Wicked (Dangerous Liaisons Book 1)

by Ashlyn Mathews

  “What’s that there?” He nods at April’s backpack.

  “School started. I have homework. Harper agreed to help. Science isn’t my favorite. We’re working on organisms. Mine is fungus.”

  “Fungus among us. I love mushrooms. Did you know mushrooms grow from poop?”

  “Gross.” April scrunches her face. “You’re joking, right?”

  “No joke. Scout’s honor. Look it up.”

  April pulls out her cell from her backpack and starts tapping on the screen.

  “Okay, you’re partially right. So gross.” She puts down her phone. “Does that mean you’ll help me?” Her brown eyes light up.

  “Sure thing.”

  She beams. “Cool. Thanks, Ryker.”

  “Don’t thank me yet.”

  Inside the pocket of my jacket, my cell rings. I pull it out and glance at the screen. It’s Shephard. I push answer and shove Ryker out of the booth.

  “Hello,” I say.

  “Hey.”

  “Can I help you?”

  “Fuck’s sake, he’s with you, isn’t he?”

  “Yes.” I move closer to the small arcade and watch Ryker help April with her homework, their heads close together.

  While she writes furiously in her notebook, he glances up and shoots me a smile. I smile back. He’s endearing and huge sitting alongside petite April.

  A memory surfaces of me and Shephard seated at the kitchen table of his parents’ house. I’m stumped on a math problem. He talks me through the steps to getting to the answer. The sex noises from his parents’ bedroom is loud. When I’m over, his parents are either on the couch coming off their high or they’re in the bedroom having sex.

  Shephard would continue explaining the steps, his dad’s grunts and his mother’s moans seeming to roll off him. My face heats. My hand goes low. I stroke a finger up and down his thigh under the table. Walk my fingers closer to his crotch.

  “Don’t, Harper.” His voice is husky. Low. “Cross the line and it’ll never stop with us.”

  The back door hitting the wall. Sam walking in. His smile slips when he sees us. The guilt on my face must’ve been clear as newly washed glass. It was the day the brothers’ war of wills and control started. I was seventeen.

  I return to the present. “What can I help you with?”

  “Two words. Missy Hayes.”

  “Yeah?” Nervousness knots in my stomach.

  “Why didn’t you tell me she transferred in last year?”

  “It wasn’t important.”

  “The hell it’s not.”

  “How’d you know?”

  “That douchebag, Brett. He brought her by the gym.”

  “And?”

  “I wasn’t there. I was in my office.”

  The security cameras mounted inside the gym. Sam found his best customers at the gym, selling them uppers and downers, getting them addicted.

  “She’s harmless.”

  “You better hope so.”

  “It’s been five years,” I remind him.

  “Your father’s murder proves time doesn’t heal old wounds. If you know what’s good and safe for you, don’t keep anything from me again.”

  He hangs up.

  I stare at the cell’s screen.

  It’s a picture of me and Shephard from when we took a trip to the Oregon coast. We’re on the beach. His arm’s around my waist. I’m looking up at him. I’m smiling, but there’s something missing. Happiness. Contentment. A sense of peace.

  I glance up. Lock gazes with Ryker. Was it fate that we met the night Shephard left for Chicago?

  I go to him. “Hey, Ryker, do you mind taking a selfie with me?”

  It’s time I change the screensaver on my cell.

  15

  Harper

  “Hey, Harper, can he be on your team?”

  Collin’s at my side, no doubt hovering to save me from the guy behind the counter’s intense checking out of me in my all-pink outfit and my hair in pig tails.

  “He?” I pay for our jumps. The other kids are gathered at my back.

  “Yeah, the guy who shall not be named.”

  I laugh, fully understanding who he’s speaking of. This kid and his snark . . . He’s destined to break many hearts with his humor. Not to mention his protective nature.

  “Who’s this guy who shall not be named?”

  Speak of the devil. The kids pivot in the direction of the front door. Ryker walks in dressed in a onesie. My brows shoot to my hairline.

