Using more force than was necessary, I shoved open the door leading out to the pool, feeling a brief moment of relief when the crowd was gone. I reckoned I owed the boys for that one. It had been ten years since we had graduated high school, but the legacy never seemed to fade. Even this new generation held on to the stories. Hell, it had been at least six years since one of us had been arrested. We had been hotheaded and stupid back then. Age had taught us that to be successful in our world, you had to be smart. Not stupid. Keeping cops as friends was the first thing I’d learned. Of course, I knew it wasn’t our past that struck fear in them. There were also the whispers, things they would never say in public, truths they all hoped were lies.

  “You find him?” Levi called out from a lounge chair with a topless red head draped over his chest.

  “Yeah,” I replied, heading straight for the bar.

  The bartender was already pouring up my choice of bourbon when I stopped in front of him. He’d been working parties out here since I had been in school. I nodded my thanks, then took the glass and turned back to scan the place and see who hadn’t fled.

  “Fuck this shit. It’s too damn hot,” Huck said, tossing his brown cowboy hat toward an empty lounge chair and then jerking his shirt off. “Stand up, baby, and let me get these jeans off. Then, you can ride my cock like a good girl.”

  The blonde stood up and began taking off her bikini bottoms. Leave it to them to clear the place out but keep some barely legal pussy around to fuck.

  “We have bedrooms, you know.” My younger brother sounded annoyed, and I glanced back at him and smirked.

  He was pissed his party had been cut short. I started to say something when I shifted my gaze from him to the blonde he’d been with earlier. The one who had arrived with Sax.

  Madeline.

  Her eyes met mine, and like earlier, the blue color that stared back at me was fucking insane. Especially under the sunlight. Unable to help myself, I did a quick take of her body in that hot-pink bikini. She hadn’t gone topless, but I wasn’t surprised. I swallowed hard, then took a long drink from my glass. A body like that didn’t belong on a nineteen-year-old.

  Holy fuck. Sax and Trev were gonna end up beating the hell out of each other over her. It would be a complete waste of Trev’s time and energy. They didn’t know who she was. Not really.

  I did.

  A splash and a loud female squeal drew my attention to the other side of the pool. The squeal had come from the youngest Delamore girl. I’d gone to school with her sister, Heidi—or was it Hannah? I couldn’t remember. Didn’t matter. Sax was making a mistake with that one. Those girls had been raised to do nothing but look pretty and marry well. That one would be no different. She might be acting silly and batting her eyelashes at Gage, who had jumped in the pool naked, but her arm was firmly locked around Saxon.

  Saxon’s focus, however, was not on her. He was watching Madeline.

  “You gonna wait around until the old man gets home?” Gage asked as he got back out of the pool, wrapped a towel around his waist and walked towards the bar.

  “He made sure I didn’t have a fucking choice,” I replied. The annoyance clear in my tone.

  “At least we cleared the place out for you,” he said. “Well, except for the ones with the biggest tits and the one with Trev. Speaking of which, your brother is my hero. Have you gotten a look at the blonde he’s with?”

  I gave a singular nod, then took a drink. They’d know soon enough. I didn’t want to discuss it, especially here. With her so close.

  “She’s not like the others. She’s seen shit. It’s in her eyes,” Gage said.

  “Her eyes?” I asked him, knowing what it was he saw.

  Madeline’s life had been a fucking shit show. Leave it to Gage to notice she was different.

  “She’s not some spoiled brat. There is a maturity there,” he said.

  I cut my eyes at him. “You’ve been deployed too long,” I drawled, although he was closer to the truth than I was comfortable with.

  She was tough. She had never had a choice to be anything else.

  Gage grinned. “If you mean I need to get laid, you’re right.” He reached over and squeezed the right tit of the girl that had come over to hang onto his arm. “You ready to suck my dick, sugar?” he asked her.

  “Probably want to find someone who can legally drink,” I tell him.

