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Chapter One
Lucy
Summer Before Senior Year
My eyelids flutter open as I wake in my bed froma deep sleep.Footsteps tread down the hallway, stopping outside the closed door of my bedroom. I take a deep breath as I watch the handle of the door turn.
I’m alone in the house. My parents are out of town, traveling Europe.My brother Aiden and the guys left earlier in the evening to handle an emergency they dubbed “cartel business.” Meaning, either they must eliminate an imminent threat or someone important was taken out. It must be in the middle of the night because I remember falling asleep around eleven forty-five p.m.My eyes focus on the door handle turning slowly instead of grabbing my phone to check the time.
The door handle turns, and my heart beats frantically because I’m positive it’s not Aiden. He would have called me if he had planned on coming to my room. Plus, the garage door didn’t open. The Dodge Demonhe left in roars every time he passes through the main gate of the house. It always wakes me, but what woke me up was not the engine of my brother’s car. It was the sound of footsteps.
The door swings open and I let out a sigh of relief. Mason.One of my brother’s best friends and my childhood crush. The boy I have been in love with since forever.
Placing my hand over my cami top, I say, “You scared me. I thought you were an intruder.”
Mason is permeated with the musky smell of dirt and copper as he walks forward and flicks the light switch. I stifle a gasp.
Dressed all in black, sweat mixes with dirt and blood on his neck, and my brows pinch in a frown as I notice more blood on his exposed arms, splattered over histattoos.
“Lucy, I need you right now,” he rasps, holding out his gloved hands, palms facing up. His face has a conflicted expression, like he is battling something, and my heart breaks because I know he had to do something terrible, and it’s messing with what he feels is right and wrong. But I also know he won’t tell me what happened. This is not the first time he has come to me like this. It has been a normal occurrence every time he has to do something terrible. Meaning, kill someone.
My brother and the guys never go into detail, but I overheard them talking with my father a couple of times. What I heard wasn’t good, and I realized at the early age of fifteen that my brother Aiden, Mason, Leo, and Colton are trained killers who will one day take over their respective families’ legacy as head cartel leaders.
I get up from the bed and open the door to my en suite bathroom and prepare the shower, twisting the knob until the water is scalding.When I turn around, Mason is standing by the door.
“You need a shower, and you need to get rid of those clothes.”
He slides ablack duffel bag I hadn’t realized he was carrying off his broad shoulder, and it falls with a thud on the bathroom’s marble tile.
Steam fogs the vanity mirror as he quickly peels off his clothes. I glance away and open the door to the glass shower, because I’ve never seen Mason, or any man, naked. When I look back at him, I try to hold myself together.He’s nude and looks a million times better than I pictured in my head. Tattoos completely cover one of his muscular arms, and his body is sculpted to perfection like he was molded with precision—defined abs and a hard-muscled chest. My eyes dip lower to his impressive cock and the fact that he shaves. Compared to the ones I’ve seen online, I have to say Mason’s is bigger than average, and he isn’t even aroused.
Swallowing hard, I point toward the opening of the shower. It’s stiflingin here because of the steam or possibly because my thighs keep clenching looking at his beautiful body. When my gaze finds his, I admirehis small straight nose and strong angular jaw with a shadow of his beard growing. Hestayssilent for a moment, letting me get a good look, but his expression looks torn.
He grimaces. “I’m sorry for waking you and barging into your room like this.” He waves his arms over his body and discarded clothes on the floor. “I couldn’t go home with my parents there, and I needed to talk to you because you’re the only one that understands and won’tjudge or ask questions.”
My heart clenches with hope that he came here because he needs me and no one else. It is always like this when we are alone. It is like a battle that we are both fighting to see who will make the first move.
“I know, Mase. Just get in and clean up.” I motion with my head toward the shower. “You don’t have to explain anything about what went on tonight.I understand, and you know I’m always here for you. Where are the others?” He knows I mean Aiden, Leo, and Colton.
Mason, Colton, and Leo grewup with Aiden and me in the upper class of Hillside. Since grade school, Mason was always the sweet one of the four. When I finally realized boys weren’t gross and were nice to look at, the tall, dark-haired boy whose eyes changed colors with the shifting light stole my attention. He is the only one that I allow in my bedroom besides my immediate family.
Mason always looked out for me when my brother wasn’t around. He would stay behind, watch movies, and even help me with myhomework. It wasn’t like I needed help, but I believe he did it so I wouldn’t feel left out. My brother Aiden is my twin, and being the only girl in the group sucked because girls only wanted to be my friend so they could get close to the Kings of Hillside. They became the heartbreakersand football stars of Hillside Academy, andI became thepopular girl because of her hot-as-hell twin brother and his friends.
Being Aiden’s twin sister has its drawbacks. I am untouchable, undatable, and off-limits. The first time a boy tried to kiss me in eighth grade, Mason broke his nose. After that incident, no guy wanted to ask me out on a date. My father didn’t help either. He made sure I didn’t date and warned my brother he would make him pay if he found out I had a boyfriend. He didn’t want his only daughter to have sex in high school, but my brother and his friends couldfuckdifferent girls every chance they had. It’s not like I want to sleep around like a tramp. Iwant to go on a date and fall for a boy.
Well, not just any boy.
The only boy I have eyes for is my brother’s best friend, Mason Montgomery. To me, he issmart, talented, and a total badass. He always paysattentionto me and talks to me about anything and everything. He makes me laugh, and he knows what I like and what I don’t like.
Mason walks into the shower, and I watch transfixed as the water sluices over his body.
My stomach somersaults that I’m in here watching him shower with my soap in his hands, washing the dirt and blood off his body.
Through the glass, my eyes are trained on the maroon-colored water going down the drain. His eyes find mine and they are filled with a need I can’t figure out. My mind goes on autopilot when he turns around and I see his muscular back. Removing my cami and sleep shorts, I open the shower door and step inside.
His body whips around and Istand still,my eyes squinting slightly as the water sprays off his body in a mist. The glass-enclosed shower mists in a fog and swirling water spray bounces off our naked skin.
“What are you doing?” he asks, his gaze caressing my naked body, pausing at my breasts and then continuing to the apex of my thighs. Thank God that I shaved everything before going to bed.
