Bad Apple_A Stepbrother Romance

by Stephanie Brother

  “All right,” I murmured. “Well, I’m here now, so you can go and do whatever it was you were doing before.”

  My words only seemed to make him angrier, and he sneered at me.

  “You still haven’t answered my question, Claire. Where exactly were you? What were you doing that you managed to get home this late?”

  “I was at work, Rogue,” I said again, frowning as I started feeling a bit annoyed myself. “I’ve already told you so, haven’t I? Unlike some of us, I have a job. A job, Rogue. Some of us need those. And maybe if you were smarter and got one yourself, you might not have ended up where you did.”

  I saw his eyes widen at my words, then narrow. I hid back a wince, wondering if I had maybe taken it a bit too far with that statement, but there was nothing I could do about it. The words were already out there, and I went stiff, waiting for his comeback.

  So, it surprised me when he decided to back down.

  “Your food is in the fucking kitchen. In the fucking trash,” he growled. “But then I realized that something could have happened to you. So, I left mine out for you to eat. Kinda serves me right for getting so fucking angry.”

  Wait, what? Did he make dinner? I went into the kitchen just to check, and sure enough, there it sat on the counter. It was covered, and I almost wished there was nothing underneath it, but I was hungry. And underneath the cover, was food.

  … Shit.

  Rogue made me dinner. This bratty kid with the huge ego and ridiculous sex drive actually took the time to cook dinner for me, and it looked and tasted good. I tasted it and nearly cried. When was the last time I had homemade food? I couldn’t remember, because more often than not I survived on frozen foods and instant meals. Not because I didn’t have the time, but because even when I did, I wasn’t that great a cook.

  Was he waiting for me to come so we could eat together?

  I couldn’t imagine it. That Rogue could be that kind of person. I didn’t think he’d be so considerate to cook me dinner in the first place.

  Still, even if I was a little touched, his attitude was still atrocious. Did he think I was like him? Going out nights to look for men, to drink, to gamble. Other than work, and work-related business, I rarely ever went out. It wasn’t my fault that it was so late when I left the office. And there was some light traffic on the road that delayed me a bit more.

  As it turned out, quite a few people didn’t sleep nights.

  I looked at the food for a long time, before sitting down at the small dining table to eat. Before I knew it, I’d eaten it all.

  Again, I felt guilty. It felt like Rogue was trying to make this whole living together thing work. Mom would be happy to hear it, but it only gave me complicated feelings after last night. He hadn't even said a thing about what happened last night, but that might just be because he was angry at me. If he tried to bring it up later, could I still escape?

  I washed the dishes and went to my bedroom, feeling done with this day. But I stopped at the doorway because right in the middle of my bed, was Rogue.

  “Why are you in my bed?” I blurted out.

  There was no way I was sleeping with him in my bed again. Before I could speak up again, he got up.

  Fuck!

  I didn’t even thank him for cooking, but as I saw his eyes averted from me as he stomped out of the room. Then he slammed a second door open and shut, and it wasn’t in the direction it should have been coming from.

  “Oh fuck!”

  He went out. Was he an idiot? I didn’t have to guess where he would go or what he would do, but did he even realize the situation he was in? He was still on parole, and if he was careless, they might just decide to throw him back in the slammer, and who did he think was going to go and pick him up again?

  Not me. Even if the beef casserole was fucking delicious.

  I thought for a moment, before deciding to let it go. There was nothing I could do. He was faster than me, I didn’t know where he would go, and I doubted he would listen to me right then even if I did catch up to him. We were both feeling high strung today. And on top of everything, I hadn't gone to the hospital like I’d promised Mom I would, and I needed to go to work early tomorrow, too.

  I crawled into my bed, not even bothering to change my clothes besides taking off my coat. I curled on my side and pulled the sheets over me. Even my feeling of frustration wasn’t enough to keep me up.

