Page 1 of Whisper Pretty Lies (Lust & Liars #1)

Damon

School starts in a couple of days. Fuck that shit.

I wasn’t even supposed to be here. Not this school, not this town, not even this state.

My life is a fucking shit show. Stuck at Deimos Academy for another year, senior year, when I was supposed to be off working toward my NHL dream. But that all got fucked by two people.

“If you want to fuck him up, I’ll hold back his friends,” Hawk Wilker says and hands me a bottle of beer. Conditioning for the season starts next week, so this is it for me. One last fucking hurrah. I take my hockey career seriously, even if my father doesn’t.

“Chase Chadwick.” Cam shakes his head like someone died and cracks his knuckles. “With a name like that, it’s like his parents were begging for their son to get a daily ass whooping.”

These two are my ride or dies. We’ve been friends since grade school and hockey camps. Neither of them is interested in making a living on the ice, but we’ve played together every year. This was supposed to be our first year apart.

It didn’t sit well leaving them behind, but I had to do what was best for my career in the long run. Until fucking Chase Chadwick.

I stretch out my leg, which is still fucked up and aches from the accident. My bike and leathers took the brunt of the pavement along with my helmet. That would have been a mess if I hadn’t been wearing one. In the end, it still tore up the skin on my jaw.

“Say the word, man.” Hawk takes a sip of his beer while we watch Chase drag his girlfriend over to the beer pong table. She hasn’t touched a drop of alcohol and seems so fucking out of place in her jeans and oversized sweatshirt.

The party is outside. It’s the end of summer, but it can still get chilly at night. Her blond hair is up in a messy bun. She doesn’t fit in here. Not with the other girls in their revealing clothes.

The image of her blond hair in his lap—right before their car slammed into me—plays in my head like an instant replay.

“I’ll keep the girl occupied for you two.” Cam smirks. From his lecherous gaze, I know he’s thinking about what she was doing to her boyfriend that night.

The girl is EvanAnn Ward. A fucking thorn in my side. An ant and theater nerd. She’s been in my classes for years, but she’s not noticeable. It’s odd he’s with her, except they’re both in the drama program.

The heat inside me will have to wait because, as much as I’d love to beat the shit out of Chase, my hands are tied. Tonight and every night.

“I can’t touch Chase. At least not physically.

Our dads are business partners.” The accident was reported as a hit and run.

There are no cameras up in the hills to prove that Chase was the driver.

Those fuckers didn’t even realize they’d clipped me.

They were a little occupied at the time.

Though his car probably has scratches and streaks of my bike’s paint down the side.

Even if he’d been caught, his father would have made it go away.

Hawk leans back against the house and takes a drag from his beer. For now, all that potential energy has been released. I’m sure he’ll find a guy to beat up or a girl to fuck later.

“Your dad still moving the gold digger in?” Cam asks as he relaxes. His beer bottle dangles from his fingers.

I nod and take a drink. The arrangements have all been made. It won’t be long now. My life is a fucking shit show.

“Damon!” Olivia Carmichael says my name like she’s having an orgasm as she enters our space. Or at least tries to enter our space.

I don’t look at her.

Hawk smiles, cutting her off before she can grab on to me. “What’s up, Olivia?”

She stops as he steps in her way and shifts so she can still talk to me.

“I was thinking of having a private party later this weekend, Damon. Do you want to come?” She emphasizes the word come .

I turn to look at her. She’s the opposite of everything EvanAnn is. Her hair is styled to look windblown and natural. Her face is painted to best accentuate her beauty. She’s a fucking Barbie doll brought to life, and all the Kens in this school have already used her. Including Hawk, but not me.

That’s the only reason the rich princess is interested in me. I’m the one she can’t have. But she might be of use to us this year. A plan has been forming, and it’s starting to solidify.

I give Hawk a slight nod to let her pass. He steps out of Olivia’s way. Moving in close, she smiles seductively as she puts her hands on my arm, squeezing the muscle.

“I have the house to myself tomorrow,” she says in a low voice, looking up at me with those baby blue eyes. She glances at my boys, eyeing them up and down like they’re on sale at Saks. “You could all come. All three of you. We could have a good time.”

“You want all of us to fuck you?” Hawk arches an eyebrow.

“Not at the same time.” She glares at him, but gives me an eager look. “Unless that’s what you want, Damon.”

Desperate is not a good look on Olivia.

“Tell me what you know about EvanAnn Ward.” I nod at Evan, where she stands awkwardly to the side while Chase plays beer pong with his teammates. He’s on the football team. The teams in our schools tend to stick together. It’s something he has right now—and so is Evan.

Evan has her arms wrapped around her center, clearly not a party girl like the half-naked girls dancing around the pool.

This isn’t her scene. Wasn’t her scene until she started hooking up with Chase.

Olivia’s smile falters a little and she turns to look over at them. She smirks and lets out an unladylike snort. “That loser?”

“Yeah, that loser.” I brush the backs of my fingers along Olivia’s jawline and her eyes light up.

She’s wanted me for years. I’ll let her believe I’ve suddenly developed an interest if it helps me get what I really want.

What I need is information. Information about everything Chase has, including his little theater nerd.

She glances again. “She’s been dating Chase since spring, but he never brought her outside to lunch. His ex sits at the Anteros table.”

