Chapter 13
Brody
As soon as we got home, Cal disappeared to the sauna while I went to the kitchen for my prepared protein shake. The training went around and around in my head. It hadn’t been nearly as bad as I’d thought it was going to be. With time, we’d make a killer team.
Then what? You’ll get scouted and leave Sinclair Industries to be a pro? Dream on.
I stuffed that thought deep down inside. I didn’t need to play professional hockey. Just having a stellar college career would be enough of an achievement, before I got more serious about leading the company. That was my purpose, my raison d’être.
It was what my father had raised me to believe, at any rate, and now, it was lodged so firmly, I wasn’t sure where his plans stopped and my dreams started.
Gripping the protein shake, I took my bag into the laundry room and sorted my training gear into the washing machine.
Hockey stuff stank. Other people’s sweat stank.
All of it stank. It needed washed immediately.
Sure, we had housekeepers who came and handled most of the laundry on a daily basis, but I’d never subject any poor soul to my training gear.
After, I headed upstairs. It was quiet, too quiet.
I knocked on Selena’s door and waited a moment.
She’d be pissed off that I’d gone ahead and removed anything that she might use to further destroy herself.
Except for the vibrator. I’d taken that just to see if she’d ask me for it back.
Because I was a sick fuck, and clashing with her had become something to look forward to in my entirely predictable days.
“What?” a voice shouted from inside her room.
I waited for her to open it. After long enough, she did.
She was wearing the last outfit she had that matched her emo, zombie cheerleader style. Clearly, what she had been wearing when she’d gone out this morning before I’d audited her wardrobe.
“Good evening to you, too.” I smirked at her.
She seemed to hate that the most.
She narrowed her eyes at me. “If you’re waiting for me to ask where my stuff is, you’ll be disappointed. I don’t care.”
“Good, because you’re not getting it back.”
She glared at me. If looks could kill, I’d be a dead man ten times over.
“And the prescription pills? I mean, we both know you’re an asshole, but I didn’t realize that you’re a doctor, too, who can decide what medication a person should take. Wow, so accomplished.”
“The pills say clearly on them, not to be consumed with alcohol.” I gave her an up-and-down once-over.
Those ripped, aggressively ugly outfits might irritate me, but I couldn’t deny she looked good in them.
But then, this girl would look good in a paper bag.
Just another fucking annoying thing about her.
The pills were interesting. There were a fuck ton of them. That wasn’t a normal situation. Selena and her mum were hiding something, and I wanted to know what it was.
“Right, so… even if I’m not drinking, how am I supposed to take them?”
“You can come to me and I’ll dispense them, once I’m sure you’re not mixing them with alcohol, or I don’t know, cough syrup.”
She rolled her eyes, and my palm itched to spank the brat right out of her. I’d never met a more defiant woman in my life.
“Like I’d drink cough syrup.” She was going for nonchalant, but her cheeks were going red. A dead giveaway.
“Hmm, imagine that, it would be crazy, wouldn’t it?” I agreed.
I didn’t know for sure that Selena had fallen that low, but it was a move my sister had pulled frequently.
“And my clothes? Am I supposed to wear the same thing every day?”
“No, you’re supposed to wear the stuff in the closet.”
“I’d rather die,” she announced, raising her chin and looking for all the world like she might take a swing at me. So much defiance in such a tiny package.
“Please, this house is no place for amateur dramatics. Save it for the stage, little heathen.”
“The stage? What are you talking about?” she muttered and dropped my gaze.
I knew she was interested in the stage because of the Shakespeare play she had on her nightstand, with a flyer about auditions tucked inside.
“I suppose that being in the drama club is off-limits as well to the fun police?”
I chuckled and shook my head. “Knock yourself out. Being a thespian is always acceptable, provided you keep the drama reserved for opening night and not our house.”
“You are the most irritating person I’ve ever met,” she accused, then stepped back into her room and slammed the door.
