Stepping behind Mom, I pulled my phone from her back pocket and swiped open the camera so I could record what was about to go down. From the way the client was suddenly sputtering, I figured it was about to get a whole lot more fun to watch, and my dad would want to see the aftermath of two of his favorite women making some pussy piss himself this beautiful Friday.
Just as the camera started rolling, I saw the client nearly swallow his tongue before he started protesting, “I’m not a predator. I’ll sue you for slander if you spread that around.”
“Hold on, Emmie,” Mom spoke into the phone before lifting her blue eyes to the guy in front of her. “Take about ten steps back, dickhead. You’re too fucking close to my kid.”
“She’s not a kid,” he shouted, his eyes going back to me almost as if he couldn’t help himself.
“She’s sixteen!” Mom reminded him. “And you’re what? Fifty?”
“Forty-seven,” he muttered.
“Right.” She nodded. “And the fact that she’s sixteen just made your cock jump in your pants. So, yeah, child predator.” Still holding the phone to her ear, she walked toward the client, whose name I didn’t even remember. I wish I did, so I could post the video to social media afterward and tag him in it. “I said hold on, Emmie,” Mom bit out. “I’m busy.”
“Mrs. Cage, I’m sure we can come to an under—” the guy started, but his eyes went over her shoulder to me, and I immediately wanted to cover up from head to toe so he couldn’t see a single inch of me.
As if she could feel my sudden tension, Mom didn’t even hesitate as she lifted her knee and clipped him in the groin. His face turned blood red, then an ugly purple as he cupped himself and bent in half. A pain-filled wheeze left him after a moment, and the pitch of the cry that left him didn’t sound human.
As he fell to his knees, tears leaking from his clenched-closed eyes, Mom kicked him between the legs, and the agonized scream echoing through the room made me wonder if maybe she’d ruptured something important. He dropped onto his side, curling into a fetal position. “Let’s go, Shaw,” Mom snapped before returning her attention to the woman on the other end of the phone. “Change of plans, Red. Instead of making something go viral, I’m going to need you to keep me out of jail for assault.”
Sighing, I slung my purse over my shoulder and stepped over the sobbing man on the floor as I followed Mom.
But not before I accidentally kicked him in the stomach. “My bad,” I snickered. “Hope I didn’t hurt anything.” When he only whimpered, I couldn’t hold back my laugh. “Pussy.”
I wouldn’t be working with this particular client ever again, so I wasn’t afraid to burn this particular bridge. My agent wasn’t going to be happy with me over this, but after she’d set me up with this job, I was contemplating getting someone new to represent me and find me jobs with credible clients. She really hadn’t impressed me lately, and this had been her last chance. My contract with her was up at the end of the month, and I knew Mom wasn’t going to let me sign again even if I’d wanted to.
Ending the video, I sent it to my dad, a wicked grin on my face as I texted him what just happened.
Dad: That’s my girls.
Chapter 2
Jagger
Groaning, I rolled over in bed, only to have Cannon’s feet shoved in my face. “Fuck,” I grunted and pushed his legs away from me. He muttered something I didn’t understand and rolled onto his stomach, still out cold.
Blinking sleep from my eyes, I focused on trying to fully wake up. It must have been around dawn when we finally couldn’t stay awake any longer. Instead of going to some random party, we’d decided to stay in this weekend. After I got to Cannon’s house, we’d ordered enough pizzas to hold us over for a few hours and then played video games until we couldn’t keep our eyes open anymore.
With the mini fridge stocked with enough sports drinks and water, four pizzas to gorge on whenever we got hungry, and the connecting bathroom just a few feet away, there had been no reason to even leave Cannon’s bedroom the night before. It had been a fun, mostly relaxing Friday night hanging out with my best friend and killing zombies.
But waking up with his feet in my face when he hadn’t even showered the night before was not how I wanted to start my Saturday.
Glancing at the digital clock on the nightstand, I saw it was just after two in the afternoon. “Shit,” I muttered and reached for my phone that was charging on the floor. Seeing I already had a few missed texts from my mom, I quickly replied that I was awake and alive. I didn’t doubt for a second that she had already called one or the other Cage adult to make sure I was where I told her I was going to be and very much still breathing, but if I didn’t text her myself, she was going to come looking for me whether one of her friends had already confirmed it or not.
Once I had that taken care of, I sat up on the side of the bed. Still not fully awake, I debated if I needed food first or a shower.
“Turn the lights off,” Cannon whined from the other end of the bed.
“That’s called the sun, dumbass,” I told him as I finally got to my feet. My stomach was rumbling loudly, so I decided food was definitely more important than hygiene.
I got all the way to the door when I realized I needed a shirt. Wearing only a pair of basketball shorts around the kitchen was something I could get away with at my parents’ house, but Cannon would bust my balls if I did it at his. He had a problem with me even being in the same room with his sister these days. Probably because he knew I wanted her like I’d never wanted anything in my entire life, but we never talked about it.
Saying it out loud made shit real, so we never spoke about the stuff we didn’t want to deal with.
For me, it was admitting I was half in love with Shaw. That I wanted her more than I wanted air, but because I knew I would lose my best friend if I even tried to tell her what I was feeling, I kept quiet.
When we’d started noticing girls, we’d made a pact. No girl would ever come between us. If we saw one we both wanted, neither of us could touch her. And under no circumstances could we touch the other’s sister. Seeing as Mia was older than us and barely paid us any attention when Cannon was around anyway, I didn’t really think it was an issue where my own sister was concerned. And Shaw was always following us around, getting just as dirty as we did and causing just as much—if not more—trouble than we could.
I saw her as nothing more than another sister.
Until she wasn’t.
I knew she was beautiful; a person would have to be dead not to know just how gorgeous Shaw Cage was. Inside and out. She had this hard outer shell that was all feral lioness, but underneath, she was a sweet and kind little kitten.
A kitten I really—fucking desperately—wanted to pet.
But it wasn’t until a year or so before that I’d realized her beauty could stop me in my tracks, cause the air to get trapped in my throat, make me get tongue-tied, and go completely brain-dead. She’d only been fifteen to my seventeen and playing in my pool back in Malibu. Her best friend Violet and the Thornton twins splashed around as I came out of the house with a drink in my hand and Cannon right beside me.