My conclusion that whoever put them there is after Storm.
The fact Henry is alone.
What if I’m wrong?
Or what if they use me to get to Storm and therefore, they use Henry to get to me to echo down in the chain of targets?
I don’t know what kind of shit Storm deals in. I don’t know the people after him. And maybe he has a camera he monitors 24/7 to keep me safe—the thought is hilarious and easily dismissible both—but there’s no such camera for Henry.
“Henry.” I try to keep my tone even.
My siblings wait in the quiet for me to speak.
“I’m coming by. Just…give me some time to get there.” My parent's place is half an hour away but I need to grab a ride and tell everyone bye and they probably don’t even know where I live anyway so I’ll need to wait for a taxi or something and?—
“Sloane, there you are, thank God.” A deep voice has me turning my head.
Dax. He’s tall and lanky and beautiful. Brown hair, blue eyes, a politician’s smile. Storm asked me if I fucked him and I haven’t yet but I’m going to soon, I decided. Maybe just right now. Probably. He’s wearing a white button down that doesn’t have a single one of those buttons done up, and black slacks. He came here from an internship in which he shadows the CEO of a car battery company. I know he doesn’t like the car part, or even the batteries. He wants to own a business, like me, and he wants to make as much money as his father does doing it—which is a fuckload. If I married Dax Parrish, my life would be on easy street.
“You don’t need to come, Sloane. I hear your boyfriend in the background.” Henry says it with distaste and it makes both Cas and Heather laugh.
I don’t sit up as Dax saunters closer, a bottle of vodka—mostly empty—dangling from his fingertips. I’ve never seen him get really drunk and I’m not sure he is now or if he’s just swiped up what was left.
“I’ll be there,” I promise my little brother. “And soon.” I don’t know what I’ll do when I’m there. Henry will probably mope up to his room and close his door, but silent company is better than loud solitude sometimes, isn’t it? I end the call and rest the phone face down on my tummy, then fold my palms over my chest as I look at Dax.
He’s standing right in front of the bench now so I’m nearly level with his crotch and that bottle in his hand, but his eyes are on mine when he drops his head down to look at me.
“Who were you talking to?” he asks it softly with genuine curiosity. At least I think it’s genuine. Remi met Dax once when the three of us went to lunch together before Remi and I got pedicures while Cortland and Storm fawned over Lyle.
According to my best friend, Dax is probably a psychopath. But she’s with Cortland so I don’t know if that means I should fuck his brains out or never speak to him again.
Hard to tell with her.
Although her warning about staying away from Storm was very clear.
“My family,” I tell Dax. The velvet sky’s the backdrop for his handsome face. “My brothers and sister,” I clarify, grinning up at him. I need to leave to get to Henry and I have to get a ride but for the moment, I just lie right where I am, staring up at a hot boy and the beauty of the constellations over his head.
This is simple.
My life isn’t, not yet, but this feels good. Real. Like what university is supposed to be.
“Everything okay?” Dax asks. He reaches out with his free hand and trails it along my tummy, just beneath my phone.
My muscles jump with his light touch and I watch him smile as he realizes the effect he’s having on my body.
“Everything is good,” I lie because I don’t want him, or anyone, in my family drama. “But I have to leave soon. I need to…” I think of how to phrase it without making it seem like Henry needs me to hold his hand or something. I feel protective of him, even with his surly teenage attitude. “Go to my parents’ house.” I don’t elaborate. He doesn’t need to know anything else.
But he keeps stroking my low belly, just over the button of my denim skirt.
Warmth spreads there, and lower.
I need to get laid.
“Do you want me to come with you?” he asks softly, and the way my head is light and he’s so gorgeous and I know I’ll spend tonight in the living room flicking through channels alone anyway, I want to say yes. Not to mention the mild fear I have that Storm’s trouble will come to Henry’s door.
It would be good to have another body there.
It would feelsafeto bring a man, so long as I trusted him.
