Chapter 15
Lucas
Noah and I hop out of the back of a JT Racing truck, each of us grabbing a few flags already strewn on poles to slide into the lamppost slots along High Street. The Fourth of July parade is in less than three days, so everyone is pitching in to decorate.
“Thanks for paying for the drinks the other night,” Noah says.
I fit the end of a pole into a bracket. “I needed them more than you did,” I reply. “I guess I wasn’t much for company. Sorry.”
We barely talked, some local fans of his gathered around as soon as we got there to fawn over him. I was grateful, though. I didn’t want to drink alone, but I knew I wasn’t going to talk much, either.
“It was fine,” he says. “Kind of like drinking with my brother.”
“You hang out at that bar much?”
“Never.” He moves to the next lamppost, throwing me a smile. “I usually take a bottle out to the river, or sneak into Eagle Point Park. Somewhere I can be alone,” he tells me. “And hear the sounds of home that I’ll never admit to my dad that I kind of miss.”
I get the impression he couldn’t wait to get away from his family and Colorado, but he seems to miss them too. He’s just like everyone else with a story, and has complications and feelings he doesn’t know what to do with.
He’s not the guy I thought he was, and I know from watching Madoc that men with constant smiles are hiding things too.
“You need a girl.” I toss him the last pole and he slips it in the bracket. “Or a guy?”
He chuckles, and we both hop back into the truck bed that one of Jared’s techs drives while we decorate.
“Can I have that one?” He points to Quinn’s shop, and I look, recognizing her figure delivering a coffee to a table.
Her hair is down, tucked behind one ear, and I like the baker’s coat she wears.
I cock an eyebrow, throwing the little shit a glare. “And compete with Farrow Kelly?” I force a tease.
Noah is definitely a threat, but I don’t know… It’s like surface charm. He hides behind it. Something tells me Quinn will see through it too.
He shrugs. “Farrow will just suggest we share her.”
My heart drops like a hammer.
We stop and Noah jumps down with my flags. I follow him, sliding a pole in, but my hand shakes. “Quinn isn’t like that,” I tell him.
“They’re all like that.”
I drop my arms, the remaining flags draping on the ground. Son of a bitch.
Noah meets my eyes, moving to the next pole.
“People love to be desired, especially good girls who haven’t experienced much attention,” he tells me in his confident, piece-of-shit tone.
“They’re kind of dumb. Hot hands coming at them from two men, they unravel, and all they can do is hang on for the ride. ”
Who does he think he’s talking to? I swipe the flag poles off the ground, ready to lunge.
“Every girl has two sides,” he explains. “Sunday best and doggy-style-fuck-fest.”
I snarl, throwing the flags into the bed of the truck as I charge for him. I wrap one hand around his fucking throat and pin him to the lamppost. He just smiles, pulling up a hundred-dollar bill from his pocket. “How about a bet?” he taunts.
“How about a lesson, you little shit?”
But he just goes on. “You’ll say you don’t think about her like that, and I say you want her exactly like that.”
Quinn’s face looking up at me last night floats through my head, and God…
I could’ve driven with her like that forever. Fuck, I wanted to take her somewhere. Is it obvious?
“If I’m wrong, you win.” He stuffs the money into my jeans pocket. “If I’m right, you owe me.”
I breathe hard, shoving the little prick away. He’s not worth the energy.
“I’ll be waiting,” he says, jumping into the back of the truck and throwing me the rest of the flags.
I can’t swallow. My mouth is parched.
I take the money back out of the pocket and throw it at him. “She’s a kid.”
“She’s not.”
He tosses the bill back, and it lands on the ground.
“She’s practically family,” I growl.
“But she’s not.”
Brooks, one of Jared’s mechanics, starts to drive.
“She’s too young!” I bark at Noah.
“Fine!” he shouts. “Let her fuck around with a few boyfriends, and then when you’re forty and Farrow Kelly and I have doubly-penetrated her, you can put her heart back together.”
Two ladies on the sidewalk stop short, their mouths hanging open, and I blink long and hard.
Fuck.
Noah howls with laughter. “I dub thee my new older brother!” he shouts. “I miss him. You can fill in. Gym tonight. Seven o’clock.”
I would yell expletives at him, but he’s too far away now even if I can still make out his stupid fucking grin from here. Brooks is taking him to the park to set up tables and chairs.
Plus, I’m the adult.
Images of him, Farrow, and Quinn assault my brain, and I don’t know if Quinn would let something like that happen, but they certainly would never say no. And she’s the inexperienced one. Someone needs to be keeping an eye on her.
