Chapter One
~ Mars ~
Taking a deep breath, I looked around the construction at The Wellston, the condo complex being built and managed by my closest friend, Barrett Wellston. Anticipation swelled through me like the rolling waves on Lake Michigan, the water that these homes would overlook when the building was completed.
Soon.
“How long until move in?” I asked, following Trevor Grant and Bare through the lower floor. Trevor, the project manager, had been pointing out progress on the main rooms and the condos on the lowest levels.
“I’m estimating the middle to end of August. Barrett’s paying us to work ‘round the clock to get things done sooner rather than later. Everything’s moving along fast since he approved extra crew and shifts. We’ll still be doing work on other floors, but the access for the initial four units and the top two floors where they’re located will be done, as will all the structural work to make it safe. You know, all the crap the inspectors insist on before giving certificate of occupancy.”
He chuckled to himself, while I grimaced out a smile.
Everything was right on schedule but still not moving fast enough for me. I couldn’t wait to have my home here. I couldn’t wait for us all to move in. My closest friends—Bare, Flip and Ian—had all bought in to the condos, just as I had. Barrett’s fiancée Petra and Ian’s wife Willa would be moving in, too. It would be one big party again. Sort of.
We used to hang out here and have unsupervised parties every Friday night when the place was just an abandoned warehouse. Then in the spring, Bare had illusions of grandeur and bought the place from my dad. Ever the entrepreneur, Bare had wanted the building so he could develop it into condos. He also housed his custom-build and motorcycle repair here.
“You in a rush?” Bare teased me.
He had no idea. No one did, except a few people who worked at my parents’ home. Of course, all employees signed NDAs when they started, so no one was talking about any of the drama that occurred at the Kennedy mansion.
Thing was, the Kennedys were envied and admired. No one outside the house knew the hell of living within the gilded walls of the biggest mansion on Mansion Hill. They’d never guess the strength needed to get by or the rule to never let the problems show.
It was one thing to be strong enough to endure. It was quite another to be strong enough to save yourself. And that was what I was doing. Saving myself. I wanted to get my father out of there, too.
My thoughts drifted to a particular honey blonde maid who’d worked for my family for just over four years now. I’d been fourteen, almost fifteen, when she came to work for us. It had changed me. Changed my outlook and the path I’d been fucking my way down. Yeah. I’d been sexually active and very experienced at fourteen. I’d had my reasons, but no one needed to know them. Then I saw the pretty new maid, and suddenly, no female existed but her.
Of course, she wouldn’t give me the time of day, let alone let me save her. Fast forward to now, and she was twenty-eight to my eighteen and didn’t consider me to be a serious option.
Before I moved out, I’d get her to see my way of thinking.
After finishing the tour with Trevor, that included a walk-through of my nearly finished four-bedroom condo, I headed out to my BMW. I was about to climb into the S8 when Bare caught up with me.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Yeah, of course,” I hedged. Turning, I leaned against my car with my arms crossed. “Why would you ask?”
Did I have some tell that was cluing him in? God knew I couldn’t allow that. In my family, any weakness could be deadly.
He mirrored my move, leaning next to me while we talked, both of us staring at the building as if we were discussing the construction.
“Just…you’ve been quiet since the wedding last weekend.”
Oh…the wedding. I’d had a great time until the end when the looming dread of going home had seeped in. If it wasn’t that I would be moving into the condo soon, I would have just gotten an apartment the day I’d graduated high school from Wellston Academy.
Yeah, the Wellstons owned a shit-ton of this little town, Wellston Academy, a bunch of businesses and this place—although the condo complex was one-hundred percent Barrett’s with his dad having no part in it. Our friends, Flip and Ian, came from a family that also owned a huge chunk of the town, as well as chains of coffee shops and stores around the country. In addition to that, their dad bought up real estate as if it was his hobby, collecting properties like a Monopoly champion.
Then there was my dad. He was the owner and CEO of Kennedy Equipment, the biggest competitor to that other company known for their trademark green-colored equipment.
All of us guys would eventually move into leadership roles at the respective companies, but until then, we were all trying to make our own ways and carve out futures under our own terms.
“I’m fine. Just had a lot on my mind, plus Ian getting married? You’re engaged and trying to get Petra to marry you as soon as you can talk her into it? And then that asshole Flip showing up with his super pregnant girlfriend and blowing all our minds? I’m the odd man out, ya know? I couldn’t get out of my head.”
He bumped my shoulder with his. “You’re not the odd man out, asshole. Just because we have girls and you’re still a virgin monk, doesn’t mean anything.”
I snorted. Yeah, the guy I told everything didn’t know about that part of my past. Hell, my friends would probably kick my ass if they knew the things I’d kept from them, just like we’d all wanted to kick Ian’s ass just a few weeks ago when we found out the drama he’d been living through.
“Okay…yeah…well, I need to get home. I’m supposed to ‘meet with’ my dad.” I made air quotes. “We all know how that is.” It wasn’t actually true. Sometimes, I felt like such a fucking liar. Then again, there were huge swaths of my life that gave me no choice.