Page 1 of Griffin (Stone Brothers #5)

ONE

GRIFFIN

"T heo, I'm not waiting another fucking minute!

" I called up the stairs. No answer. I pounded up the creaky steps, making sure to hit each of the squeakiest ones with extra weight.

Crusoe and Theo had stayed up late partying in the basement.

When my cousin Theo wasn't working, he was riding bikes, playing video games and fucking women.

Our other cousin Crusoe usually skipped the work part and went straight to video games and women.

He occasionally came out to the construction site to work, but he preferred to stay attached to his game controller and whatever nice pair of tits he had visiting at the moment.

Theo and Crusoe were best friends and my two roommates at the Shack.

The Shack was an old beach house that had seen more than its share of coastal squalls and gale force windstorms, yet it still stood, slightly crooked and bearing all the scars of mother nature.

We'd been renting it cheaply from the owner for a few years.

Even though the house was crummy, it was big.

But lately, it wasn't big enough for me.

My two roommates and their constant gaming parties down in the basement were starting to get on my nerves.

I reached Theo's door and decided I'd waited long enough for him that I was past the politeness of a knock.

I knew exactly what I'd find inside and was not disappointed.

In fact, impressed might have been a better word.

Theo was on his stomach, fast asleep, his arm draped over the side of the mattress.

A woman had her arm and leg draped across his naked body.

Next to her was another woman with dyed purple hair and a giant dragon tattoo on her back.

And a third woman was stretched out across the bottom of the mattress.

She'd managed to win the sheet tug-of-war and was wrapped in it like a mummy.

A blanket and two pillows lay on the floor between piles of clothes and shoes.

I walked over to the bed and yanked Theo's head up by his long hair. "Ouch, fuck, what are you doing?" The women started to stir. The one draped over Theo's body turned over to her other side with a grouchy groan.

"I'm leaving for work. You know—the place where you go so you can have money to live. You said your car battery was dead and that you needed a ride, but that ride is leaving in two minutes."

Theo growled in anger and pushed to sitting.

"Cover your junk. I just ate breakfast," I said.

Theo reached around blindly for a sheet to cover himself, but the sheet was still wrapped around the blonde mummy at the end of the bed. I spun around and grabbed the first thing I could reach. It was a black, lacy bra. I threw it at him. He snatched it from the air and dropped it on his balls.

There was hardly any light in the room, but Theo squinted up at me as if I was shining an interrogation beam at him. "Can you give me twenty? I need to shower away this haze in my head."

I shook my head. "Nope. You're on your own." I turned to leave.

"Ah, come on, Fin. Okay, ten. Ten minutes."

I lifted my middle finger at him and walked out.

"Thanks a lot, asshole," I heard him mutter as I reached the stairs.

I'd waited for Theo, and now, I was running late myself.

My dad, Colt Stone, owned Stone Construction.

He'd built the business from literally a tool box and some good skills.

As a kid, I used to sit in the garage and watch him build stuff, and I knew then that I'd follow in the old man's footsteps.

Working for your dad came with both challenges and bonuses, but we'd found a good working relationship.

He worked hard to not be too big of a bossy asshole, and I worked hard to not be a nepo baby slacker.

Dad had landed a big contract building a set of condos inland from the coast. It meant a longer commute, but it also meant steady work for at least a year.

Dad rang as soon as I climbed into the truck. "Just leaving," I said.

"You're leaving late."

"Yeah, talk to Theo about that."

"Well, since I caught you still in Trayton, I need you to stop off at Brew and Scones. Stella is packing us up a box of scones. Thought I'd try and make us at least look civil to the new office manager. She starts today."

"Yeah, all right. See you soon." I dialed Theo. He answered grumpily.

"What, are you gonna rub it in now? I can't find a ride. Might have to ride my bike." Female voices floated around behind him.

"You're going to ride your bike on the freeway?" I drove down the dirt driveway. Years ago, the path would have been covered in heavy gravel, but after decades of weather and vehicles, the gravel had either washed away or had been ground to sand.

