To One Hundred (#dirtysexygeeks #1)

by Melissa Blue

  “Your sister’s here,” Wade said after pulling into her apartment’s parking lot.

  She lived right in the front and only had to glance up to see her door. No one stood outside her apartment or her balcony. So she searched the parking lot and found her sister’s car next to hers.

  She frowned. “How do you know what car my sister drives?”

  He smiled. It wasn’t genuine. “Didn’t you tell me?”

  She ignored the facetious question. “What did you do?”

  “I did nothing.”

  The I part of his statement threw up some red flags. If she recalled right one of their friends, Victor, was an IT geek. No telling what he’d dug up on Lauren. She narrowed her eyes. “What did Victor find out about me? Us?”

  He didn’t hesitate to answer. “What you experienced was pretty bad.”

  She nodded, her throat tight, imagining all the bad that could be found on the Internet about her. “And that’s why you felt sorry for me and came here?”

  “That, too. But if you can get over your fucking issue…that wouldn’t hurt.”

  She shouldn’t like him, but couldn’t help it. He was honest, to a fault. Loyal. Loved his brother. Funny when he wanted to be. She can see why Grady would do anything to save him. Why Wade would do anything for his brother, too.

  “Get over my issue and go back to your brother you mean?”

  “Only if you love him.” He gestured to the door. “Also, don’t tell anyone I did this.”

  She could also see why Grady wanted to maim him all the time. “Might lose your asshole street cred.”

  “Yup.” He flashed her a grin. “Get out.”

  She hesitated, thinking about what he’d done for her, before saying, “Thank you.”

  He muttered some curses as though that had crossed a line on their begrudging truce. Wade at least waited until she stepped back from the car to peel out the lot.

  Alone, again, Eva sighed then pushed back her shoulders. Her need for family, any family, had created this mess. No. That wasn’t fair.

  Lauren would have crawled out from whatever rock she hid under to throw out this ultimatum. Giving into to it, now that, was all on Eva. She had to face her sister because standing in the parking lot wouldn’t help.

  She climbed the stairs that led up to her apartment. Lauren opened the door before Eva could pull out her key.

  “Hey, Eva.”

  She had to blink at the calm, almost warm greeting. Her sister would have been checking out the window every five minutes. A man, who probably looked like Grady from a distance, had dropped her off.

  And her sister didn’t have a shitty tone?

  Wary, Eva entered her apartment. It looked the way she left it. A bit messy, but still clean. She faced her sister. “Are you here to talk?”

  “Yes, I am.” Lauren clasped her hands in front of her.

  She put up a hand to forestall any speech. “Let me go first. We can’t keep doing this.”

  Her sister nodded. “I agree.”

  Shocked, Eva took a step back. “You agree?”

  Lauren’s mouth pinched. “We’re always at odds over something. It’s exhausting. I’m tired of it, too.”

  Eva leaned in, wanting this to be real so bad her bones ached with hope. The past few days had been hell and any comfort would be a relief. But there was lonely, desperate and being just plain stupid. “This is a tire we’ve already tread. What’s different? Something’s got to give between us. I refuse to spend the rest of my life doing this back and forth.”

  Instead of answering, Lauren motioned for them to move to the couches. Eva put a hand on her hip, shook her head tiredly and then followed. They sat down, facing each other.

  The silence veered toward awkward. She wanted to sleep after crying so long on the hill and if this conversation was going to follow type, she wanted it over sooner, rather than later. Eva said, “So, how’s the weather?”

  Lauren snorted. “Pretty hot.” Once again her sister’s smile was real and warm. “I think we just have to put everything on the table.”

  Eva narrowed her eyes, wary of what came next. “Okay. This is me putting everything out there. I’ve been crying this whole week. I’m probably dehydrated. All because the man I loved broke up with me.”

  Her sister opened her mouth and closed it as though trying to fight her instinct. “You just met him.”

  Apparently her sister lost the fight.

