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“She’s just jealous. You know she likes you.” He grinned, my stomach twisting at his words. I was well aware of Riley’s feelings for me. She’d drunkenly told me on multiple occasions, and I was pretty sure she didn’t remember. I liked her a lot, but I wasn’t into girls. Part of me wished I could love her, because I knew she’d look after me and keep me safe, but I couldn’t force my feelings.

“Am I supposed to end our friendship then? Because I can’t do that, but it’s obviously becoming too much for her.” I scowled, raking my fingers through my brown hair.

“Just talk to her about it. Tell her you’re aware of her feelings,” he suggested without hesitation, grabbing my wrist to stop me from my nervous habit. “You two are usually good at being honest with each other, so why can’t you discuss this?”

“It’s an awkward conversation that will end with us arguing. I can’t handle a big fight with her, and I don’t want to hurt her by shutting her down so hard.”

“You’re hurting her more by giving her hope that she has a chance,” he pointed out, making me snort.

“I’ve never once given her the impression that she has a chance with me. I have a boyfriend, for starters.”

“He’s a dick, and you know it. I don’t know why you put up with him,” he scoffed, embarrassment filling me. Stanley was sweet, but he had his problems. Keeping his dick in his pants was one of them, and his lack of life goals was another.

He’d dropped out of college in our first year, and he’d been happily living off whatever his parents would send him each month.

We’d been on and off a lot over the last year or two, and luckily most of his straying had been on the down-low. If Riley knew the half of it, she would have beaten him to death by now.

I was terrified of starting over and being alone, so I clung to him in hope that he’d get it out of his system. Guys were supposed to mess around at this age, right?

Landon and I lapsed into silence for the rest of lunch, and he knew he’d overstepped when he simply gave me a small smile before heading to his afternoon class without saying goodbye.

I was supposed to head to the library to study with a few other girls, but I found myself walking to my car and heading home. I drove through town on the way, rolling my eyes when I spotted the graffitied Corvette parked out front of Harley’s Bar.

Of course, she’d left school to get drunk and laid.

I wasn’t going to hang around and watch women paw over her. It made me uncomfortable. I kept driving until I got home, grateful to find the house empty. Not even my sister, Tempest, was home, so I had a hot bath before calling Stanley, deciding if Riley was going to sulk and get laid, then so was I.

ChapterTwo

Riley

“Can you keep your pussy prowling away from my business?” Hunter grumbled as I smacked Penny’s butt on her way past me in Devil’s Dungeon later that night, making her giggle. I turned to face my father, who was standing behind the bar with his arms crossed against his chest. His face was void of emotion, but his tone told me he’d had a long day.

I grinned, lifting my bat to drop it over my shoulder casually. “I’m not prowling, I already got laid on the way here.”

“I don’t need to know,” he groaned, running a hand through his black hair, making parts of it stick up. “Are you here to work the bar? Or are you just going to bother the employees?”

“Neither. I’m bored, and Harley kicked me out of his bar. The cops were sniffing around.” I shrugged, earning a look of disapproval.

“You need to stop hanging out there. You could get him shut down. You’re underaged.”

“I drink here all the time. What's the difference?” I scowled, leaning against the bar. “I’ve been completely wasted here.”

“Yeah, but what cop’s actually going to drag you out of here? They don’t come in here anymore since your mother threatened to sue them for harassment.” He chuckled, finding amusement in the memory. Pretty sure it was one of his favorites.

We had the local cops on our payroll these days, but sometimes their higher-ups would crack down on them. We always got a heads up from BG since he ran the Ashburn Valley Police Department. He’d been in our pocket forever. I had no idea what his real name was, but BG was short for beer guts. He was in his fifties, unfit, and he was too scared of my family to ever say no to something dodgy.

“I just stopped by to steal some vodka,” I answered sweetly, his face turning serious.

“Are you heading to the track? Don’t drink if you’re driving. You know Skeet will burn your car to scrap if he catches you, and he’ll rip the town apart if you crash. You know he’s been touchy since Lloyd died.” That snatched the grin off my face real fast.

Lloyd was eleven years older than me. Like Maddox, Mom had adopted him, Mikey, and my sister, Angel, after saving them from the skin trade when they were kids. Angel had only been a baby, Mikey had been two, and Lloyd had been eight.

Lloyd had been a huge turning point for Mom, and they’d probably been closer than what she and I were, but he’d been killed in a car accident at the track three years ago. It had been a deliberate attack on my family by the Hell’s Demons’ crew, who was being led by a vengeful son of one of the original members. The Reapers of Chaos crew had been the ones to massacre them originally, but the son’s problem wasn’t with the Reapers.

It had been with Mom, all because she’d taken his play toy from him. He’d had a favorite kid he liked to abuse, which also turned out to be his nephew.

That was how Maddox had ended up with us when he’d been four years old, and he’d been glued to Beckett ever since. I should’ve seen their love story coming a mile away, but we’d all been blindsided a couple of months ago by their relationship.