“Have you heard from Grady and Quinton?” Nolan asked, his voice excitable, but for what reason I wasn’t sure. Unfortunately, I would soon find out.
“Yeah, I called them both last night. They should be in Winter Ridge before seven tonight.”
Soren’s head turned just slightly, his gaze brushing mine as he asked, “Did you get everything ready?”
It’s hard to pull your eyes away when stared down by a predator. A sinking feeling fills your gut, your head swimming with fight or flight, not that I assumed it was a fist Soren wished to raise at me. He wasn’t the type of predator who bruises the body and drags you off.
No, he was the type who seduces you slowly, stealing your thoughts away while you stop dead in your tracks unable to move, to run, to escape.
It only made him more dangerous.
Everybody assumes a rich boy is always the snobby class president, the brutish jock, or the insufferable playboy that defines his worth by the value of his toys...what they don’t know is that, sometimes, the rich boys will break all the stereotypes and become something much darker when they get bored.
I broke eye contact just as Nolan laughed, clueless as to the way his best friend was staring at me.
“Everybody wants to pledge. Can you believe that shit? Two years and these idiots are still willing to do whatever it takes to be part of the crowd.”
My stomach sank at the mention of pledges, the color draining from my face to know what they were willing to do.
With his unwavering gaze set on me, Soren chuckled at what my brother had said, the deep sound fake in an effort to appease Nolan.
“Yeah,” he finally responded with a voice that had softened into a deep croon. “It’s amazing what these idiots will do to be noticed.”
It took effort to swallow down the lump his response had created in my throat. I knew exactly what those idiots were willing to do. It didn’t matter how stupid, criminal or depraved the act was that Soren requested, they all jumped at the chance to prove their worth.
For what, I didn’t know.
Thankful Nolan had made it clear that Soren was completely off limits, I relaxed a little in my seat, only because I knew I wouldn’t be included.
The same couldn’t be said for every other person in the town.
My best friend, Kendall, had already tried her luck with the group, only to be horribly burned.
There was no telling what Soren would ask his new pledges to do now that he’d had two long years in prison to think about it.
CHAPTER FOUR
Olive
After returning home, I’d bolted from the car and run upstairs to the privacy of my room. Neither Nolan nor Soren followed me, the distance between us a relief after two suffocating hours in the car.
Unsure what I could do to continue avoiding them, I watched the hours tick by on the clock, actually looking forward to leaving the house and going to work for once.
My shift at Bailey’s Diner began at seven, and I was hopeful that I could leave before Grady and Quinton arrived. My hopes were dashed when the doorbell rang at a quarter to five, all four of their loud voices rising in chorus to finally be together again.
Still, they left me alone while they discussed the party they were throwing that night. I couldn’t ask for more than that.
At six, I started the process of getting dressed and applying my makeup for my shift.
Normally I dragged ass getting ready for a job that I didn’t like, but tonight I was more than happy to show up early with a bright smile and a bouncing skip to my step. I’d also decided to take on more shifts in effort to stay away from home as often as possible. Between school and work, I’d manage to avoid the boys and the pledges they’d be running.
Plan made, I finished tying on my white apron over the blue gingham dress that was required of the diner’s waitresses. The uniform was horrible, but not as bad as what the guys had to wear. I’d much rather a stupid dress than the long sleeves, buttoned up collars and blue bow ties Tristan wore when we worked together.
Music was playing on my radio as I marched into the bathroom intent to make my face appear as if I hadn’t been up since the crack of dawn. It did nothing to drown out the wall-shaking beat of whatever they were listening to downstairs, but it did drown out the nagging whisper in my head that something was bound to go wrong, the dread in my stomach rolling into a hard knot that made me want to vomit.
There was something else the music drowned out as I placed my concealer on the counter to pick up the mascara: the footsteps I hadn’t heard while Soren snuck up behind me, and the sound of the mascara clamoring against the porcelain sink when he spoke my name and I dropped it.
Eyes lifting to the mirror, I found him leaning against the frame of the door, his dark eyes glimmering beneath unruly black hair that perfectly framed his angular jaw and cheeks.
“Long time, little Olly.”
His gaze traveled down my body and back up, his voice softening as his eyes met mine in the mirror.
“Then again, I guess you’re not so little anymore, are you?”
Fingers gripping the edge of the counter, I broke away from his summoning gaze and stared into the white porcelain sink.
My eyes traced the shape of the mascara tube desperate to find anything to help me continue looking away.
Feeling this way around him only made me angry.
This was bullshit. I couldn’t keep acting like a damn mouse every time I was in his presence, not with him living in my house where I couldn’t escape. I would have to suck it up and stand my ground to survive living with him.
Rolling my shoulders back with that thought, I forced my fingers from the counter, ignoring the painful creases it had made in my skin. My shoe scuffed the tile floor as I spun around, eyes locking to Soren’s only to see him grin.
“I’m not fifteen anymore. You’ve been gone for a while.”
His smile widened.
“That I have.”
Shifting his stance to cross his muscular arms over his broad chest, he wasn’t shy in the way he took me in.
“Did you miss me?”
“No.”
He laughed and pushed away from the door, his head angled down to look at me, his feet inching across the floor. Backing away as much as I could, my retreat was thwarted by the counter. I never felt more hatred of an inanimate object than I did in that moment.
Arms reaching to cage me against the traitorous counter, he leaned down until his mouth was an inch away from my ear. Damn he smelled good, his voice only adding to the allure.
“I missed you,” he whispered on a teasing breath. “I told the entire prison about this girl I know who was like a little sister...”
Breath catching, I closed my eyes, refusing to react to the way Soren made me feel.
“...At least until I got drunk one night and decided to drag her to bed.”
More anger bloomed inside me while he chuckled to see the color of it shade my cheeks.
“Ah, don’t be mad, Olly. They loved to hear about all the little sounds you made when I showed you what it was like to be with a man. You have no idea how stories like that can bring a prisoner some comfort.”
The anger transitioned into rage, not only because he was making a joke of the time we’d slept together, but also because he’d told anybody who would listen. And here I’d thought the asshole would be smart enough not to admit he’d slept with a technical minor when he was eighteen.