  Eva swallowed, feeling the need to cry burning at her eyes at the dismissive tone. “That’s the thing. I met Grady months ago. He wrote like this dissertation on the Wild West on the Firefly forums. I’d seen him around but that impressed me. This show that saved me…and he loved it as much as I did. He would get into debates about it, always over historical facts. From there we talked all the time. All the time.” Her laugh was watery. “Meeting him a few weeks ago is just a detail. You don’t have to believe it or see it.” She balled her hand and pressed it to her heart. “I feel it every time I see him, hear his voice or get an alert from the board.”

  “It—”

  “Stop, Lauren.” Her temper flared and she shook trying to contain the emotion. “Just stop. I love him.”

  The words fell from her mouth without thought, but as she sat there trembling, Eva knew it was true. When Grady had ended them, she’d lost a friend, a lover…someone who knew all her ugly and still called her beautiful.

  Eva’s words seemed to hit her sister in the same way, because Lauren softened her tone. “Okay. Fine. You’ve known him for months, but seriously, Eva, you love him?”

  “Yes. Yes. It may turn to shit, but I’m not running from him. He didn’t care about my past. He cared about me. He’s not Aiden. He’s not the people who turned their backs on us.” She stopped and considered her next words. “He’s not you. His love didn’t come with conditions.”

  “I—”

  “If he’ll take me back,” she talked over her sister, “we’re going to be together.” Eva spread her hands. “Do your worst, Lauren.”

  Her sister’s face flushed. “I don’t put conditions—”

  “Yes, you do. You did. You pretty much said it was either you or him.”

  “I’d hoped that would help you see…” Her sister stopped. “I would have been in your corner. I am. That’s where I’ll always be. Don’t doubt that. Be mad at me, but don’t doubt that.”

  The insistence was genuine so Eva took it with the same intent. “Okay. I do.”

  Her sister frowned and then shook her head sadly. “You should know he’s blackmailing me.”

  Eva blinked. “What?”

  Lauren reached behind her on the couch, picked up Eva’s laptop and then shoved it toward her. Took a while to figure out what was on the screen. Eva had to hold back an instinctive ewwwwww.

  She snapped the top of the laptop because seeing her sister with her shirt up, no bra to speak of—Eye bleach! “This was emailed to you?”

  “Yes. It was sent from a bogus email. The IP address says something different every time I look it up. I can only assume it’s your boyfriend who did this.” Her sister’s pinched face turned beet red.

  Eva bit her lip, uncertain what to say because this wasn’t Grady. This also wasn’t her sister. She wouldn’t stoop this low or humiliate herself to screw with Eva’s head.

  “Okay,” she said slowly. “Those are real pictures?”

  “I deleted them.”

  “From your phone?”

  Lauren winced. “I—they were on my Myspace page. But I deleted them. I was drunk when I…accidentally posted them. It was ten years ago.”

  “How do you accidentally upload, not just one, but a series of tit-pics to a public website?”

  “I deleted them,” her sister repeated, not really answering the question.

  That didn’t mean they weren’t still floating out there in the ether. And that meant someone had hunted for dirt. Wade was a grade A prick, all right. And apparently so was Victor, the IT
geek. All when it came to Grady. She sighed. “I was too traumatized to look at the message. What did it say?”

  “Social media is forever.”

  “That’s it?”

  “The blackmail is implied.”

  Eva shook her head. “No. It’s mutual destruction. You tell the university about the affair and these pics will likely be posted.”

  Her sister straightened. “And this is the kind of man you want to spend the rest of your life with?”

  She rubbed at the headache brewing between her brows. Her sister annoyed her, but topless pictures crossed a line. “It’s not Grady. This has Wade written all over it. Grady had no problem letting his TA give me Cs when I deserved it, and we were sleeping with each other. So this—” Eva pointed to her laptop “—is Wade or Victor or both of them.”

  Her brows furrowed. “Who is that?”

  “His brother and his best friend. Wade has a temper and would go nuclear on his brother’s behalf.”

  She was going to have to deal with this. When would her life not be drama? Wait. She was going to have to talk to Grady. Her breath caught.

