by Nia Arthurs
“No thanks.” She stuck her tongue out at him.
Now that was the Erin he knew.
Still smiling, Cooper lumbered to the door and opened it. Immediately, his smile ran for cover. His fingers tightened around the door handle. He straightened his shoulders and raised his chin. “Dad?”
“Cooper.” Brandon Lawson regarded him with cold indifference. “We need to talk.”
His mind flew to Erin in the kitchen. He slammed the door in his father’s face and turned the lock. Immediately, the wood shuddered as his father pounded it. “Cooper!”
He ignored the call and raced to the kitchen. Erin spun, her eyes widening when she saw his face. “What is it?”
“I’m sorry. This is going to sound weird, but I need you to hide in my room and don’t make a sound.” He took her arm and steered her forward.
“What? Why?” She struggled against him. “Cooper, what’s going on?”
“My dad is here.”
Erin stopped fighting him. Cooper knew all the kids at Belize Primary School used to talk about his father. He heard Erin call Brandon Lawson a vampire one time. She wasn’t too far off from the truth there. His father didn’t drink literal blood, but he had the ability to suck the life out of anyone.
He opened his room door and gently thrust her in. “I won’t be long.” He promised. “I’ll try to kick him out as soon as I can. Just stay quiet.”
“Cooper!” His dad yelled again.
Cooper flinched.
“Go.” Erin placed an encouraging hand on his arm. “Don’t worry about me.”
He nodded, drawing strength from her face. At last, Cooper closed the door behind him and went to let his father in.
Brandon Lawson adjusted the tie at his throat and pinned his son with a glare. “I didn’t raise you to be that rude.”
You didn’t raise me at all. “Sorry. I just had to tidy up in here. Come in.”
Brandon Lawson stepped into the room. The temperature immediately dropped below zero. Cooper shivered, holding his breath as Brandon carefully studied every inch of his apartment.
“Your mother paid for this, I assume.”
“Yes, sir.”
He snorted. “With my money.”
It wasn’t a question so Cooper said nothing.
Brandon strode to the middle of the living room and stood straight and tall. He wore his black Armani suit like a personal armor. Not one strand of his brown hair was out of place. His eyes were a darker shade than his son’s, but they were just as charismatic.
He was a handsome man. Cooper was sure that if his father were so inclined to find entertainment in his mother’s absence, he would easily get women. Even if they didn’t know how much he was worth.
“I found Josiah snooping in my vault,” Brandon said in his dry, deep voice.
Cooper stiffened but kept his expression neutral. “Is that what you came to discuss? No ‘hi, Cooper’. ‘How’s school?’ Anything?”
“Don’t be dramatic, son. If you were having a hard time, you would have come crawling eventually.”
“To you, no news is good news.”
“Don’t try to change the subject.” Brandon narrowed his eyes and that slight move was enough to incite a wave of fear in Cooper. “What were you planning to do with those documents on the Santino gang?”
His hand trembled so Cooper hid it behind his back. “Nothing that would have incriminated you.”
“Fool!” Brandon raised his hand.
Cooper flinched.
His father’s lips curled up in a sneer. “You’re soft. Just like your mother. Leave these affairs to me and keep out of them before I take drastic measures.”
“Is that a threat? Are you going to beat up your own son?” Cooper chuckled humorlessly. “I guess that makes sense. You’re just like the shady people you do business with.”
Brandon’s nose flared. “I am aware of what the Santino’s did to you. The fact that they decided to involve you in a fight that is not your own is unfortunate. I assure you I will get them back in my own way.”
“How long are you going to live like this, Dad?” Cooper pleaded. “You have more enemies than friends. Your own wife had to leave because it was so dangerous—”
“Who are you to lecture me?” Brandon’s eyes glimmered with anger. “You can’t save anyone without power. You can’t have power without money. Everything you have, everything you are is because of me. Don’t pretend to know more than the person who created you.”
“You’re right.”
