“You should go home, Stone. This is our problem.”
“Not a chance. If Finn’s freedom is at stake, then I’m here for the long haul. And not you, Easton, or you, Lincoln, or even pretty boy himself are going to change my mind,” she cautions, pointing her finger at each of us.
Lincoln chuckles at Stone’s tenacity, but I’m not sure he should indulge her.
“Now, just open the damn letter already.”
“Easton’s right. We wait for Colt and Finn.”
She throws her hands in the air, jumping off the bed to pace up and down Lincoln’s room. I’m not sure if her impatience is her own personality trait, or if Finn has rubbed off on her. I’m about to tell her to cool her jets when she stops mid-step. She then walks over to Lincoln’s desk and picks up a framed picture, making Lincoln instantly rush to her side.
“When was this taken?”
“New Year’s. Ken and I were just sixteen then,” he explains, longing coating his words.
I don’t need to see the photograph in her hand to know it by heart. It’s a picture of all of us huddled together on the front lawn, impatiently waiting for the fireworks to begin. But for Lincoln, only Kennedy and he are worth mentioning.
“Who is this with his arm around Kennedy?” Stone continues to interrogate while playing with her tongue ring.
“My brother,” Lincoln replies, taking the picture out of Stone’s hand to place it back on the desk.
Her eyes lock with mine, and I shake my head repeatedly.
‘Don’t do it, Stone,’ I mouth, urging her to keep her probing questions to herself.
Some doors should remain shut. And in this house, there are plenty that should be dead-bolted—Theodore Hamilton being one of them.
“I’m going to see what’s taking Finn and Colt so long,” Lincoln mutters, no longer comfortable being in the same room with Stone’s insatiable curiosity.
When he closes the door behind him, Stone has a million burning questions ready to launch my way.
“Explain that picture to me, Easton. Were Lincoln’s brother and Kennedy a thing?”
“Curiosity killed the cat, sweetheart.”
“First, call me sweetheart again, and I’ll knee you in the junk. Second, just give me the summarized version. Were they a thing or not?” She crosses her arms under her chest, looking like she’ll cut me if I don’t do as she says.
The girl has grit. I’ll give her that. Since Lincoln is no longer here, I don’t see any harm in filling in a few blank spaces for her.
“Oh, they were more than a thing. Before Ken got herself mixed up with the senator’s prick of a son, everyone thought Teddy would be the one walking her down the aisle.”
“That serious, huh? Is that why they never hooked up? Lincoln and Kennedy, I mean?”
I shrug. “Who knows what goes on in Linc’s head, or Ken’s for that matter.”
I never understood why Linc let his brother sink his claws into Kennedy in the first place. Everyone knew he was head over heels in love with her. Yet when Teddy made a move on Ken, Linc just stood back and did nothing. Much like he did when fucking Tommyboy started to knock on her doorstep. If I didn’t know him any better, I’d call him a pussy for letting these assholes have their way with his girl. But I do know Linc. All his actions have a reason behind them. I just can’t point a finger at one valid enough to have the girl you love in the arms of someone else. But what do I know? I’m no expert when it comes to matters of the heart, mostly because I don’t have one.
Stone walks back to the desk with her eyes fixed on the frame.
“He looks familiar to me.” She chews her bottom lip with her eyebrows pinched together in deep concentration.
“Who? Teddy? Maybe you saw him on TV or something, when… you know.”
When the stupid fucker overdosed.
When Theodore Richfield-Hamilton died, you couldn’t turn on the TV or scroll through social media without hearing news about his untimely death. All of Asheville mourned his passing.
Me?
Not so much.
Teddy was an evil prick who loved to bask in Lincoln’s pain. I hated the fucker. Even though Linc hadn’t made his move on Kennedy, I could never understand why she had dated his slimeball of a brother. But now that she’s engaged to Tommyboy, I guess all my questions are answered. On that front, at least. The girl has a type—pompous playboys who don’t give a fuck about anyone but themselves.
Maybe Ken thinks she can save them somehow. She’s a goddamn fixer, that’s for sure. I don’t know. Just as I never understood Linc’s indifference, I could never wrap my head around her love-life choices, either. Especially since it was so damn obvious that she was carrying a torch for Lincoln. Only a blind person could be oblivious to what they secretly feel for each other.
“No. That’s not it.” Stone’s lips purse slightly. “I feel like it’s right there… at the tip of my tongue. I’ve seen him before, I’m sure of it. I just can’t remember where. I think he must have been with Kennedy at the time, too. I’m not sure. But this picture is giving me a real sense of déjà vu. I just don’t know why.”
“It’s this fucking house, Stone. It’s full of secrets and ghosts playing tricks on you.”
“It’s not. I’ll remember. I feel like I have to. Like it’s important,” she continues to explain, her shoulders rigid for some inexplicable reason.
“You’ll get crow’s feet if you keep scowling at that picture like that, sweetheart. Just let it go.”
But Stone isn’t having it. She’s so lost in her thoughts that didn’t even threaten me with violence for calling her sweetheart again. Damn girl is as stubborn as a mule.
“You keep digging for trouble, and sooner or later, it will find you. Leave Ken and Lincoln’s brother alone,” I warn. “And this Society bullshit, too.”
“Don’t you know? I am trouble, Easton. And The Society has no idea what I’m capable of.”
I don’t doubt that.
“Just don’t do anything stupid.”
She’s about to argue with me when, thankfully, the guys return, ending our conversation. Finn rushes over to Stone and kisses her like he’s just come home from war. He was gone for ten minutes, at best, yet he’s sucking her face like they have been separated a lifetime. I swear, these two can’t get enough of each other. It’s sickening, even if a little sweet. One good thing came of Finn sucking all the air out of her—Stone is no longer carrying that deep-ingrained grimace on her face. Well, not until Colt ruins her fun.
Colt pulls Finn off her, gaining an annoyed growl from our behemoth friend, and says, “Keep it in your pants, Walker. We came here for a reason, so let’s just get it over with.”
Four pairs of eyes stare at me, the weight of the envelope suddenly feeling ten pounds heavier in my grasp. The urge to chain-smoke the entire pack of cigarettes in my pocket has never been so strong. With a cool expression on my face, I take out the black stationery to finally see what sentence The Society has doled out for me.