to his feet, so did Roland so the two of them hooked their hands under my arms to help me stand.
I was shaky but felt stronger when Barrett put his arm around my waist and walked with me. We passed the beach chair kicked to the side and wondered what it must have looked like when they'd driven up on me. How I must have been curled up, dead to the world and freezing.
I looked up, remembering the shooting stars that had been all around me at one point in the night. A meteor shower of bright lights and hope that I would be rescued.
I also remembered the wish that I'd made, to be loved like I wanted to love.
And I realized, with Barrett’s arm around me, holding me tight and helping me to the car, that my wish had come true. We still had to work out why he ran from me and I wasn’t sure I’d ever trust anyone again, but the foundations for love were there. The seed at least had been planted. It was up to us to let it take root and blossom.
Roland took the beach blanket from my shoulders and dropped it to the ground behind me. It would be picked up with the rest of the debris in the daytime by the people hired to make these kids have easy lives so we left it behind.
Barrett removed his arm, slipped out of his jacket and put it around my shoulders. The heat from his body was still clinging to the leather and the warm scent of him filled my nostrils.
I looked up at him with gratitude and considered again for a moment that my wish had brought me just what I’d asked for. I could learn to forgive him for leaving me, especially now that he’d come back to save me.
Would I get over it completely though? Could I ever trust him after he’d abandoned me so thoughtlessly?
I'd find out eventually.
After I had my bath, filled my stomach, and decided what I was going to do about the betrayal I'd just gone through.
Would I stay in Harrisburg?
At that point, I didn't know the answer.
Chapter 42
The morning sun had risen as we made our way home to Harrisburg.
We'd driven past the lake houses on the way out of town and I’d spotted Whitt’s Range Rover in the driveway of his. I’d wanted to jump out and gouge the paint with the car keys, but had thought better of it just then.
He deserved my anger, but I still didn’t know how I was going to handle everything. I still wasn’t ready to fight. I decided to let it go and instead sleep on Barrett's shoulder in the back seat.
I had a bath the moment I got home, and swore I could sense Barrett pacing outside the door the entire time. He finally pushed the door open and sat on the edge of the tub, watching me bathe.
“I don’t want you to drown,” he said and I couldn’t help but notice how hard his dick was simply from him just sitting there with me. It was basically at eye level.
I was too exhausted and emotionally drained to pull him in the water with me though, but the thought crossed my mind more than a few time.
We made our way downstairs and were sitting in the sunroom with our usual breakfast spread laid out on the table in front of us. I was stuffing my face on everything I could get my hands on.
The cold night had left me starving and I wasn’t shy about eating in front of these two.
"You can't go back to California, that doesn't make any sense," Barrett told me after had I confessed my desire to leave.
“I don’t know if I can ever go back to Westview Academy though,” I replied and popped a strawberry into my mouth and chewed on the succulent fruit.
Barrett took a deep breath and looked as if he wanted to argue with me about it, but he closed his mouth as he realized I wasn’t open to more of his suggestions.
Roland was very laid back about everything, he watched me with amused interest but didn't crowd me and I liked that. I appreciated it.
"Besides, you're one to talk, you ran off the minute things got tough for you here," I said to Barrett and he winced.
“I’ll make that up to you, babe. I promise,” he replied and his eyes were so contrite and filled with shame that I fought the urge to leap from my seat and comfort him right then and there. I was so drained that I was maintaining massive boundaries for self preservation.
The betrayal had spun me into survival mode, but Barrett’s abandonment had broken my heart.
“I don’t want to lose you though. I can’t lose you,” he continued and his sincerity was so authentic I couldn’t ignore it.
"Then what should I do? Go back to a school where people obviously hate me? They could have seriously hurt me when they left me out there like that," I replied and fought the tears that prickled the backs of my eyes. I didn't want to cry in front of them, especially Roland who I didn't know yet.
"They aren’t the whole school, they’re just a couple jealous bitches, a coward and a douche bag with a hard on for being the team captain," Barrett replied evenly. "And I know it looked like I ran from you and ran from us, bu
t I didn’t. I was running from my problems. I'll spend however long it takes making it up to you, Steph. Especially after we…well, you know."
“You mean after you banged her and left her alone?” Roland barked with sardonic laughter.
