“Do you have something you want to say to me, Dad?”
I can see his eyes processing. Maybe he doesn’t know. Maybe he’s just suspicious.
He stares at me for a long moment. Then his phone rings. He shakes his head at me.
“You just keep yourself in line. You hear me? You owe me.”
And then he’s gone, back to his office with his cell pressed to his ear.
I storm up to my room and nearly take the door off its hinges as I burst inside. Stripping off my clothes, I climb into theshower and crank the water as hot as it can go. The heat almost takes my mind off what just happened.
Why is he acting like I’m some common criminal? Like I broke into a store or sold drugs or something? I was literally defending my biological mother, his ex-wife.
I never should have gone to jail in the first place.
I don’t owe him shit. If anything, he owes me. But he’ll never acknowledge it because then he’d have to acknowledge that I handled something that was his job.
As I’m getting out of the shower, I hear the front door. My heart leaps, but when I look outside, I see Dad climbing into his Porsche. He pulls off, heading for the office, I guess.
That leaves me alone, with nothing to distract me.
I phone Gus and ask him if I can come in. It’s my day off, but after the flooding catastrophe, he’s happy to have me.
We spend most of the day getting the shop in order, moving fans, doing our best to dry the place out. A flood in a woodshop is one of the worst things that can happen.
But even as I lug around boards and equipment, I can’t keep my mind off her. I call, but it goes straight to voicemail.
My stomach drops. I walked away from her, and now I’m desperate. I need to feel her, kiss her, ravage her until she’s lying senseless beneath me.
But like me last night, she’s vanished.
“Thanks a lot, Jake!” Gus calls as we wrap things up later. It’s past dinner time, so I stop at Chuckie’s and grab a burger.
I’m wracked with guilt. The way I handled things with Piper…it was awful.
I have to make things up to her. And I would, if only she would answer her goddamn phone.
When I pull up to the house, I see Piper’s car. Her bedroom light is on too.
Before you could count to three, I’m inside and striding down the hall to her room.
She nearly jumps out of her shorts as I barge through the door. “Jesus Christ, Jake! You scared me!”
“What the hell is this?” I snap. “Just what do you think you’re doing?”
“What?” she asks, playing innocent. But I can see in her eyes that she knows what I’m getting at.
“Is this some kind of payback? Ignoring me because I didn’t answer you last night?”
My muscles harden. My eyes scour her body, barely clad in tiny bed shorts and a lace top.
My step-sister…my angel…
“Jake, if you don’t want this, just tell me—”
“Don’t want—?”
Gripped by primal urges, I leap onto her, and with one hard pull, tear her top straight down the middle. Her perfect breasts spill out, and I grab them with both hands. She yelps. I’m being rough with her, but I can’t help it.