  He smirks. Turns a full three-sixty.

  “Do you guys like? I did miss superhero day, so here I am making up for the lost opportunity and killing today’s theme.”

  Pajamas is what the kids decided on for today’s jump.

  “Groot?” The talking tree from Guardians of the Galaxy. “Really?” I ask.

  “Why not? He’s cool.”

  “He says the same three words the entire movie,” I point out.

  The kids walk around Ryker’s hulking body. Mouths open. Eyes wide. My mouth is open, and my eyes are wide for a different reason. He fills out the onesie nicely. I resist the urge to fan my heated face.

  “Cool.”

  “Awesome.”

  “How do you pee in that thing?”

  He glances down at Collin. “Carefully, kid. Very carefully.”

  “Pfft.” Collin crosses his arms. “A onesie will cramp your style, old man.”

  “Cramp my style? Old man?” Ryker laughs. “My man, you are the bomb. With that kind of smart aleck attitude, the girls are gonna fall hard for you.”

  Collin uncrosses his arms. “Really?”

  “Yeah. Now are we gonna kick butt or what?” He sticks out his fist for a fist bump.

  “We’ll kick ass.”

  Collin taps his fist on Ryker’s, and they do this explosion thing with their fingers.

  “Butt, not ass,” Ryker clarifies. “Real men mind their mouths when around the ladies.” He curves his arm around my waist and tugs me to him. “Isn’t that right, Harper?”

  He plants a kiss on my temple. Charming. Oh, so charming with his words and his mouth. I’m not falling for it. I keep my focus on Collin’s face, waiting for that glimpse of hurt pride. But he doesn’t duck his head in embarrassment like April did when she cussed and I chastised her.

  Instead, Collin grins big. Ryker being tough and calling Collin out has earned him Collin’s respect. Wow.

  “What’s on the table for the winners?” Ryker asks.

  “The kids decided the loser gets to pay for tickets to one of your home games.”

  “Aw, you kids want to come and watch me play?”

  “We hear you’re good.” Esther’s face is a pretty shade of pink.

  “He’s the best. Those football guys on TV are saying he’ll get picked up in the first round of the NFL Draft,” Collin says, suddenly Ryker’s biggest fan. “Ryker’s an offensive tackle like Michael Oher, the one they made the movie The Blind Side after.”

  I love that movie. The kids’ eyes are huge.

  “That true?” Drew asks. He’s the same age as Collin, but husky and tall.

  “There’s no I in team,” Ryker says.

  “I’m not talking about your team. I want to know if it’s true what Collin said.”

  Ryker cups the back of his head. “I’m not that good, kid.”

  “You’re being modest,” Collin volleys back.

  “You don’t even know what that word means.”

  “Not calling attention to yourself. Not bragging about how great you are.”

  Ryker’s booming laugh echoes in the lobby. “Kid, you are one smart cookie.”

  “No one likes to be compared to a cookie.”

  “You’re my hero?”

  “That’s better.”

  He and Collin laugh. I shake my head. These boys.

  “Are we ready to see who kicks butt?” I ask.

  Resounding yeses.

  “Warm-ups first,” I remind them. “
Stretch out those muscles. We don’t want any injuries.”

  “Kids only this time. The adults need to talk.”

  “We do?” I say out the side of my mouth.

  “I like our talks, Harper.”

  “That’s what text is for.”

  “Not the same.”

  Lucky for Ryker, the kids are all for it. Huh. They must be warming up to him. Usually, they’re tugging me inside the jump area. We’d run and bounce on the stretch of trampolines lined up back to back.

  We take up the bench in front of the trampolines. The kids bounce past us and wave. We wave back.

  “They’re good kids.”

  “They are,” I say.

  “How’d you all meet?”

  “There’s eight of them.”

  He laughs. “I can count, Harper.”

  “What I meant is this can take a while.”

  “Short, long, I don’t give a care what version you give me. I’d like to hear the stories.”

  “You memorize plays for football, right?”

