5. Kreed
5
KREED
“ I t’s a little early, isn’t it, cutie?” The blonde behind the bar tapped a long red nail on the wooden tabletop. Camilla, I think her name was. Not that it mattered. I wasn’t interested in her name. Or anything else she had to offer except the wall of liquor bottles behind her.
And no one called me cutie. Not to my face. And certainly not behind my back. I didn’t exactly give off cute vibes. Scary, perhaps, but not cute.
Despite the tight, tiny skirt that definitely didn’t have any shorts underneath and the suggestive twinkling in her eyes, I wasn’t in the mood. I’d wandered in with one goal. To get hammered. To forget the big, light-blue eyes of the girl my father brought into our home.
I knew she’d be arriving. I just hadn’t expected her to look like… that , a petite little thing with a fiery spirit, but as someone who was a master at hiding my feelings, I could see through the spitting fire. She hurt inside. Deeply. After what she’d been through, I couldn’t blame her.
But sympathizing with her wouldn’t do me any good.
I didn’t want her in my house. And I sure as shit didn’t want to get to know her. She meant nothing to me, and I planned to keep it that way, regardless of her looks.
“Just pour me a drink. Save the show for some other sorry asshole,” I said, flipping the quarter someone left on the bar top.
“Tough day?” she asked, overlooking my surly tone.
After the party Maddox dragged me to last night, I probably shouldn’t be here. I hadn’t drunk much, not like he had. Someone had to drive him home, and I’d understood his need to get wasted. When you were expected to live up to Donovan Corvo’s expectations, it would drive the soberest of people straight to the bottle.
Was that why I was here? To get away from my father? I figured it was her I was avoiding, Kaylor Steele. God, even her name sounded prissy and stuck-up.
I swirled the ice in my glass. “Something like that,” I admitted, not much in the mood for conversation. I’d hoped the bartender would get the hint from my lack of enthusiasm.
My dad owned the club, one of his many ventures, but this place was a personal favorite. It was one of the only times that being Donovan Corvo’s son came with advantages.
Other than me, only a handful of other patrons were enjoying the club’s benefits. including the gambling rooms. Not surprising considering the hour. By ten tonight, this place would be packed, and that was when I tended to avoid the club the most. Crowds weren’t my thing. I preferred to be alone. I was someone who enjoyed my own company.
Despite the sparse room, a body dropped into the seat next to mine. I didn’t look up—didn’t care to engage in any friendly chatter. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one in need of day drinking.
“What are you doing here, Kreed?”
My fingers tightened on my glass as I closed my eyes for a brief second, recognizing the voice. I angled my head to the side at Raine, my older brother by two years. “I should be asking you the same question. Aren’t you supposed to be at college or something?”
Raine caught the eye of the bartender, silently signaling he would like her attention when she had a spare moment. “I am. Dad needed me to pick something up.”
“I bet he did,” I grumbled, spinning the quarter on the sleek bar top. “Does this package have long, tan legs and double D’s?”
He messed my hair up, something Raine knew pissed me off. “Funny. You know they’re not supposed to serve you here.”
The coin clattered to the counter. “As if anything in this joint is done by the book. Let’s not pretend.”
“Hey, Camilla.” Raine flashed his dimples at the barely legal girl behind the bar. I’d been right about her name. Unlike me, Raine used his charm to get people to do his bidding. I preferred a more direct, nonsensical approach. Fear also helped.
Like father, like son.
Except, I wanted to be nothing like my father, something I would have to work on. It wasn’t easy not to become the product of what I was raised to be when I had little outside influence other than school. It made me wonder who I would be if we hadn’t lost my mother, a tragedy I desperately tried to block out.
Being married to a man like Donovan Corvo couldn’t have been easy for her, yet she loved him. But loving him was what ended her life. I might have been only thirteen, but I was old enough to wish she had left my father and run off without ever looking back. At least then she’d still be alive, and I wouldn’t be tormented by her death.
One minute I was in the club and the next…
The blood. It was so warm on my fingers, so much thinner than I imagined.
And it flowed quickly from the wounds.
God, it was everywhere. Staining my clothes. Splattered on the cream walls. Soaking into the wood floorboards. I didn’t remember picking up the blade, but it glinted in my grasp, the end coated with fresh blood. It trickled down the hilt onto my hand and down my forearm.
All I could do was stare at it.