Brandon arched one eyebrow as if to say, obviously.
Cooper stepped closer to his father. They stood eye-to-eye. The muscles in his jaw bunched. “I am who I am because I want to be nothing like you.”
“Boy…”
“I’ll drop my plan to get back at the Santinos if you agree to forget that Josiah snuck into your office. He only did it because I asked him to. It’s not his fault.”
“You’re negotiating in your position?”
“I’m asking.” He stared into his father’s eyes. “As your son.”
Brandon studied him, his expression shifting from intense disdain to a slightly lighter version. “You’re begging.” He sighed. “Moments like this, you remind me of your mother. I should have never sent you to live with her.”
“Will you spare Josiah or not?”
Brandon tugged his chin down. “We have a deal.”
“Thanks for stopping by, Dad. It was a pleasure.” He walked to the door and held it open. “Same time next year?”
Brandon strode for the door, his lips pursed. He swung around just before leaving. “Did you… go to a hospital?”
Cooper leaned back, startled. “What?”
“Nothing.” Brandon straightened his jacket. “I’ll see you.”
“Bye, Dad.” Cooper closed the door behind him and then let out a breath. Every meeting with his father left him drained, but it was particularly exhausting this time. Maybe because he was sick? Or because Erin was listening?
He straightened. Erin!
Cooper rushed to his bedroom and thrust the door open. He found Erin sitting on his bed. Her knees were pulled up beneath her and she clutched a picture frame in her hands. When he poked his head through the doorway, she glanced up and smiled.
“You and your mother, right? She’s so pretty.” Her thumb ran down his mother’s face.
Cooper let out a sigh. “Are you okay?”
Erin set the frame down and slid off the bed. She trotted toward him, her skirt flitting around her thighs. “I should be the one asking you that question.”
“You heard?”
“I’m sorry.” Her brown eyes slid away from him. “I wasn’t trying to pry, but it was hard not to overhear.”
He swallowed. “My relationship with my dad is… complicated.”
“I figured.” Erin reached up and touched his jaw. The dark purple bruise was starting to turn yellow. “I’m sorry. If I’d known what really happened to you—?”
“You couldn’t have done anything.” He put his hand on top of hers. “But this… this is enough.” He closed his eyes as her fingertips brushed his skin. The stress that had weighed his shoulders when he saw his father melted away.
“Do you mean it?” Erin whispered.
Cooper opened his eyes and found her staring at him pensively, her brows slanted together. “Mean what?”
“What you said before?”
“About my dad?”
She shook her head.
Cooper had a moment of confusion and then he straightened. “That I like you?”
“Yes.”
He studied her. Tried to figure out what she was thinking. If anything, Erin looked petrified. He didn’t know why. She was the one who brought it up. “I meant it.”
“Okay.” And with that, she pulled her hand away, grabbed her purse and walked out the door.
23 Erin
She opened the door to the apartment she shared with her sister
and walked in. The curtains were drawn and shadows leapt from every corner. Erin checked Peggy’s bedroom and the bathroom to confirm that her sister wasn’t in yet and then grabbed her laptop.
Her fingers shook as she messaged Iris and waited for her best friend to answer. Iris was online every moment of every day, but she couldn’t talk when she was out looking for a gig.
At last, she heard that blessed ping that meant Iris had seen and responded to her message.
IRIS: Sup?
ERIN: I need to talk to you. It’s an emergency.
IRIS: I’m on my way.
Erin logged into their favorite video chatting program and a few minutes later, Iris’s face filled her computer screen. Her ebony skin, long flowing hair and bright brown eyes were a welcome sight.
“What is it? What’s the emergency?”
Without preamble, Erin blurted—“I like Cooper Lawson.”
Iris’s scream almost shattered her computer speakers as well as her ear drums. “You’re kidding.”
“This is not a good thing.”
“Why not?”
“Because I’m dating someone else.”
