Chapter 8
CONNOR
"We need to find the asshole." I worked the plug open and pushed on the side of the dinghy, letting the air out.
The last of the white water rafting tours for the year was done.
Like we always did, we inspected each one carefully before deflating it and stacking it away.
In spring, we'd re-inflate and inspect them again.
"Which one?" Riley glanced over at me and grinned. "Josiah or Brooks?"
I grunted a laugh. He had a point there.
"Both of them, but I meant Brooks this time. Prick thought he could watch our woman." That didn't sit right with me. Especially since he didn't know she'd already guessed he was doing it.
"She wasn't ours at the time." Riley trod on one of the boats, walking around to force the air out.
I could have refuted that, but it wasn't the point.
"He still did it without her permission," I said.
"You have a key to her house without her permission." He jumped off the boat and leaned over to fold it.
"That's different," I said.
"How is it different?" He pushed the folded boat aside and started to flatten another one.
"Because us having a key is in her best interest," I said. "She might need us to come inside when she can't open the door herself. What he did was just fucking creepy."
Riley stopped and looked over at me. "Are you pissed off you didn't think of it first?"
"No," I scoffed. "Why would I want to watch her get off when I can get her off myself?" Anyone could sit back and watch.
"When you put it that way, it is creepy." Riley went back to deflating. "Why do you think he's in town?"
"For her." That was the only thing I was certain of. "He's come to claim her, but he's in for a surprise. We aren't giving her up without a fight."
"Hell no we aren't," Riley agreed. "If he wants her, he's going to have to share." He levelled a look at me. "How do you feel about that? Sharing her with him." After a beat he added, "And Josiah."
"You want that, don't you?" I asked. I'd heard his dirty talking when we were fucking Leah. He'd all but invited both guys into bed with us.
"I want… I want her to get everything she wants," he said slowly. "And I want her and you. If having her means sharing with them, then yeah, I want that. Nice deflection, by the way. What do you want?"
I released a long sigh. "Do you think maybe she's right? About Coral Clarke. What if things didn't go down the way we were told?"
"Are you admitting there's a chance Josiah wasn't lying?" Riley cocked his head at me. "I noticed you deflected again." He grinned when I flipped him off. "If we were wrong all this time, that would make it easier to share her with him."
That was typical Riley. He was always faster to forgive and forget than I was.
It was going to take time for me to get my head around the idea we may not have anything to forgive.
If anything, Josiah would be the one having to forgive us.
And our parents for creating the whole narrative and perpetuating it to begin with.
I scrubbed a hand over my face. "This whole thing is fucked up."
"You think she's Coral, don't you?" Riley squinted at me.
"I don't know." I dropped my hand to my side. "The first time I saw her, I was drawn to her. Like, I don't know, I didn't want to look away. I was an asshole to her, but even then I felt like she belonged here. You know?"
"Yeah, I know." He gave me a couple of slaps on my shoulder and started to fold the second boat. "It feels like she's always been here."
He was right about that. She fit in like a missing piece of the puzzle. The bit we didn't know was missing until we met her. Once we had, we didn't know how we'd functioned without her.
"Hypothetically, what if she is Coral Clarke?
How do we prove it? Should we try to prove it?
Would it change anything if we do? She'd still be the same woman, with the same past. And the same future.
" I didn't give a shit if her name was Engelbert Clutterbuck.
It wouldn't change how I felt about her.
It wouldn't change how Riley felt about her.
Yeah, I heard what he said when we were fucking.
I knew he was saying it to both of us. I didn't know about Leah, but I was too chicken shit to say it back. For now.
"This isn't the answer you want, but we have to leave it up to her," Riley said. "She has to decide if she wants to find out the truth or not. But if she does, a DNA test should do it. If we could get Gavin to agree to have his mouth swabbed. Or blood taken."
"Yeah." He'd have to be lucid enough to consent, but if he was, would we have to explain why it was happening? That might fuck him up even more. This whole situation got more and more fucked up the more I thought about it.
