by Tijan
There was nudity.
“Yeah.” I made a hurry-up motion with my hand. “We need you to drive us somewhere. Get dressed.”
Logan was heading back to the hallway. He slapped a hand on Nate’s wall. “Get your ass in gear, Monson. We’ve got a mission to fuck some shit up.”
Nate growled, but we heard him moving around as we left. Logan went to change, but I was ready to go. This wasn’t a smart decision, but I didn’t care. I filled my glass again as I waited.
Logan’s grin was wicked when he saw my fourth glass. “This is what I love.” He filled his fourth too, and we went to the kitchen until Nate showed moments later. He stopped in the entryway, dressed in jeans and a black sweatshirt.
He eyed us. “Do I even want to ask?”
Logan pointed to me. “He and Sam are kind of engaged, but kind of not. She said no at first.”
Nate’s eyes rounded in surprise. “Really?”
I didn’t want to talk about it, and I downed the rest of my drink. “Let’s go.”
“Where are we going?”
Logan finished his too, leaving the glass on the table. He grabbed Nate’s car keys from the wall where they were hanging and hurled them to him. “You’re driving. We’re doing a road trip to Adam Quinn’s place.”
“Are you serious?”
Logan nodded, pulling his phone out. We were heading out to Nate’s vehicle when someone answered his call.
“Tate!” he said. “Hey, you owe me one.” He paused. “I don’t give a shit what time of night it is. Where’s your cousin’s ex-douchebag staying these days? Call it a hunch, but I’ve a feeling she’ll know.” He waited again, then said, “Okay. Got it. Thanks, and hey.” His voice turned ominous. “Don’t think ahead of yourself and give someone a heads-up. Got it?”
As we got into Nate’s truck, he said, “Adam’s staying at the cabin to get away from the news media. Apparently, they haven’t located the cabin yet.”
Nate started the engine.
I looked back. “His parents?” I was sure his dad was out on bail.
Logan’s grin looked a little dangerous. “Daddy dearest is in town so he can meet with his lawyers more easily. His mom is in Fallen Crest too. Adam’s alone.”
I’d once whispered to Adam that if he fucked with my life, with Sam, with anyone I loved, I was going to end him. I didn’t know how, or when, but one day he would look around and realize no one was there to help him.
That day had come.
SAMANTHA
Something wasn’t right.
I felt it even before I woke up, and when I did, I knew Mason wasn’t next to me. I had no reason to know something was going on, but I did, and I acted on that instinct. I dressed, pulled my hair up into a ponytail, and went to wake Taylor. I wasn’t surprised to see that Mason, Logan, and Nate were gone. I checked the kitchen, living room, outside, and Nate’s room as I went up to Logan’s room.
Taylor was curled over on her side, her body rising and falling in deep breaths.
“Hey.” I tapped her on the shoulder. “Taylor.”
She woke with a gasp, whirling over to stare at me. She clutched the blanket. “Who—Sam?” Recognition eased away her panic. She ran a hand through her hair, blinking and squinting at me. “What are you doing here?”
“Something’s wrong.” I couldn’t explain it. “The guys are gone. I think they’re going to do something bad.”
“Like what?”
She hadn’t been around for all those fights. She’d seen them defend her, save her from her friend’s enemies, but that was it. Logan had shielded her from the dirty stuff. I wouldn’t do the same. She needed to know, but for now I just shook my head.
“I don’t know. It’s just a feeling I have. We need to find them.”
“Okay.” She rose and reached for a robe, then paused as she took in my getup: jeans and a sweatshirt, all black. She let out a wary breath. “Why do I feel like I’m not going to be getting back to sleep anytime soon?”
I turned and headed for the door. “Because you’re not.”
I went downstairs to wait for her and pulled up a tracking app I’d put on Mason’s phone. He knew about it. He wanted one on mine, so I insisted on one for his phone too. I’d also put it on Logan’s phone. He just didn’t know about it, or I doubted he did. He had so many apps on there.
“Where are we going?” Taylor asked as she appeared.