“You’re dating? What? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You were so down about not booking any gigs yet,” Erin admitted. She adjusted herself in the sofa so she could cradle the computer on her knees. “And it was really new.”
“That’s no excuse. You should have told me.” Iris wiggled her finger. “Who’s your boyfriend?”
Erin rubbed the back of her neck. “Ryan.”
Iris screamed again. “Alright. That’s it. Spill everything.”
Ten minutes later, Erin lay sprawled on the sofa, her laptop on her stomach. “Now you see why it’s complicated?”
“Wait…” Iris rubbed her forehead. “Let me get this straight. So you started dating Ryan but ended up falling for Cooper. But you don’t want to break up with Ryan even though you like Cooper because Ryan didn’t force himself on you when you got drunk?”
“That’s not it.” Erin shook her head. “Ryan’s my boyfriend. I do like him. Just… not in the way I like Cooper.”
“That’s not fair to Ryan.”
“Exactly. That’s why I shouldn’t break up with him, right?”
“WRONG! So wrong. If Ryan is a nice guy, he deserves to be loved and appreciated. Not tolerated. You two aren’t married yet. There’s no contract that says you have to be with Ryan or else.”
“But…”
“But what? He didn’t rape you?” Iris scoffed. “I know the world sucks, but that’s the way it’s supposed to be. You want to reward Ryan because he didn’t take advantage of you when you were drunk. I get that. But guess what? If your only standard in a boyfriend is the fact that he’s not a scumbag, that’s sad.”
“Iris, I can’t just break up with him and jump into a relationship with someone else. He’d be crushed.”
“That’s life. I wish all the modeling agencies out here would be as sensitive as you. They have no problem rejecting people.”
“I’m really sorry.” Erin winced. “And here I am complaining.”
“No, don’t apologize. It’s nice having something else to think about rather than my enormous failure of a career.” Iris twirled her hair around her finger. “What exactly do you need my help with here, Erin? It sounds like you know your own heart. You want Cooper.”
She groaned. “You were supposed to talk me out of this. I can’t be with Cooper.”
“Why?”
“Because!”
Iris twisted her glossy lips. “I’m gonna need something better than that, Erin.”
“Because he’s Cooper. He’s my nemesis.”
“In comparison to Ryan, who’s your first love?”
“Exactly.”
Iris shook her head. “You know… I never liked your obsession with ‘firsts’. It doesn’t give you a chance to mess up. To take risks. To give yourself a second chance.”
Erin brought the computer closer and listened as her best friend admonished her.
“Cooper’s a great guy, but you can’t see that because you refuse to let go of the person he was when he was fourteen. Ryan’s not the man you love now, but you can’t admit that because he was your first crush.”
“Everyone on campus knows I’m dating Ryan. If I jump into another relationship now, they’ll call me a slut.”
“So? People will say negative things no matter what you do. Remember how they called me that when all the guys were asking me to prom? They figured I must be sleeping around to be that popular.”
Erin frowned at the thought. She’d been a sedate student, but she nearly got into a few fights on Iris’s behalf back then. “They were just jealous.”
“Bingo. Be prepared for people to attack you. That’s life. But if you’re certain you want to explore a relationship with Cooper, I say go for it.”
Erin pushed out her bottom lip. “I miss you.”
“I miss you too.” Iris pressed a kiss to her fingertips and blew it. “At least one of us is having a good time. Now that all the boys are chasing after you, it must be exhausting.”
“That’s why you need to come back so they all have something else to focus on.”
Iris pumped her fist. “I won’t set foot in Belize until I establish myself as a model.”
“You can do it!” Erin screamed. “I love you!”
“Love you too! Good luck with Cooper.”
“Thanks.” Erin waved and then signed off. A moment later, Iris’s face disappeared from her screen. She closed her laptop lid and flung herself face-first in the couch. The pillow tassels tickled her nostrils.
She batted it away and groaned. “I don’t wanna break up with Ryan.”
“You’re breaking up with Ryan?” A voice screamed from behind her.