And I’m not clear in my head right now. Watching her the other night on the bed, and last night with her head in my lap, is messing with me. I could bond with her when we were younger and it was safe, but I’m bonding with her now and it’s different. My body is reacting. It’s not okay.
Quickly, I hang the rest of the flags and pull out my phone, dialing Isobel.
“Good morning, sir,” she answers.
It’s almost nine-thirty at night there.
“Tell me I’m needed.” I sound like I’m daring her. “Tell me to come home.”
I hear her tinkling laugh. “You’re handling everything just fine via phone and computer for now,” she says. “Take a few more days.”
I figured she’d say that. She likes being in charge of my office.
“Are you in the mood for some research?” I ask instead.
“Ohhh, what’s up?”
I turn in a slow circle, making sure no one is walking up on me as I scan the street for that Traverse.
I spot Kade pulling up to the curb in his truck, a couple of friends in the cab with him. Jax stands up on the hill, in front of the historical society, setting up the sound system.
“Take these names down,” I tell her. “Hugo Navarre, Drew Reeves, Noah Van der Berg—V-A-N-D-E-R-B-E-R-G, and Farrow Kelly. F-A-R-R-O-W.” I give her a few seconds, hearing her type. “Also…” I swallow, lowering my voice. “Madoc Caruthers, Jared Trent, and Jaxon Trent.”
I look around me again for any listening ears.
“I want dossiers that rival that one you keep on that girl who destroyed the curve in your high school calculus class.”
Kade rounds the front of his truck as his friends climb out. I watch him hold his arm out and flip the middle finger to some guy passing by on a motorcycle. A young girl with a white-blonde ponytail and red tips hangs on behind him.
“How did you know about that?” Isobel gasps.
I chuckle. “It came up in the background check.”
“You did a background check on me?”
“Haven’t you done one on me?” I shoot back.
She’s nosy and overbearing. Of course she did.
She avoids the question. “Psh.”
The guy and girl on the motorcycle pass by me, and I notice he’s quite a bit older than her with graying hair and a scruffy beard. I do a double-take, recognizing him.
Is that…?
He looks at me, and I look away. Shit, that’s Nate Dietrich. He was a rival of Madoc’s in school. Or of Jared’s. I guess Kade is keeping the legacy alive.
“Oh,” Isobel remarks before letting me go. “You have a date tonight. Do you want to cancel it yourself?”
I cut off my groan before it becomes audible. “I’ll take care of it.”
It’s tempting to let Isobel cancel what’s just become an appointment for two overworked people who need to blow off some steam, but it’s not a situation a good person puts their assistant in.
“I’ll get back to you when I have the files,” she tells me.
“Thanks.”
We hang up, and I walk toward Jax. Across the street, taking the steps up the hill to where he has electronics spread out under a tent.
“Hey,” I say, warm wind breezing through my hair.
He looks up. “Hi.”
“Need any help?”
“Nah, about done,” he tells me.
I nod, letting my eyes roam over the equipment and cords on the table, cases of drones underneath. I can’t go back to the Caruthers’ place. It’s too quiet.
I could go to Fallon’s shop, but Madoc’s car was there earlier, and I don’t have answers for questions he desperately wants to ask.
“You want to talk about it?” Jax offers.
I run my hand over the blade of a drone. “No.” I pause, then continue. “Just tell me I’m welcome in the Falls no matter what happens.”
“Why me?”
I meet his eyes. “Because you’ve been the worst places and you’re still here.”
I’m not supposed to know that he was severely abused as a child or that he killed his father’s girlfriend and their friend when he’d had enough.
Madoc didn’t keep things from me, though, and he wanted me to understand that nothing is as it seems. It’s impossible to be aware of everything about every person, and we should always give the benefit of the doubt.
And there’s only one person we ever really know. If we’re lucky.
“Sometimes I was carried.” Jax gives me a soft smile. “Jared, Madoc… And by her.”
I don’t have to ask to know he’s talking about his wife.
“When my heart couldn’t stand me anymore, I just gave it to her,” he states.
I clench my jaw, watching him close a case, and I move my hand off a box of security cameras as he covers the table with a tarp.
Who do I give my shit to?
I’m a bad guy, and I’m putting everyone around me in danger. Who do I let see that?
Hours later, Jared and Jax take the front line while Madoc slams the racquetball, and I try to keep my eye on the damn game.
“Senator?” I shout.
“I think I can do it!” Madoc boasts back at me.
The ball bounces, echoing in the big chamber. Jax dives to slap it with his racket.
“‘Think you can?’” Jared growls, pulling off his shirt and tossing it. “You’re not climbing a mountain. You’d be altering your life!” He hits the ball next. “Your family’s lives. Our lives!”