  “Give me my laptop,” she said, her voice tight with anticipation. “Don’t open it again. Just hand it over.”

  “Why do you think it’s not Grady?”

  Because Eva knew him. “He wouldn’t hurt someone in this way. I’m going to deal with this and then…”

  Lauren bit her lip, fighting again with her instinct to protect Eva, but finally she nodded. “Coffee, later.”

  Eva clutched the laptop to her chest, more certain than before this wasn’t Grady’s doing. Payback wasn’t beneath him. He had helped his friend disassemble a teacher’s car to put it in a classroom. But shaming someone? Not Grady. And if she wanted this dealt with, he was the only person she needed to go to.

  Nerves fluttered in her stomach because not even that logical assumption could dim the fact she was about to see him, outside the classroom. She hadn’t imagined this would be her in, but Eva would take it.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  After knocking on Grady’s door, Eva clutched her laptop. That at least would hide the violent shaking in her hands. Okay, that was probably a dramatic statement, but sweat definitely prickled her forehead as she waited. The summer’s heat had lessened this late at night, but the air still felt sticky, only adding to her discomfort.

  What would be her reception? Could he ever forgive her or trust her again? Too much was riding on this moment.

  Finally, the door opened and there Grady stood.

  But then it dawned on her there stood Grady. Yeah. Breathing became way too hard.

  His brows furrowed, next his mouth tightened and if he was the kind of man to slam doors in a woman’s face, Eva thought he would have. She’d noticed during the last week his scruff had turned into a full-on beard. His gaze was wary as he took her in. As always when he was home, he didn’t have his glasses on.

  He slipped a hand into his jeans’ pocket, as he worked his way up to a glare. “What are you doing here?” There was no warmth in the question.

  Oh, yeah. He was still pissed. That should have been her main focus but the air from the AC escaped through the open doorway. His sweet, woodsy scent hit her. She sucked in a deep breath. God she’d missed him.

  She…needed to focus, because his gaze didn’t soften as they faced off. Her apologies, her groveling wasn’t welcomed. She’d lost him. All she could do now was ensure her sister didn’t suffer the same kind of shame Eva had eight years ago.

  Eva cleared her throat and said, “I’m here to call a truce.”

  His brows didn’t even lift at her announcement. Nope. Grady leaned against his doorjamb looking bored but patient like she was a Jehovah’s Witness peddling Watchtowers. Clearly he’d revoked her rights to enter his house as a guest. He, also, didn’t speak to fill the silence.

  So she offered him her laptop. “I’m guessing Wade didn’t like that my sister threatened you.”

  He straightened before taking the computer. His expression went from shocked to confused within seconds after opening it. “Why are you showing me pictures of your sister half-naked?”

  “Apparently my sister did a pretty good impression of a girl gone wild back in the day.” At his blank stare, she added, “She threatened your job and then all of a sudden compromising pictures are sent to her email.”

  He cursed not missing the obvious connection, shaking his head. “I’m going to kill them.”

  As she’d known, he hadn’t done this. Putting dog shit in a brown paper bag, lighting it on fire and leaving that present on Lauren’s doorstep? Yeah. Grady might do that. Filling her sister’s car with packing peanuts? He’d cackle like an ol’ school evil villain the entire time.

  “Them?” she pushed.

  “My guess would be Victor. And Wade. They don’t always get the nuance of what’s fucked up when it comes to revenge.” A troubled expression deepened the lines around his mouth. “Mostly Victor, though. He’s uh…”

  Grady trailed off as if he realized he wasn’t supposed to be talking to her openly, especially not about a best friend’s secrets.

  Instead of finishing his sentence, he handed her back the laptop and stepped into his house. He’d left the door open.

  She followed him inside, closing the door behind her. The house was clean just like the last time, the scent of pine and lemon a faint tease in the air. How many times had Wade come over? What had Grady done for the past week that forced his brother to take care of him instead of the other way around?

  Her stomach clenched. She’d done this. She’d hurt him. And he barely looked at her. He rounded the couch and picked up his phone from the cushions. After stabbing a single button, he put the cell up to his ear.

