THE NAUGHTY ONES: The Complete 5-Books Series

by Kristina Weaver

  “You don’t look fine,” I hear as I roll out another sheet of filo pastry and start the process of putting together a baklava that is on the menu for dessert for an upscale dinner party I’m in charge of.

  “Then don’t look, Indie. Now, if that’s all…”

  I ignore her and the worried gazes of my other friends, even Callie who’s about to pop and emotionally unstable at the moment.

  I have to. Otherwise I’ll lose what little is left of me.

  Chapter Two

  From Bad to Worse

  Luci

  It is two in the morning when I receive the frantic call. Jack gives us the green light to get to the hospital as soon as possible. At the news that Callie's about to pop, I feel a tiny spark of excitement light my soulless heart and I dive out of bed with the traces of the first smile I’ve had in months.

  We’re all yelling and dressing and hopping out of the elevator three minutes later, running for the door of our building and laughing like loons.

  “Oh my God, she’s gonna rip her vagina getting that kid out, and I am so taking pictures,” Indie yells back at us, waving her camera.

  Percy is a little less bloodthirsty and just starts doing a hop of excitement for the addition to the family.

  I’m a little more reserved than I usually would be, but I do find myself smiling so hard it hurts my cheeks. We run onto the sidewalk, planning our commute to the hospital, when I run into a wall and bounce back with a squeak.

  The smile slips when a set of strong arms grip me and stop me from falling back and onto my butt. I look up to see a pair of bright blue eyes.

  The breath I’d been about to take stalls in my chest and all I can do as Freddie looks down at me is stare in fascination at his handsome face. My eyes are literally unable to move away from his brilliant features, and it’s with shame that I admit to having the irresistible urge to burrow into him and soak up all the warmth he’s giving off.

  “Alright, alright! Move along, asshole,” Indie gripes just as I feel my damn eyes start tearing.

  Her voice and the arm she grabs me with to pull me away is a saving grace I will forever be grateful for as Woody steps out of the limo and holds the door open for us.

  “Thanks,” I whisper as we slide in, my heart returning to its usual slow pace as the others join us and I studiously try to avoid eye contact with the oaf staring at me from the seat across from us.

  “No problem. Just keep your walls up, Luce,” she whispers back, squeezing my hand in a totally non-Indie way.

  I nod. It’s all I can really do as I stare out of the window and try not to look back at Freddie. I don’t want to see whatever pity is lurking in his eyes.

  The ride to the hospital is a silent one, and by the time we all pile out of the limo and rush up to the floor where Jack told us to go, I’ve collected myself enough to actually breathe through the lump in my throat.

  I feel calm and settled as we reach the waiting room and walk in to see Gruffy, Grampa Levin, and Jack’s parents all sitting quietly and holding cups of cold coffee.

  “Well it’s about damn time you got here. She’s about to pop that kid any second from the sounds of it, and I do not wanna be the only person around when Jack passes out and needs a replacement. I already saw my own birthing experience, and Callie’s a damn biter,” Gruffy snarls by way of greeting, making me giggle a little as Indie rolls her eyes and Percy just snorts.

  “Hey, guys.”

  I look over and grin as I walk over to Dot, my smile slipping when I see her lack of joy and take in her unkempt appearance. I glance over at Percy, who shrugs.

  “Hey, Dotty girl. You okay?” I ask, shamed by my lack of attention lately.

  “I’m fine, Luci. Mind your own business, would ya?”

  “I’m just asking, Dot, Jesus. What’s crawled up your ass lately?”

  “Oh really? You’ve finally noticed me and now all of a sudden I’m supposed to give a shit that you care?”

  “Yes!” I say unabashedly, my eyes narrowing. “I love you and I may not have been here lately, but I do care and I don’t give a damn how crappy you speak to me, unlike Percy and Indie who just get mad. I want to know what the hell is up with you and why you’re being a total ass instead of being happy that your best friend’s about to ruin her vagina and spit out a ten-pound demon.”

  My words have her lips twitching slightly, and she shakes her head and looks away.

  “Callie moved out.”

  “To be expected, Dotty, since she’s got a rock on her finger,” I mutter.

  “Yeah, but it’s hard being all alone when I was so used to having her around and then…”

  “Then what, Dot?” I push when she stops.

  “Nothing. I’m just not used to it is all. Now tell me about your stuff since you seem to have snapped out of your misery coma, Luci. What’s up with you and….you know who? And why is he glaring at you when just a month ago he’d do anything but look your way?” she whispers.

  My answer is stopped short when I see Woody approach out of the corner of my eye. I feel myself smile when he comes over with two flavored lattes and sandwiches and cookies.

  “Eat, ladies. It’s bound to be a long night and I don’t want you all going hungry and drinking the shit from the cafeteria.”

  “Is this…”

  “Yup. Perk of having a ton of money. I got them to open the store and throw a few things together.” He grins, saluting us both before going to hand out some more of his loot.

  “That man is just…”

  “I hear you, Dotty. I hear and see all that hunky goodness.” I say dreamily, watching Woody’s muscled ass flex beneath worn jeans that look butter soft and painted to his skin.