I held my phone up. “You drive. I’ll tell you where to go.”
We got into her car, and she pulled out a moment later.
I looked down at the dot on the screen that was Mason and said, “Head out of town. We’re going back to Fallen Crest.”
MASON
“Do we have a plan?”
Nate asked the question after we’d been on the road for three hours. First we had to go toward Fallen Crest, and then we’d been taking a county road north for the last half hour. We were getting close.
Logan leaned forward. “Besides picking a fight?”
Nate frowned. “I thought we were just going to throw some fireworks in his car or something.”
Logan snorted, falling back to his seat. “Right. Because we’re traveling three hours just to pop some sparklers in his car. You’re kidding, right? Are you not with the program?”
“Well, you two are drunk.”
Logan hid a grin. We’d brought the bourbon with us, though the drive was starting to sober me up. Logan rolled his eyes in the rearview mirror before shaking his head.
“What?” Nate looked at me, then Logan in the mirror. “We’re not really going to do anything. We can’t. Mason, you just went on television and pointed the finger at him.”
“He’s at the cabin,” Logan said. “He’s hiding.”
Nate looked back to Logan in the mirror again. “And that means what?”
“You really think we’re going to not do anything? He tried to frame Mason. He could’ve fucked his entire football career. He broke into the house. He was in your room, dude. Your room. He didn’t actually get to Mason’s, because he went to both of our rooms first. What if he planted that virus on your computer?”
Nate straightened in his seat, like he hadn’t thought of it that way. His hands gripped the steering wheel. “What are you saying? You think he put that shit on my computer?”
“I was with you when you checked your room. Your computer was on. It’s not password-protected. He could’ve.”
A vein popped out of the side of Nate’s neck. “Are you messing with me, Logan?”
“That’s the point.” Logan’s tone cooled. “Quinn’s not some fucking innocent, and you have to stop treating him like he is.” Logan’s eyes skirted to mine as he said to Nate, “And you know it.”
Nate quieted for a minute, then looked to me. “Are you going to hurt him?”
I wanted to end him.
“We’ll see what happens,” I said.
“Which means Mason’s going to wait and see what we can do without getting into trouble.”
I grinned back at my brother. “It’s like you know me.”
He shot back an answering grin. “Only since the day I was born.”
The cabin came into view, and Nate cut the lights, turning down the long driveway. He parked, still close to the highway.
“Just don’t do anything that could get you arrested,” he said. “Shit’s different now that we have to be mature.”
Logan got out and shut his door. “Mature? What’s that?”
I got out next to him. “I think it’s some type of STD.”
Logan barked out a laugh, then tried to quiet himself. “I suppose I’d be the one to know what it is then.”
Nate caught the end of the conversation as we met at the back end of his car. He skimmed Logan up and down. “You have an STD?”
“Only if it’s called maturity, and I’m pretty sure I have an ointment for it.”
We both started laughing.
Nate shook his head. “Mason, you
need to sober up. I can’t handle it when you drink like this. You’re just like Logan, only quieter.”
“Hey.” Logan kept laughing, his shoulders shaking. “Oh, fuck. I just lost what I was going to say.”
“Thank you.” Nate’s eyes flickered upward, then back to us. He was smiling, though. “All right, guys. I asked before, but you didn’t answer. What’s the plan?”
They turned to me. The jokes were done, and slowly, everything started to come back to me. I remembered Adam. I remembered all the shit he’d done to us over the years, but I especially remembered that one time at Nate’s cabin. He’d been talking to Sam in a hallway, and I could see how he was moving in. He was grinning and flirting with her, and I remember how my blood went cold. Sam was mine, and I didn’t want to remind him of it. I wanted to show him.
I’d set him straight, going in for the kill. “What do you want here?”
I asked him that, and he had pretended to be surprised. Maybe he had been. Or maybe he was surprised that I was calling him out. If he wanted Sam, he had to man up and show me he was even a worthy opponent.
He hadn’t been. “What are you talking about?”
That had only made me more pissed. “What do you think, dickhead? What do you want? Her?”
