D.O.R.K. Series Box Set

by Haley Allison

  That’s the second time he’s called me sweet in one night and the second time I’ve blushed from my forehead to my toes.

  “Thanks, Logan, I appreciate that. You wanna dance?”

  He grins. “Hell yeah! This party is insane, and I’ve never had the chance to dance with Wonder Woman before.”

  I grin back. “Well, I’ve never danced with Thor either, but there’s a first time for everything, right?”

  Logan and I proceed to the dance floor and I hang the basket on my arm while we shake to the music. I’m embarrassed when he totally shows me up with dancing. His moves are slick and smooth. You can tell he’s taken a dance class or two.

  When he notices me struggling, he takes me by the arms and shakes me out. Then without a word, he guides me through some of the moves that seem so natural to him. It’s odd that being taught to dance by Logan feels more intimate than anything I’ve done with Gio so far. His deep green eyes are searching mine in the dim lighting. He wants to know me. Actually, in a way, it feels like Logan and I already know each other. Like we met in a previous life, and now we finally found each other again.

  Not long into the dance, I realize how dangerous hanging out with Logan is for me. He’s off-limits and so am I, yet the connection we have is something I can’t deny anymore. Every time he touches me, something deep in my core responds to him. He makes me feel safe and wanted. I can’t let myself feel that way. Not while he’s with Claire and I’m with Gio.

  After the song is over, I excuse myself.

  “Hey, I gotta go find Raven. Will you be okay out here?”

  “I’m sure I’ll be able to occupy myself somehow,” he says with a wink as the next song comes on. “Thanks, sweets. That was fun.”

  As my cheeks flame, I nod and whirl around, somehow guilt-ridden and giddy all at once.

  After searching the entire dance floor six times, I realize Raven is nowhere to be found. Assuming she found a guy and is currently slobbering on him in an upstairs bedroom, I decide to search for Chandler instead. She finds me while I’m searching for her and practically ambushes me. Her eyes are bright with worry and she’s gasping for breath.

  “Mads, we have a problem. No one can find Raven anywhere. Skyler said she saw someone climbing over the wall in the back of the property.”

  “Climbing over the wall? Going where?”

  “Next door, to the Abate mansion. I just thought you should know. I’m not sure what Raven would be doing over there.”

  “Me neither.” My heart sinks with concern. “Are you sure it was Raven?”

  “Skyler said she was wearing a Wonder Woman costume. At first I thought it was you, but then someone said you were still here and looking for Raven.”

  I swallow against the panic that rises inside my throat. Raven going to the Abate mansion can mean nothing good, especially if she got there the same way I’ve been getting there over the past month. She must have found out what was going on and gone over to confront Gio about it. I need to get over there, and quick.

  “Thanks, Chandler. Can you and the girls hold down the fort?”

  Chandler nods quickly. “Of course.”

  I give her a forced smile and an arm squeeze before approaching the sunroom door. A sickening shudder passes through me as I cross the backyard to the wall and start to climb. Something bad is about to happen. The knowledge twists my gut and makes me almost feel sick. I reluctantly hop down from the wall and approach Gio’s back door.

  I cross through the back rooms to the entryway and start up the staircase. My knees wobble as I grip the railing for dear life. When I reach his door, I don’t hear any noise coming from inside the room, and my stomach lurches.

  Please…please tell me this isn’t what I think it is…

  I push the door open and clamp both hands over my mouth to stifle my cry of horror. Pain like nothing I’ve felt before slices through my chest. I stagger back a step, feeling unsteady and not sure if I even want to maintain consciousness.

  The guy I thought I knew so well is standing in the middle of his bedroom in nothing but his boxers, blissfully tangled up in my sister’s arms, lips, and legs.

  “Gio,” I choke out, hating how strangled and close to tears my voice sounds.

  Gio and Raven startle and let go of each other’s lips. They both turn to me with terror etched onto their faces. Gio sets her down and I’m relieved to find they’re not fully undressed yet.

