Ruthless Love (Ash and Innocence 1)

“So what do you guys normally do when you hang out like this? Card games and what else?”

“Depends,” Tristan said. “Logan will probably end up hooking up with one of the girls. Cassian, too. Gage might, or he might disappear unexpectedly. You never know with him.”

“I noticed Haisley is here. Are you two a thing again?”

Tristan leaned back, grinning as he took a sip of his beer. “Interesting.”

“What is?” I asked, blushing. I knew exactly what he was talking about, and I hated that he’d seen through my question so easily.

“Only two reasons a girl will try to find out your relationship status. Either she’s nosy, or she’s into you. And Kennedy Stills, you’re not nosy.”

I took a long drink of the beer in my hand to buy time. “I’m actually a super curious person.” It felt like my words were spilling out faster than I could keep up with. “That night I fell in the bushes outside your house. I was so curious I wheeled myself all the way out here. And that morning I heard the voices, I—” I cleared my throat, then winced a little.

“Yeah, you snuck out to listen in. I knew you did.”

“Listen, I never—”

“Tristan,” Haisley said. She let herself into the kitchen where we were sitting. It was hard not to like her. She was pretty, with wavy blonde hair that made me think of famous country singers. She had dimples in her cheeks and this soft, kind of raspy voice. She was probably every guy’s dream, and apparently, she had been Tristan’s at some point. “Can we talk?”

“Not a good time,” Tristan said.

I didn’t expect a little surge of jealous satisfaction when he shut her down. But it made me feel guilty, so I fought my instinct and spoke up. “Talk to her, Tristan. I’ve got to use the restroom, anyway.”

He shot me a glare, then scooped up his beer. “Five minutes,” he said. “And I expect to find you right where I’m leaving you.”

I gave him a mock salute. Once he was gone, I dumped the remains of my beer in the sink. I didn’t want to look like a wuss, but I really didn’t want to get drunk in a situation like this, either. I grabbed the countertop and started slinging myself across the tiled floor in the office chair. It was kind of fun, and I was making pretty good progress until Cassian stepped in front of me.

“Hey,” he said.

It was pathetic, but I had to resist the urge to scream for help. Instead, I made myself stare right up at him. I didn’t want him to see that he scared me.

“Do you need something?”

“Here,” Cassian said. He fished out a stack of hundred-dollar bills from his pocket and extended it toward me.

“What’s this?”

“It’s for that camera.”

I waited for him to say more, but he just tried to set the money in my lap. I pushed myself back. “I don’t want your money. Tristan already got me a new camera.” Granted, he might have stolen the thing, but it still counted.

“Take the fucking money.”

“I don’t want your money. Apology not accepted, if that’s what this is supposed to be.” I tried to move past him.

Cassian threw the money at me, making it explode in a flurry of bills.

I brushed it off my lap and pushed myself to the bathroom, ignoring how silly I probably looked in the office chair.

When I got back to the kitchen, Tristan was just coming back in from outside.

“How did that go?” I asked, trying to sound casual.

Tristan was looking at me strange. He reached toward my chest. I was about to slap at his hand, but then he plucked a hundred-dollar bill from my shirt that I hadn’t noticed. “Saving this for later?”

I sighed, then explained what had happened with Cassian.

For once, the fact that Cassian had talked to me didn’t seem to send Tristan into a flying rage. He just cracked open two more beers and handed me one. “You really do bring out a different side of people, don’t you?”

“If you mean a tendency toward spiteful, hateful things? Yes. It seems like I do.”

Tristan tilted his head back and chugged the last of his drink, setting the bottle down with a clink. “Nah. Definitely not what I meant. C’mon, though. Let’s go play saucy suits.”

“No way.” I wasn’t sure if it was just the alcohol in my system, but part of me was a little tempted by the idea. Except the risk of getting paired up with Gage or Cassian was too much. Oddly, even the thought of matching with Logan didn’t feel right—like he was more of a brotherly figure. That could’ve been the fact that he was such a man-whore I couldn’t ever imagine him settling down to be someone’s boyfriend.

Or maybe Tristan’s dark spell was just falling over me.