  As I closed my eyes to sleep, the last thought on my mind was that Rogue and I were worlds apart.

  Chapter Eleven

  Rogue

  “Ugh,” I groaned, trying to roll over, only to flinch when I almost rolled right off the couch. “Shit.”

  I’d been out all night and didn’t get back till morning, and Claire had already gone to work when I got back. Which was just as well, because I didn’t want to hear her nagging at me. It was stupid for me to get drunk, even I knew that, but it was either that, or I would have screamed at her. Or held her down in her bed and made her beg.

  That last thought made me sigh, and I squinted my eyes open.

  I’d been drinking for too fucking long, and the joint I went to didn’t close till around eight this morning, and I was drinking up to that time, so I was technically still drunk and not hung over just yet. I didn’t know how long I’d been home for, but I’d dropped to the couch to shut my eyes for a moment because I was feeling tired and fucking exhausted.

  I dragged my body off the couch and headed for the kitchen to get some water to drink. Then I’d sleep and wake up whenever I started to feel human once again.

  After getting my water, I was about to head to bed, when there was a knock on the door. I paused, wondering if I just heard things when the sound came again.

  I was almost shocked sober. Considering Claire’s personality, it surprised me that someone would come to visit her. Did she even have friends? As far as I knew, all she ever did was work, and even after three years, it was hard to believe that had changed. I turned back to go open the door and see who it was. If it were her, she wouldn’t have been knocking in the first place.

  When I opened the door, on the opposite side was a woman in her early thirties, just a bit older than Claire, dressed in a black pants suit. She had dark hair, and her matching dark eyes paired with her blank expression made her seem a little intimidating.

  “Do you need something?” I asked. “If it’s Claire you’re looking for, she’s at work.”

  I wanted her gone quickly so I could get back to bed. The cold shoulder that I’d had from Claire would have led me to flirt with her, but there was one problem - she wasn’t my type. She seemed a lot like the Claire I’d known for the past several years, all serious and no fun, but the Claire from the other night was far from serious.

  “Rogue Rest?” the woman said, folding her arms. “I’m here for you.”

  I squinted my eyes at her face. I didn’t think I knew her from anywhere, so who the hell was she and why was she looking for me? Wait…

  “You are…” I let my voice trail off as I came to a realization.

  “Your new parole officer,” the woman said.

  No way. My heart filled with dread as I looked at the no-nonsense woman before me. I should have expected something like this to happen eventually, but I didn’t think my cop babysitter would change. The other one was at least useful in a lot of different ways.

  “What happened to Kathleen?” I asked, feeling an early headache coming on.

  The woman sighed. “You don’t need to worry about her. I am Ms. Bent. Have you been drinking Mr. Rest? You don’t need to answer that. I can smell the alcohol on your breath.”

  Shiiit.

  This was bad in a lot of ways. This Ms. Bent looked like one of those hard-asses that I never got along with, even worse than Claire. I didn’t see this relationship working out at all, especially for me, but it wasn’t like I had the right to decline it, either.

  I felt like my chances of getting tossed back to jail were getting higher.<
br />
  “I have,” I said bluntly, because there was no point in lying, anyway. She was right; I reeked of booze since I’d practically been swimming in it since last night.

  “I can have you thrown back inside in an instant, Mr. Rest,” she said, her words a clear threat even though the tone didn’t change. “I’ll give you a warning this once, but I better not find you this wasted a second time or my bosses will be getting word, you hear me?”

  The worst part was that I couldn’t read her. She kept her tone bland and her expression never shifted, though I thought I saw some disdain for me held in her dark eyes. But I didn’t doubt that she would do the things she said and that she could make life hard for me. It looked like I had to be extra careful with a while.

  “I didn’t think she would be here at this time of day, but I wanted to see Claire. I need to know what I’m up against as your new officer, and I figured I’d have better luck with her than with you.”

  “Then why did you stop by here?”

