sister, a whole slew of nerves broke out. I almost felt like throwing up, but it was what it was. If Kian and I were going to be together, I shouldn’t be scared of talking to his family member.
She was ordering mimosas to be delivered to her bedroom, which wasn’t in Kian’s suite. It was a few doors down. She sounded so chipper until she hung up the phone. Another curt curse left her lips before she swung around the counter, and there I was. My hand was flattened against the wall. It was obvious that I had been eavesdropping with my head folded down. My teeth sank into my lip.
“Oh!” She reared back, her hand flattening against her chest. “Shit. I didn’t expect a chick to be here. My brother doesn’t usually let them sleep over…” Her voice faded, and she tilted her head to the side, getting a better look at me. “Wait a minute.”
I geared myself. It was coming…
Her eyes lit up in recognition, and her head lifted backward. “Holy shit. You’re…” Her mouth fell open. “He’s actually boning you now? I can’t—” She shook her head before laughter peeled from her. “Oh my God.” Her shoulders started to shake with more laughter.
Apparently, I was funny, just from being here. “How did you get in here?”
She kept laughing. “I’m a Maston, honey. I can go anywhere I want just because of whose blood is in me. It’s the same with Kian. He can go anywhere, do anything…do anyone.”
The nerves were leaving me. Irritation was taking their place.
She held up a hand and wiped at the corner of her eye with the other one. “I can’t get over this. I mean, it’s you.” Her hand gestured to me, up and down. “I…just…whoa.” The amusement was lessening, but she wiped at her eye once more. “My parents are going to flip.”
My teeth ground against each other. Kian’s sister was a bitch. I forced myself to be nice. I had to try. “It’s nice to formally meet you.” I didn’t hold my hand out.
Her eyes flicked down, but she didn’t hold hers out either. “Yeah. You, too. I guess.”
“Guess?” A hard edge slipped out from me.
Her eyes shot to mine now. Oh, yes. She heard that from me.
She swallowed and nodded. “Let’s just cut the bullshit between us. I’m not trying to be hurtful here, but you’re a joke.”
Forced laughter spewed from me this time. “Really?”
“I’m not saying that to be a bitch, even though I know I can be.” Her eyes rolled upward, searching. “Like, eighty percent of the time, I’m an ungrateful and self-righteous pain in the ass. I’m spoiled. My parents pay for everything for me. I’m having an affair with a married guy, and I’m a closet alcoholic.”
“Closet?”
She lifted a shoulder, her head bobbing up and down. “I’ll give that to you. I’m pretty in-your-face about being an alcoholic, but I’m not any of those things right now. I’m being a good person when I say that you’re a joke.”
A hard boil began deep inside me.
Her hand flattened against her chest. “I’m to blame for most of this. Did Kian tell you about Justin?”
My neck was stiff, but my head clipped forward a little bit.
“Kian felt horrible about what happened to me. He wanted to rip Justin’s head off his shoulders. I wanted that, too. Our dad forbade it. It would’ve messed up a multimillion-dollar deal, and I hadn’t helped the matter at all. I cried to Kian every night for so long. I pleaded with him to go and kill Justin. I wasn’t thinking about Kian or about our dad. I was being selfish. I hurt, so I wanted everyone to hurt.”
My eyes glanced back to the floor. I murmured, “That is understandable. Justin raped you.”
“Yeah.” Her tone was wry. “Our family didn’t see it that way. I’m telling you this to help you understand Kian’s head. He saved you that day from Justin, but it was really me he was saving. All the aggression he had toward Justin came out on your foster father. I’m to blame for most of this shit. Me.” She mused to herself, “I almost wonder if it would’ve happened to any girl, and if you were just the lucky one?”
I lifted my head, feeling dislike and loathing for this person standing in front of me.
“You don’t use people. You don’t have hidden agendas. You don’t misuse your friendships.” I heard Kian’s voice again.
His sister was hateful. That was what was going on here. She was angry. She wanted to hurt him by hurting me. I wasn’t just some girl.
“That’s all I saw while growing up—until you. What you say, you mean. There is nothing hidden with you.”
I murmured, “You’re wrong.”
She stopped. “Oh, honey.” A genuine laugh barked from her.
That word again. It was condescending.
She added, “I’ll admit that I came here to be a pain in my brother’s ass. I saw your interview, and I had to come and congratulate him. Me being nice to him is how I piss him off. If he’s talked about me, I’m sure he’s told you that the two of us don’t get along, at all actually. He kicked me out of the hotel a couple of weeks ago. Well…” She paused, grinning to herself. “He kicked me out of the city, but he did the impossible, or I thought it was the impossible. I had to come and give him his dues.”
“What are you talking about?”
