by Holly Renee
They talked as if we weren’t even there. As if our presence was completely inconsequential, and I guess it was.
We were the people who didn’t matter.
These men, they did.
And they knew it.
No one here would dare say a word. That was one of the advantages of Clermont Bay Country Club. Allie had made it clear that the secrets of these men lived and died within these walls.
There was no judgment, at least none that was voiced, and there were very few rules.
Secrecy was number one.
Break it and you were gone. Break it and you would never have the privilege these men shared again.
We were several hours into our shift when the sound of laughter caught my attention. I turned toward the entrance to watch a group of teenagers walk in. They were dressed far more casually than the rest of the members, but they still reeked of money.
“Who are they?” I whispered as Allie grabbed a fresh pitcher of water.
I watched them sit at the large table in the center of the room like they owned the place. They didn’t care who sat around them or the type of power they possessed.
They feared nothing.
“Those, my dear, are your new schoolmates.” I tensed as the words left her mouth. “The one in the corner, that’s Carson Hale. He’s a total playboy.” Allie rolled her eyes, and her hands tightened around the pitcher. “He has a new girl on his arm every time you see him. I don’t even know that girl’s name that’s with him today.”
I could see why. He was handsome in a way that screamed money. His blond hair was perfectly coiffed but still somehow reminded me of a surfer. His shirt stark white and not a wrinkle in sight. His arrogance fueled by the idea that no one could touch him.
“The one sitting across from him, that’s Olly Warner. His family is crazy rich. He’s never going to have to work for anything. He’s never worked for anything in his life.”
I could barely see him from where I stood. He looked like a mess of light brown curls, and I imagined what they would feel like slipping through my fingers. He was fit, probably an athlete, and I found myself eager to get a look at his face.
Allie looked like she was eager to get as far away from them all as possible.
“Who’s the girl sitting next to him?” She was gorgeous. Her body slender, her hair so dark it was almost black, and I couldn’t help noticing how Olly watched her every move.
“That’s Frankie Clermont.” Allie practically growled out her name. “Her parents own this place.”
“Oh.” My gaze snapped back to Frankie, and I took in every detail of her again. My heart raced as I watched her smile. She seemed so much kinder than her brother.
She didn’t seem anything like him outside of the similarities in their looks.
Her tan skin and dark hair reminded me so much of Beck, but her smile, that belonged to her father.
“You don’t like her?”
“It’s not that.” Allie shook her head. “They’re all just so different than us.”
I didn’t tell her that my father was just as rich as them. Even if it was the truth, it didn’t matter. That fact didn’t make me anything like those people.
I looked back to the table just as he walked up. Beck grinned as he pulled out a seat next to his sister, and he looked so relaxed. I felt anything but.
My hands began sweating and my pulse crashed against my skin. I should have listened to Lucas. I never should have taken a job here.
“That one there.” Allie grinned and fanned her face dramatically. “That’s Beck Clermont.”
My gaze swung to hers, and she giggled.
“Yeah,” she answered before I could even voice my question. “He and Frankie are siblings. He’s the heir to all of this.”
She thought I was impressed by his last name. She thought that I cared about him at all.
I looked back to where he now sat, and my breath caught when my eyes met his. My stomach tightened as Allie placed one of the water pitchers in my hand.
“They all run this damn town.”
I couldn’t pull my gaze away from his long enough to even spare a glance at the rest of them. I had no idea who the others were, but it didn’t matter. All that mattered was that he was here, and I had made a mistake.
She laughed before bumping into my shoulder. “You ready?”
I jerked my gaze back to her, and I tried to calm my racing heart. “I don’t think I can do this.”
Allie laughed, and I knew she probably thought I was being dramatic. These people were going to be my peers, and that was enough reason for me to fear going out there.
I didn’t have to tell her that Beck hated me.
I didn’t want to.
I didn’t want to give voice to the fact that I cared about him at all.
“Come on.”
I avoided his side of the table as I followed Allie’s lead. She had a large smile on her face that didn’t look one bit forced, but I knew I looked nothing like her. I chewed on my bottom lip as my hands shook around the pitcher.
“Good evening. Can we start you all off with some water?”
Someone grunted a noncommittal yes, but I didn’t dare look to see who. I kept my head down, and I grabbed the first glass off the table.
“You must be new here. I don’t think I’ve seen you before.”
I looked up at the one who Allie told me was Olly, and I was right. He was just as good-looking from the front as he was from the back. Especially when he was smiling at me like that.
“I am.” I nodded but didn’t volunteer any other information. I didn’t care if that made me rude. I didn’t need these people knowing anything about me.
I was sure Beck would tell them everything they needed to know. He would tell them everything he thought he knew about me.
“You look familiar though.” This time it was Frankie talking, and when I looked at her, I could have sworn there was something about her that didn’t make her anything like these other people. “What’s your name?”
