Perfectly Toxic (Sterling Shore 9)

“Gotta get this,” I tell her before standing and heading toward my room.

“Take your time,” she says to my back.

“You got it taken care of?” I ask instead of doling out a generic hello.

I check to make sure Bella isn’t following me, just in case. Then I close my door.

“Well, hello to you too,” Darren states flatly. “And yes I do. I spoke with the mother first, who got too emotional to continue speaking. The father took over, but he was struggling to speak as well. They couldn’t believe it. They want to thank the man who is giving their son this chance.”

“Absolutely not. This is completely anonymous.”

He sighs hard. “Very well. I’ve taken care of all the paperwork, and they’re willing to sign the waver, promising they can’t sue you if anything goes wrong in the operation. I’ll be cutting them a check from the firm as soon as it’s all squared away. One of my guys is catching a flight tonight to get it all taken care of, and he’ll hand them the check as soon as the paperwork is signed.”

“Sounds perfect. I’ll wire the funds to you. Thanks for getting on this so quickly.”

“How could I not? Let me know if you need anything else, and keep me updated on the boy’s progress.”

“I doubt I’ll be kept updated, since I’m a silent funder on this.”

“Right. Then I’ll call the mother and keep you updated.”

“Thanks for that,” I tell him, then hang up and head back to the living room, where I stumble to an abrupt halt.

Ah hell.

There are some moments in life that just shouldn’t happen, and this is one of them.

Bella is sitting on the couch, smirking in my direction, and right beside her is a girl whose name I should know but can’t remember.

“Ethan!” the girl says, standing as she adjusts her very short skirt.

Mothballs. All I remember about her is that she smells like mothballs.

Bella screws the cap on her bottle of water, sitting silently until I glare at her.

“Sorry,” she says, not sorry at all. “Lynn knocked, so I let her in. Says she lost her panties here, and she came to retrieve them.”

I do remember that we didn’t get her panties off, so that’s bullshit.

Lynn beams at me, then winks. I want to throttle Bella for letting her in, and I want to forget all about the fact I almost had sex with Lynn during my welcome home party that ended with me in the emergency room.

“And I wanted to see how you’re doing,” Lynn interjects, still beaming. “I’ve tried calling, and I tried to find you at your last party, but I never saw you. The guys said you’d taken a girl home. I’ve stopped by a few times, but this is the first time I’ve caught you at home.”

Bella stands just as I start to point out I took Krysta—Ruby’s sister—home, since she shouldn’t have been here in the first place.

“Well, as great as all this is, I really need to be going,” Bella tells me, holding up the bottle of water. “And thanks for the drink. It was… clarifying.”

The humor in her tone is forced, and I mentally check off the ways Lynn has fucked up my entire night.

“Bella, I—”

She holds her hand up. “I don’t need anything from you. It’s your life, and you don’t owe me anything. But the truth would have been nice, considering it’s been… How did you put it? Too long? Guess we have different definitions of too long.”

Cursing, I follow as she heads toward the door with quick steps. My hand slams against the door before she can escape, and her back tenses as I press against her from behind.

“This isn’t what it looks like, and you can at least let me explain before you storm out.”

Drama. I never do fucking drama.