by Holly Renee
I slept in a room across the hall from him, and he hated me enough that he would let the girl he’s fucking to post that video of me.
I climbed up the stairs one by one as the questions kept rolling through my head. Beck still hadn’t text me and that just made my mind race harder. I wanted to trust Beck. I wanted to understand everything that was going on around me, but I didn’t.
I didn’t know what came over me or why I decided it was a good idea, but I didn’t stop my feet until they were planted directly in front of Lucas’s door. I hesitated as I raised my hand to knock, but I didn’t do it for long.
I could hear him moving around behind the closed door, and it only took him a minute before he answered the door in nothing but a pair of gym shorts.
"Yeah?" He looked as confused by the fact that I was standing outside his door as I felt.
"Are you fucking Cami?" I didn’t know why that was the first question that popped out of my mouth, but somehow it felt like the most important one. It felt like the one question that I truly needed the answer to.
"Hello to you too, sister." Lucas moved away from the door and picked up his gaming remote before plopping down on his bed. He left his door completely open so I took it as an invitation and walked inside before closing it behind me.
"You didn’t answer my question." I leaned against the door to relieve my tired feet.
"If you had asked me a serious question, I might have." He was staring at the TV and didn’t spare me a glance.
"It was a serious question. She told me that she was the one who posted that video and that she got it from your phone." He finally looked at me. "She told me that the two of you were fucking."
"She’s insane." He shook his head. "You’ll believe anything anyone says to make your precious Beck look innocent. Won’t you?"
My chest bloomed with doubt. I had no reason to believe Lucas. No reason at all, but those simple words from him made me doubt all the words Beck had said before.
"So, you’re not fucking her?" I asked my question again as my heart raced.
He paused his game and looked me over from head to toe. "No, Josie. I’m not fucking her."
There was a long stretch of silence between us, and I wasn’t sure what to say.
"You know. I’m not some fucked up monster like you think I am." His eyes were clouded with pain or anger, I couldn’t tell which. "You believe everything anyone says about me, but they don’t know shit."
"Did you give Cami the video?" I asked him exactly what I needed to know. I knew that Lucas and I could never go back after what I knew, but there was some part of me that couldn’t stand the thought of him being the one to post it.
"I did." He nodded, and he actually had the nerve to look guilty.
"Why?"
"I don’t know, Josie. I was pissed off that he had sent me the damn video in the first place and Cami was here to pick something up from Dad, something for her father, and when she asked me to send it to her, I thought she was going to use it against Beck. I didn’t realize she was going to post it online."
"Would it have made a difference if you did?" I asked as I clenched my fists at my sides.
"Honestly, I don’t know."
I felt my own anger rising at his honesty. "What about what happened with Frankie?"
I crossed my arms over my chest and stared at him. I wanted to hear the truth from his lips. I wanted him to look me in the face and be honest about what he did.
"I didn’t rape the girl." His knuckles were white around the remote. "I know what I did was fucking stupid, but I was drunk too. I should have never touched Frankie, but she was the one who was flirting with me. She was the one who wanted it."
My stomach was in my throat as I listened to him. "I heard that she couldn’t even hold her eyes open in the video."
He looked away from me before looking back my way. His face was red and his chest heaved, and I knew I should have walked away then and went to my room. I didn’t need Lucas’s answer. I trusted Frankie far more than anyone I would ever trust in this house, and I knew what he had done to her. It didn’t matter if he had been drinking or not.
It didn’t matter if he thought that was what she wanted.
Those were nothing but excuses.
They were disgusting excuses that got rich boys out of their consequences.
"It doesn’t matter what you say." I shook my head. "I’ll never forgive you for what you did to her."
He let out a loud laugh that held no humor. "Do you really think I give a shit about your forgiveness?"
I knew that he didn’t. I didn’t even know why I had said it, but I needed him to know. For Frankie’s sake, I needed him to know that I believed what she said and that I hated what he had done to her.
"What exactly do you think is going to happen?" He cocked his head and watched me, and I fucking hated it. "Do you think that you’re going to go back to the guy who shared a video of you looking like a slut and you’re just going to live happily ever after? He may not have posted it online, but he sent it to me. That’s bad enough. You are out of your mind if you think Dad is going to let that happen."
"Dad," I exaggerated the word, "doesn’t really have a say in what I do or don’t do."
"Doesn’t he?" He leaned back in his bed and rested on his elbows. "Look, Josie, I don’t want to be enemies with you. We’re family now, for God’s sake. But Beck and I will never get along, and Dad will never approve of him."
I didn’t know why he thought I would care about either of those things, but I didn’t. "I don’t…"
He interrupted me before I could finish my thought. "Dad has hated their family before all of this happened. Mr. Clermont thinks he runs this town, but he doesn’t. Dad has more power than he’ll ever have.”
I pushed away from the door and turned the handle.
"I won’t be home this weekend." I looked back at Lucas before I stepped out of his room. "I’m going on a trip with Allie and her family."