“Josie.” I cleared my throat as I grabbed the next glass, and I stupidly let my gaze snap to Beck for only a moment. He was still staring at me, and he looked so damn angry.
He was motionless and eerily calm, and I hated that I felt like I was waiting for him to explode.
He was a bomb, and I would be the one to feel the effects of him. I would be the one he destroyed.
“Josie what?”
I didn’t want to tell her my last name.
“Josie Vos.” Beck’s voice was soft and rich as my name rolled from his lips, and I thought I was going to break the glass as I tried to calm my shaking hand around it.
The table was harshly quiet for a moment, and I knew that whatever Beck’s reason was for hating me was widely known among the rest of them.
“You’re Lucas Vos’s sister?” This time it was the girl with Carson that spoke.
I hated how she said his name. “Stepsister.”
“Holy shit.”
I had no idea who said that. I placed the glass back down on the table with a still trembling hand and grabbed another. The sooner I could get away from this table, the better. I could feel them all staring at me, even Allie, but it was him who finally made me look up again.
He was staring at me again, and I watched his Adam’s apple bob.
He picked up his glass, and I watched as he brought it to his full lips. Lips I had tasted before I knew who he was. It felt like everyone in the entire room was watching him, but he was still watching me.
He took a long drag from his glass, and his eyes didn’t leave mine as I watched the glass slip through his fingers. The loud crash of breaking glass pulled me out of whatever trance he seemed to put me in, and I rushed to Allie’s side as she bent to clean up the mess.
“Allie, I’d love another water.”
Allie stopped with a large piece of glass in her hand and stared at me as he spoke. Her eyes were round in shock, and I knew that she
felt as confused as I did.
“Okay. Let me get this cleaned up, and I’ll get it right to you.”
He turned in his chair, looking down at us with pure venom in his voice. “I think the new girl can handle it.”
I could tell that Allie had no idea what to do. She looked from him to me, and I gave her a slight nod of my head. As much as I didn’t want to be left alone with him, there was no way that I would subject her to whatever he was going to do next. She hesitated before she stood, and I knew that she didn’t want to leave me here alone.
I collected the glass in my hand as fast as I could, eager to get away from him. I barely felt it as the glass slid into my skin. I tightened my hand around it, letting the burn of the cut ricochet through me. It took everything inside me not to tell all of them to go straight to hell, but I needed this job. I needed it far more than I needed any of them to like me.
“You’re bleeding.” His voice held no concern.
“I’m fine.”
“I wasn’t worried about you.”
I finally looked back up at him then.
“Don’t drop an ounce of that Vos blood on my carpet.”
“Beck.” It was his sister who spoke, but he shrugged her off as if she was nothing.
Instead, he leaned closer to me, his face almost level with mine as he spoke. “I don’t want to see any Vos blood unless it’s at my hands.”
I shot back as his words hit me like a whip. He wanted to draw blood from my family? From me?
“I am only a Vos by blood.” I barely knew anything about this guy other than his last name, but he thought he knew everything about me simply by mine.
He reached out. His hand landed on my cheek gently, and I hated that I flinched at his touch. “You’re still one of them.” He ran his thumb against my bottom lip, and my thighs tightened involuntarily.
He touched me as if he somehow had the right, and I wanted to snap his fingers in half.
“Fuck you.” I heard the others get eerily quiet at my words, but I didn’t care. I needed this job, but not that damn bad. If he wanted to fire me, then he could go ahead and do so, but I would be damned if I sat there and listened to him.
I rose to my feet, his broken glass in my hands, and I hated how intrigued he looked. He cocked his head to the side, and it was as if I was the only thing he could see. His focus was singular, and it was completely on me.
My teeth felt like they were going to crack as I stared at him. His eyes looked so dark they were almost black, and I couldn’t look away. Even though he had a small grin on his face that showed his perfect teeth, it was as if his eyes were dead.
“Don’t let me see you here again.” His words sounded sweet coming off his tongue, but I could still see the venom in his eyes.
“Or what?” I didn’t know why I said it. I felt eager to push him. He made me eager to find out what he was capable of.
He and I were complete strangers, but somehow, he felt like anything but. He apparently knew far more about me than I knew of him, and I hated that he had that advantage. But even through his palpable hatred, there was something about him that still made my heart race in more than fear.
He stood. His height towering over me, and I lifted my chin as I stared into his eyes. “Don’t test me, Vos.”
I had a feeling he wasn’t used to being tested. I had a feeling nobody ever questioned him.
It was time that changed.
“Then fire me, Clermont.” I took a step closer to him, and the smell of his cologne overwhelmed me. It reminded me of that moment on the beach. Before we became more than two strangers. Before everything was ruined. “If you have that power.”
He tensed, his body going stone-still. My hands throbbed around the glass, and I could feel my pulse booming through every part of me.
“If not, I need to get back to work.” I stepped to the side with every intention of passing him, then avoiding this table for the rest of the night, but his hand reached out and gripped my upper arm before I could escape him.
