Dulce

20

“What can you tell me about the Eveson brothers?” I ask casually before eating a mouthful of ice cream.

Hunter looks at me, his spoon paused in the air.

“Why do you want to know about those assholes?”

I look at him and cock my brow, but on the inside, a sick feeling takes hold.

“What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

I realize I must not have hidden my expression as well as I thought.

“Oh, not them, Dulce. Dammit!” He gets up and tosses his spoon in the sink, the metal making a loud clinking noise as it bounces.

The door opens before I can answer, revealing a slightly out-of-breath and half-naked Griff. My eyes take in his slick chest and his basketball shorts before drifting lower.

“What’s going on?”

“Ask your girl,” Hunter mutters.

“So I’m just his girl now that you’re pissed. Fuck you. You don’t get to pick and choose when I’m your girl. It’s all or nothing. If you can’t handle what I’m doing or how I’m doing it, then step back now before either of us gets hurt any more than necessary.”

“Hunter.” Griff’s sharp voice makes us both look up.

“You said you were okay with this. What’s going on?”

“Ask her who she is fucking, Griff.”

Hunter leans over the sink, his head bowed, and every rigid muscle in his back is locked. Griff looks at him with a frown before facing me.

“I never lied about what I was going to have to do here. I warned you both how it might play out, and you both still pushed for more. And now, at the first hurdle, you falter?” I snap incredulously.

I stand up, the chair making a screeching noise when I push it back. Griff crowds me, stopping me from moving.

“Calm the fuck down and stop making assumptions. I didn’t say jack shit, and you’re jumping down my throat.”

My shoulders drop and I sigh. He’s right. Hunter is the one who had the problem, not Griff. I got defensive and lashed out, my anger bolstered by my guilt.

“God, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry, just be honest. Tell me what’s going on.”

“I asked Hunter what he knew about the Eveson brothers.”

I wait for him to react the way Hunter did, but instead, he sighs, his eyes drifting to Hunter with a look of sympathy on his face.

“Hunt,” he says softly, walking over to him. He doesn’t touch him, but he stands close, offering him his support.

“Yeah, I know. I should have figured it out. They rule that fucking school, after all, but I try not to think about them. You know that.”

“Dulce isn’t Molly.”

“Good thing, really, or this fucked-up thing between the three of us would have taken an even more bizarre turn.” Hunter shakes his head before turning to look at me.

“You took me by surprise, that’s all.”

“What am I missing? I thought you were jealous or something, but whatever that was, wasn’t that.” I can tell from the look in his eyes. Whatever they did to him hurt him in a way he might never recover from.

I’d had Sugar research each of the guys living with me, some of them having more information than others.

“Do you know who their grandfather is?”

I nod. “Some religious bigwig with his own TV show?”

He smirks at my answer.

“Albert Eveson is a little more than that. He’s one of the richest televangelists in the world. Throw in the fact that he’s also a bestselling author and a radio host of a station that he owns—” Hunter begins, but Griff cuts him off.

“Pretty sure he owns the TV station now too. He is the founder and face of the Eveson International Non-Denominational Church.”

“Catchy name.” I roll my eyes at the mouthful.

“Don’t underestimate him, Dulce. The man has a net worth of a billion dollars,” Griff tells me as he grabs a bottle of water from the fridge.

“Fuck. That’s a lot of money. I’ll admit, I’m not a big believer in higher powers, so I can’t really see the draw. I’m not sure I ever really realized how much money was involved.”

“Well, Eveson is not your regular run-of-the-mill man of faith. Some say it’s a convenient cover for some kind of next-level Ponzi scheme. Others say he runs a cult and admittance means you’re basically asked to sign your soul to the man along with everything you own. It doesn’t hurt that he has dozens of celebrities and politicians who endorse him and claim to follow his views,” Griff finishes before guzzling his bottled water.

I shift my focus back to Hunter, who still looks tense. I walk around the island and stand in front of him.

“All of that doesn’t explain your hatred,” I tell him quietly.

He looks around the room, his jaw tense.

“After my dad died, my mom remarried. I never warmed up to her husband, but he brought a daughter into the relationship. She was two years older than me, ran with the popular crowd, and…” He shakes his head as he thinks back.

“She could have been a bitch to me. My mother was her mom’s replacement, after all, but she wasn’t like that. She was one of those rare people that was as lovely on the inside as she was on the outside.”

There is a sorrowful note to his voice, letting me know I’m not going to like where this is going.

“What happened to her?”

He lifts his eyes to mine once more before answering.

“Cain Eveson happened. They started dating. They fell hard and fast for each other, or at least she did. He got what he wanted from her and tossed her aside for someone else as soon as she put out. She spiraled after that, started drinking and doing drugs. She was still sweet, but she was sad too, you know? Both our parents were too busy living their lives to notice shit wasn’t right at home. I tried to keep my eye on her, but she was determined.”

I walk closer and take his hands in mine, holding them tightly as Griff moves closer to us.

“Something happened. I don’t know what, but whatever it was, pushed her over the edge.”

He coughs and clears his throat before his eyes flash with pain.

“She threw herself off the bluff.”

I swallow hard at his words. Another girl, another death. That place is cursed.

“How do you know it wasn’t an accident? I was told kids go swimming there all the time, like a rite of passage.”

He shakes his head before I’ve even finished.