  “Madness, I…I thought she was you—” “Liar!” Raven’s eyes flash with anger and her head snaps to him. “You just called me ‘Red’ and told me how much you love me. Have you been seeing her too?”

  Gio looks between the two of us, dumbfounded.

  “I, uh…I—”

  “Gio, what’s going on?” My voice wobbles. A traitor tear slides down my cheek.

  His chest heaves with labored breath. I’ve never seen him look so scared. “Look, I can explain—”

  “Explain what, you worthless manwhore?” Raven’s hand whips across his cheek with a resounding smack. “You’ve been seeing both of us behind each other’s back! You are such a piece of bloody scum!”

  The diamond bracelet Gio said was meant for me is clasped around my sister’s wrist. Behind him, I can see the painting of my face on Wonder Woman’s body still on the easel just to his right…except now I realize that wasn’t me. The smooth jaw, the generous body frame…none of this was for me. He was just practicing for her. The bracelet on her wrist proves it.

  My own anger kindles inside me and flames to match hers. I step forward to join Raven in her tirade.

  “You told me that bracelet was meant for me,” I yell. “How could you?”

  Gio takes several steps back, shielding himself with outstretched hands.

  “Ladies, please…I’m sorry. We can work through this.”

  Raven ignores him, turns to me, and notices a stray tear that slipped down my cheek. Her eyes soften with sympathy.

  “Hey…come here.” She pulls me into her arms and clings to me. “I don’t blame you for this,

  Madison. It’s all his fault.”

  “Worthless…piece of…shit,” I sob.

  She turns me toward the door. “Let’s get out of here, sis.”

  “No!” Gio chases after us and grasps my arm from the side. When I look up into his eyes, they seem so familiar and yet so foreign. I don’t know why I never noticed how distant his expression is when he’s talking to me. It’s almost as if he’s imagining someone else.

  “Madness, I swear, I thought she was you. She’s lying. Can’t you see she’s just being deceitful again?”

  Searching his face one more time for nonexistent sincerity, I jerk my arm away and shake my head.

  “No. Gio, we’re done. Give it up.”

  I move forward to exit with Raven, but when I look up toward the door, I notice Kiki standing just outside taping us on her smartphone. She gasps and tries to put the phone away in time, but she’s not quick enough. My heart clenches with realization.

  Kiki was taping us the whole time. That means this was planned.

  That means Raven was in on this all along. “Raven…” I turn to her with eyes wide open, terrified by the monster I trusted to comfort me just a second ago. Her entire expression has changed.

  She’s looking at me with a villainous smirk instead of sisterly love.

  “We’ll be bigger than ever after this,” she says with a Cheshire cat grin.

  I draw back in panic. “You planned this? You set me up for heartbreak just so you could make some video about us both getting our hearts broken?” “Gio’s quite the talented actor, isn’t he?” Raven’s low chuckle undoes me, and I start shaking violently.

  “He knew about this all along. I must say, I’m quite pleased with his results. I’ll have to use him again soon.”

  The tears flow freely when I glance up at Gio. His protests have died on his lips and been replaced with a smirk—the same one I saw that first day of school.

&
nbsp; It has to be true. They planned this whole thing. I’m not sure how long they’ve been at it, but whatever the case, I have only one question for my sister.

  “How, Raven? How could you use me like this?”

  She shrugs, her face hardening. “We’ve both been using each other all along. This was just part of the plan. You’ll get over him. It’s not like there aren’t a million guys out there who are going to want you after this.”

  My eyes dart around the room, searching for escape. I finally locate the door through the blur of my tears.

  “I have to get out of here.”

  “Madison, stop!”

  Paying no attention to Raven, I run out the door and as my feet pound down the stairs, I hold in my sobs, trying my best not to unravel until I’m out of this place. After a somewhat garbled explanation, the housekeeper opens the gate for me and I run blindly down the long driveway and through the Abates’s front gate, straight into a mob of photographers who are waiting for me.

