Page 30 of Relentless (The Titans of Founder's Ridge 2)

“I basically lived at Griff’s with Con. His mom took off to her family estate in Ireland. Packed up Claire in the middle of the night and took off.”

“Oh my gosh,” her eyes widen in surprise, “he must have been freaking out. I don’t know him that well, but he doesn’t seem like the type to be okay with that. He’s close with his sister, right?”

“Yeah, super close. I guess she’s not even living with her mom. She’s at some Catholic boarding school outside Dublin.”

“Why did his mom take off?”

“He thinks his dad had an affair because one of their housekeepers, a young hot one, left right at the same time.”

“Sucks,” she shakes her head.

“Speaking of which, I need a favor.”

Her gray eyes bounce back and forth between mine, and she nods for me to continue.

“Con’s dad hired a new guy to run security for Volkov Industries. The new guy has a daughter our age, Lilith, and she’ll be going to FPA. He’s convinced his dad is going to have an affair with her.”

“Why?”

“Who the fuck knows? It’s Con. He’s spiraling and needs to focus his aggression. I think he’s going to end up hooking up with her though. The sexual tension between them is off the charts, and he’s already possessive. This is why I want you to befriend her. He’s given the order to Margaux to fuck with her and for everyone else to ignore her.”

Ives rolls her eyes. She’s not a fan of Margaux, Leighton, or Darcy, the resident mean girls of FPA.

“You are protected, though, and don’t have to listen to anything we have to say. So it’s actually perfect, and I think you’ll like her. She’s feisty.”

“Why do you care about how she’s treated? You haven’t cared before, except when I was new.”

I nod because it’s true. “This is going to sound weird, but she seems familiar in some bizarre way, like she belongs with us. Maybe it’s because she looks and acts like a girl version of me, I can’t be sure. I just know there’s a part of me that identifies with her and not even in a sexual way. I made a few jokes about banging her to rile up Con yesterday, but there’s nothing there.”

“Interesting,” she narrows her eyes and gives me a pensive look.

Our server drops off our food, so we pause our conversation.

“I’ll do it.” Ives says after taking a bite of her eggs Benedict.

“You’re the best.” I steal a forkful of her food. “I’ll send the information Griff found about her to you.”

“No,” her brows furrow, “that’s not how you form a healthy friendship, Levi. I’ll get to know her on my own.” She shakes her head. “You guys are creepy fucks, you know that?”

“Unapologetically guilty as charged. No plans to stop either.” She would really flip if she knew I installed a tracking app on her phone and in her car last year. I joke about Con being possessive, but I’m over here crazy obsessed with Ivy.

We spend the rest of the day together, going to a movie a few towns over, so we could avoid running into anyone from school. We stop for ice cream afterward, and it hits me that this is the closest to a date I’ve ever been on. I have sex with girls, usually only once, and that’s that. No cuddling, no dates, no promises. It hits me that I’d give Ives any or all those things, a hundred times over if only she’d let down the walls and let me in.

11

IVY

I groanas I hit the snooze on my alarm. Five in the morning is too early, but I need to get a good forty-five minutes of training before school. I grab my phone off the charging pad and see a text from Oliver wishing me a happy first day. I send him a thank you text and make a mental note to remember to send him the same text when his semester starts next week. He’ll be fine though; he’s insanely smart on top of being athletic, funny, and hot as hell.

I pull on one of my practice suits and grab a towel. The house is dark and still. Frank went into the city last night. I don’t know if Mom went with him or not. She won’t be awake for hours, regardless. A blast of humid heat assaults me when I open the door to the backyard. I waste no time jumping into the cool water. I slide my ear pods in, turn on my The Weeknd playlist and start with some easy backstroke laps.

I pull myself out of the pool and find a glass of cold brew made exactly how I like it with extra French vanilla creamer waiting for me beside my towel. I look around to see if Levi is still outside, but he’s gone. I’ll thank him later.

Babs is just turning everything on in the kitchen when I come through.

“Good morning!” she greets me with a hug even though I’m sopping wet. “How was your summer? We missed you around here.”

“Morning!” I squeeze her back. “It was great. Crazy busy and intense with training but so fun.”

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