“Abby Baker,” Cam fills in, since he knows I don’t know. If it didn’t involve hockey before this year, I wasn’t interested. “Abby’s queen bee of the theater department.”

“What does that make EvanAnn?” I narrow my eyes on Evan. She shivers and turns to look around like she can feel me hating her.

“One of those good girl types, probably looking for someone to fund their dreams.” Olivia laughs. “For the right guy, she spreads them. He’s a rich fuckboy. He probably got with her because she’s a virgin or something.”

“A virgin?” I look the little ant up and down, maybe with too much interest. How many girls in our school make it to eighteen with their virginity intact?

“If she was one, she definitely isn’t now,” Olivia squeezes my arm.

“I doubt she was. She’s eighteen and the theater kids get freaky.

She’s been dating Chase for months. You don’t keep a guy like that without giving him what he needs.

I don’t pay much attention to the Anteros group, but she acts like a prude.

She’s a real nerd. I don’t know why he bothers.

Maybe it’s because she’s talented enough to make it.

Not someone that you’d be interested in.

She’s smart and artistic, exactly what our schools want. But poor.”

Olivia says it like it’s a disease. To people like us, maybe it is. People want what we have. We were born wealthy, but I won’t look down on the girl because she’s poor. I have other reasons to hate Evan.

“The only reason he’s with that charity case is because she’s good at something else, if you know what I mean. Or she can give him a boost to his future.” Olivia pets my arm and smiles up at me. “I could be good to you, Damon.”

I glance at Cam. I’m done with her. He straightens and moves in.

“Hey, Olivia, where are your friends? If we’re going to party, we need more than just you. I doubt you could handle the three of us on your own.” Cam wraps his arm around Olivia’s waist and walks her away. She glances back as she says something to him. He nods.

“What are you thinking?” Hawk steps in beside me, studying Evan with me.

I glance around at the party and set my half-full bottle down. I have more important things to do than drink tonight. “We need somewhere to talk. All of us.”

Hawk nods, getting his phone out and firing off a text. “I have a place in mind.”

My gaze returns to Evan, and this time, it’s almost like she knows I’m looking at her. Her gaze collides with mine. Her eyes are light, but I’ve never really paid attention to the color. From here, they’re just pale and dull.

But everything is about to change.

Cam manages to escape Olivia’s clutches, and we get on our motorcycles to ride up into the hills surrounding the city. My new bike needs repairs from the accident, but my father refuses to pay for them. Fortunately, I own more than one motorcycle.

Hawk signals to a parking area overlooking the city. We come up here often when we need to get away from the noise. It’s a pleasant ride, day or night.

We pull in and line up along the overlook, shutting our bikes off. The city lights shine bright in the night, but up here it’s dark with only the sounds of nature—crickets, the occasional owl. It’s peaceful.

Cam reaches into his saddle bags and pulls out a cold beer for each of us. We’re not going to get shitfaced, but it’s cold and tastes good.

“What’s the plan?” Hawk sets his helmet in front of him and leans back on his bike.

“Yeah, if we can’t fuck up Chase, what can we do?” Cam leans forward, elbows on his handlebars, staring down into the city lights.

“We can fuck up his life.” My words hang in the air between us for a moment while they let that settle in. “Take away his future. Every piece of it.”

Hawk smirks. “He does have a girlfriend.”

“So, what?” Cam tilts his head as he looks over at both of us. “One of us is going to go for his girl?”

I take a sip, because Evan is more than a game now. “What was that big speech you made after I found out I was locked down here for another year?”

Cam rises from his bike and steps back like he’s about to give the speech of his life. “The three of us.”

“Fuck, this again?” Hawk shakes his head. But there’s a small lift to his lips. He secretly loves this shit.

Cam holds his beer out to Hawk like he’s giving him a toast. “We’re fucking eighteen years old.

We’ve got one more year before Damon goes off to play hockey in the big leagues.

Hawk goes off to Columbia and makes a name for himself.

And me, fuck, I’ll probably go to Crowne Mawr and rule Delta Psi Lambda, because once a devil, always a devil. ”

“Are we going to listen to the whole thing?” Hawk rolls his eyes and drinks his beer.

“Yes,” Cam says. “Because we’re brothers. This is it. After this year, no more partying together. No more hockey together. Yeah, we’ll go see Damon on the ice, but it won’t be the same. So let’s do this right and not fuck it up. We have one more year together.”

“Then we take her from him, together.” I smile.

“Exactly what are you proposing?” Hawk straightens.

Cam grins and thrusts his hips. “Girl’s got three holes. Pretty sure they’ve been used. Even if she acts all innocent, like a goody two-shoes.”

“My point.” I tip my beer to Cam. “We show the school and Chase how big of a slut Miss EvanAnn Ward can be. We ruin his little good girl for him. We take away all of the good things in his life, until he’s left miserable.

Everything that gives him his future. And we make sure my father’s gold digger finds her living situation unacceptable, which should coincide nicely with our first objective. Two birds with one stone.”

“Together!” Cam steps in and clinks his bottle against mine.

“Together,” I say and take a drink.

Cam clinks his bottle with Hawk’s. Hawk meets my gaze. “Together.”