SWNOVELS The Ruthless Note: Chapter 26
“What are we going to do about Miller?” I pose the question to my brothers. We’re around the pool at our villa.
Zane’s got his feet in the water and a bunch of beer bottles by his side.
Finn is staring at the star-lit sky, his glasses on his nose. He rarely wears his contacts when he’s at home.
“Jinx raised her prices, but I’m willing to go all in on Miller’s dirty laundry,” Finn says, his voice low and dark.
It’s the most obvious method.
Tear him in the dark. Where it hurts.
Just like we did to that neighbor who insulted Sol right in front of us. It’s hands-off. Clean. Detrimental.
Sol’s method back then was too messy, too obvious. It lacked finesse.
Cadence has the same mentality and it’s why she’s in this mess.
Miller is crafty. That day in the gym, when Cadence got Christa arrested, I saw in her pretty brown eyes that she thought she had the upper hand. She had no idea who she was dealing with.
That’s what happens when good girls try to go bad.
Watching her grow and learn to truly rake her claws over others would be sweet. If it wasn’t such a damn headache to clean up.
I shake my head. “We start smearing mud at Miller, he’ll throw it back. He knows what we did to get Cadence out. He knows we did it for Sol. It won’t take much for him to out us. We can’t afford to make this worse.”
Zane lifts the beer to his mouth and sips. “You have something in mind?”
“The path of least resistance.” I meet Zane’s eyes in the dark. My twin’s hair is messier than usual. His eyes are red-rimmed. His strategy of partying and screwing his way through the crap he feels is taking its pound of flesh.
I would tell him to cool it if I thought he’d listen.
But hell, I barely got to my own conclusions with Cadence. There’s no way I can convince Zane of anything.
“You want us to take out the other girl?”
“Serena, right?” Zane twists his body completely. He takes his feet out of the pool and the scrunched-up ankles of his jeans skitter water on the tiles.
He’s always been better at remembering names than I am. It’s a part of his charm. He can make a stranger feel like a friend and turn that friend into a lover in less than five minutes.
Finn and I don’t have that skill.
Not that we want it.
“Miller doesn’t want a bloodbath. He just wants to teach Cadence a lesson. There’s no reason to make this bigger than it has to be. One of them goes. It can’t be Sol and it can’t be Cadence.”
“She is going to hate you more than she already does,” Finn predicts.
I meet his eyes in the twilight. His gaze is steady. Always steady. Like he has nothing to lose.
I think it’s why dad doesn’t mess with him as much as he does with me and Zane. Or maybe it’s because dad never saw him as a real son and thus not worth the energy.
Or maybe it’s both.
Who the hell knows how things work in dad’s deranged mind?
Speaking of dad…
“I got a text from Jinx asking for confirmation in exchange for a secret,” I say, changing the subject.
Moonlight glints against the edge of the beer bottle as Zane drains the last of it. “She’s still doing that?”
“Brilliant, right?” Finn leans back in the pool chair, a flicker of admiration in his eyes. “The school app is just a front to extort more money. If you’re the gatekeeper of the secrets and the head of the underground media…”
“You control everything,” Zane says. He lets loose a low whistle. “I see why you have a thing for her.”
Finn scowls and flips him off.
Zane chuckles.
I wish I could join him, but I’m still turning over Finn’s warning in my mind.
Cadence is going to hate me even more if I turn over her only friend at Redwood as a lamb to be slaughtered.
But that’s not what bothers me.
It’s the fact that Cadence’s happiness is venturing into my decisions at all. Why the hell should I care if she hates me for doing what needs to be done? I’ve never let anyone else’s opinions or feelings factor into my plans.
The memory of her scorching eyes and greedy mouth on mine sears me. I press my lips together and glance aside.
Zane gets up and saunters to the third pool chair. He takes a seat and the plastic creaks when it accepts his weight.
“What did Jinx want confirmation of?” Zane asks.
I answer woodenly. “Whether dad is dating or not. She says she has evidence he’s in more than just a fling.”
My twin chuckles. His eyes glint hard and blue in the darkness. “We knew this would happen since the day he sent that text.”
“Why would Jinx want confirmation on that?” Finn stares thoughtfully into the pool. “There’s something she’s not telling you.”
“Screw that.” Zane flails his arms. “I’m not about to worry about something that hasn’t happened yet. Dad’s coming home soon. I’m going to forget he exists until then.”
Finn gets up from his seat and grabs one of Zane’s bottles. Cracking the top, he guzzles down the drink and wipes the back of his mouth.
“Let me know what you decide about Miller,” Finn says, passing me by. “I’ve been feeling restless lately. If it has to be messy, I’m not against it.”
I nod.
Zane offers a beer to me.
I wrap my fingers around it, thinking about Cadence. As usual.
Damn little terror has a dedicated space in my head.
She looked worried today. I saw her just before the ending of last period when I came back to Redwood to pick up my guitar for the Halloween Bash sound check.
She was sitting in the back of the class, face turned to the window overlooking the garden. She looked small and alone, a tiny planet spinning out of an endless galaxy. So far from me, so different that I shouldn’t be affected by her at all. And yet, the only time I feel anything other than dead inside is when she’s spinning in my orbit.
I don’t want to dig beneath what that means or why it’s important.
I only want to take her to bed as quickly as possible and move away from these disgustingly heavy feelings.
“You look like a lovesick fool,” Zane says, taking a swig of his beer. “No wonder Finn calls you pathetic.”
My eyes jerk toward him. “No wonder he calls you an idiot.”
“Like he has any right to judge,” Zane grumbles. “He’s in love with an anonymous account. If Jinx turns out to be a thirty-year-old dude, I’m going to laugh in his face.”
That draws a chuckle out of me.
I raise a brow at Zane. “How long are you going to keep avoiding Miss Jamieson?”
“Until I forget.” He stares at the pool. The lights are bouncing against it, sending blue rays all over the back deck. “Until it doesn’t freaking feel like I’m choking on my own breath.”
I stare at my twin. Face like mine except for the eyes that are blue instead of hazel. The hair that’s black instead of blonde.
I’ve never seen him so broken down before.
Never seen the smile leave his face.
He’s drunk.
Which is probably why he’s being honest.
“Don’t screw it up with your girl,” Zane warns, “at least you have a shot at it.”
Your girl.
I can’t explain the way my chest swells when he says that.
And I can’t explain the sudden urge I have to call Brahms and ask her to get in my car and take a drive. Just drive and drive. Until we get to the edge of nowhere.
Freaking hell.
I grab another beer and down it quickly.
This girl has me losing my mind.