He knew I was lying. It was all over his face. We stared at each other, and we both knew that he knew.
"Be careful, Josie." He picked his gaming remote back up and resumed his game. "You’re playing a game that you don’t want to play."
I hated every single one of his words. "Don’t pretend like you care about me, Lucas."
He saluted me even though he was already staring at his TV. "I won’t, but don’t say I didn’t warn you."
Chapter Nineteen
Beck
Josie was pissed at me.
There was no hiding it even if she said that everything was fine.
She had barely spoken to me the entire drive up the coast to the cabin. The cabin was a place my father owned further down the coast, and it took us a couple of hours’ drive to get there. We had initially decided to go to help cheer Frankie up, but I was more than happy to have her and Allie with us.
My parents thought it was only me, Frankie, Olly, and Carson going. They had even offered to join us, but I had convinced them that Frankie needed this. That Frankie needed to get away from everyone.
It was a shitty thing to do, but pulling the Frankie card had worked. My mom had backed off the moment the words passed my lips.
And I did think Frankie needed this, but I also knew that I wanted this with Josie. Just a weekend away where there was no one there who could interfere with us. Who could fuck it up?
None of her family. None of mine.
No Cami. No Lucas.
I just needed a few damn moments with her where there was nothing but me and her. And now she was pissed off at me.
By the time we pulled up to the cabin that was nestled between the trees, I felt like I was going to go crazy. I put the car in park and climbed out. The girls were already climbing out of the back seat, and I didn’t hesitate as I hooked my finger in the belt loop at Josie’s back and pulled her toward me.
Her back slammed into my chest, and I hummed against her neck as her hair whipped gently around m
y face.
"You smell so good."
She moved against me just slightly, but it was enough to make me feel impossibly hard. God, I wanted her.
I always wanted her.
And I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want her so badly because I knew that she wanted me too. That there was nothing between us besides the way we felt about one another. No stupid fucking agendas or hate to fuel us.
Even if she had barely spoken to me.
She turned her head, her lips so damn close to mine. "I need to get my bags."
"I can get them." I ran my nose along her neck, and the sound of her sharp inhale was like fuel to my flame.
"You seem a bit preoccupied. I can get my own bags." She reached back and patted my cheek before pulling away from me with a small smile on her face.
There was no way in hell I was letting her get away that easy. I grabbed her hand in mine before she could get away and tugged her back to me.
"I need to catch up with the girls." She nodded in their direction where they were grabbing their bags from the back of my SUV. Olly and Carson were already inside, no doubt setting up the plethora of alcohol that they brought, but I didn’t care about any of that.
"Go on." I motioned to my sister and Allie. "But don’t get any ideas because you are in my bed tonight."
She tugged her hand away from mine and took a few steps backward before she shrugged her shoulders. "We’ll see."
"No." I shook my head and smiled at her. "This is non-negotiable, Josie. You are with me."
"I’m not your plus-one, remember?" She turned on her heel while still talking to me. "I already told Frankie that I was sharing a room with her."
They were both out of their damn minds because that wasn’t happening.
She was going to end up in my bed tonight, and no matter how hard she wanted to play this, I knew that was what she wanted too.
It was written all over her face.
But I would let her play this her way for now. I would get to the bottom of whatever reason she was angry with me, even if I had to force it out of her.
I grabbed the bag from her hand and pulled it over my shoulder. She rolled her eyes but didn’t fight me. She grabbed her smaller bag and purse, and walked up the steps that led to the front door of the house.
The moment we walked in, I knew something was off. Frankie looked pissed, and Allie was nowhere to be seen. I was so damn confused until I spotted Carson on the couch with a leggy brunette who had on barely any clothes.
"You finally made it!" Carson smiled at me and lifted his beer in the air. "Let the weekend festivities begin."
Frankie rolled her eyes and grabbed Josie’s hand. "Let’s go find Allie." She didn’t hide an ounce of her irritation. It was written all over her face, and even though I knew it probably bothered Carson, he didn’t even look her way.
"Way to go, asshole." I smacked him in the back of the head just as the girls disappeared down the hallway.
"What did I do?" He rubbed a hand over the spot I had just smacked and stared at me.
I looked down at the girl who was now kissing his neck and completely oblivious to the conversation we were having. "Don’t act like an idiot. You know."
"They’ll get over it." He shrugged his shoulders like it was no big deal, and I had the urge to slap him again. Instead, I set Josie’s bags down at the back of the couch and walked into the large kitchen where Olly was making a sandwich.
I hiked my thumb over my shoulder as I pulled out a stool across from him at the island. "Who thought that was a good idea?"
"Don’t look at me." He shook his head as he spread mayonnaise across his bread. "I had no idea about her until she showed up with a bag."
"Who the fuck is she?"
He looked up at me like I was insane, and I already knew the answer. She was just some girl. Some girl that Carson used who was more than happy to use him back. "Her name is Carrie. That’s all I know."
"He’s such an idiot." All three of us knew this would piss Frankie off. I knew she had her own reasons due to her new loyalty to Allie and whatever the hell was going on between her and Carson, but this was also supposed to be just us. He knew it too.