"No, I'll take roads. Should be there right about lunchtime."

"Yeah, yeah, put away the tiny fucking violin.

I've got to stop by and get some scones from LaLa.

Apparently, Dad wants to put on a show and convince the new office manager that we aren't a bunch of sweat-soaked heathens.

I'll get the scones and then come back here to pick up your sorry ass.

I swear, Theo, I'm just going to roll past the house, and you'd better fly out that fucking door and into the truck before I turn down the driveway. "

"Yeah, yeah, I'll be ready. See you soon."

I headed to the pier. Brew and Scones was a small shop midway down the pier. My cousin, Stella, twin sister of my cousin Jaxon, was working at the shop while she was earning her degree in archaeology.

It was still early. The crisp fall weather made a morning walk on the pier, even for a scone and coffee, less inviting, so parking was easy.

A row of the usuals, old guys who sat most mornings with their poles lined up on the railing waiting for a bite, filled one side of the pier.

They spent a lot more time bullshitting and guzzling coffee than catching fish.

A row of rock pigeons sat along the opposite railing waiting for scone crumbs.

A few white gulls meandered up and down the planks looking for the same.

A woman walked out of the scone shop with a paper bag and a cup of coffee.

I'd never seen her before, but she had an amazing ass wrapped in tight jeans, and the rest of her was pretty spectacular too.

Thick mahogany-brown hair was cropped short on her head, and big brown eyes took up most of her face.

She glanced my way, smiled politely and walked over to the railing to stare out at the rippling ocean while she ate her scone.

Stella was filling a box with scones when I walked in.

Stella and my sister, Jules, were the only two girls in the Stone cousin group.

We'd all been calling Stella LaLa since she was a little girl, and the nickname stuck.

Stella was one of those women who could step inside a crowded room and stop all the conversations.

She never liked the attention, but there was no way for her to turn off that natural light that always seemed to follow her around.

She could be wild and, at the same time, grounded.

She was close to my sister, Jules, but there was no one she knew better than her twin, Jaxon.

Jaxon used to live in the Shack, but he'd recently moved in with his girlfriend, Bridget.

Lucky bastard escaped, and now it was just me and the two idiots.

"Hey, Fin, I'm almost done with your order."

Admittedly, my attention was still on the woman outside the window. I motioned with my head. "Who's that?" I asked.

Stella twisted around to see who I was talking about. She rolled her eyes. "Oh my god, one track—all of you—one fucking track, and I have no idea who she is. She just innocently walked her fantastic figure and face into the scone shop probably thinking she could eat a scone without getting ogled."

I held up my hand to slow her tirade. "Whoa, sorry for asking. And is ogled a word?"

Another eye roll. "Considering how much time you guys spend doing it, you really should look it up. And sorry for the rant. I'm having—" She shook her head. "Never mind."

I moved closer to the counter. "LaLa? What's going on? Is it that asshole, Vincent, again?" Stella had gone out with the guy twice and decided he wasn't for her, but he was still bothering her.

She didn't answer.

"Look, Jax and I will drive over to his place—" Stella started shaking her head. "Just hear me out. We won't hurt him, but we'll let him know he needs to stay the fuck away from you. You know when Jax and I team up, we can be pretty damn persuasive."

Stella placed the box on the counter for me to take. "I'll handle it."

Theo, Jaxon, Crusoe, Cormac and I were hyper-protective when it came to Stella and Jules, but as they got older, they'd started to get annoyed by our constant vigilance. I couldn't blame them, but at the same time, I couldn't turn off that instinct to protect them and neither could the others.

"You know all you have to do is say the word," I said.

"Jeez, now you sound like a mafia member. It's fine. I've got it handled."

"Yeah, you said, only both times that you said it, you didn't sound the least bit convincing."

"Your dad already paid for these." She pushed the box forward a few inches to remind me why I was there. "See you later."

"All right. And don't be mad, LaLa. You know it's just?—"

"I know. Now go. You'll be late for work."