I blinked, and Raine watched me, concern in his light-green eyes. The casino’s beeping and whirling returned, the buzzing in my ears fading, taking the images of that night with it, but the pressure in my chest lingered, squeezing.
I slammed back the rest of my drink, coveting more, anything to dull the memory…the pain.
My brothers were all I had. They were the only ones who understood what it was like being a Corvo. What we’d been through…to a point. Even my brothers couldn’t fully understand the shit I’d carried with me. Always. The guilt. The horror. The vivid memories. It sat like a ton of bricks on my back, bearing down on me.
“What can I get you, handsome?” Camilla asked my brother.
Raine’s smile deepened, and I rolled my eyes. “I’ll take whatever he has,” he told her, gesturing to my empty drink.
I held mine up, ice clattering in the glass. “And I’ll take a refill.”
“Kreed.” The warning came out swift and low as did the disapproving pinch of his brows.
I wasn’t in the mood for his sanctimonious bullshit. “Fuck off, Raine. You left. You don’t get to try and pull the big-brother card on me.”
Raine set his phone down on the bar. “As if it ever worked with you.”
I glanced sidelong at him. He looked clean-cut in his button-up shirt rolled to his elbows and khaki pants, but the wrinkle- free attire hid who Raine truly was. His tattoos might not be visible like mine, but they were there, strategically placed on his body. “Never stopped you from trying,” I replied.
“Someone’s got to look out for you.”
I snorted. “I’m doing just fine without you.”
His dark brows lifted. “Are you? If that were true, would you be sitting in the club before noon?”
“How many times have you done the same while living at home?” I countered as Camilla topped off my drink. I hated beer. It tasted like piss.
“Too many to count,” he admitted. “Doesn’t mean it helped.”
“It’s fine. I’ve got it under control.”
“What exactly?”
I sighed, running the tip of my finger along the glass rim. “She moved in yesterday.”
He rubbed a hand over the stubble along his jaw. “Ah, now things are starting to make sense. Let me take a stab in the dark; she’s pretty.”
My head snapped in his direction. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“Isn’t that why you’re here, drowning those feelings you don’t want to feel? It’s what you’re notorious for. Blocking out emotions, Kreed.”
I was already frowning. “It’s better than being a notorious rake who made it his mission to fuck every girl in Elmwood.”
Raine didn’t take offense. He grinned like I’d issued him a compliment. “You have your way of dealing with shit, and I have mine. But I have to say, my way is so much more fun, little bro.”
My glass paused an inch from my lips. “Whatever,” I mumbled, tipping my drink back and letting the sweet burn coat my throat.
“Hmm.” Raine’s expression turned serious. “Tell me, what is it about her that has you so turned up? It’s a temporary situation. She’ll be eighteen this summer. And you graduate in a few months. Surely, you can live with a girl until then.”
It wasn’t just living with her. She came with baggage, but the real problem was the twins. It fell to my shoulders to keep the two of them in line, not an uncomplicated task. “It’s not me I’m worried about.”
“Maddox and Mason.”
We shared a look only the two of us understood. The twins had always been a handful, and their behavior only got worse as they got older. Being the youngest also meant my father often turned a blind eye to their shenanigans. Raine and I spent too much damn time cleaning up their messes. I didn’t want to think about what would happen when I went to college next year, leaving them to their own devices. They’d be lucky if they graduated.
I swirled what little was left in my glass. “It’s too much to hope they’ll take responsibility for their actions.”
Raine checked a text message that came through on his phone before replying. “That’s the damn truth. Are you more worried for her or the twins?”
“The obvious answer should be her.”
“But…” Raine prompted.
This familiar feeling of doom crept up my spine like a dozen spiders stalking, fangs erected, ready to sink into my flesh. “I can’t shake this feeling shit is going to go sideways.”
A ghost of a smile played on Raine’s lips. “I hadn’t given her a second thought, but now I’m looking forward to meeting her.”
Wonderful . I’d never met a single female who could resist Raine. Not that I gave two shits. Kaylor was free to do and see who she pleased as long as it didn’t cause tension between us.
She was going to be trouble—cause trouble. I could feel it.
And the last thing the sons of Donovan Corvo fucking needed was more problems, especially one with sultry, pouty lips and big, sad eyes that made any man want to save her. She had that appeal about her that incited the natural need to protect.
The only people I cared about shielding were my brothers. Everyone else, including my father, could fuck right off.
The whiskey turned sour in my mouth.