His skin felt like it was a flame against mine.
His face was so close to me and my stomach tightened against my better judgment. My head and body as much at war as I appeared to be with him.
“If you don’t leave.” He licked his bottom lip, and I couldn’t stop myself from tracking the slow movement. “I’ll make your life a living hell.”
Chapter Four
Beck
I had no fucking clue what she was doing here.
Was her father insane?
What the hell did he think was going to happen? He sent his daughter straight into my hands, and he thought that she would make it out unscathed?
“Did you know that someone hired Lucas Vos’s sister?” I stormed into my father’s office as my muscles shook. I didn’t care that he was on the phone. I didn’t care that his gaze snapped up to me and he looked as annoyed with me as I was with him.
“I’ll call you back in a bit.” He set his phone down on his desk with more force than necessary and looked at me. “Yes. I knew. Joseph called me this morning.”
I had to bite my tongue to not rage out at him. My teeth felt like they might snap from the pressure of keeping it all together. The fact that he still spoke to that man made my skin crawl. How the two of them could pretend like nothing had ever happened was despicable.
“Fire her.” I dug my fingers into the back of the leather chair that sat across from him and tried to rein in my temper.
He shook his head, and my fingers turned white under the force of my hold. “I’m not firing the girl because you don’t like her brother.” His tone was final, brooking no room for argument.
My head snapped back. “Do you remember what her brother did?” I spit at him.
His eyes snapped up to mine at my words, and I knew that I was walking a fine line. My dad was kind and humble, but he refused to deal with disrespect. It was the thing that drove me the craziest about this whole situation.
It was as if they were rubbing their disrespect right in his face.
“I haven’t forgotten.” He leaned forward, his nostrils flaring, and clasped his hands together. “I will never forget what that boy did. But she is not him.”
I had never seen my father as weak. Not until recently. Not until I saw the way he handled this.
But he felt weak now.
It was like I didn’t know him at all.
“Joseph said she has agreed to be on her best behavior, but she wants a job. He feels more comfortable about her working here than someplace he can’t control.”
“But he has all the control here, doesn’t he?” The tightness in my chest intensified as I snapped at my father.
“Watch your tone, Beckham.” My dad rose, and I hated the way he had to grip the desk to pull himself to his full height. I hated watching him wither away.
“I’m sorry.” I was sincere. I didn’t want to talk to my dad like this, but the thought of her being here was driving me mad. The thought of Frankie having to put up with it made me tremble with rage. “But you can’t expect me to work with her. You can’t expect me to just forget.”
“No one is asking you to forget.” He ran his hand over his hair that was identical to mine, except for the dusting of gray at his temples. “But you are going to have to learn to work with people you don’t want to.”
I opened my mouth to tell him this was different, but he didn’t allow me a moment to speak.
“You’re going to be getting all of this.” He held his arms out, but I knew he meant more than this place. “And you’re going to be getting it earlier than any of us expected.”
“We don’t know that, Dad.” I shook my head and my chest suddenly felt like it was caving in. He was telling the truth regardless of whether I wanted to hear it. He always had, whether it hurt me or not. The man would always be honest with me.
“I hate Joseph Vos.”
I looked up at him, shocked by his admission. The way they had worked together,
the way they had swept everything under the rug like it didn’t fucking happen, made me think the exact opposite.
“I hate him, I hate his vile fucking son, and I hate that it is necessary for me to continue to work with him. But Joseph Vos is important. He invests in this place.” He pointed down to his desk. “He invests in this town. And we are far too smart to burn a bridge that we still might need to cross. If I hadn’t worked with him, your ass wouldn’t be here right now.”
I knew he was right. I knew that he did what he had to do to protect me, but it still made me feel like I was burning from the inside out.
“This girl has nothing to do with what Lucas did. She had no part in it.”
He was wrong though. She was one of them, and she would pay for the sins of her family. She would be the exact piece I needed to pay her brother back for every fucking vile thing he did.
I didn’t care what anyone else said. I didn’t care that my father wanted that bridge to stay intact. I would burn it to the fucking ground.
And I didn’t care if she got hurt along the way.
I hoped she did.
She was one of them, and no matter how innocent my father said she was, she couldn’t have come from a man like Joseph Vos and be completely sinless.
I just had to figure out her weaknesses, then I would use them to bring the Vos family to the ground.
Chapter Five
Josie
“You are going to a party with me this weekend.” Allie picked up another fork and wiped away the watermarks with a rag.
We were two of the only staff left after a slow Wednesday night, and it felt odd to be here without the normal hustle and bustle.
Allie had her feet up on one of the chairs, and there was a pile of silverware between us.
“There’s no way that’s going to happen. I told you what happened at the last party I went to.” I had. After she saw the way Beck had treated me in the country club, I had vented to her about the entire thing.
