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For one thing, she certainly didn’t look like this four years ago.
Secondly, I was distracted by my immediate rivalry with her brother. The second he tried out for the team; I knew he was going to give me trouble. Everything that I worked hard for came easily to him. Including the loyalty of our teammates.
He usurped my leadership.
Flouted the rules I used to keep everyone in line.
Despised the rituals that bound us together.
When he decided that he was too good to undergo the same hazing as everyone else, I targeted his best friend. Luke Hayes broke like a cheap, plastic toy, and I thought that was enough to put Sander in his place.
More fool me.
I let down my guard.
Took my eye off the prize.
Revelled in my victory too soon.
He used my arrogance against me and gathered the perfect amount of dirty laundry to expose me to the only thing that could take down a family like mine.
Public scrutiny.
I wasn’t paying attention back then, so I underestimated my foe.
But I’m paying attention now, and I see Lilianna for what she is.
Payback.
My greatest enemy. His gorgeous sister.
Two birds. One stone. Or better still: two siblings, one well-deserved serving of revenge.
Poor Lilianna Mayberry doesn’t stand a chance against me and my monster…
CRAVING CONTROL ~ ONE
“You had no right, Sander,” the indignant tone that Lilianna is using to berate her twin brother is music to my ears. “We’re almost eighteen. It’s none of your business what I had planned and who I planned to do it with.”
“Stop bein’ so fuckin’ melodramatic,” Sander tells his sister. “I saved you from makin’ an idiot of yourself.”
“Whatever.”
I’ve spent all night tracking the twins and their friends, trying to find the right time to intercept Lilianna without her brother’s interference. For three hours, it’s appeared like I wouldn’t get the opportunity tonight, until the gorgeous blonde received a phone call that made her scowl. After she’d stormed over to Sander and dragged him away from their group, my gut had told me that this was my chance to strike, so I’d beckoned my best friend to follow me.
“Do you know who that girl is?” I ask Hugh when it appears the argument that I’m eavesdropping on is over.
He follows my head tilt, his eyes lighting up a second later.
A chuckle bubbles from the black depths of my soul when I spy the same primal need that invigorates me in his gaze. Born into a world of power, chaos, and sin, we’ve been encouraged to embrace our dark sides for as long as I can remember. We share a seething drive to hurt. To conquer. To possess. To break. It’s the bond that’s tied us together since we first rained down indiscriminate carnage as a pair of unruly ten-year-old’s and got away with it.
If anything, our fathers encouraged our violence… until we made the cardinal mistake of drawing attention to ourselves. What started with us making bets over the speed with which we could make the three Du Bois sisters cry ended with a hefty bribe being paid to the mayor of Inadale and my grandfather being forced to step out of the shadowy underworld he rules to keep us out of prison.
“The pretty blonde?”
I nod, biting back a grin when he lets out a low whistle.
“She’s a fine piece of arse.” Hugh’s interest is piqued, exactly as I wanted. “The first such specimen we’ve seen to make it worth our while dragging our arses down here to mingle with the local peasants.”
