Page 3 of Brazen Defiance (Brazen Boys #4)

RJ

T he Westerhouse family has a tight lid on their public image. I’ve been digging for hours, and I haven’t found anything useful. But it’s the kind of not useful that tells me there’s a whole lot hiding out of view.

For example, Trips’ father is on his third wife. The first two died—and there’s no explanation how. Either Trips’ dad is severely unlucky, or being Mrs. Westerhouse is a death sentence.

Then there’s his brother. Trevor Westerhouse looks perfect on paper.

The kind of perfect that hides a myriad of sins.

The only dirt I’ve found on the guy is decade-old receipts for academic tutors to get him through Princeton.

Unlike many other politicians, Trevor didn’t get a law degree before running for office.

He only has a scant few years working for a friend of the family—doing what amounts to sitting in a cubicle recovering from a hangover for half the day and golfing the other half— under his belt.

How he became the up-and-coming hotshot he is…

well, it stinks of connections being pulled.

And maybe money changing hands. But I’d have to get into their bank accounts to figure that out.

Trips’ sister Mattie is the most present online, but as she’s a kid, she’s not going to give me insight into the family.

She’s one hell of a fencer apparently, and while that sword art isn’t one I’ve tried, I can attest to her skill from the few videos I watched.

She’s going places. Although Trips is worried about her going off the rails, so I guess time will tell if she’s the Olympic hopeful all the articles about her say, or just a ‘could have been’ talked about by the people who helped her train.

The only one of them with any sort of dirt available on the internet is Trips himself.

A full-length news article about the assault of the abusive asshat in high school tells me nothing new, besides the fact that his dad wanted Trips’ indiscretions to be public.

He wants Trips to be seen as unstable. At sixteen, his dad had already given up on him.

Maybe Trips was right—we could have been friends back then.

I cycle back to Trevor, certain there must be more to find there, when there’s a knock on my door.

Not Clara. Not until tomorrow. “Come in,” I call, knowing whoever is there has the key.

I should get Clara a key.

Jansen bounds in, throwing himself across my mattress. “I’m bored.”

“I’m working.”

“When are you not working?”

I spin in my chair, knowing he has a point but wanting to continue my deep dive into the Westerhouse family despite that. “When I’m with Clara.”

“What about the rest of us? If you don’t spend time with your friends, you won’t have them anymore.”

“Man, I share my girl with my friends. I don’t think we have a friendship problem.”

Jansen flings himself upright, sitting cross-legged across from me. “Not yet. But we need to hang out without Clara, too.”

“Your boredom is not indicative of any problems with our friendship.”

“Please? Do something with me. If I convince you, Walker will join us, too. He’s deep into some painting and didn’t even look at me when I went to bug him. Give me something to do. I don’t want to steal cars without Clara. It’s kind of our thing now, and I don’t have any other outlets.”

I know he’s been struggling. This can wait. “I was thinking I should get Clara a key for my room.”

Jay’s eyes light up. “I should do that too! I wanted to teach her to pick my lock, but we haven’t practiced that yet. So, a key would be good.”

“We could get actual curtains for the living room, too. No offense to your sheets, of course.”

“Walker will want to come if we’re decorating. He’d probably gag over whatever we’d bring back.”

“I’d just buy whatever’s on sale.”

“I’d take whatever’s most expensive.”

I grin at the thief across from me. “So, we’re hanging out at a hardware store on a Saturday night?”

He laughs, springing from the bed and yanking open the door. “We’re killing time until we get that orgy we’re working towards.”

Groaning, I join him. “I’m not sure you’re supposed to just announce that shit like it’s a guarantee, Jay.”

“But it is. We should probably make a plan or something.”

“I am not planning an orgy with you.”

“But you’ll have one. You already have, more or less.”

I shake my head, trailing him out of the room with one last glance back at my computer.

My chest clenches. There’s something about the Westerhouse family. Something about Trevor, like an itch on the sole of my foot—hard to get to, but insistent. I’m still missing something.

I need to figure out what it is.

But first, Jansen needs a distraction. I can’t handle both him and Clara falling apart at the same time. I’m not sure any of us can. So, tonight, I’ll keep Jansen in one piece. Tomorrow, I’ll keep digging into Trevor Westerhouse.

The door clicks shut behind me, and I force my worries away.

For now.