Cruel Legacy (Cruel 3)

“Having issues sitting?” I asked with a shake of my head.

What exactly had she and Camden done during their month in the Maldives?

Lewis snickered.

“I’m fine,” she bit out.

But my eyes were trained on Lewis. Anger flared in my blood.

“Have something to say?” Lewis asked. He grinned like a fool and leaned back on the couch as if he didn’t have a care in the world. He was enjoying this. Enjoying my anger.

“We’ll see,” I said, masking my irritation behind a blank expression. He’d know it for what it was, but I hardly even cared at this point.

“Look,” Lark began, “I don’t like calling a meeting, but our crew has been shit for the last year. And I’m tired of feeling like I’m choosing sides whenever I hang out with any of you. Can we get everything out in the open and learn to move on?”

Everyone was silent at Lark’s admission. Because none of us wanted to say no to her. We all hated it. She was the conciliatory member. The one who always brought us back together, who always managed to mediate our bullshit. But even Lark couldn’t do it this time.

“We’ve been through worse than this,” Lark continued with a note of disgust in her voice. “Don’t you all remember junior year when Hanna left? That was our lowest low. If we can get over her committing suicide, then don’t you think we can stick it out through this? I knew this bet was a bad idea. I tried to tell you. And now, look at us.”

“It’s not the bet,” Katherine said. “It’s Natalie. If these idiots can agree to stop fighting over her, then we’ll probably be fine.”

“Natalie is not the issue,” I said at the same time Lewis said, “That’s not happening.”

“I like Natalie,” Lark said with a sigh. “She’s a sweet girl, and the bet was cruel. But I think the real issue is that we took the damn bet too fucking far again. Again. So can you stop fighting for a minute to get us back together?”

“We’re not The Beatles, Larkin dear,” Katherine said, swirling her martini. “We’ll be fine. Plus, after I crushed little Natalie, she’s not going to be a further problem.”

Lark glanced over at Katherine. “You haven’t seen Page Six the last couple of weeks, huh?”

“What did I miss?” Katherine asked.

“Natalie is here to stay. She’s becoming like…an it girl,” Lark admitted.

Katherine actually cackled. “Well, good luck with that. I’m back now. Things will go back to the way they’re supposed to be. No one will care about her when I’m done with her.”

“Stay away from her,” I snarled. “Both of you.”

“Oh, please tell me that you’re not trying to get in her good graces again,” Katherine said, bored and disappointed.

“Natalie is going to come around to me again anyway,” Lewis said with such utter confidence. It was amazing to me that he was deluded enough to even say it.

“You ruined her career.” I rose to my feet, glaring at him.

“And then put it back together,” he said with a shrug.

“It doesn’t work that way after you stalked her.”

“She doesn’t even believe that. It’ll be fine.”

Katherine gagged. “You two are seriously disgusting. Why her?”

Rowe cleared his throat to keep anyone else from responding. All our eyes turned to him in surprise. He hadn’t said anything since the meeting started. Lark was relieved that someone else was going to jump in.

“Just wanted to let you all know that I’m dating someone new,” Rowe said, looking up from his computer and meeting our gaze. “His name is Nicholas. Thought I’d let you know before I bring him to Fashion Week.”

We all stared at him for a heartbeat before everyone else joined me on my feet.

“That’s great,” I said at once.

Katherine’s eyes were enormous as she gushed all over Rowe. “A boyfriend? Oh my god, finally! I’m so excited.”

“So cool, bro,” Lewis said.

Lark just smiled as if she had already known. Which she probably had and it was part of the reason that we’d all been called together.

Getting details about Nicholas out of Rowe was basically impossible. He hated the spotlight, and talking about himself was a foreign concept. But it kept the heat off of everyone else, and so he endured it. Telling us how they’d met, when it had started, and how serious it was.

And somehow, something changed in the room.

Did we have problems? Yes.

Were we utterly fucked up because of that damn bet? Yes.

But here, in this moment, we were something else. Something more than just a group of fucked up, entitled, poor little rich kids. We were together again.

I might hate Katherine and Lewis for what they’d done to Natalie. I had every intention of stopping them from ever doing it again. But I also fucking loved them in some strange way. Like they were a part of me. And I was a part of them. Like family.