  “This mouth looks sweet enough,” he said, rubbing a thumb over her bottom lip. “I bet you can suck real nice.”

  I knew he’d have her bent over a chair soon enough, fucking her from behind.

  I glanced over as Trev leaned in close to Madeline. He was saying something to her, and then they turned to walk to the pool house. The backside view was as good as the front.

  Gage released a low whistle, and I didn’t have to look at him to know he was watching her walk away too.

  “Damn,” he said.

  Yeah. Damn.

  “I swear to God, I am living vicariously through Trev right now, and I never thought that would happen,” he added.

  I took another long drink to keep from saying anything more.

  “Now, baby, don’t be like that. Your hot little mouth is gonna make me forget every woman but you. I swear it.”

  I glanced over at Sax to see he was sitting up now, completely ignoring his girlfriend while watching my brother and Madeline go to the pool house.

  Three … two … one …

  And he was standing up. Yep, this shit was not going to end well for the girlfriend. He was following them now, and the Delamore girl called out his name, but he ignored it.

  “My money’s on Sax,” Huck called out.

  Shaking my head, I took another drink. Although, where Madeline was concerned, I agreed. She would see right through my brother.

  As far as fighting went, Trev was a pretty boy who was fucking spoiled, but he was a Houston. Sax knew that, and he knew what it meant. There wouldn’t be a fight between them. The guys knew that as much as I did.

  The Delamore girl stood up and glared after Saxon before flipping her hair over her shoulder and going for the entrance to the house.

  “Ah, leaving so soon?” Huck asked her.

  She paused and looked at him like she might move on to him. But she didn’t. I respected that.

  The red head now riding Levi was moaning as he grabbed her waist and lifted her up and down on his cock.

  “Oh God!” she cried out loudly.

  Her tits bounced, and I enjoyed the view while I took another drink.

  “Suck it, baby,” Gage groaned from behind me. “That’s it. Just like that. I’ll shoot my load in that little mouth, then fuck you until you can’t walk.”

  His breathing got heavier, and I could hear her gag. The sound made my dick harden.

  The pool house door opened back up, and Madeline came walking out with the sundress she’d arrived in and both boys beside her. She’d let her hair down, and it hung over her right shoulder. Although she couldn’t be more than five-six, she had fucking legs for days.

  I watched her face when she saw the several sex acts going on around me. When her eyes met mine, I tipped my hat at her and smirked. The shock on her face as her eyes swung to the girl screaming out Levi’s name made my dick throb.

  Six

  Madeline

  They were legends in this town—or at least, that was the way Trev had explained it to me. Not because they had won anything or been some sort of sports stars, but because they had broken laws.

  Gage had gone into the Marines because his father had forced him to, not by choice. Levi had been in prison for two years for grand theft auto. Huck had left home at seventeen and now owned a repair shop for motorcycles. And Blaise was their leader. He’d been arrested and let go several times for different things. His father had always gotten him out of trouble.

  Trev told me all that, then warned me to stay clear of them. They might have gotten older, but that only meant that they’d gotten better at covering things up.

  When I had asked what things, he had frowned, then shaken his head and told me, “Just stuff.”

  As I took in the scene around me, I wondered if underage porn had been involved in those crimes. I decided that I didn’t want to know any more. The way he’d said “just things” sounded dark. As if he wished didn’t know. From the looks of it, they didn’t seem to follow any kind of rules.

  With Saxon and Trev on either side of me, I felt as if there were some barrier between me and the scene taking place. I was ready to get away from this here. Watching people have sex and listening to what the guys were saying while doing it made me feel strange. I knew my face was red, and I tried to keep my gaze on the ground so no one would notice my glowing cheeks.

  “Let’s go home,” Saxon said to me.

  I nodded with a quick glance up at him. He looked relieved to be leaving too. Hopefully this was more than he cared to witness.

  “Leaving so soon?” Blaise asked.

