“I’m getting there.” I chuckle.
He laughs, and I notice his white teeth instantly against his tanned skin. His eyes fall on me. He has a friendly face. “I’m Jackson, but people call me Jack.”
My hand meets his. “Dove.”
“I know who you are.” He winks, removing his shirt. No ink. Not even the star that The Brothers have. Interesting.
He dives into the water, just as I slip out of my sandals.
“Oh, come on, Little Bird. Get in the water!” Killian yells.
“What are you scared about?” Val snaps, climbing up one of the rocks, shaking the water from her toned body. The Brothers don’t pay her any attention.
Shrugging off my towel, I toss it to the ground, placing my wine cooler on top. I pad my way to the rock that Jack dived off of.
“Dovey! Holy shit!” Mischa is laughing from the water. “That dancer body, though!”
“What?” I look down at my soft curves, but athletic frame. I have a tight six-pack and more muscles than bone, but essentially, I still wiggle in places. I like it that way, because I love food. “You’re insane. You’re all fit.”
“And you’re not?” Rose challenges me with a sneaky eyebrow lift.
I roll my eyes and dive into the water, instantly releasing all of my stress that the heat had brought upon me. My head breaks through the water, and I swipe the excess off my face, laughing.
“Feel better?” King whispers from behind me, just as his arm locks around my torso.
I spin around, wetting my hair back, so it’s not all over my face. “Much better.” I’m still laughing when I lean forward and kiss him softly on the lips. I freeze when I pull back. “Sorry—”
His lips are on mine again, his arm tightening around my waist. He releases me after a few seconds, and his eyes are searching mine.
“What are we doing?”
“Don’t do that,” he murmurs against my lips.
“Do what?” I want to know what he means. Suddenly, everyone and everything has disappeared behind me, and it’s just King and me.
“Don’t ask questions that you’re not ready to hear the answers for.”
“And you think I’m not ready?” I probe, wanting something. Anything. “You said that you hated me.”
“Yeah, and what did I say after I admitted that?” The words come out of his mouth, but his arms are still holding me beneath the water.
I think over my very brief memories, before his words come back to me in a violent echo. “I don’t need to like you to fuck you.”
“Okay.” I flutter my arms to keep me afloat, but fail miserably when I sink back under water. His hands come to the back of my ass, and he lifts me up out of the water again, forcing my legs around his waist. I’m chuckling with my arms around his neck. “We didn’t finish that conversation. Why do you hate me?”
His eyes narrow, and for a very brief second, I’m lost in his blatant masculinity. His dark hair and lashes. His very prominent jaw that always looks as though he’s tensing it—that’s how cut it is, and the way his eyes can express almost every human emotion while not exuding any at all. “All in good time.”
“Dovey! Want your drink?” Rose hollers, snapping me out of King’s trance. I push away from him and start swimming to the shoreline until my feet touch the sandy bottom. Once I’m out of the water, I take my drink and set my towel up beside her as she flicks through her phone and turns some music on.
“Are you okay?” she asks without looking at me. I get the feeling she’s trying to be secretive in her questions.
“Why wouldn’t I be?” I answer, running my fingers through my hair before it tangles.
She exhales, turning her full attention to me. “Please be careful, Dove. They’re not what you think they are. They’re—”
“Hey!” Mischa, the brunette girl who seems to have way too much energy for her little body, flicks her towel down on the other side of Rose. “You and King?”
“Ah…”
Maya drops her towel beside mine, complaining about wearing a bikini, even though she’s wearing sport shorts over her bottoms. “Fucking hate this Texas heat.”
“So?” Mischa further forces.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Mischa. Shut up and leave her alone.” Maya puts a joint between her lips and lights the tip, inhaling. She passes it to me, but I decline.
“Oh, come on.” Maya smirks. “I just put her in her place. The least you can do is have a puff on me.”
“Trouble,” Killian teases, and instantly Maya’s face drops. “Leave Dove alone. You know how King likes his toys untarnished.”
I laugh this time, flipping onto my back and relishing in the sun. “Well, then he better find a new toy, because I’m definitely a shade darker than tarnished.” I wiggle my fingers toward myself without even looking at Maya, gesturing to the joint. I want to say that it’s partly because of what happened in the cell, but I don’t. I don’t want them to know anything about what happened, because that’ll probably just give them more satisfaction to my pain. My chest tightens with that knowledge. My crush on Kingston Axton is poison, but apparently, I’m willing to die for it.
I feel the smoke between my fingers and bring it to my lips, inhaling deeply. I hold it in my lungs for a beat longer before blowing out. Once I give it back to Maya, Rose has finally stopped fighting with Mischa about the music before a song starts playing. One I don’t recognize.
“I’m serious, Dovey,” Rose whispers. She’s on her stomach now, her head resting in her arms and her face toward me.
I exhale, turning onto my stomach and turning my face to hers. No one can hear us because the music is loud, and we’re so close we don’t have to yell. “Why?”
“Me being here?” she whispers. “It was part of their initiation. Everything that Delila had explained—was why I was here.”
“Okay.” I search her eyes. “And me?” The heat is not helping my buzz. In fact, it’s intensifying it. A lot.
“You were not a normal recruit, Dove. That’s why you were there for so long. Why you’re with them and not on your own or with another family.”
“And what is it that I should be worried about?” My heart pounds in my chest. I’m not naïve. I know there’s something else. It’s why King likes to tell me that I’ve done something to warrant his wrath. It’s why he apparently hates me and that I took something from him.
“Do not fall for King—”
“Am I interrupting something here?” Val drops down in front of us, the sand kicking up and flicking me in the face. I actually want to kill her.
I sit up, shading the sun from my eyes. I’m feeling a range of emotions, but one that trumps them all is the lack of control that I have. I’ve lost my life to four men, and they haven’t even killed me yet.
I groan, standing, and make my way back to the water. King and the rest of The Brothers are up by the truck, but Jack is still in the water with the people he came with.
“So…” he starts, his head bobbing in the water.
“Nope.” I laugh, shaking my head while sinking in. “If you’re going to ask me about King, the answer is no.”