  “Rules, too. If we players do something wrong, we cost our team yardage. Understanding and following the rules can mean the difference between a win and a loss.”

  “Okay, give me an idea of your power of observation. What do you notice about the kids other than they’re warming up to you?”

  “They are?”

  “Don’t play coy,” I say, smiling. “You’re well aware they are, especially the girls.”

  His massive shoulders shake. I glance sidelong at him, smiling wider. Quiet or loud, I love Ryker’s laughter.

  “The girls have always liked me.”

  Not modest at all, which begs the question, “Ever had your heart broken?”

  He’s quiet. Not the contemplative kind that I like about him, but a dead silence that implies the question might have been too personal or the topic too painful for him to revisit.

  “If you don’t want to tell, I’m fine with it, Ryker. Your past is none of my business.”

  “The summer of my freshman year,” he finally says, his voice low, but his tone sharp as steel. “There was this girl . . .”

  He threads his fingers through his hair. Puffs out a breath.

  “My high school sweetheart. I thought I’d spend the rest of my life with her. We had plans. She’d come with me to Prescott U and continue to be my biggest supporter. But she couldn’t do it.”

  “Was it the pressure of being a . . . a well-known athlete’s girlfriend?”

  “Well-known?”

  “I looked you up,” I confess. “The news media ran stories on you. In your senior year, you were voted one of the top ten local athletes to keep an eye on, that you’ll make it big. Had already made it big when you were accepted into Ivy League schools and top colleges for football. But you stayed local?”

  A statement that turned into a question.

  “For her. She didn’t want to be away from her family. The truth was, she didn’t want to move away from him.”

  “Him?”

  “Her boss. This older guy. They fell in love, and she fell out of love with me, the guy willing to give her the world.”

  “I’m sorry, Ryker.” I lace our fingers and lean into him, resting my head on his shoulder. “That must’ve hurt.”

  “Fucking-A, it did.”

  “Is that the reason you prefer open relationships? She cheated on you so if a different girl does it in an open relationship, a mutual agreement, it’d be okay because you wouldn’t call it cheating per se? And same goes for you?”

  “I never would’ve explained it away that way, but hearing you say it, yeah, it makes sense. Relationships can fuck with the mind.”

  “How many open relationships did you have?”

  It’s a loaded question, but I would also like to understand what I’m getting myself into.

  “A handful. Nothing meaningful. You?”

  “Zero open relationships.”

  “Normal ones?” he asks.

  “Two.”

  “I thought it was one serious boyfriend when you were seventeen. Who’s the other guy? It’s Shephard, isn’t it?”

  I untangle my fingers from his. “We have a complicated relationship.”

  “There’s that word again.” He sighs, and it’s deep. “Are you two in an open relationship?”

  I give him something as close to the truth as possible. “More like a gray area of a friendship and a relationship. He doesn’t like other guys near me. That’s why I don’t date.”

  “Does he?”

  “I don’t ask.”

  “Because he wouldn’t like it, or you don’t want to know?”

  “Both,” I admit.

  “So you are in an open relationship.”

  Not ready to tell Ryker the reason Shephard is the way he is with me, I steer the conversation back to the kids.

  I point at the four boys talking in the corner. “Collin, Drew, Jacob, Daniel.”

  “I know their names, Harper.”

  “Just making sure.”

  In the corner of my eye, Ryker’s not smiling at my attempts to goad him out of this deep contemplating he’s doing about me and Shephard.

  “Collin’s mom works with April’s dad. She’s the first woman to be promoted to homicide detective. April invited him to jump with us. He came and brought along Drew, Jacob, and Daniel.”

  “Do all their parents work for the Prescott police department?”

  “Yes. One of the cops who came with Officer Ramirez to the diner is Daniel’s brother.”

  “Don’t tell me it was the bastard standing closest to you?”

  “It was.”

  “He likes you.”

  “That obvious, huh?” I smile.

  “Harper, it’s nothing to joke about.”

  “You’re jealous.”

  “Am not.”