“The interview, how you went on TV and proclaimed to everyone how much of a hero he was. A job well done for Kian. He got you to do the interview, right?”
I shook my head. “I spoke the truth. That’s all I did.”
“Oh…” She was so damn sympathetic.
It was making me want to rip the hair out of her head.
Her entire demeanor changed. Her eyes were haughty. “He’s not said anything about the family business to you?” Her voice dropped to a quiet murmur, like she regretted to break the news to me. “The business, the same business that my father wouldn’t risk endangering when Justin raped me, is the same for Kian. My dad was furious when Kian killed that guy. My mom and I knew why he did it, but our dad didn’t. He kicked Kian out of the family—‘unofficially.’” She lifted her fingers to make air quotes.
“It’s been that way since Kian went to prison. Dad had such high hopes for him, and my brother flushed those hopes down the toilet, but time’s passed. Kian’s realized what a mistake he made, and since he got out of prison, he’s been trying to find a way back in. He’s still out of the family, though.”
Her eyes rolled to the ceiling. “Unofficially. What a joke, huh?” She winced. “Sorry about that word. I suppose that’s harsh. You’re not the joke. My brother is the joke. My brother was told that he had to change the investors’ minds about him. If he didn’t, no billion-dollar job for him.”
“What are you talking about?” My hands curled inside the robe’s sleeves. I tugged down on them as hard as I could. I hated hearing anything she was saying, but I had to wait. I wanted to hear everything before I clawed back at her.
“No convict is going to be the CEO of the Maston Empire.” Her lip curled up. “Could you imagine that? What would that do for the stocks? My dad’s company would crash the stock exchange all on its own if Kian took his place at the head of it, but that’s what he’s been angling for since he got out of prison.”
I didn’t believe her.
“But,” Felicia gave me a bright smile that looked hideous, “that’s all over now. The public loved Kian before, but the investors didn’t. All that’s changed now. I mean, he got you to go on national television and proclaim that all he did was save a girl. Is that how you put it? Damn. With an endorsement like yours, you just handed Kian the family jewels again.
“The investors met last night. I was coming to play with Kian a bit, tell him he needed to do better than that, but he should be hearing from our dad soon.” Her eyebrows pinched together. A speculative gleam formed in her eyes. “There might even be a message on Kian’s phone right now.” She nodded behind me, toward the bedroom. “Check his phone. The code to get in is two thousand twelve. Kian’s dark humor. That’s the year he went to pris
on. I bet you anything, once Daddy and the board members let him back in, he’s going to change his code to two thousand fifteen, the year he got back his life. That’s how he views it anyway.”
“You’re lying.” But even as I said it, there was a look in her eyes. I grew up with liars, and there was something truthful coming from her. And I hated that. I didn’t want to wonder what part was true. I refused to believe all of it was.
Still. I didn’t have to take her condescension with a smile.
She laughed, saying, “I can see it in your eyes. I’m not, and you know it.”
She moved past me, but I moved so I got to the door first. She paused, a question in her eyes as she watched when I grabbed the door handle, but I opened it, a nice fake smile plastered on my face. Her eyebrows knitted together. She wondered what I was doing, so I stepped back even more. The path was open. She could exit freely.
Her eyebrows cleared then, and she moved forward a few steps. Once in the hallway, she turned around. “I’m a lot of things, but right now, I’m being the best friend that you’ve never had. Leave him. Don’t let him use you anymore—”
I shut the door in her face, and I slammed it hard enough to make a bang.
Then I stared at it. She was Kian’s sister, and a part of me felt obligated to let her talk, but after hearing what she said, I didn’t like it. I didn’t like her. I didn’t like how she drove a knife into her own brother’s back. Justin raped her. I felt bad for that, but the rest of her actions, I crossed my arms over my chest. Hell no. I did not have to feel sorry for the kind of person she had become. A bad past doesn’t make a bad person. She could’ve done better, but even as I was thinking all of that, a nagging voice was in my head.
Kian wasn’t using me. There was no way. I remembered what he said earlier. “You are good.”
But then I heard her parting words. “Don’t let him use you anymore.” And I remembered another thing he said. “My father is the last person who would help me.”
Snark’s words were next. “Don’t trust anyone.”
My stomach dropped to my feet because I knew, right then and there, that I was going to read that message. I had to. I had to make sure I wasn’t being used, but as I went to the bed, my body started to shut off. I wasn’t sure what I was going to read on his phone, but whatever it was, I couldn’t let it break me.
Kian was still in bed, sleeping. Sprawled out, lying on his stomach, his head was turned toward my empty spot. He had an arm out, as if he searched for me but fallen back asleep before realizing I wasn’t there.
The room was warm, but I didn’t feel it. A full-fledged shiver wouldn’t stop going up and down my spine, and my teeth were damn near chattering, but my focus was on that phone and whatever the message said.