  Flashing lights obscure my vision. The world turns into a sheet of white with little black dots of the night peeking through. Voices scream at me—

  “Madison, what just happened?”

  “What’s going on in there?”

  “Are you all right?”

  “Can you tell us why you’re crying?”

  I turn around and dart back through the gate to climb the wall. My stilettos scratch against the stone and I somehow manage to get down into my yard without even a scrape. Somewhere deep inside, I realize this is the last time I’m ever going to climb this wall. Sobs tear from my throat as I settle against it and fall to a sitting position. I don’t have the strength to move. I can’t even process what just happened and I’m not sure I want to.

  Several minutes later, someone runs out of the front door of the mansion. I hear Chandler yell, “There she is!”

  Some blurry people run toward me. I’m not even aware of the fact that Logan has scooped me up in his arms until he presses a soft kiss to the side of my head.

  “Sweets, it’s okay. It’s going to be okay.” Logan. Thank goodness it’s Logan. That’s all I can think as relief floods my frame.

  “Get me out of here,” I beg, clinging to him. “Please, get me out of here.”

  “Okay. I’m taking you home with me,” he whispers. He starts to carry me across the yard to his truck.

  “Wait!” Chandler calls out behind us. “The party guests…”

  “Oh yeah…” Logan pauses for a minute to think. Then a note of mischief enters his voice. “Watch this.”

  Logan carries me inside the mansion and deposits me on the staircase in Chandler’s care while he heads over to the DJ’s stand. He takes the mic from the DJ and his deep voice blasts through the entire house. “Listen up, everybody! The douchebag next door called the police on us and ratted us out. Said minors were getting high and wasted and shit. Y’all better get out of here now if you don’t want to get in trouble.”

  Loud murmurs begin and people scramble for their possessions and dates as they hurry out the front door. A few tough guys insist they don’t have to leave because they’re twenty-one, but Logan informs them they are going to leave or they’ll be charged with trespassing. Thirty minutes later, the entire house is cleared, and Kelsey arrives back on the property to stay with the house. Logan scoops my limp frame back up in his arms and carries me out to his waiting truck to take me to his apartment for the night.

  When Logan sets me in his passenger seat, I buckle myself in, my movements wooden and lifeless. He slides into the driver’s seat, cranks the ignition with a fury, and as he moves to drive us away, he blares his horn and spews profanities at the photographers who try to block our exit. He rolls his window down and howls:

  “I’ll run your asses down, you fucking trespassers! Move out of my fucking way!” I would be laughing if it weren’t for the pain that’s still tearing at my chest. Thank God for Logan and his road rage. If it weren’t for him, I don’t know what I would be doing right now.

  It’s a long drive to Logan’s apartment and silent except for the Sirius Octane channel. I’ve told Logan about my love for that channel on more than one occasion. Even so, I’m impressed that he thought to turn it on without even asking me. The music flushes me out and helps me think clearly once again.

  Raven and Gio were plotting against me all along.

  I can hardly believe it, yet somehow I’m not surprised. What I can’t understand is how anyone could be so heartless. How could Gio look me in the eyes and tell me how much I meant to him if it wasn’t true? How could Raven do something this cold and unfeeling to her own sister? They had to go through a lot to plan this whole charade and a terrifying amount of deception. It’s clear I underestimated both of them. I never knew anyone could be so cruel.

  Before I can stop them, the tears start up again. The darkness of the car allows me to let them pour like a silent rain. This life I forced myself back into is an underworld of heartache and shattered dreams.

  Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Hollywood—whatever you call it—I now see it as my doom instead of my wonderland. I don’t know if I’m ever going to trust anyone in this awful place again.

  I feel something warm and rough brush against my hand and realize Logan is reaching for me. I turn my hand over and clasp his, thankful for the lifeline. He squeezes my hand tightly.

  “Whenever you’re ready, you can tell me all about it,” he whispers in the darkness. “For now, just know that if you want to, it’s okay to cry in front of me.”