  I ignore his seething and plow forward. “Pete and the people he works with spend a lot of time at the diner. They hash through their cases over a meal. Says the food helps them think.”

  I smile, remembering meeting Pete’s friends. They’re good people with hearts in the right places. What they do day in and day out inspires me to do my best in school. To think I’ll be graduating with a degree soon.

  “There’s a private room in the back they use. Esther’s mom, Pam, a widow, is dating Jacob’s father. His parents are divorced. Jacob invited Esther to a jump. She invited—”

  “Her big sis, who happens to have a thing for Jacob, and Abbi, who has it bad for Collin.”

  “Observant.” Impressed, I resist the urge to clap my hands. Instead, I loop my arm through his, lean into the strength of his body, and stealthily inhale his scent. Shampoo, deodorant, and a hint of him. I take in a deeper breath.

  Before we can talk more, the kids run over to us. They’re done stretching out those muscles of theirs and want to get in a game of dodgeball.

  “Yeah, sure, kids. I’m ready to kick butt and have Harper pick up the tab for the tickets.”

  We rise off the bench and follow the kids to a different jump room.

  “Hey, Ryker, can I ask you something?”

  “Sure, Collin.”

  Collin beams. One, Ryker is calling him by name. Two, he’s not calling Collin short stuff.

  “Are you going to break up with Harper when you get drafted?”

  I should be upset with Collin for his insensitive question. I mean, hello, I’m right here. But I don’t call him out or chastise him. The same question’s been swirling in my head too.

  “Don’t jump the gun, kid. I have several months to think over my future.”

  “Is that a yes? Daniel’s brother, Josh, was asking.”

  “That so?”

  “Yeah, he’s hoping you will, but we told him you and Harper are solid.”

  “Solid.” Ryker rubs his chin. “I like that word. Beats complicated.” He sears me with the intensity of his stare.

  The other kids filter ahead of us into the dodgeball
room.

  “Sure. You tell Daniel to tell his brother me and Harper are as solid as it gets. We’re so solid, nothing, not even the NFL Draft, can strip, erase, or cross that solid line. You got that?”

  The grin on Collin’s face . . . “You’re cool, you know that? I effing like you. You’re good for her.”

  “I’m right here, Collin,” I remind him.

  “He’s a keeper, Harper.”

  “Does that mean I go where he goes?”

  “Nah,” Collin says with this gleam in his eyes, like he found the answers to the burning questions of the universe. “He’ll go where you go. You have him, hook, line, and sinker.”

  “I’m right here, you little shit.”

  Collin smirks. “Real men mind their mouths when around the ladies.”

  “You little snot.” Ryker reaches for him. Collin sidesteps his big paws, laughing. Ryker’s laughing too. “Can I be on your team, Harper? I want to hand this smart-aleck his ass.”

  “Sorry, boys, but I plan on kicking butt and having the big guy on campus pay for our tickets to his game.”

  “Hook, line, and sinker, right, Harper?” Ryker asks with a ruthless gleam in his eyes.

  “Or we’re solid. Nothing, not even the NFL Draft, can strip, erase, or cross the solid line of what we have.”

  Oblivious to the kids watching us with cheesy smiles on their faces, Ryker pulls me flushed against his body and whispers in my ear, “You better mean that, Harper.”

  “I do.” Oh, God, I do.

  “Good. You’re mine, and nothing will take you away from me.”

  Including Shephard.

  The unspoken words hang between us. But it won’t be Shephard who takes me from him. It’s something far worse.

  16

  Harper

  “Wait, this is your place? I thought you lived in the party house?”

  “Not anymore. This is the reason I skipped out on you guys last week.”

  Ryker pushes the key into the lock. The boys crowd around him on the porch. The girls and I are lined up on the steps.

  “Sorry I missed out, but I hope you like the place. We can hang here on Fridays if you guys are up for it.” He pushes open the door.

  “Yeah.”

  “Cool.”

  “We love it!”

  The kids barge past. Ryker spins in circles, his tree trunks for arms stretching high above his head. I hold back my laughter. He looks adorable.