  Hmmm, yum.

  “So…”

  That’s Dot’s trusty opener and she says no more, doesn’t really need to as I start gnawing on my ham and rye while taking little sips of the chocolate strawberry-flavored coffee.

  I don’t want to sit in a hospital waiting room listening to a now screeching, homicidal Callie, while whispering my love woes as Freddie and the others try to listen in.

  “I’ll dish it all when we’re alone,” I mutter, chomping on my bread while the eyes I do not want to look into drill holes into me from across the room.

  “Honey, I already got the whole scoop from Percy and Indie. I just want to know how you are,” she whispers in her sing-song voice.

  “Okay. I think,” I say softly, playing with the rim of the cup. “I don’t know. I mean I’ve always said that if you have to do something, do it well, but it was not what I was expecting. In hindsight, words are so much easier than the reality.”

  Dot snorts indelicately at that and runs a hand through her matted bed hair.

  “I’m not talking about your cute butt streaking out of his building, you tackling an innocent bystander to get inside a cab, or the fact that you’re now best friends with the cabbie and his wife, Luci. I’m talking about you and your feelings. Indie and Percy may think that this has pushed you into the “I hate you, I don’t love you anymore” phase, but I know you better. You’re not as hard as you want others to think, and I definitely know that you’re more steadfast in your love. How else could you still adore the rest of us clowns with half the stuff we do to each other on the regular? Remember when Indie put black coloring in your shampoo and your poor mom thought you were a Satanist?” she chortles, making me giggle at the memory.

  “It’s hard to think when they’re walking around assuming I’m okay. When they yell insults at him and my first reaction is to defend when I should at least not feel broken by it. Ya know?”

  Indie and Percy have a sort of creed they live by. According to them, if a man tramples your heart he’s a waste of oxygen who deserves to die painfully.

  “Come live with me. Come live in Callie’s old room and the two of us can sit on the sofa eating pizza and cookie dough and watch rom coms till we’re crying buckets,” she says with a smile. “The two assho
les are great, but they don’t understand tragedy and death and for them, mourning is not a process, it’s a race to get to a harder side of themselves.”

  “I think I can so do that. Thanks, Dotty.”

  “Don’t mention it. You’re telling them, though.”

  “Aw come on, Dot, I’m going through a tragedy here.” I groan, eying the rabid pair across the way who are currently trying to rag the hell out of two old people who seriously have no inhibitions or hang-ups when it comes to people knowing their old asses are boning.

  Gross.

  “You want to know tragedy? It’s what will be left of me after I tell Capone and Corleone over there I’m hijacking the only person who cleans after their slobbish butts. This is all you, Luci. Make me proud.”

  Suddenly that dash from Freddie’s elevator with my ass flapping in the breeze doesn’t seem all that bad, I think as I look over at Indie and Percy.

  “Can we talk?”

  I look up to see my arch nemesis glaring down at me, his hands in his pockets, his stance all “I’m not budging so you may as well give in.”

  There’s a saying we all use on the regular, one I once heard a mother of six little darlings use on the subway while her crew tried to level the place.

  Karma, you bitch, we’ll meet some day and I’m coming armed.

  Chapter Three

  When Lightning Strikes and You’re Too Dumb to Drop the Fucking Umbrella.

  Freddie

  There have been many times in my life when just breathing has been all I can manage, that and maybe the control not to show everyone around me who and what I really am.

  Growing up with a family like mine where my parents chose to have a child to carry on the family line but really had no use for them till the time came…well I’m not exactly the most rounded or healthy individual in the world. Not emotionally, anyway.

  I’ve lived with only three absolute laws in my life, taught to me the hard way when I was still a kid too naïve and dumb to understand that parents and people aren’t who you think they are or should be.

  Never let them see you cry.

  Never love enough to have to cry.

  Quitting is not an option.

  That’s all. The crying part was easy and one I learned when I was sent away to boarding school at the age of five. See up till that point in my life, I had a nanny who adored me and swore to me that parents all loved their kids. How could they not?

  Turns out she lied, and well, when I told Mom I didn’t want to leave because I loved her and Dad…

  I learned then that love is not something you just expect, it’s something that people can choose to give. Or not give, as the case was then. Long and short, I ended up going to that school, licking my wounds but later happy that I got to escape the assholes who brought me into this world.

  The crying got easy because I never loved after that. I set myself apart and learned to be what I had to be in any situation. Some little snot decided I was the smallest kid and an easy target, so I put in a request for martial arts tutoring and kicked the shit out of him the next time he tried to mess with me.

  I got sick of being alone all the time, so I learned to play every sport known to man and became a jock, the instant popular guy everyone wanted to be and no one wanted to hate.

  I was always surrounded by people. I made myself into what I needed to be.

  Some girl I talked to on the rare occasions the all-girls school came over once brushed me off when I was sincere, so I learned to flirt and reel them in and never give of myself.

  It took a load of grit and determination to master it all, and so much work I sometimes look back at it all and wonder where I got the strength from.

