Page 75 of Cruel Lies

"So when it’s the pretty waitress flirting, you’re my brother. But when it’s another man trying to pick me up, suddenly you'remy boyfriend, huh?" She leaned in conspiratorially, shooting me a wink. "Sounds like someone’s jealous."

"Don’t fool yourself, Harper. I’m just being cautious. Don’t want any stray Tomcats following us back to where we came from. Not good for business, you see."

"Sure, sure," she muttered, waving me off as our waitress wandered over with the food and shakes. "Oh my god, this smells amazing." She beamed up at the other girl as soon as the hot plate was in her hands and shot her a wink when she passed off the shake, their hands touching briefly. "You know, mybrotherhere is celebrating his first anniversary with his boyfriend back home. But I bat for both teams, if you know what I mean." Another wink, and I could barely avoid choking on my sip of shake as the waitress blushed profusely, set down my food, and hurried off.

"You’re a bitch," I mumbled as I shoved a fry in my mouth and rolled my eyes, amused despite myself and trying desperately to hide it from her. "You just had to have the last laugh, huh?"

She leaned back in her seat, cradling that shake with her tongue making little swirls around the tip of it as she smiled at me, and fuck all, but there went my cock again, twitching at the idea of replacing her straw for a split second.

Her comment on the bridge flashed through my mind again, unbidden and unwelcome.

Should I drop to my knees and suck your dick?

Fuck, yes. Please, do. Maybe then I can get you out of my mind, bitch.

"Wouldn’t want any straypussyfollowing us back to the hideout, now would we?"

She never hesitated to use my own words against me, and fuck if it wasn’t sexy as sin to feel the jealousy emanating from her. I was sure of it. It wasn’t my imagination. I’d seen her likethis several times before, over boys she’d dated in high school, or when she caught her best friend with Rowan.

Oh, man, I’d almost forgotten about that.

Rowan hated her friend. The girl was a two-timing, backstabbing bitch whose only concern was using Harper to get to my brother and his dick. Rowan knew that and yet still stuck his dick in it, if only to get back at Harper when she came home with that rich boy for a boyfriend.

The one we all hated.

All he wanted was to say he’d gotten the best of a Blackwood. And since none of us were interested in giving him the time of day, he turned his attention to our sister to piss us off.

And it worked.

When he broke her heart, we broke his face. Or rather, Nash did when he caught him red-handed after football practice one day.

Rowan warned him never to speak to Harper again. And the whore he’d been making out with suspiciously changed schools the next day.

Had nothing to do with the fact that our father was a benefactor for the ritzy private school he sent us to. Nor did it have anything to do with the envelope of money I’d slipped him to grease the wheels and change all the asshole’s classes so that he had to look at one of us for every period.

We weren’t obsessed. We wereprotective.Harper was our sister.

And at some point, she became . . .something more.

"Strays ofanykind are bad for the image, brat."

She waved me off with a smile over the lip of her shake. "Right, right, right. You got it, boss." Her smile widened, and she got that glint in her eyes that warned of mayhem and mischief ahead. With her, there was never a dull moment. "Just wait, though. Payback’s a bitch."

THIRTY-TWO

HARPER

Okay,so maybe I was overdoing the whole payback thing. But Angel had been aloof and acting like a prick the entire day, and I was dead set on getting him back for it.

I just hadn’t expected such a perfect opportunity to present itself so soon.

When we pulled into the parking garage of the asylum, I had no sooner un-straddled the bike and slipped off the helmet than none other than that asshole who caused Nash grief my first night here wandered around the corner, two other guys with masks dangling from their hands in tow.

Angel growled like a fucking dog under his breath, and I almost burst out in uncontrollable laughter. The way these men acted toward one another, you’d think someone ran over someone else’s dog or something.

"Ayyyye, if it isn’t Pretty Boy. And you brought the resident plaything with you, too." Jackal shot me a wink, and I rolled my eyes in return. Suddenly, an idea struck, and my lips curled in a smirk that would have made Nash proud.

Time to play, fucker.

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