  I didn’t want to look at him. He made me nervous. It was just hard not to look at him. There was a powerful energy around him that drew you in. That, and his eyes. Even if there was nothing friendly in their depths.

  “Since you crashed my party and turned the place into a free sex show, yeah, they are,” Trev replied.

  Blaise didn’t even acknowledge his brother’s response.

  “Sax,” he called out instead, and Saxon turned to look at him.

  “Yeah?” he replied.

  “If you hear anything about Empire, let me know,” he told him. It sounded like a demand more than a request.

  Saxon nodded. “Will do.”

  “Dad’s just making a point,” Trev whispered—so that Blaise couldn’t hear him, was my guess. “Reminding him that he does have some power over him.”

  Saxon glanced at Trev as we reached the door to the house.

  “I don’t want to get in the middle of any war between Garrett Hughes and Blaise. If I hear anything, I’m telling you, and leave me out of it,” Saxon said to Trev.

  Trev just nodded once, like he understood. His expression more serious than the carefree grin he seemed to always flash. Maybe Blaise and their father had some bad blood between them.

  Neither of them said anything as we walked back through the house to the front doors.

  “I’ll see you later,” Sax told Trev, then opened the door and looked at me. “Let’s go.”

  “Later, Maddy,” Trev said to me, and when I met his eyes, he grinned. The serious expression had faded.

  “Thanks for including me today,” I told him, feeling like I should say something.

  He chuckled. “Yeah, glad you got to experience all this.” Then, he leaned closer to me. “You are welcome here. Anytime. It’s not always like this.”

  “Good to know,” I replied and hurried after Saxon, my face feeling warm. I didn’t want to think about all I had seen outside.

  When I reached the truck, Saxon was looking down at his phone. He lifted his gaze to mine and then walked over to the passenger door and opened it for me.

  “Thanks,” I told him awkwardly, then climbed inside.

  No one had ever opened my car door for me before. Not even Saxon when we had gotten in the truck to come over here. Was he doing it for Trev’s sake?

  Saxon walked around the front of the truck and climbed inside. When he closed his door, he turned to look at me and sighed. “And that’s the Hughes family,” he said. “Wealthy, powerful, arrogant, and sometimes terrifying.”

  I frowned. “Isn’t Trev your best friend?”

  “Yep,” he replied, then started the truck. His gaze shifted to the house in front of us and Trev walking up the stairs. “He has been since preschool. First time Dad took me to the track, we sat in the Hugheses’ box. Garrett had bought a racehorse, but he was green and needed a lot of work, so Garrett asked Dad to work with him.

  Dad is a horse whisperer. He can turn any horse around. Anyway, we were there in their box to see the horse Dad had turned into a potential champion. That’s my first memory of Trev. The following year, we started preschool together. We’ve been tight since then.”

  I found myself wanting to hear more of their story. I couldn’t imagine having a friend for that many years.

  “Did the horse win?” I asked him.

  The corner of his mouth curled up. “Won the triple crown twice before it retired. The day I met Trev was his first victory. Goliath proved true to his name.”

  “Where is he now?”

  “He’s living the posh life as an old man in the Hugheses’ stables,” Saxon replied.

  I smiled, happy to hear he was still alive. I might not be sure about my feelings toward horses just yet, but I was warming up to them. The one I’d met today was lovable. Perhaps I had a little of my mother in me. A part of her I hadn’t known existed.

  “Sorry if today was a bit much,” he said to me, changing the subject. “That crowd is a lot. Then, add Blaise and his crew …” Saxon shook his head. “I hadn’t expected them to show up. Blaise doesn’t come around much. He keeps Empire there, and he does own a percentage of Hughes Farm. Just not a controlling percentage. Anyway, I wouldn’t have taken you or gone myself if I’d known all that was going to happen.”

  He had tried to help me fit in and make friends. There was no reason for him to apologize for something that he’d had nothing to do with. I found it sweet that he had though.