I wanted it all out on the table. I wanted Sam to know who she was dealing with.
“What do you want? Yes, I want her. I want her, okay?”
I grinned now, remembering it like it happened yesterday. That’s what I wanted. I had wanted him out and exposed, where he couldn’t hide anymore. “How long have you wanted her?” I asked him then.
“Since seventh grade . . .”
I remembered Sam had started to become uncomfortable. She’d felt pity for him, but I wouldn’t allow it. No. I moved so she was behind me, and I did it slowly, smoothly, almost so Adam didn’t notice at first.
He tried to come back at me, saying I wanted Sam too.
Hell yes, you fucker.
Then I’d felt Sam behind me. She’d pressed her body against mine, and I felt her trembling. Her heart was beating so fast, but I knew it wasn’t because she was scared. I wasn’t going to let her claim that. She was trembling because of me, because I was staking my claim, because as I told Quinn she was going to be mine, I was letting her know too. And she was almost wet because of it.
Then Adam had started to squirm. I saw the hesitancy on his face. He was going to take it back.
“I’m not denying it,” I had told him. “But I’m not going to screw another girl wishing she were Sam. I’m not going to do that. You know why?”
I went in for the kill then and turned to Sam. I had been doing this for her too. She couldn’t deny me either. She couldn’t hide.
I had pressed into her. My knee wedged between her legs, and I felt her throbbing. She closed her eyes, feeling what I could give her. And I had moved closer, nuzzling against her cheek. She sagged into me so I was holding her up, and then . . .
Her hands had slid up my arms, over my shoulders, and began to knead the back of my neck. Even now, my heart picked up as I remembered. I felt it all over again. I could feel her in my arms as I pressed her against the wall back then.
I had cupped her ass, and she wrapped those long, toned legs around me. She pressed against me.
She was mine, then and now.
Quinn had been there, but that moment was all mine. I lifted her from the wall. I had wanted to feel all of her weight against me.
A tremor wracked through her, and I kissed her ear, her cheek, her neck. I was whispering to her about something else, but everything had been about her.
“Mason,” she had breathed out.
There. Right there, she had succumbed to me.
I turned to Quinn. “This is why I’ll never do what you have to do. I have her. I won’t have to dream about her.”
And it hadn’t stopped there. He’d still wanted Sam. He’d tried to be her friend, and he’d held her when she cried on his shoulder. That was the worst, when I heard how he’d been there for her, and I hadn’t. That one burned deep.
“He was our first, you know,” Logan said, pulling me out of my memories.
I looked over to him now. I knew what he meant.
Nate didn’t. He frowned. “Huh?”
“We had our fights and rivalries, but Adam was the first one we fought for Sam. He wanted her, and he kept trying to take her from us.”
From us.
From me.
We’d called a truce, but that had ended this past summer. We weren’t fighting Adam for Sam anymore—but I couldn’t help but wonder if we were. Did he still want her, in some deep part of himself? Had our dad’s beef been an excuse for him to make one more go at her?
I started forward. “Let’s go.”
There was no plan, but it was time to deal with Adam.
Falling silent, Nate and Logan followed me, and we found Adam outside on the patio. He lounged on a bench with a cigar in his hand. The smoke trailed up into the air as he exhaled. He was raising the cigar to his mouth again when he saw us.
He jerked up, and his eyes became panicked as he looked out into the darkness. I could see the whites rounding, and then he scrambled to his feet.
“What are you doing here?”
There was a quiver of fear in his voice.
I moved forward. “If you were to take a guess?”
His eyes narrowed, and he began to ease toward the door. “I’m not alone, you know.”
“You got some chick in there?” Logan craned his neck to see. “Because our intel says you’re here all alone.”
Nate added, “You’re hiding.”
“Yeah.” Adam growled at me. “Thanks for that press conference, by the way. It really helped my dad’s case.”
“You’re the fuckhead who broke into our house.”