  October 31

  Fuck Titles

  Three words:

  Worst.

  Birthday.

  Ever.

  As I lock my phone and drop it on the granite-topped island, Logan comes over in front of where I’m sitting on a stool with a bottle of vodka, a bottle of cranberry juice, a martini glass, and an orange. Before he went over to the liquor cabinet, he asked me what I wanted to drink, and all I could do was mutter one word:

  “Cosmo.”

  A word Gio used in his texts to Dalton keeps coming back to me.

  Blindsided.

  Now I’m the one who’s been blindsided, both by Raven and by him. There’s a gaping hole in my heart that I’m not sure will ever be filled. The only thing keeping me from going over the edge is Logan and his martini-mixing skills. Having a friend who’s both a bartender and a cook lifts my luck level up a few notches.

  Still, it’s pretty damn low right now.

  Logan hands me a perfectly mixed Cosmo. I squeeze the orange slice into the drink, swirl it rapidly, and chug the thing in ten seconds flat.

  “Another,” I rasp.

  Logan pours me four more drinks before he cuts me off. Then he leads me to the partitioned-off area to the right where there’s a plush beige couch, a matching chair, and a big TV. He lets me lie down against an extraordinarily comfy pillow on the couch and takes his place in the chair near me.

  “Are you ready to tell me what happened?” he asks gently.

  A silent tear runs down my cheek. I stare straight ahead and everything in the room goes double with my lack of focus. I can’t speak. I can’t think. All I can do is ache.

  Logan waits until I’m ready, and then finally, once the alcohol begins to seep into my veins, I sob out my story. Logan moves to sit under me on the couch so he can hold me against him. I let him cradle me in his arms to keep me from falling apart as I tell him every last detail, all the way from the beginning of the summer until now. At the end, the muscles in his arms are rigid. I hear him snorting his anger.

  “If I ever run into either one of those little bitches, they’ll be dead before they feel my fist pancaking their faces. What a fucked-up thing to do, especially to your own sister.”

  “I just don’t understand,” I sob. “Am I really that bad? Did I deserve to be used like this?”

  “No.” Logan pulls me tightly against him, pressing his head down on top of mine. “Fuck no.

  From wha
t you’ve told me, they’ve done nothing but use you and treat you like shit. I’ve never been so mad. I’m about to go back to his house and blow holes in both their heads.”

  I smile against him through my lingering tears. The vodka is slowly filling me with a warm, lifted, fuzzy feeling. His body pressed against mine feels really damn good. I wipe my tears with the backs of my hands and snuggle into him.

  “Thanks, Logan. You saved me. I don’t know what I did to deserve a friend like you.”

  He brushes my hair back from my face and gazes down at me. “Madison, you are a beautiful, kind, caring person who unfortunately doesn’t fit in with all the fame-hungry jackasses here in Hollywood. You deserve way better than me. I’m glad I was there to help you out, though. If it makes you feel any better, you looked smoking hot tonight. Way better than her.”

  A lazy grin creeps onto my face. “Really?”

  He nods, the corner of his mouth curling up with just a hint of amusement. Everything inside me pulls me toward his delectable-looking lips. They’re even more appetizing than the éclairs I salivated over all night long.

  “Are you sure you should be saying that with your girlfriend gone?” I tease.

  Logan’s face falls. “Yeah, about that…I did some spying. Turns out my intuition was right.” A muscle in his jaw twitches. “His name is Chaz. Apparently he’s better than me in every way.”

  “Oh God, Logan…” I snuggle into his shoulder, truly saddened for him. “I’m so sorry.”

  He breathes out a ragged sigh. “I don’t know what to do. Part of me wants to toss her out on her ass, but she moved here with me and doesn’t have any place to stay. I don’t want to make a person homeless.”

  I shrug. “Let him take her in. Who gives a damn?”

  Logan tenses against me. Then he nods and says, “You know what? You couldn’t be any more right.” I feel him shake his head against mine. “I’ll take care of this tomorrow.”