Kept (Castile Family 2)

“Are you two a thing?” I ask.

“MJ, you’re not supposed to ask. It will embarrass them,” Luna gasps, grabbing my arm to pull on it. As if that will push the words back into my mouth.

“She has it coming.” I shrug. Savannah narrows her eyes on me but her mouth twitches as she fights a smile.

“We aren’t a thing.” She waves her hand toward Aaron dismissively.

“Keep telling yourself that, dollface,” Aaron says as he grabs it, kissing her palm. A camera flashes and then another. I turn to see four men and one woman standing there taking our pictures over and over.

“Inside, dollface.” Aaron pulls Savannah toward the two front doors. The men standing in front of them pull them open for us as we follow Aaron and Savannah inside the dark club.

The low bass of music fills my ears. We are guided up a set of steps to a roped-off section that overlooks the main area of the club. My eyes are glued to the cages that hang from the ceiling and sit atop what look like podiums on the floor level. The name that was outside—Cage—now makes more sense.

“This is us,” Savannah says as she heads to sit on the U-shaped lounge seating. On top of the table is a gold sign that says VIP. I bet that’s real fucking gold.

The entire atmosphere here has a laid-back yet posh feel to it. Luna sits directly beside Savannah while I sit on the side. The table already has a bottle of the finest champagne on ice waiting to be popped open.

Aaron leans down and whispers something into Savannah’s ear. She lets out a small gasp, her head jerking toward him. His hand comes to her jaw, where he cups her cheek, stroking his thumb across her bottom lip. Luna and I just sit there and stare at the exchange. This is like reality TV but real life. I wait for her to smack his hand away, but she tilts her head a little into his hold.

After a beat he drops his hand. “Behave, ladies. I’ll be watching.” He still doesn’t look to us as he says the words. I think they are more for Savannah than us.

“What was that?” Luna scoots to the edge of her seat. She is bouncing with excitement.

“Nothing.” Savannah shakes her head, trying to blow it off. She can try all she wants. I know the look on her face. I saw it this morning when I looked in the mirror. She was fucked. At least that’s what I thought when I stared at myself.

“Come on!” Luna pushes. Savannah reaches for the bottle of champagne, easily popping the cork. She pours a glass and hands it to me. She starts to do one for Luna but I shake my head no. She probably shouldn’t be in here, to be honest, but it’s not like we got carded at the door. She’s a touch shy of the drinking age and she already had a Long Island iced tea in the limo.

I love my sister but she has balance issues stone cold sober. I want her to have fun but not suffer the consequences the next day. Besides, her wedding is in a few days so we don’t have any time to waste on hangovers. Luna doesn’t even notice that Savannah doesn’t pour her a glass. She’s more focused on knowing what’s going on with her love life. I am glad her attention is off mine for the moment.

The lights in the club dim while a seductive tone now emanates throughout the space, diverting our attention from Savannah. The cages that once stood empty are now occupied by muscled-out males, each of them wearing nothing but tight black pants. Oh shit is my first thought.

Before I can even get the words out to ask Savannah what kind of club she brought us to, the lights go out. Everything goes silent.

“Seems to be a power outage. Should be back up in a few minutes. Just stay seated,” I hear Aaron yell out to Savannah from where he’s standing.

A minute later the lights flick back on. My eyes go round when I see Maddox and Cullen standing there.

“You turned the power off!” Savannah accuses them, jumping to her feet.

Cullen at least looks a little sheepish about it. Maddox doesn’t give a shit. He merely shrugs. “I got the power turned off and back on to stop the show.” Luna laughs at her fiancé’s antics before she catapults herself across the table. He catches her easily, swinging her up into his arms.

“You ruined my bachelorette party.” She narrows her eyes at him. She’s not fooling anyone. We all know she’s not mad. Still, Maddox doesn’t seem to like the pout on her lips.

“Cullen was going to have the fire marshal shut the whole place down.”