"Fiona or Whitney could probably convince him," Riley said. "Those two could sell sand to someone living in the middle of the desert."
I grunt-laughed. That sounded like Fiona and my sister all right. Especially Whitney. She was the master of getting her own way when she put her mind to it. "I guess we wait and see what Leah wants to do."
I helped Riley fold the last couple of boats and drag them over to the pile. We tossed the paddles on top of them and hung all the lifejackets onto hooks.
“Let's grab some lunch and see if we can find Brooks," I said, wiping my hands on my jeans.
"Sounds like a plan." Riley locked the shed behind us and we headed down the street as the first flurries of snow started to settle.
I caught Riley giving me a sideways look. "What?"
He grinned and said, "I remember when we used to catch snowflakes on our tongues."
"Pretty sure that was last winter." I put out my hand to try to catch a few. Summer felt like only weeks ago. We were barely done with the fall festival and it was snowing. Nothing new for here, but it made the year feel like it flew past.
"And the winter before," he said. "And all the winters since we were kids."
"Basically." I pushed the front door to the Frosty Brew open and stepped inside. The warmth of the pub felt cozy after the cold of the street.
"I thought that would be difficult," Riley said, coming in behind me.
I glanced over my shoulder and followed his gaze to where Brooks sat at a table, his eyes on his phone. A half drunk beer sat in front of him, the condensation leaving a puddle on the table. By the look of it, he hadn't touched it in a while.
"Me too." Back straight, I sauntered over, grabbed the back of the chair opposite him and pulled it out with a scrape of wood on hardwood. My father would have been pissed off if he saw, but he wasn't here right now. Lucky for me.
He glanced up at me and frowned as I sat down.
"Can I help you?" he asked coldly. He was good-looking enough, with his chiselled jaw and blonde hair. He'd look prettier on his knees. His plush lips would look perfect around my cock.
"As a matter of fact, you can," I said, matching his tone. Bettering it, if I was honest. His icy cold could use some work. "You're Leah's stepbrother."
He sat back and regarded me and Riley, who plopped into the chair beside me.
"So what if I am?" he asked. "Why do you—" He cut himself off. "You're her…boyfriends." He didn't use air quotes, but it was implied. And amplified by the curl of his lip when he sneered.
"That's us," Riley said cheerfully. "What do you want with her?" He was smiling, but if anyone thought he wouldn't jump up and slam Brooks' face into the table, they were mistaken. He kept his undercurrent of violence more tightly controlled than I did, but it was still there.
"I could ask you the same thing." Brooks didn't flinch. I had to give him credit for that. "What do you want with my stepsister?"
"We care about her," I said. "We don't want her hurt by some blow-in who's going to leave town when he gets bored of the place."
"Who says I'm leaving?" Brooks crossed his arms and looked smug as fuck.
I know, I've seen that expression in the mirror often enough. I was starting to think Leah had a type.
"Are you?" Riley asked. "We know you watched her getting herself off."
That took Brooks aback. Clearly he hadn't expected her to tell us that.
Surprise was replaced with anger, furious at having been caught off guard.
He was the kind of guy who liked to think he held all the cards.
As far as I was concerned, the only cards he had were jokers. Riley and I held the rest.
"So what if I did?" Brooks' voice was tight. "Leah didn't mind."
"Maybe I mind," I said. "She's our girlfriend. I'll ask again, what do you want with her?"
"He wants to fuck her," Riley said before Brooks could respond. "That's why he's here."
"Isn't that all you want from her?" Brooks retorted. "Her pretty little pussy."
"That isn't all we want from her," Riley said, still keeping his tone light.
"Like Connor said, we care about her. She's a special woman; we don't want anyone to hurt her.
Including everyone sitting at this table right now.
" After a moment he added, "Unless it's in a way she likes.
" He slid me a look, reminding me of slapping her ass. She enjoyed that and so had I.
"I—" Brooks looked uncomfortable.
Before he could finish what he was going to say, Leah stepped over to the table.
"What are all of you doing here?"