  “I appreciate you taking me. You didn’t have to,” I replied.

  He smirked then. “You say that, but you don’t know Trev. If I hadn’t taken you, he’d have come and gotten you himself.”

  I didn’t ask him why. I didn’t need to. Guys like Trev loved girls, and they especially loved a challenge.

  Seven

  Dinner wasn’t the event I’d feared. Melanie called as soon as we returned to the house to tell us that Kenneth would be staying in Lexington overnight and that she would be having dinner at the club with friends. I knew a family dinner would come for me eventually, but after today, I was relieved it wasn’t tonight.

  My family hadn’t done dinner together. Dad would eat in front of the television, and so would Cole. I typically made a meal for them from what food we had and then cleaned up the kitchen while they ate. That had been my normal. Not living in a house with someone who cooked for the family and served them in a fancy dining room.

  After standing in my closet for over ten minutes, staring at the clothes and wishing my cutoff sweatpants and faded Texas A&M T-shirt were in there, I finally chose a pair of white shorts and a black tank top. It seemed like the most casual pieces of clothing I had been given. My other clothes had gone missing. I didn’t have to ask to know Melanie hadn’t approved of them. They had been secondhand clothes, but they were mine.

  A knock on my bedroom door brought me out of my thoughts on clothing, and I walked over to see what Saxon wanted. It had to be him. We were the only ones home.

  He smiled when I opened the door. I liked his smile, but then again, he also had dimples. That was hard not to like.

  “Hungry?” he asked.

  I was indeed hungry, but I didn’t want to leave this house again today. I paused for a moment before replying, “Yes,” almost cautiously.

  “Good. I ordered pizza. I wasn’t sure what kind you liked, so I ordered a cheese, pepperoni, barbecue chicken, and veggie. Jo was going to fix us something before she left, but I told her we wanted pizza.”

  All of those pizzas sounded good.

  “I like them all,” I told him.

  He beamed at me, as if I’d said something brilliant. “Perfect.”

  A chime went through the house, startling me before I realized it was the doorbell.

  “It’s here,” he said. “Let’s eat.”

  He started down the hallway toward the staircase, and I followed behind him. My stomach growled, and I was suddenly ravenous.

  I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had pizza. Well, this kind of pizza. I used to make bread pizzas at home. Expired white bread was cheap, as were dented cans of tomato sauce. When we’d had enough grocery money to splurge on cheese, I would make us pizzas on slices of bread. Cole loved them. If we could afford pepperoni, then Cole was thrilled. That was rare though. Every dollar had counted in our house.

  “Declan, I didn’t know you were coming over,” I heard Saxon say, and I paused.

  I wasn’t sure if I should keep going down the stairs or turn around and go back to my room. Seeing Declan again did not sound appealing. But the thought of pizza made my stomach rumble, and I decided I was hungry enough to deal with it.

  When I reached the bottom step, Declan glanced over at me, then back to Saxon, as if I weren’t even standing there.

  “I thought we could watch a movie. Today was a bust, but tonight doesn’t have to be,” she told him, stepping inside and pressing closer to Saxon.

  “Uh, well, I guess,” he replied, then looked back at me. “Want to watch a movie, Maddy?” he asked me.

  I knew that Declan hadn’t meant me when she suggested “we” watch a movie.

  Not wanting to make an enemy since it was obvious I would be seeing a lot of Declan, I shook my head. “Oh, no, that should just be the two of you. I can get my pizza and go to my room and read.” Which was exactly what I wanted to do.

  A pleased smile spread across Declan’s full lips, and I was glad I’d made her happy. I didn’t see us being friends, but as long as she knew I wasn’t after her boyfriend, I figured we could exist peacefully.

  “Did y’all order pizza?” she asked, looking back up at Saxon.

  He nodded, but he was frowning at me. “You don’t have to stay up in your room, alone.”