  “Because I’d hoped you’d make things easier for yourself. But who knew you’d end up doing something this stupid so soon.”

  I held back a sneer, but I so wanted to put this bitch down.

  What the fuck happened to Kathleen? Was she angry at me or something? Was it because I blew her off and left with Claire that day I got out of prison? Was she worried Claire would give her trouble or something, or was she just angry at me? I wished it would be possible to find her and ask her to take the position again, but I somehow didn’t think that was possible.

  “Seriously, what happened to Kathleen?” I asked again, feeling that dread in my chest grows heavier.

  “As I said, it’s nothing for you to worry about. I was assigned as your new patrol officer. After the last one quit.”

  I was tired, my mind felt a bit hazy from all the alcohol, and having this woman speak down to me like I was still a teenage kid was kind of irritating. It was the only excuse for what I blurted out.

  “She wasn’t good at sucking cock.”

  Shit. This woman was dangerous. The last thing I should be doing was trying to provoke her. I should wish she would leave all ready to go and see Claire, and the two of them would get along like a house on fire and leave me alone entirely, but that was just wishful thinking.

  Her expression still didn’t change much, but I thought I saw her face twitch a bit at my remark before she huffed.

  “If it wasn’t for your father,” she said. “I would consider sending you back to where you belong right now, Rogue Rest.”

  Dammit, is this really how low I’d fallen? I remembered how life had been three years ago. I didn’t gave a fuck about anything and did whatever I wanted. If someone gave me shit, I would give them a beat down and move on. Right then, though, I felt pathetic as this new officer of mine, who reminded me more of an old-school headmistress, said shit about me when I knew that I couldn’t speak back at her.

  Not only because it would get me into trouble, but because there wasn’t anything I could dispute. Basically, as a convict, I was the lowest I could ever be in society.

  Ms. Bent looked like she didn’t have more to say, and was about to turn around and leave. But I still had my pride, and I wouldn’t let her have the last word.

  “I don’t do sympathy, Ms. Bent.”

  She just ignored me and went on, and that didn’t feel good, either.

  The day had only just started, and I felt exhausted and done with it already. After closing the door, I turned around to drink some water, then stop by the bathroom and then went to bed.

  Chapter Twelve

  Claire

  “These are the sections we’re going to be focusing on, so read the whole thing, but you need to memorize this part, do you understand?”

  I nodded along to what Simon was saying, looking at the documents in my hands. I wondered if I’d received the full document or if he was keeping parts of it away from me. I’d skimmed several pages before stopping where he’d highlighted, and a lot of the info seemed strange. Or maybe he just didn’t want to reveal all his cards to me, yet. I was a little surprised that he was treating me as an actual partner and not just a lowly assistant. If he were just treating me as an assistant, he’d get me to do all the research and do the more important parts himself, but he was including me in everything.

  It didn’t stop me from being suspicious, but it did lower my guard a little bit.

  “We have a while until the next meeting, so read up. There’s some research material at the end of the document that you should also look into. I’ll be doing my homework, and when we meet up again we can compare notes then, all right?”

  “It’s fine,” I murmured.

  I picked up a pen to put a mark at a few points. If this were going to need a lot of research, it would be a serious pain. But if ever there was a time to take a job seriously, this was it. If I failed this, I might as well say goodbye to my job.

  There was a knock at the door that made us both look up. Simon gave a heavy, annoyed sigh.

  “Who is it at this time of night?” he muttered, moving to get up.

  “I can get the door,” I said quickly, moving to stand up.

  “It’s fine,” he said, waving me off. “It’ll just be a moment. We’re not completely done for today yet. We still need to close this meeting.”

  He opened the door, and I leaned forward to try and look around him at who was at the door.

  “Excuse me, sir,” the woman standing in front of him said. “There’s someone looking for Claire.”