And even if he was a bit of a manwhore, he normally never would have brought a girl here. I had a feeling he didn’t make the decision to do so until he found out that Allie was coming.
When the girls didn’t come out of the room after a few minutes, I grabbed Josie’s bag and carried it down the hall to my room. All of the bedrooms here were basically all the same, but Frankie and I had claimed our own personal bedrooms when we were young.
The room still looked exactly the same as it always had, and I dropped both Josie’s and my bag in the middle of the bed before I went on a search for her.
All three girls were in Frankie’s room, only a couple doors down from mine, and they all sat at the head of the bed with their heads huddled together, talking.
"You’re not going to spend the entire weekend holed up in this room. Are you?" I laid across the foot of the bed and leaned up on my elbow to watch them.
"Who’s that girl?" Frankie nodded toward the main living area where we both knew Carson was still probably all over that chick.
"Her name is Carrie."
All three of them wrinkled their noses, and I couldn’t help but laugh. "I didn’t take you three for the mean girl type. You all don’t even know her."
"I didn’t say anything about her." Frankie crossed her arms. "It just would have been nice to give us a heads-up." Her eyes glanced toward Allie, and I actually felt bad for the girl. I had no idea what the hell was happening or had happened between her and Carson, but I knew that he wasn’t the kind of guy a girl like her should fall for.
Not that I could talk, but Carson had no interest in being with any one girl. It wasn’t his style.
"If I had known, I would have told you, but I didn’t. He sprung this on me too."
"It’s fine." Allie stood from the bed and shook her head gently. "What’s the plan for today?"
"Well, first." I grabbed ahold of Josie’s ankle and tugged her toward me as she squealed. "I need to have a little chat with this one. Then I say let’s head to the beach."
"Deal." Frankie hopped off the bed and started rummaging through her bag.
"I didn’t agree to this deal." Josie tried to pull away from me, but I quickly stood and tugged her along with me.
"You can walk with me or I’ll sling you over my shoulder and carry your ass." I stared down at her beautiful flushed face, and if my sister and Allie weren’t currently staring at us, I would have leaned forward and kissed the hell out of her.
"You wouldn’t dare." She sat up and attempted to push me away, but I gripped my hands around her waist and lifted her. "Beck, no." She laughed, and I swear it was the most relieving sound in the world.
She may have been mad at me for whatever reason, but she still liked me whether she would admit it or not.
She wrapped her legs around my waist before I could manage to lift her higher, and I pushed past Frankie and Allie and out of the room.
"Get ready. We’ll see you all in just a bit."
I left them before either of them could reply and kicked the door to my room closed behind me as soon as we entered. Josie rolled her eyes as I sat down on the bed with her still attached to me. She attempted to push away, a very weak attempt, but I held onto her.
I didn’t dare let her out of my grip.
I pressed my lips to her jaw, and her body softened against me.
"Are you going to tell me why you’re mad at me?" God, she smelled so good. Did she always smell this good?
"I’m not mad at you." She stretched her neck just slightly, but I smiled against her skin at the access she gave me.
"Irritated? Frustrated? Upset? Whatever you want to call it. You are something with me."
She rolled her eyes again, and this time, I did lean forward and catch her mouth with mine. Her lips were so damn soft
, and I couldn’t stop myself as I wrapped my hand in her hair, holding her closer to me.
"I’m just confused." Her words were muffled against my lips, but she didn’t stop kissing me.
I leaned back, putting some space between us, and looked at her. "What are you confused about?"
"You."
"Can you be a little more specific?"
"Why didn’t you text me at all last night?" She looked down, but I lifted my hand and raised her chin until she was looking at me again. I couldn’t tell her that I had been with Cami. Nothing had happened between us. Not a damn thing.
But her father was more than ecstatic when he saw my car there. He put on a grand show of how perfect his little family was. There wasn’t a trace of the dad I knew he was when I wasn’t around.
And even though I felt guilty for not telling Josie, I didn’t regret staying with her. I didn’t regret giving her some reprieve from her horrible fucking father.
"I need to be honest with you." I took a deep breath. I knew that what I was about to say was probably going to piss her off, but I needed to be honest. If we were going to trust each other, I couldn’t lie to her about this.
"Okay?" She was watching me skeptically.
"I was with Cami last night." As soon as I said the words, I regretted the way they sounded. "Nothing happened," I rushed to clarify. "I was with her and her family."
She stood there for a moment, and I knew that she was trying to think through what she was about to say. If I were her, I would be pissed at me. I knew that she had every right, but I wanted her to understand. "Why?"
"I know that you don’t like Cami, and you have every reason not to. But Cami and I have been friends for a long time, and…" I hesitated because it wasn’t my place to tell all of Cami’s secrets. "Her home life isn’t good. She acts like she has everything together, but she doesn’t."
"And you’re the one she falls on when things are bad?" There was no judgment in her voice, and it killed me how understanding she was.
