Series: Webs We Weave Series by Krista Ritchie
Total pages in book: 147
Estimated words: 145038 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 725(@200wpm)___ 580(@250wpm)___ 483(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145038 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 725(@200wpm)___ 580(@250wpm)___ 483(@300wpm)
“Have you checked the fridge? I’m starving, Rock.” Then he slings his head to the side, seeing Jake and Phoebe. “Put some clothes on, PG. No one wants to see your pierced nipple.”
“Knock it off,” I growl.
Phoebe slings back at him, “No one wants to see your face. Dead in the eyes.”
Trevor wheezes out a dying laugh. “I might be dead eyed, but at least I’m not fake banging my landlord.”
Fuck. Trevor.
Jake’s jaw unhinges in shock, turning from me to Phoebe. “He knows we’ve been fake dating?” Jake isn’t aware that we’ve told anyone. When, in actuality, we’ve shared the truth among my siblings and Phoebe’s. He motions back to Trevor. “Who even is he?”
Trevor hasn’t picked an alias yet, and I’m prepared to jump in and open an escape hatch so he won’t have to answer.
But then he announces, “Trevor Thornhall. Younger brother to Grey and Hailey.” He lifts three fingers in a stiff but casual greeting, still slumped a little in pain. I’d put an arm around him, but he’d just shove me off.
We share a small beat, our gazes meeting in a sentiment close to love. For him to choose to be my brother in this town—after knowing we don’t share the same DNA—it means something to me. It’s also another thread of realism sewn into our lives within Victoria.
“Hailey wants her brother to crash here,” Phoebe explains fast. “I know you have a two-tenant rule, but it’s temporary.”
Jake pulls at his soaked button-down, his face still contorted. “Hailey never said she had another brother. You never said anything.” He’s accusing me now.
I grip the butcher-block counter. “We didn’t have the rosiest upbringing, and we’re protective. So no, we weren’t going to share our family tree with you. Just like you never told me Katherine Rhodes was your nanny.”
He inhales a sharp breath of understanding. “Right.” He surveys the kitchen, the living room, and when his attention flits past the sofa and coffee table, I’m glad Nova brought over a Turkish rug. It hides the bloodstained floorboards. Where Trevor almost bled out on Halloween.
“Let me check on Hailey first,” Phoebe says. “If she’s sleeping, we really shouldn’t wake her.”
“Agreed,” I chime in, and surprisingly, Jake is nodding, too.
Phoebe slips down the short hallway.
To Trevor, I say, “I’ll pick up breakfast for you. What do you want?”
“Pancakes.” He’s squinting at Jake. He already revealed something he shouldn’t, and he’s not well trained in the art of face-to-face manipulation.
He’s not here on a job. He’s not supposed to be screwing Jake over.
But we have enough baggage that could bury all of us. Our parents kept him on a tight leash because they knew he’s impulsive and unpredictable. Still, all he has ever wanted is their approval to do more than creep in the shadows. All I have ever wanted is for him to be less of a bitter, angry cynic like me.
“You know, if this thing with Phoebe doesn’t work out”—Trevor sifts through a basket of sunglasses—“you could always fake date me.”
It’d be funnier if I weren’t holding my fucking breath.
“I’ll even put out,” Trevor offers.
“No, he won’t,” I cut in.
“Yeah, I will.” Trevor closes one eye in appraisal and uses a single finger to outline Jake’s tall, athletically fit frame in the air. “I can work with it. He’s about a nine out of ten.”
Jake’s brows are permanently crunched. He raises two hands to pause the show. “Thanks for the offer, I think, but my mother wouldn’t really approve. She almost wrote me out of the will when I dated a guy in boarding school.”
I’m genuinely shocked, but I smother that emotion so deep.
“Gay?” Trevor wonders.
“Bi. I like women, too. And you’re…?”
“I don’t really do labels.” He slips on a pair of Prada sunglasses, probably to hide the fact that he’s wincing in near-severe pain. “Neither does my older brother.”
“Shut the fuck up,” I whisper through my teeth at him. “And sit down.”
At least he lowers into a bistro chair, and I relax when he swallows like the pain is ebbing. Wanting Jake a whole football field away from my brother, I tell him, “Let’s check on Hailey.” Phoebe shouldn’t be taking this long.
Once we make our way into the short hall, I push the cracked door farther open, and my muscles flex into burning bands seeing Hailey hunched over a laptop with her eyes wide on the lit screen. Phoebe is beside her on the bed, trying to entice my sister with a glass of water.
Our presence only captures Phoebe’s attention. She gives me a slight worried shake of her head and shoos us out with her hand.
I shut the door, hoping Hailey at least slept a couple hours last night.
“She didn’t look good,” Jake whispers to me, skating a hand through his damp hair. Worry pleats the space between his brows. “Did something happen…?”