"Shut your fucking mouth,” Barrett snapped.
“Make me, little brother. All I see is a beautiful girl who is falling for you for some strange reason, and you decided to pile more shit on top of the burden she’s already dealing with.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Barrett said with a dark look. “It’s not that simple.”
“Nothing ever is with this fucking family,” Roland said, shook his head, and popped a slice of pear into his mouth and watched Barrett with defiant aggression.
I said, "I suppose I'll get over you leaving me eventually, Barrett...but I won't lie, it really hurt. And it made it harder on me at school. The stuff they did to me, like flooding my locker or Mason laying hands on me."
"He touched you?" Barrett blurted in anger. "He fucking touched you?"
"Yeah, he did. A couple times."
"I should have been there. I'm sorry. How bad was your locker?" he replied, but I could tell he was holding back to avoid stressing me out. I had a feeling he would be paying Mason a visit at some point soon and I didn't mind. As long as they he didn’t get in trouble for it of course, I hated the thought of him being punished for something he did to protect me.
"It was bad," I said. "They destroyed everything, my books and laptop...all my notes."
“Do you need a new laptop?" Barrett asked, as if he was going to provide me with one. I could tell the guilt of his abandonment was weighing heavy on his soul.
"It's already fixed. Kit had a replacement, and it was all backed up to the family cloud so I didn't even lose any of my essays or class notes," I said with a smile.
"The family cloud?" Roland asked, joining in after he’d eaten his fill.
"Yeah, Kit said we're all connected to it. All of our devices are synced so we don't lose a thing," I said with a smile. "It was super handy in my case. I would have died if I'd lost my Biology midterm essay."
"Who has access to the cloud?" Roland asked. He was frowning and I felt as if I'd done something wrong.
"Uh, I'm not sure," I said carefully. "Why?"
"That's how they got them," he replied, turning to Barrett and I realized he wasn’t mad at me. "I fucking told you Elena wasn't going to be happy having another woman in the house. She leaked those perverted pics you took of Stephanie."
"Do you mean Elaine?" I asked, confused. I didn't know why Roland had called her that and then it clicked. That was her name, the name Barrett had told me at the airport on the first day, her Brazilian name.
"I refuse to call her that," Roland replied dryly. His accent was light, but it was distinctive. It wasn't Spanish, and I remembered reading that they spoke Portuguese there. Whatever language it was, it was damned sexy. "She wanted us to use her American name when we moved here and she hooked up with David but I absolutely refuse. She's not going to wipe out my Brazilian heritage and I won't let her wipe out her own either."
I looked at Barrett and he seemed a little taken aback by Roland's declaration. "He's four years older than me, so he was already proudly Brazilian when we moved to Harrisburg. I was only five, I don't remember much about living there or coming to the US with our father."
"Let’s save that particular fucked up tale for another day. In regards to your issue, I believe Elena used the family cloud account to access your phone. The big question is how did she know to send them to Becca?" Roland asked.
"Becca had been hanging around for months. The families had gotten in their heads that we should hook up. Elaine and Becca's mom are quite close," Barrett said in a voice that sounded almost embarrassed. "She looked Stephanie up the moment she got here and...well, things changed between us. Becca must have found the viral video..."
"And then mentioned it to Elaine at the club," I said, half out loud and half to myself. I was starting to put the pieces of the puzzle together and realizing that they'd been out to get me from the moment I'd stepped off the plane.
If not sooner.
"Shit, this goes deep," Roland said and shook his head. "Our family is so god damned fucked up."
"Not helpful, asshole. We don’t need to drag Stephanie through the sordid details of our family history," Barrett said.
I sighed and shook my head. "I need to hear about it at some point, but right now I want to focus and figure out what we need to do."
I felt my phone buzz and I remembered something I'd found in Elaine's bedroom when I'd been digging for drugs.
"Hang on," I said and fished it out of my pocket, opened the photos and scrolled to the pic I'd taken of her note. "This is how they sent the photos, I'm sure of it."
I handed it to Roland and he read the note, nodded and handed my phone back to me. "That's a file sharing site. That's her account and password, they're probably still connected through it."
"I wonder if we could use it to our advantage," I said quietly. "Could we infect Becca and Elaine's phones? Is there some way to install a virus that would let us spy on them?"