  The status quo only broke when I graduated and started college. I met this hotshot little punk named Woody and things just snowballed from there. He took one look at me and decided I was going to be his friend, and nothing I said or did changed his mind.

  He’d harass me to death on a daily basis and show up at my off-campus apartment till I just gave in and let him hang around. We’ve been friends ever since.

  Jack came with Woody.

  They were there through thick and thin, through building the firm and my parents’ unwanted attention when I turned twenty-one and finally inherited a trust they needed since they’d almost blown through all their money.

  That’s the only time in my life that I can ever say that I broke my number two rule because I love those two fucks like family.

  They are my family.

  Now this.

  This is my first regret and something I’ve been struggling with for months. See, I hurt someone I consider a friend. Naïve as that may sound, I never once imagined that Luci and I would part ways badly.

  I flirt, hook them, reel them in, and I have some fun with them. When we’re done they’re so smitten with my carefree teasing and easygoing ways that more often than not we end up friends.

  Never once have I failed to seduce a woman and make her want to be my friend when we’re done with sex. Until Luci.

  She took me completely by storm with her laughing green eyes, shy smile, and quick blushes. I wanted her the moment she stepped into the kitchen at Destiny’s party and stood gaping at me like a fish out of water. I wanted her more when she sidled up to me and started flirting with me before I could play my game.

  She confessed to me that she was a virgin and had been waiting for someone she cared about to trust with her body. I think I fooled myself into hearing what I wanted to hear, namely that she wanted a nice deflowering and friendship because I didn’t want to admit that she wanted more.

  I knew she wanted more, but I wanted what she was offering. I wanted it so much that admitting to myself that I was going to take from her and risk hurting her was not an option.

  For the rest of my miserable life I will never forget the night I made love to Luci Braxton. I won’t forget her expressions or moans of pleasure when her breasts were felt by my hands or the touch of my mouth.

  I won’t forget the way she writhed and clutched at my head when I tasted her sweet, clean, untouched sex. I know for a fact that I will take to my grave the way it felt when I pushed my cock into her for the first time, knowing that I had just received a gift that no one would ever have, that no one would ever take away from me.

  The hell of it is that even after screwing us both to exhaustion, I didn’t want to stop. I wanted every moment I could get from her because I knew that eventually, no matter how I felt, I’d walk away and move on, thereby sparing us both an entanglement my rules would not allow.

  I pushed her away and moved on. I did the right thing, in the wrong way, and enjoyed the ensuing months of her stalking and outrageous behavior because I’m an insecure prick who basked in someone finally wanting me so much that they worked to get my attention.

  I let it go to the point that she ended up in my bed when I brought another woman home.

  The look on her face when she saw us, when she realized what was happening will be acid etched into my brain forever. Because it was in that moment that I realized that Luci Braxton, the optimistic, never-quit little romantic, truly loved me.

  “Go away.”

  I look down just as Luci finally answers me and feel another piece of myself start to crack. In her brilliant green eyes I see finality and a darkness that’s never been there before.

  I see her not caring, not wanting me. Giving up on me because maybe she’s finally seen all of me and realized I’m not worth her time.

  “Luce, just a minute. Please,” I beg softly as Dot gives me a look and then rises, squeezing Luci’s hand gently.

  “Don’t go.”

  “You need to do this. I’ll be right over there with Woody if you need me.”

  When she’s gone and I’m assured the others are engrossed in their insulting banter, I sit down beside her and try not to notice the way she shifts away, as if just touching me is abhorrent to her.

  The action cuts me deeply
but I relish the pain.

  “Spit it out and then leave me alone, Cage,” she mutters, still not looking at me as her trembling hands pick at what’s left of her food.

  My eyes close against the shame I feel, the knowledge that I’ve taken a woman so filled with joy and upbeat optimism and made her into this barely caring husk.

  “Luci. I am so sorry.”

  “Don’t be. You did nothing wrong.”

  “I did. I—”

  “You didn’t. You were honest right from the start about what you wanted and didn’t want. I pushed and pushed for more till you had no choice but to pull away. I should never have let myself believe in those stupid fucking fairy tales I had in that stupid book. What the hell did I think would happen?” She laughs mirthlessly, making me cringe.

  “Luci—”

  “I was an idiot and I deserved what I got because I should have known that being me wouldn’t get me anywhere. My friends were right all along. You go soft, you want something so bad you’re willing to drop the façade, and then you’re setting yourself up for a ton of heartbreak and regret. You know what I regret, Cage? I regret looking up the night I walked into the kitchen. I looked at you and instead of seeing the flirt and the womanizer, I saw a guy with sad eyes and a need for love. I saw what I wanted to see instead of what was there, and that’s on me.”

  Luce, don’t give up on me, baby, I beg silently, my cold heart shattering.

  “I spoke to Jack and Woody already and let them know that you were always clear with me. Jesus! You’d think that after having security toss me out of the building on my ass that I would have taken the hint.” She laughs again.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I want you to know two things. First, the night of the wedding I kissed Alan because I thought I could maybe move on and stop hurting. Second, you don’t have to worry about me coming around or anything, and you don’t have to feel guilty.”

  “I don’t—”