Criminal(2)

We don’t even have a big chain store, not for an hour-long drive.

But today, there’s something new.

The bar Kaiden is always at is looking for a shot-girl.

Let me be clear. I don’t want to work at that dive. I don’t want to be surrounded by the people he’s surrounded by, and I certainly don’t want to see my step-brother picking up chicks.

But I click it anyways, pushing aside my toast as I lean in.

Shot Girl Wanted!!!

Great tips, hourly wage $10. Must provide own uniform & be able to stand on feet for 10 hours. Call Ryder for more info.

I jot down the number just as Kaiden rises from his hibernation. He instantly snatches my laptop like he owns it, looking at the screen.

“Fuck off, Kaiden!” I spit out as I grab for it back. Not like it’s going to do any good. Kaiden is six-foot-five and two-hundred-fifty pounds of muscle, easy.

I can’t deny that I can see what other women see in him. The appeal of that kind of guy.

The one with muscles and pierced nipples, and who, for some horrible reason, decides to go around shirtless all the time around his house.

His house, his rules. That’s his motto.

I just wish his body didn’t drive me crazy.

“Hah, little Abigail a shot-girl? Yeah right,” he says as he carelessly tosses the laptop back on the table, setting my tea to shaking. I reach out and grab it, glaring at him.

“Whatever, I could totally do it.”

Besides, I need to if I’m ever going to earn enough money to find my own place. I need enough for a damage deposit and first and last rent, at least, and Kaiden has the nerve to charge me rent as well. Says I owe him, now.

As if he weren’t the reason I was in this mess in the first place.

“Whatever, Princess,” he says with a roll of his green eyes. He leans against the countertop, hands pressed into it and making his biceps bulge, his brown hair tousled and messy. Every time he speaks, I’m thrown by the little hint of his tongue piercing, which, as far as I know, he never uses on those girls.

And if anyone would know, it would be me. After all, I can hear everything in his room. It sets my stomach to turning.

Just as I’m about to bite something back at him that would have been totally cutting, Samantha stumbles from his room, wearing nothing but his t-shirt that ends not even halfway past her ass.

“Damn it,” I curse under my breath, grabbing my toast and stuffing the corner in my mouth as I take my laptop and tea into my hands.

By that time, Samantha’s hand is already on his chest, possessively, and she’s glaring at me with her dark eyes. Her red hair is wild and frizzy, her nose ring glinting in the mid-day sun.

“Who’s she?” she spits out, sizing me up.

I’m everything she isn’t. My eyes are bright blue, and my blonde hair is stick-straight and neatly clipped back. Plus, I’m wearing a dressy blouse and a skirt. I’m not joking around about needing a job, and I believe in dressing the part.

“My sister,” Kaiden says, his lips permanently crooked in a smirk.

“Step-sister,” I retort quickly. I don’t want anyone to think we’d come from the same stock.

“Oh. Hi.” Samantha looks at Kaiden as if expecting he’d say more. Maybe make her some coffee.

But his eyes are on me, that smirk of his is never fading as his newest fling felt him up, and I wonder if he gets off on torturing me. Knowing I can hear him and that I can’t sleep because of his sexual antics.

“Whatever, you don’t have to be nice to me. Kaiden’ll never have you back.”

Her eyes narrow at me.

“What the fuck did you say to me?”

I roll my eyes. I’m just as bad as Kaiden with that. Maybe growing up together did rub off on me a little, though I hate to admit we’re anything alike.

“I said he’s a pump-it and dump-it kinda guy. But since you were faking it last night, that won’t be a problem, right?”

I’m pushing it, and I know it. I give Kaiden a glance before I shut my bedroom door, but I swear, he looks impressed.

And then all I can hear is Samantha screaming at him about how he used her.

I’ll have to wait to call Ryder about the shot-girl position, but knowing the crowd he runs with, he probably isn’t up yet anyway.

***

“We’ll need to see you in person.”

I nod, even though I’m on the phone. It’s so embarrassing to do that, but I’m gratefully alone. After Kaiden had given Samantha his standard, ‘It was nice but that’s all it was,’ speech, he’d taken off as well, and I’m finally alone to savor the quiet. At least there’s that in this small town. Quiet.

When my step-brother isn’t fucking any random woman he meets inches from my head.