I was seconds from grabbing him. I tried to remember why I shouldn’t. There was a voice in my head—was it Sam’s? She wouldn’t want me to hurt him, but he wouldn’t go away. We did the right thing at our house. We let him off. We didn’t hurt him, nothing. There might’ve been some humiliation, but he walked away from the house on two legs. And he would keep coming back.
“What am I going to do with you, Quinn?” I gave him a hard look as I stepped up on the patio.
“What are you doing?” He jumped in front of the door, still holding his cigar. He looked down at the cigar, then back to me, and put it down, laying it on the bench he’d been sitting on.
“Get out of my way.”
“Mas—”
Nate and Logan jerked into action. They grabbed him, but instead of pushing him behind us, Nate opened the door, and Logan pushed him inside. I stepped through last, circling the living room. Rap music played throughout the house, but it was low, and the smell of bourbon mixed with the cigar.
“Well, looky here.” Logan shoved Adam back one more time before going over to the liquor cabinet and reaching for the glass. An ugly smirk showed on his face as he picked up Adam’s glass. “You celebrating something, Quinn?” He lifted the glass to his nose, took a whiff, and tossed the liquid to the floor.
“Hey!” Adam started forward, but Nate moved in front of him now, shoving him back. Adam took a breath, staring at Nate for a second before looking past him to Logan. He turned to me. “What are you going to do?”
“I made you a promise a long time ago.”
Did he remember?
“I promised that if you fucked with me, Sam, or anyone I loved, I’d end you. I’d take away everything you hold close.” I gestured around the room. “I’d take your home. I’d take your girl. I’d take your money. And I’d take your reputation. Then I’d leave you alone, but not before I ruined you. We’ve decided it’s time to follow through.”
Adam started to laugh. “What? What can you do to me now?”
“You’re going to watch.” I nodded to Logan. He knew what to do, and he took off.
“Wha—” Adam pressed against Nate. “Is he
looking for something?”
“What do you think? I just told you what we’re going to do. Think, Adam! Guess what we’re doing.” And as he frowned and pulled back from Nate, I looked to my best friend. “Mind taking one for the team? For a while anyway?”
Nate cocked his head to the side, then groaned. “Are you serious?”
He knew.
I nodded. “Sam said you liked Becky.”
He groaned again, letting his head fall back. “Seriously, Mason? I don’t want to date Becky Sallaway.”
“What?” Adam’s eyes locked on us. “What did you say?!”
He surged toward us, but Nate and I both lifted a lazy hand. We pushed him back, and he fell to a couch behind him.
I dropped my voice. “Just for a little bit. You want to date that other chick right now, anyway? This could get messy.”
“Sam’s going to know.”
“Sam doesn’t have to find out right away. And yes, Becky will know, but she’s not going to care.”
We turned as one toward Adam, who was shaking his head, his hands in his hair.
“I have a feeling she’ll take you up on a date,” I told Nate. “Maybe more than a couple times even.”
“Okay.” Nate pulled out his phone and dialed. “It’s late, but maybe she’s awake. I think Sam called her from my phone once. Let’s see if she still wants to talk to us.”
“Be—” Adam surged to his feet, yelling for Becky.
I rounded on him, my hand cocked, and hit him in the face. He fell back to the couch almost in the same motion as standing, like he was jerked back by the couch itself. I knocked him out.
Nate turned and grinned at me, his eyes on Adam. He ended the call. “What he doesn’t know, right?”
I grunted, heading into the bedroom Adam used. Logan found me a few minutes later. I was sitting on the edge of Adam’s bed.
“All the security footage is destroyed. We’re covered.” He nodded to the camera I had in my hand. “What’s that?”
I handed it over to him. “Push Play.”
He did, and a girl’s moans came from the machine.
Logan’s eyes widened. “Holy shit. Is this . . . ?” He pressed Pause. I stood as he zoomed in on the naked girl on Adam’s bed. She was spread-eagle, her tits and everything showing as he bent over, kissing between her legs. She had a blindfold on, and her arms were handcuffed to the bedposts. “Yeah, that’s Sullivan.”
