Heat Stroke (Beach Kingdom 2)

CHAPTER TEN

Jamie stared out at the sparkling Atlantic, wondering—not for the first time—how the beach could at once be the most serene place on the planet and the most violent. He’d spent enough summers lifeguarding to know how much pleasure people derided from the sand, the surf, the sun. Families created memories around the base of his chair. Farther out, past the break, vacationers skimmed along the blue on jet skis or boats. In the blink of an eye, it could change, though. A storm could roll in, an undertow could begin without anyone knowing, a rescue might take place. A fight could break out.

Growing up, Jamie had been no stranger to altercations. His father owned a bar, for chrissakes, one that had been far rougher once upon a time. He’d seen his fair share of bloodied faces and drunken arguments. Blessed with their father’s temper, Rory was constantly getting into scrapes at an early age, which meant Andrew and Jamie stepped in and threw their own punches when it was necessary to defend their younger brother.

Compared to what happened to him six years ago on this beach, those fights had been so innocent. Over dumb shit, like perceived slights. Nothing like the hate-fueled attack he’d experienced first hand not a hundred yards from where he sat. Jamie could still remember seeing Chris approaching on the beach and kind of being exasperated. Jesus, this guy again? There’d been little to no chemistry to begin with and an awkward amount of time had passed since they’d spoken. Why show up at his job?

That’s when he’d seen Chris’s friends—and he’d known. He’d known based on their disgusted expressions that this fight wouldn’t be innocent, like the ones he’d grown up with. There were too many of them to fend off, they were visibly intoxicated and Jamie was their intended target. For the first time in his life, he’d been in danger. If Rory hadn’t shown up and stopped them from raining blows down on Jamie and holding him under the water for longer and longer periods of time, their hatred could have been the last thing he ever saw.

Thank God it hadn’t been. Thank Rory, really. He’d sacrificed his freedom to defend Jamie and that was a debt that couldn’t be repaid. Every time Jamie got the notion to take a vacation in the summertime, to explore the world he read about in books instead of lifeguarding, he remembered that Rory had spent two years behind bars—and Jamie needed to be around to make sure it never happened again.

As he’d said last night, Marcus and Chris were nothing alike. Nothing at all. But Jamie couldn’t help but feel like putting some distance between himself and Marcus had been the right thing to do for his family, as well as himself.

Jamie was so deep in thought, he didn’t notice his oldest brother coming down the beach at first, even though Andrew’s arrival might have been precipitated by two dozen feminine sighs of appreciation that took place around Jamie’s lifeguard chair.

Jamie had known this encounter was coming. Which was precisely why he’d skipped breakfast this morning and snuck out the side door with a bagel in his mouth.

He should have known his brother would find a way.

With a sigh, Jamie leaned back in his seat and observed the arrival of the Prince elder. His ever present clipboard was carried loosely at his hip, Ray-Bans hiding eyes that were identical to Jamie’s and Rory’s. They never strayed to any of the girls fawning over him as he walked past on the beach. As usual, Jamie’s brother was immune to any kind of attention, unless it came straight from a certain girl next door.

“Hey,” Andrew said, coming to a stop at the bottom of Jamie’s chair. “Talk to you for a second?”

Jamie smirked and hopped down from his perch. “Sorry I took the last bagel this morning.”

“What? Oh yeah.” Uncharacteristically distracted, it seemed to take Andrew a moment to regain his train of thought. “Jiya didn’t make it for breakfast, either.”

“Really?”

Andrew coughed into his fist. “Have you noticed her acting different lately?”

“Nope, same old Jiya.”

“Huh.”

“Oh, except for the blind date her parents set her up on. She was a little irritated about that.”

Andrew dropped his clipboard and it stuck straight up in the sand. He didn’t even appear to notice the pages flapping in the breeze. “Date? Jiya?”

That had been a pretty mean way to inform his brother of Jiya’s foray into the dating market, but frankly, Jamie couldn’t take it anymore. His brother had been infatuated with Jiya since they were kids and refused to make a move. Not to mention, his brothers were vastly different humans. Rory needed to be handled with kid gloves when he came to Jamie for advice. Andrew required a straight up kick in the ass.