Nick flopped down on the other, grinning.
“Excuse me?” I asked, sitting up.
He laughed and looked at Nick.
“You were right, she’s a live one,” he said, making me uncomfortable.
He was disgusting. The other two guys jumped in the pool and splashed water everywhere. The water made my dress cling to my body.
“Careful, assholes!” Nick shouted, grabbing my towel and using it to dry off.
“You guys can keep splashing in this direction,” goon number three said, gawking at my breasts, now clearly visible through my soaked dress. “You’re one hell of a catch for a fifteen-year-old.”
“I’m seventeen, and if you keep looking at me like that, I’ll take a certain part of your anatomy and do serious damage to it,” I said, pulling the dress away from my torso.
Nicholas thew the towel back to me, and I covered up.
“Drop it, dude,” he said. “Otherwise I’m gonna have to throw her in the water to get her to shut up, and I’d rather just stay here where I am.”
“Excuse me?” I said, chuckling. Nick was in his bathing suit, and I had a spectacular view of his bare chest and his tattoos.
He took off his Ray-Bans and stared at me with his blue eyes. They looked remarkable under the sun, and for a few moments, I was thrown off.
“You don’t think I forgot you hitting me last night, do you?” I looked down at my knuckles, which still ached. His jaw wasn’t even slightly bruised.
“Are you threatening me?” I asked. He was getting the better of me.
“Nick, I love this chick. She needs to come out with us more often,” the tattooed guy said before he got up and dove into the pool.
“Listen, Freckles, you can’t just talk to me however you like,” he warned me. “See those guys? They respect me, you know why? Because they know I could put them on their ass at the drop of a hat. So be careful how you talk to me, give me my distance, and everything will be fine.”
As he spoke, I thought to myself how I could best respond.
“Funny how you think you’re the one who can threaten me when I could rat you out to your dad whenever I felt like it,” I said.
He clenched his teeth. I smiled. Noah one, Nick zero.
“You don’t want to play this game with me, Noah, believe me.”
Needing to do something with my hands, I bent over to grab some suntan lotion. “Then you’d better stop hoping I treat you with a respect you’re light-years away from deserving. You don’t want me to spill the beans about last night? Then drop the little remarks and tell your boyfriends to leave me alone.”
Before he could respond, one of the goons got out of the pool and sat down beside me. Water from his body dripped all over me, and I jerked away, irritated.
“You want some help with that, babe? I could rub it on your back.”
“Beat it, Hugo. My little sister and I are having an important conversation,” Nick ordered him.
Hugo got back up without a need to hear it twice. Good.
“Are we hanging out tonight?” Hugo asked. Nick nodded. “Stakes are high, bro, we need to win these races no matter what.”
Nick’s eyes shot arrows at him. Interesting.
Did I just hear the word races?
“I said leave.”
Hugo looked bewildered for a moment before glancing at me and seeming to realize he’d said too much.
When he and the rest of his friends left, I turned around and looked at my stepbrother.
“Races?”
Nick put his glasses back on and stretched out in the direction of the sun.
“Don’t ask questions if you don’t want answers.”
I bit my lip, intrigued, but still, I wasn’t going to press him. Whatever Nicholas Leister was wrapped up in couldn’t interest me less.
Or so I thought.
* * *
That afternoon, I decided to spend some time with my mom. William’s company was having a gala that night, and she’d told me we needed to go as a family. I wasn’t particularly excited about it, but I knew there was no getting out of it: William had been working on the event for months, and we were expected to be there.
I found myself sitting on a sofa in my mother’s dressing room. Her bedroom was even more lavish than mine. Decorated in cream tones with a California king bed, it looked like a luxury hotel room and had two walk-in closets. I’d never thought a person needed even one, but when I saw the hundreds of shirts, ties, and suits William had, I understood.
That night would be important for my mother. Obviously, many close friends and important industry heads and law people would be there, not all of whom had had the honor of meeting my mother in person. She was so nervous that it was funny.
“Mom, you’re going to look gorgeous no matter what you wear. Why don’t you just relax?”
She looked at me with a radiant smile. It was wonderful, seeing her so happy.
“Thanks, Noah,” she said, holding up a white-and-green dress for me to see. “So this one?”
I nodded, thinking about what the evening had in store. If Nicholas was going to take off again to get in trouble, then I would be free to do the same—or so I told myself, by way of consolation.
“Your dress is marvelous, too,” my mother said, and in my mind, I saw it again. “Honey, don’t make faces, you’re not going to die just because you dress up a little for one day.”
“Sorry,” I said. My mood had been like a roller coaster lately. “It’s just that going to dinner and a gala isn’t exactly what I’m in the mood for.”
“It’ll be fun, I promise,” she said, trying to cheer me up.
I thought of Dan, of how much he would have liked to see me in the dress I had on that night. What was the point of getting all pretty if no one I cared about was going to notice me?
“I’m sure,” I said, trying to put a happy face. “I guess I should go get ready.”
My mother dropped what she was doing and came over.
“Thanks for doing this for me, dear. It means a lot.”
I nodded, trying to smile.
“No worries,” I replied, letting her wrap her arms around me. I realized how much I needed that contact, especially after what had happened the night before. I held her tight, and for a few moments, everything felt just as it had when I was little.
8
Nick
I was going to need to keep my eye on Noah. Things could have gone bad the night before if my dad had found out what we were up to. I was worried about how to keep my private life hidden now that there were more than two people in the house. I didn’t let my two worlds mix. I was careful about that—I needed to be.
Same as every year, we were having races in the desert, and that day, I’d need to be there. They were crazy: rock music, drugs, expensive cars, and races until the sun came up or the cops came, but they almost never bothered us, since it all happened in the middle of nowhere. The girls were wild, everyone drank, and adrenaline was the perfect extra ingredient to make it the best night of your life—as long as you weren’t the loser.
Ronnie’s gang always competed against us. Whoever won got to keep the loser’s car, plus all the cash from the bets. It was dangerous, I knew that firsthand, and for that reason, everyone trusted me when it got down to the wire. Ronnie and I had a friendly deal, but it could be broken as easily as tearing up a sheet of paper, and that night I had to be on guard, not to mention win.
Noah would need to keep her mouth shut, so I stopped at her door before it was time to head to the hotel where the gala was happening.
I knocked three times and waited almost a minute before she came out.
“What do you want?” she grunted.
I walked past her into her room. Before my father had married her mother, it had been mine.
“You know this used to be my gym?” I said, walking over to her bed.
“Oh no, the poor little rich boy had to give up his machines,” she joked.