Pit Stop (Fast Miles #1)

Prologue

Iinhale deeply on the joint in my hand, letting myself really enjoy the taste of the weed and the feel of the hit, considering I’ve told myself it will be my last one for a while.

I’ll be joining the PRI season this summer, and if there’s one thing they don’t tolerate, it’s drugs.

Not that The Academy does either, but it’s easy enough to mess with the drug tests they do here, especially when your father is on the board.

He and his twin brother started this place twenty years ago, and have turned it into a fucking empire since then, which I guess makes me a nepo baby.

And I fucking hate that.

Most people presume I have spent the last three years here just coasting by, having everything handed to me.

What else would the son of Cooper Miles do?

They think being my father’s son makes all of this easier on me, but they’re wrong.

Nothing about my life is easy. I have to work twice as hard as everyone else for half the praise.

No one sees the effort that goes into my talent. They only ever see my last name.

Sitting on the roof of the main building, I’m waiting for the sun to come up, enjoying not just the peace and tranquility being up here offers me, but also the picturesque view of a new day.

I’ve been working my ass off these last few months, and up here is the only time I can get any semblance of peace.

It doesn’t matter that I opted for a private room to reside in, one of the guys always tends to bother me there, but never up here.

Unfortunately, there is one person here who doesn’t care about anyone else’s discomfort, or their need for privacy.

Which is why I know the second I hear the scuff of the door that leads to the roof, followed by casual yet firm footsteps, that Caden has come to find me.

Caden is my cousin, and one of my best friends for all intents and purposes, but right now I wish he would fuck off.

I mean, can’t a guy get a bit of peace while he gets stoned and contemplates his life?

Groaning inwardly, I take another drag of the joint before accepting the fact that my day is about to be ruined before it’s even started.

A thought that is only intensified, when I finally turn around to face my cousin, only to find him covered in blood.

For most people this would induce panic, but those people don’t know Caden, and this is not the first time I have seen him like this.

“For fuck’s sake, what the hell did you do now?” I’m already shaking my head, as I stub out the joint and slide off the wall, where I was sitting against one of the old statues.

It will be a bitch to clean up whatever mess he has incurred, but still I start to catalogue who I might need to call. Whether it’s something we can sort out between myself and his right-hand man, Bobby, or whether we need to go higher than that.

“I killed Jason,” he states matter of factly, his admission not even making me pause, not even with the use of my brother’s name.

“Funny,” I drawl sarcastically, rolling my eyes at the mention of my brother’s name, relaxing a little, as I wonder now if the blood is even real.

“Did he put you up to this?” Jason isn’t really one for pranks, or entertaining any of us here really, but life for him has been pretty dull lately since he was injured, so I can’t say I blame him.

When Caden doesn’t respond, just continues to stare at me without humor or remorse, I straighten up.

“What the fuck do you mean you killed Jason?”

I’m already shaking my head because there is just no way, I mean Jason is his blood, his family, he wouldn’t just kill him, I mean surely not.

My cousin leans forward and plucks the half-smoked joint from between my fingers, and brings it to his mouth. “Did I stutter?” He lights the joint, inhaling smoothly, never breaking my stare, and it’s only then I see the dead look in his eyes.

Caden Miles is a lot of things. My cousin, my best friend, probably a psychopath if we are being honest, but he’s not a liar.

Which is why I know wholeheartedly, that his confession to murdering my brother isn’t a joke.

I’m almost certain this isn’t his first murder, but it’s most definitely his first admission to one.

My heart starts racing in my chest, the news I just heard finally registering with my body, and causing a physical reaction inside of me.

There is a pounding in my head that I am sure is my erratic heartbeat, a lump in my throat so thick it makes me want to throw up, and for once in my life my hands feel anything but steady.

My brother is dead.

No, he can’t be, I saw him just yesterday morning when I went home for dinner with our mom.

God my mom, she won’t be able to handle this, Jason is her baby, and fuck, my dad, he will lose his head completely when he finds out.

Our family is far from perfect, but we were still a family, and now one of us is dead.

My eyes flick back to Caden to find him completely unmoving, watching me with such ease, it’s as if he just told me what he had for dinner, not that he killed my brother. I knew he was fucking deranged, but this is on a whole other level.

“There is something seriously fucking wrong with you,” I finally grit through my teeth, trying to control my now labored breathing.

“You can’t just go around fucking killing people, fuck!

” I don’t mean for my voice to be getting louder, but nothing is in my control right now.

“And you can’t just fucking kill my brother!

” My legs threaten to give out from beneath me as I stumble back against the wall, as regret and relief go to war inside of me.

“Tell that to his corpse,” Caden replies, dryly and without emotion.

A thousand things run through my mind, my hand flattening to my chest to try and ease the ache now formed there. Jason wasn’t a good person, I know that, but was killing him really the answer?

I know Caden, I know him better than I know my brother, which means I know he wouldn’t have killed him without reason.

Tears burn the back of my eyes, as countless memories of my brother collide with the fact that I will never see him again.

There have been plenty of rumors about him in the last couple of years, some unsavory things being said about him, but nothing concrete.

In fact, the closest we came to suspecting something was when his legs were shattered.

He said it was a misunderstanding, but now all of his words seem worthless.

What did he do that was so bad, that even Caden couldn’t forgive him? The guy with no moral compass and an empty space in his chest where his heart should be. His soul would be jet black if he had one, so for him to care enough to do this then there must have been a good reason, one I don’t know.

“Why did you do it?” My question is more of a demand, but Caden doesn’t even flinch at my tone.

“If you have to ask then you’re not ready for the answer,” he replies simply, and at that I scoff.

Okay so Jason might not have been a good person, but whatever his crimes may have been, didn’t he deserve a better kind of retribution? And didn’t I, his brother, deserve to know what he did, or at least have a say in his punishment?

“And what gives you the right to play judge, jury, and executioner?” I snap, my hands curling with the need to hurt him the way he has hurt me, but I know unlike me, he wouldn’t feel a thing.

My cousin has always been different, so unlike his twin in every way, but I thought he had enough sense to be loyal to the people he shares DNA with.

Caden only shrugs. “What have I always told you?” He asks, searching my stare expectantly, and I know he will wait out my impending panic with ease if he has to, so I force myself to breathe.

If I know one thing about my cousin, it’s that the only person he truly loves is Casper.

I know sharing a womb with his twin is the only thing that granted him some sense of being human.

He doesn’t feel like normal people do, doesn’t love, and definitely doesn’t trust, and he has always tried to get us to be the same way.

I guess I never truly understood why, until now.

“Never trust anyone with anything, not even you,” I state firmly, repeating back the mantra he has instilled in all of us, for as long as I can remember.

With those words he nods, and then comes to stand at my side, his eyes moving to fix on the horizon, as if this is any other morning. I have no choice but to turn and join him, and we both remain silent as the sun signaling a new day starts to loom overhead.

A sight my brother will never get to see again.

And worse?

I’m not sure he deserved to.