"Honestly, I don’t know."
I felt my own anger rising at his honesty. "What about what happened with Frankie?"
I crossed my arms over my chest and stared at him. I wanted to hear the truth from his lips. I wanted him to look me in the face and be honest about what he did.
"I didn’t rape the girl." His knuckles were white around the remote. "I know what I did was fucking stupid, but I was drunk too. I should have never touched Frankie, but she was the one who was flirting with me. She was the one who wanted it."
My stomach was in my throat as I listened to him. "I heard that she couldn’t even hold her eyes open in the video."
He looked away from me before looking back my way. His face was red and his chest heaved, and I knew I should have walked away then and went to my room. I didn’t need Lucas’s answer. I trusted Frankie far more than anyone I would ever trust in this house, and I knew what he had done to her.
It didn’t matter if he had been drinking or not.
It didn’t matter if he thought that was what she wanted.
Those were nothing but excuses.
They were disgusting excuses that got rich boys out of their consequences.
"It doesn’t matter what you say." I shook my head. "I’ll never forgive you for what you did to her."
He let out a loud laugh that held no humor. "Do you really think I give a shit about your forgiveness?"
I knew that he didn’t. I didn’t even know why I had said it, but I needed him to know. For Frankie’s sake, I needed him to know that I believed what she said and that I hated what he had done to her.
"What exactly do you think is going to happen?" He cocked his head and
watched me, and I fucking hated it. "Do you think that you’re going to go back to the guy who shared a video of you looking like a slut and you’re just going to live happily ever after? He may not have posted it online, but he sent it to me. That’s bad enough. You are out of your mind if you think Dad is going to let that happen."
"Dad," I exaggerated the word, "doesn’t really have a say in what I do or don’t do."
"Doesn’t he?" He leaned back in his bed and rested on his elbows. "Look, Josie, I don’t want to be enemies with you. We’re family now, for God’s sake. But Beck and I will never get along, and Dad will never approve of him."
I didn’t know why he thought I would care about either of those things, but I didn’t. "I don’t…"
He interrupted me before I could finish my thought. "Dad has hated their family before all of this happened. Mr. Clermont thinks he runs this town, but he doesn’t. Dad has more power than he’ll ever have.”
I pushed away from the door and turned the handle.
"I won’t be home this weekend." I looked back at Lucas before I stepped out of his room. "I’m going on a trip with Allie and her family."
He knew I was lying. It was all over his face. We stared at each other, and we both knew that he knew.
"Be careful, Josie." He picked his gaming remote back up and resumed his game. "You’re playing a game that you don’t want to play."
I hated every single one of his words. "Don’t pretend like you care about me, Lucas."
He saluted me even though he was already staring at his TV. "I won’t, but don’t say I didn’t warn you."
CHAPTER NINETEEN
BECK
Josie was pissed at me.
There was no hiding it even if she said that everything was fine.
She had barely spoken to me the entire drive up the coast to the cabin. The cabin was a place my father owned further down the coast, and it took us a couple of hours’ drive to get there. We had initially decided to go to help cheer Frankie up, but I was more than happy to have her and Allie with us.
My parents thought it was only me, Frankie, Olly, and Carson going.
They had even offered to join us, but I had convinced them that Frankie needed this. That Frankie needed to get away from everyone.
It was a shitty thing to do, but pulling the Frankie card had worked. My mom had backed off the moment the words passed my lips.
And I did think Frankie needed this, but I also knew that I wanted this with Josie. Just a weekend away where there was no one there who could interfere with us. Who could fuck it up?
None of her family. None of mine.
No Cami. No Lucas.
I just needed a few damn moments with her where there was nothing but me and her. And now she was pissed off at me.
By the time we pulled up to the cabin that was nestled between the trees, I felt like I was going to go crazy. I put the car in park and climbed out. The girls were already climbing out of the back seat, and I didn’t hesitate as I hooked my finger in the belt loop at Josie’s back and pulled her toward me.
Her back slammed into my chest, and I hummed against her neck as her
hair whipped gently around my face.
"You smell so good."
She moved against me just slightly, but it was enough to make me feel impossibly hard. God, I wanted her.
I always wanted her.
And I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want her so badly because I knew that she wanted me too. That there was nothing between us besides the way we felt about one another. No stupid fucking agendas or hate to fuel us.
Even if she had barely spoken to me.
She turned her head, her lips so damn close to mine. "I need to get my bags."
"I can get them." I ran my nose along her neck, and the sound of her sharp inhale was like fuel to my flame.
"You seem a bit preoccupied. I can get my own bags." She reached back and patted my cheek before pulling away from me with a small smile on her face.
There was no way in hell I was letting her get away that easy. I grabbed her hand in mine before she could get away and tugged her back to me.
"I need to catch up with the girls." She nodded in their direction where they were grabbing their bags from the back of my SUV. Olly and Carson were already inside, no doubt setting up the plethora of alcohol that they brought, but I didn’t care about any of that.
"Go on." I motioned to my sister and Allie. "But don’t get any ideas because you are in my bed tonight."
She tugged her hand away from mine and took a few steps backward before she shrugged her shoulders. "We’ll see."
"No." I shook my head and smiled at her. "This is non-negotiable, Josie.
You are with me."
"I’m not your plus-one, remember?" She turned on her heel while still talking to me. "I already told Frankie that I was sharing a room with her."
They were both out of their damn minds because that wasn’t happening.
She was going to end up in my bed tonight, and no matter how hard she wanted to play this, I knew that was what she wanted too.
It was written all over her face.
But I would let her play this her way for now. I would get to the bottom of whatever reason she was angry with me, even if I had to force it out of her.
I grabbed the bag from her hand and pulled it over my shoulder. She
rolled her eyes but didn’t fight me. She grabbed her smaller bag and purse, and walked up the steps that led to the front door of the house.
The moment we walked in, I knew something was off. Frankie looked pissed, and Allie was nowhere to be seen. I was so damn confused until I spotted Carson on the couch with a leggy brunette who had on barely any clothes.
"You finally made it!" Carson smiled at me and lifted his beer in the air.
"Let the weekend festivities begin."
Frankie rolled her eyes and grabbed Josie’s hand. "Let’s go find Allie."
She didn’t hide an ounce of her irritation. It was written all over her face, and even though I knew it probably bothered Carson, he didn’t even look her way.