Page 170 of Hate to Love You

“Trevor,” I say as I open the backseat door. “Stay behind and keep an eye on my little fox. I don’t want her slipping off into the woods or anything.”

“Yes, Boss,” he nods.

My phone buzzes in my pocket.

Lev

12:21pm: Hello???

Jesus Christ. How bad could it be?

But as Cal pulls away from the curb and I call my brother, I have no idea I’m about to learn exactly how bad.

“They did what?!” I thunder at him.

“They…got drunk, and…and…went down to the…dunes,” Lev says, panting heavily.

“Are they still at the dunes?!” I say, my eyes registering with Cal’s in the rearview mirror, silently instructing him to head in the direction of Long Island.

“Y…yes…” Lev replies. “Aw, fuck! My ankle!”

“What?” I ask, confused. “What’s going on Lev? Why are you so out of breath?”

“Because,” he continues, gasping for air. “I’ve been trying to keep up with them. They just took off running across dunes talking about playing a game.”

“What game? What the hell?”

“I don’t fucking know, Roman!” Lev thunders back at me. “It all happened so quickly that I didn’t catch the details!”

I sigh, closing my eyes and pinching them together.

Today is the day that I’m going to murder my little brother.

Of all the days he decides to be an idiot, he picks today.

I can’t believe he would pull this shit, when I specifically instructed him not to embarrass me in front of Pace’s representative.

“Seriously, what is wrong with this kid,” Lev pants. “And how the fuck is he so fast? Why are they both so fast?”

“Lev, they are grown adults,” I say, rolling my eyes. “More or less anyway. If they want to—”

“They have guns, Roman!” He shouts into the phone.

“What?!” I roar. “Why would they do that? And who gave them guns? What the fuck is going on there Lev?!”

“Everything was going good until Pasha invited Wesley to test out the guns,” Lev says defensively. “Then they got drunk.”

“How much did they have to drink?”

“It’s not how much they had, Roman, it’s what they had,” Lev snaps irritably. “Tatum brought a bottle of absinthe and-–”

“You let Pasha do absinthe?!” I thunder at him, feeling the car accelerate as Cal steps on the gas.

“Hey, I didn’t let him do anything!” Lev yells back at me. “As you said, he’s a grown adult and—”

“He’s a not an adult, he’s fucking moron!”

“Oh shit,” I suddenly hear my brother say. “Oh fuck, oh fuck!”