My hands were slick. I rubbed them off on the robe and picked up the phone. My hands were shaking, too. I willed them to stop, as I keyed in the code. The phone unlocked, and I hit the unread message. It had been sent from Carl Maston. I paused for a second, my eyes flicking to Kian once more. I felt a pang in my chest, but opened the message. I had to know.
It worked. You’ve been voted back in. Call me ASAP to go over everything.
A second message came through as I was holding the phone. I almost dropped it but tightened my grip.
It was from the same Carl Maston.
Well done, son.
I left.
I called Snark, but he couldn’t come pick me up. He suggested not going to Erica and Wanker. They were known as my friends now, so the media would be on them. When Snark asked why I needed another hideaway, I didn’t answer. He just heard a slight sniffle from me and said I should go to the one place no one would think to look for me.
I called Jake.
He sounded surprised on the other end, but he’d be there in ten minutes. I was waiting in the back entryway of the hotel. If anyone looked for me, they could easily find me. My nails were digging through my sleeves and into the palms of my hands as I waited. I needed Jake to get here now.
I called Snark back. I didn’t want him to worry.
“What did he do?” Snark asked, distracting me.
I knew he didn’t mean Jake. “He used me.”
He was silent on the other end.
My frown deepened. I didn’t know what to think of his non-response.
He asked, “Are you sure?”
“Snark.”
“I just…” He let out a sigh. “Look, I’ve not been a fan of that kid since I heard he wanted to talk to you, but since dealing with him during this whole debacle, he doesn’t strike me as the using type.”
“I don’t,” I clipped out. But I had to ask him a question. “You said that Kian’s dad wanted him back for the company. You were going to go and see his parents to talk about keeping Kian away from me. Did you?”
“Oh.” He got quiet.
My eyebrows lifted. “Oh?”
“I don’t know what it means, but I never told you about that meeting because it didn’t happen.”
“You don’t think I should’ve known that information?”
“Want and should are completely different. I think you should’ve known, but I didn’t think you wanted to know. It doesn’t tell us anything, except that his dad is a jackass. That’s it, but we all knew that already.”
“And you’re telling me that you don’t think Kian’s using me after that?”
“What did he use you for?”
“To give him a recommendation or something. His sister said the investors of his dad’s company didn’t want Kian in, but now that I’ve spoken out, they’re letting him back in.”
“His sister?”
“Yeah, Felicia Maston.”
“Ah, cripes. She’s a piece of work herself. Are you sure you believe her?”
I leaned back, resting my head against the wall. “No. She’s shady. I can tell that much, but she was telling the truth about this. She didn’t strike me as the loving kind of sister, but…” I couldn’t shake my gut. She told the truth. “I’m over being hurt.”
Not from Kian, not after I gave him everything.
“Well, okay.” Snark was resigned. “I mean, if this is what you want to do, I’ll get back as soon as possible to help you.”
“No.”
Jake’s car turned around the corner.
I straightened from the wall. “I’m okay. My ride’s here.”
“Listen, I got called back to headquarters. I don’t know. Maybe that was the kid himself, or maybe his pops called in a favor and got me hauled back here, but my supervisor is stalling. The case they want me on isn’t panning out, and I’m on leave. Technically, I don’t have to stay here. Do you want me to come out there? I’ll fight them here, if you want me to.”
“No.” That was his job. “Stay. Do what you’re supposed to. I’ll be fine.”
Jake’s car slid to a stop, and he opened the passenger door, waiting for me.
“Thank you, Snark,” I said before hanging up and stuffing my phone into my pocket. Hurrying into the car, I asked Jake one question before I closed the door, “Did you intentionally answer Susan’s phone call before?”
“No.” He held my gaze. He didn’t seem surprised what I asked him, and he wasn’t being defensive. There was no eagerness in his eyes.
“Okay.” That answer would do for now. “Can you take me as far away as possible?”
He nodded. “Close the door.”
I did.
And he took me to a park.
Once the car stopped, turned toward a river that surrounded the park, I threw my hands up. “The park? You took me to a park? Jake.”
His mouth twitched. He was trying to hide a grin, and then he stopped trying. A big grin broke out along with a slight laugh. “Come on. It’s kinda funny.”
“No.” Not at all. “I’m not amused. I need to stay hidden.”
“Oh, yeah.” He undid his seat belt and leaned his seat back. His hand dismissed that notion. “Your interview made every
one love you. You don’t have to worry about getting tomatoes or flour thrown at you. You’re golden. You’d get lifted onto shoulders and hoisted in the air, if anything. You’re just fine. Plus,” he looked me up and down before smirking, “you’ve got your whole disguise look going on.”