  Wade must have been sitting by his phone because in the next second Grady barked, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” He paused, listening. “Those are private pictures.” He dragged a hand through his hair, his jaw tight.

  “Yeah, and how would you feel if someone did that to Ashley?” Pause, his eyes narrowing. “Yeah. Exactly. We’d all hunt that man down and hang him by his nuts.”

  Then he went quiet, stilling except for his gaze narrowing to slits. He didn’t even look like he was breathing.

  “Yeah. She’s here.” His face reddened while he listened for at least a full minute.

  “You bastard. You—Wade? Wade?” He threw his phone back on the couch and tugged his hands through his hair. “I’m going to kill him,” he muttered the last to no one in particular.

  Yet, her heart kicked up. Whatever his brother had said had shaken Grady from his stoic demeanor. She’d take him angry and flustered over cold, silent any day.

  “I’m scared to ask,” she said.

  And she was. His gaze flicked to her for a fraction of a second. It wasn’t a guarded look either. In that microsecond she saw the hurt, the longing and the need he still felt for her.

  He concentrated on the TV. “Victor sent the pictures on the 4th, after half a case of beer. Forgot about it. Wade remembered but figured it would get you over here. So my brother’s an asshole. Victor’s a creep—who will be apologizing to your sister.” He pinned her with a stare—his walls back up, nothing leaking out as he looked at her. “And you…”

  She flinched, taking a step back from the dead tone he now used when talking to her. There used to be so much warmth even when he only said her name.

  “Grady, I’m so sorry.” Her tongue felt thick and clumsy. How could she put into words the scared-shitless feeling he inspired? How could she make him understand safe felt so foreign and wrong? But that unguarded flash in his eyes gave her hope. Eva hadn’t lost him forever, yet.

  So she pushed through. “I’m so sorry about everything. And then this…couldn’t be handled over the phone.”

  Grady sighed, sounding tired and annoyed. “Tell me the truth at least. I deserve that much.”

  She lifted her chin, trying to be brave, fearin
g he’d still not want her. All she could do was focus on the middle of his chest. He wore another novelty shirt that had “Now they see the sky and they remember what they are.”

  Eva swallowed. “What truth?”

  “You could have called me,” there was no give in his tone.

  She was shaking her head before the words could come out. “I’m done living the easy way.”

  His short, bitter laugh made her shift. “Are you really? You can’t even hold my gaze.”

  Oh. Right. Why should he let his guard down if she was still protecting her heart? Eva sucked in a big breath and let herself be vulnerable with him, for once. “Because looking at you hurts. And then I can’t breathe. And I know how much I screwed this up and how do I even begin to fix it?”

  Grady’s eyes went hard. “Don’t say it if you don’t mean it.”

  She spread her hands and forced herself to keep meeting his gaze. “I mean it, Grady. I’m scared this will only push Lauren. It was a shitty thing for your family to do, drunk or not. I’m terrified you’re going to hurt me. And…when that happens I’ll fall into the abyss again. It’s easier, safer to not love you.”

  He looked away. “Eva…”

  She couldn’t stop now. “I know and that makes me broken. Wade’s probably right. You should be with someone who isn’t screwed in the head. Someone you don’t have to ever take care of. A person who would have believed you when you said my sister’s threats were nothing to worry about. You had it. I’m sorry I didn’t…couldn’t trust you. I just never knew…never had…”

  She stopped and had to breathe.

  Grady shook his head, refusing to look at her. “Jesus Christ, Eva.”

  “You were hurting and I wish I could have been there for you. Shit, I wish I hadn’t hurt you to begin with.”

  She wasn’t running anymore. If he decided they were well and truly done, she’d pick up the pieces of her heart she’d bared to him and leave. It would hurt like a son of a bitch, but she’d let her fear ruin this. Let it rule her for close to a decade.

  But Eva needed him to forgive her. She just needed Grady. Maybe that was messed up, wrong or unhealthy but he’d made her life so much better just by being in it. If she was ever going to fight for something, someone, this was it.