Roland perked up and his eyes brightened with interest. He grinned and he was gorgeous when he smiled. He looked at Barrett and then his eyes settled on mine. “Unfortunately I don’t think it would work, but it’s an awesome idea. Be careful with this one though, little brother, I don't know if you can handle her."
"And what would you suggest I need? Who could handle me?" I frowned and thrust my chin out stubbornly. “Are you offering?”
Even though there was no spark between us, I felt like pushing his buttons to get a rise out of him just to see what his reaction would be.
He winked and shot me a wide grin that lit up his handsome face. “Maybe you'll find out some day...if you're lucky. But it’s not me, my defiant little sister…you don’t have the right parts."
He glanced down at my lap and I realized what he meant. My cheeks flamed red and I stammered, “I didn’t mean that…I meant, somebody, anybody…”
“Sure you did, sweetheart,” he laughed. “Don’t worry, I won’t take offense. You’re stunning and brilliant and any man would be lucky to have you lusting after them. If I was into girls, I’d steal you right out from under Barrett’s nose.”
I sensed Barrett tense up beside me and I enjoyed making him uncomfortable.
Yes, I had chosen to forgive him.
But that didn’t mean I had to be a doormat.
I still wanted to make him squirm.
Chapter 43
We were deep in discussion about the cruelty behind Elaine and Becca's plotting when we heard Dad and Elaine come home.
Barrett and Roland hadn't told them they were back yet, so the three of us stood up and walked to meet them.
I didn't know what I expected from Elaine when she saw her sons. She barely acknowledged Barrett at the best of times, and with him leaving in shame because of his expulsion from school, she had hardly even noticed that he was gone.
The way she’d always talked about Roland made me wonder how she would react when she saw her obvious favorite child. I tensed up in anticipation of her response.
And she didn't disappoint.
"Roland!" she squealed like she was a high school girl seeing her boyfriend after an absence. "There's my gorgeous son, my golden boy...my beautiful baby!"
She ran to him across the foyer, her six-inch heels clattering on the marble floor like the tap tap tap of hooves, which felt appropriate since she was such a cow.
When she reached Roland, she leaped, and he had no choice but to catch her in his arms. She kicked her feet and squealed again, kissing him all over his face and even right on the lips.
Roland's eyes locked on mine and he looked annoyed and embarrassed. He pushed at Elaine and said, "Elena, enough," with absolute authority.
She froze and dropped to the floor, looked up at him and g
lared. Even in her heels he was almost a foot taller, but she stomped her foot and said, "Do not call me that. I am Elaine!"
"We're not having this conversation again, mother. You are Elena to me and you always will be. Now stop fawning over me and say hello to your other son, my brother Barrett."
She frowned and turned to look at Barrett and said, "Hello, son. Are you going back to Westview Academy?"
"We'll do whatever we can to help," Dad said and smiled at him encouragingly. "Just point me in the right direction and tell me who I need to talk to."
"Thank you, David," Barrett said. "That means a lot to me."
"It's nice to know there's at least one grown up in this house," Roland said.
Elaine shot daggers at him with a pointed glare.
"What are you doing home from college?" Dad asked Roland.
"I'm in an accelerated program, I'm doing research," Roland replied. He had already told us earlier that he’d been kicked out for dealing drugs out of his dorm room, but he wasn’t about to tell our parents about it. “There's one good thing about being well connected...the college wouldn't dare turn me down when I requested a free semester to pursue my own studies."
"I'm so proud of you," Elaine beamed at him.
His eyes darkened when he turned to her again. "I'm proud of Barrett for surviving here on his own for almost three years. I didn't think you'd lose your mind as badly as you did, Elena, but it seems as if having a rival for the affections of the household has driven you right off the deep end."
All eyes turned to me and I shrunk in front of them. "I'm not a rival," I said. "I'm no threat to you."
"She's my little princess," Dad said, confused as he looked from me to Elaine. "She's not your competition, my darling. She's my daughter, for fuck's sake."
“Well, I’m your queen! And you haven't stopped talking about her since that whore ex wife called you!" Elaine spat, her voice growing heavier now that anger took over.
"How dare you call my mother a whore!" I yelled at her.