“Well, that went well.” Cal lounged in his doorway.
“It did, didn’t it?”
“Don’t you think you’re taking it too far? Who cares what she wears, or does, as long as she isn’t pissing Father off?”
His words annoyed me. Because they’re true.
“She represents us as a family. You want reporters to start asking why our new stepsister ended up in the ER with an OD?”
Cal rolled his eyes and went back into his room. I resisted the urge to knock on Selena’s door again and tangle with the little hellraiser. Instead, I went down to the sauna, stripped off, and wrapped a towel around my hips. My muscles ached, and heat was the best way to ease them.
I set the temperature as high as I could stand it and went in, sitting on a top bench and letting the heat sink into my skin.
Practice replayed in my head, and I looked for flaws in my performance, places to improve.
My mind kept being tugged back to Selena’s insolent stare and the way her lip curled contemptuously when she spat her venom at me.
Being treated like that by a woman was still a novelty.
Selena was in a very exclusive club of people who seemed not to give a fuck about my family name, or money.
Hell, she wasn’t even affected by the basic shit, like the fact that I was a guy who wasn’t a troll, over six feet, and a hockey player.
She was immune to my charms. It was… as refreshing as it was irritating.
When I was thirsty and drenched in sweat, I stood and made my way to the door. I pushed it. It didn’t budge. I pushed again. Nothing.
It was stuck. I peered outside the tiny glass window.
I couldn’t see what could be sticking it shut.
I put my shoulder to it and pushed, but it didn’t budge.
I glanced at the wall to the side of me, where the key for the outside lock usually hung.
We very seldom locked it. Only if there was an issue with it and it wasn’t to be used.
The key was gone.
I checked outside again, and there she was.
The little heathen.
Selena leaned against the far wall, twirling the key between her fingers.
Shit. She smirked at me.
“Very funny. Let me out,” I demanded, banging a hand hard against the door, making it shudder.
Selena put a hand to her ear, cupping it, and frowned like she couldn’t hear me.
“I said to let me out, now!” I shouted again.
Sweat dripped off me onto the floor at this point, and I was insanely thirsty.
Usually, I brought a bottle of water into the sauna, but I’d been distracted today, thanks to her.
Instead, it sat on the changing bench outside.
Droplets of condensation rolled down the side, driving me insane.
Selena sauntered forward, arms crossed, and tilted her head to the side, watching me like my demise was a show she had been waiting her entire life to see.
“Now, Selena. You’ve had your fun.” I slapped a hand on the door again. It slid off, drenched in sweat. I could barely see. Sweat stung at my eyes, and black spots formed in the corners of my vision. Shit. This was getting serious.
I rested my forehead on the wall beside the door, fighting the dizziness, and then knocked on the door again.
“Are you trying to kill me?” I laughed, nearly delirious.
She shrugged. “I don’t know. Are you trying to kill me?”
“Taking the stuff you’re fucking your life up with isn’t trying to kill you.”
“It is if I need that stuff to survive.”
I shook my head and slid down the door to sit on the floor. Water was all I could think about.
When I thought I might pass the fuck out, the door cracked open.
I didn’t rush to shove it wider. I couldn’t.
Instead, I waited until the cool air hit my face and sucked down a lungful.
The spots stopped dancing, bit by bit. I pushed off the wall and made it through the door, collapsing onto the bench right outside and reaching for the water.
I finished the entire bottle in four long pulls.
Bit by bit, the ringing dizziness in my head faded.
I looked around the room.
Selena was gone.
I couldn’t believe she’d actually done that. She had far bigger balls than I’d expected… either that, or fewer survival instincts.
I shoved a hand through my dripping hair and found myself laughing.
Fuck, it was kind of a rush. I felt like I was flying.
If my new stepsister wanted to fight the new rules of this house…
then that was fine by me. I liked a new challenge, after all, and breaking Selena’s rebellious spirit was one that filled me with anticipation.
Game on, little heathen. Game. On.