Erin shot up, stunned to see Peggy beaming at her from the doorway. “When did you get here?”
Peggy soared into the room and grabbed both of Erin’s hands. “You’re kidding. Did it actually work? Did Cooper make a move?”
“Did you two plan today?” Erin asked with a frown.
“No, but I was hoping he’d make the most of his opportunity.”
Erin yanked her hand back and smacked her sister on the arm. “How could you conspire to make me cheat on my boyfriend?”
“Did you cheat on Ryan?”
“No! Of course not!”
“Then we’re good.” Peggy’s blue eyes glittered. “Team Cooper all the way!”
“Stop! I already feel horrible enough about this.”
“Listen baby sister,” Peggy tossed her blonde hair over her shoulder, “the breakup can go one of two ways. Either Ryan accepts it calmly and wishes you the best or he doesn’t and tries to get revenge by making your life a living hell.”
“How is that supposed to help?”
Peggy shrugged. “My advice? Yank the band-aid off as quickly and painlessly as possible. Don’t draw it out or you’ll just hurt him more.”
“Yank the band-aid. Yank the band-aid.” Erin recited her sister’s mantra as she got ready for school the next day and headed to her first class.
She clutched the strap of her purse and moved down the path. After extensive research last night, she’d selected the perfect breakup speech that was both moving and effective. Her number one priority was not making things awkward.
Erin heard footsteps thudding toward her and glanced up to find Kay approaching. She wore a grey crop top and a snug pair of jeans. Her brown skin gleamed in the sunlight and she’d changed her braids to a long, black weave.
“Hey.” Erin wiggled her fingers. “Why are you in such a good mood?”
“Am I?” Kay cupped her cheeks.
Erin kept on going, allowing Kay to walk beside her. “Did something happen?”
“Oh, maybe it’s because I saw Cooper this morning.” Kay stared dreamily at the sky. “How can one guy be that handsome?” She clutched Erin’s hand. “Can you imagine how beautiful o
ur children will be.”
Erin squirmed and slid her hand back. “I’ll take your word for it.”
“So…” Kay wiggled her eyebrows. “You and Ryan are getting closer, huh?”
“What are you talking about?”
“I know you slept over at his apartment last Friday.” Kay winked. “I’m happy for you. You were such a saint in high school. It’s about time you broke out.”
“Kay, that’s a misunderstanding. We didn’t do anything.”
“Hey,” Kay ran her fingers over her mouth, “my lips are sealed.”
“I mean it.” Erin didn’t know why she was so desperate to defend herself when Kay seemed pretty much convinced that she’d slept with Ryan.
Kay sighed. “When will Cooper and I get that close?”
Erin’s grip on her purse strap tightened. Every time Kay mentioned how much she loved Cooper, it got on her nerves. How many girls on this campus and even back in Texas had a thing for Cooper? With a face like that, he drew attention everywhere he went.
Nerves bubbled in her stomach. She was about to throw away her first serious relationship to what? Confess that she liked Cooper back? Watch on the sidelines while girls like Kay continuously flung themselves at him?
“Oh, look!” Kay pointed. “Your Prince Charming’s coming.”
Erin saw Ryan trotting toward them and panicked. Her heart threatened to jump out of her throat. Her purse strap could not be squeezed any tighter.
She forced herself to remain in place, but her mind demanded that she run. Sprint right toward the gate and launch over it like a long-jumper.
“Hey, beautiful,” Ryan said when he drew abreast of her. His eyes glimmered with admiration as he gazed at her face. “Should I walk you to class?”
“He’s such a gentleman.” Kay fanned her face. “You must feel like a queen, Erin.”
“She’s my queen.” Ryan kissed her temple.
Erin tried not to combust from her guilt and awkwardness.
“Um…” She sidled away from him. “I’ll be late for class.”
“Really?” Kay turned her wrist over. “It’s early.”
“We have a group presentation that I have to discuss,” Erin lied.
“I’ll take you.”