  My eyebrows shot up in surprise. Someone was looking for me? Then my eyes narrowed. No way…it couldn’t be Rogue, could it? I hadn't told him where I worked, to begin with, but this was the first time someone had come looking for me at work.

  Simon looked around at me, frowning a little, and I smoothed my expression into an apologetic one.

  “I’m sorry,” I said, standing up. “Who’s looking for me?”

  “She says her name is Ms. Brent?”

  I frowned. I didn’t know someone by that name. And I didn’t know a lot of people, to begin with so it wasn’t like I could forget.

  “Simon…” I said, turning to him.

  He sighed. “We can take a break right now, go see whoever it is. Come back as soon as you’re finished, don’t take more than ten minutes. We still have to close this meeting. I’m sure I don’t need to remind you to take this job seriously, right, Claire?”

  “Of course, sir,” I said.

  I followed after the woman as she led me down to my floor. She pointed the woman out to me, but she was standing by my desk, so it was hard to miss her regardless. I eyed the woman up as I walked closer to her, and she did the same to me. We were dressed more or less the same in pantsuits; only hers was a solid color and mine was navy with thin white stripes. She had dark hair that she’d left loose to fall down her back.

  She looked like the no-nonsense kind of person I liked because they wouldn’t waste my time.

  “Hello, Ms. Brent,” I said, reaching my hand out for a shake. “I’m Claire. I was told you were looking for me?”

  “Yes. I’m here regarding your step-brother, Rogue.”

  That surprised me, but I knew better than to let it show. What did she want from Rogue? She didn’t look like the kind of woman he would go for, so I didn’t think she was an old fling of his or anything.

  “Why don’t we sit down?” I offered, waving at the seat in front of my desk, and rounding it to sit in my chair.

  As we sat down, we were both still sizing each other up.

  “What can I help you with, Ms. Brent?” I asked.

  “I’m Rogue’s new parole officer,” she said.

  My eyebrow jumped up. “Oh? Kathleen quit, then? Did you come here to speak to me about Rogue, then?”

  “No,” she said plainly. “I just came to see who you are.”

  I was shocked that Kathleen had quit. I didn’t blame her, after all. Rogue acted like an ass t
o a lot of women, so he got dumped quickly if he didn’t do the dumping first. But she was his new parole officer, so she was at least supposed to care a bit about him, right?

  “Why do you think we don’t need to talk about Rogue?” I asked slowly.

  “Well, I’m sure you know that better than I do, yes? Rogue is in a bad way, Claire. Not to say that I’ll neglect my duties in any way, but if you have any sense, you will throw that man out so he can go to jail. Him outside is doing no one any good.”

  I frowned at her blunt answer. “Excuse me?”

  “He’s a lost cause, Claire. I’ve seen many guys like him. He won’t change. He’s going to do something stupid that will violate his parole, and he’ll be going back soon enough. You doing this will just be helping him along, you know. It would be better for everyone involved.”

  I fisted my hands underneath the desk. I also tried to control my expression before something leaked out, though I wasn’t sure myself exactly how I felt.

  True, in the beginning, I felt the same about him. Rogue was an annoying, selfish bastard who didn’t put anyone ahead of himself. I didn’t think he’d do well outside of prison, either. Who knew how he managed to get out early on good behavior. I didn’t doubt that he’d find a way to send himself back there.

  After less than two days, though, those thoughts had changed. Yeah, he had been annoying yesterday, but at least he’d tried to be considerate. And I had seen him show emotions that I didn’t believe he was capable of, which meant the real him was buried underneath the asshole still.

  There wasn’t any choice in this.

  “I won't kick him out,” I said with as much confidence as she’d spoken.

  “It really would be for the best,” she said. “It would certainly save me the trouble of having to babysit him when he’s not going to change and it will mean just filling in more paperwork. Seriously, I could do without the hassle.”

  She was annoying me. She knew nothing about Rogue or me. Then again, she’d made it clear that she didn’t care. All she was worried about was the paperwork.