Shelby had spent her life trying hard to be the perfect daughter in order to win her mother’s approval but she had a better chance at turning into a rainbow than she did of that happening.

Popping her lightly on the leg, I jumped up. “C’mon. We need to get ready.” The three of us went into my room to put on makeup and style our hair.

Leaning closer to the mirror, Brooklyn slicked lipstick across her full lips. “I don’t miss Three at all, but I already miss the sex.”

“I haven’t had sex since Adam and I broke up.” Shelby sat on the bed and leaned back to look at the ceiling. “But I don’t miss the sex.” She glanced at Brooklyn. “It was vanilla.” The three of us laughed.

“I’m going to have sex with Ryan,” I blurted out when the laughter died down. Saying the words out loud whirled my emotions together like someone turned on a blender inside of me.

Brooklyn froze with a mascara brush halfway to her eyelashes. She lowered it slowly and raised her eyebrows. “Ryan.” She drew his name out.

“Why do you say his name like that?” I asked, a little embarrassed I’d spilled the information so abruptly.

“I’m surprised, that’s all.” Brooklyn turned and leaned back against my dresser, her dark eyes worried. “And concerned. Trust fund guys like Adam are boring but at least they’re safe. Guys like Ryan are anything but safe.”

I scoffed at that. “Ryan would never hurt me.”

She bit her lip. “Not physically.”

“Then what?”

“Guys like him have an allure that reels in a girl. Causes her to lose her head and then her heart because he’s good looking and knows how to play her. They have sex and before you know it, the girl is thinking about the future while he’s thinking about the next girl. Ryan could easily destroy you and you know it. I don’t want to see you broken by him, Tana.”

I couldn’t understand where Brooklyn’s fears were coming from. Ryan wasn’t playing me. I was the one who’d asked him to have sex. “I appreciate the love, but Ryan isn’t going to break me. It’s just sex and we’re both clear on that.”

“It’s never “just sex” when the heart’s involved.”

I sighed. “My heart isn’t involved and neither is Ryan’s.”

“I don’t know that I believe that about you but maybe for Ryan. I would believe his heart isn’t involved because I have heard he doesn’t have a heart. Maybe he’s too damaged.” Brooklyn whipped around to finish applying her makeup. “A man can be crushed by the darkness only so many times before he can’t find his way back out. And the stuff I’ve heard about him is some pretty dark shit.”

I knew Ryan’s past had been bad based on his reaction when I’d asked him about it. We’d been hanging at my house about a year ago and curious, I’d pushed him hard for answers. He’d shut me down and walked away. That had hurt because I felt like he couldn’t trust me with whatever it was that had hurt him. But I knew Ryan and whatever was in his past hadn’t destroyed the good that was in him. “He’s not a bad person.”

Shelby got up to search my closet. “I have to agree with her, Brook. Though I don’t know Ryan that well, I get the vibe that underneath all that steamy hot exterior, he’s not a bad guy.”

“Steamy hot?” I laughed when Shelby wiggled her eyebrows and mouthed “oh yeah.”

“I’m your friend, but I do have eyes, and that guy looks delicious.” She held up a low cut black tank top. “I feel like doing something different, something so not vanilla. Borrow this?”

I waved my hand at her. “Go ahead.”

Shelby took off her shirt and tossed it onto the bed then put on the tank. She freed her hair from the band and bent over at the waist, shaking her head and then flipped her hair back upright. “Does Ryan have any brothers? Maybe Brooklyn’s right and I should take a walk on the wild side.”

I thought for a second. “He does. Juvante and Roman and Clarke are the foster brothers who live with him right now. Clarke is kind of a loser, though. He’s high half the time and the other half, he’s drunk. Roman’s too young, but Ryan has some really hot older foster brothers who don’t live with him. Ryker, Zane and Cooper, but of the three of them, I’d stay away from Cooper.”

That piqued her interest. “Why Cooper?”

“I think he might be a little too wild for you.”

“With Cooper all you’d get is meaningless sex with the kind of guy that your mother definitely wouldn’t approve of,” Brooklyn said with a laugh.

“Then please, please introduce me.” Shelby opened her purse and frowned. “Or maybe not. I don’t have any condoms.”

Brooklyn looked amused. “No worries. Guys from the wrong side of the tracks are always prepared to put a sheath on the dagger.” With the look she gave me, I knew she was referring to Ryan.

Shelby unwrapped a chocolate bar she dug out of her purse and offered us some. “You want to use my grandparents’ vacation house to be with Ryan? They hardly ever go. It’s right across from the Huron River—you remember it. You and Ryan could drive there.”

I did remember that house. Shelby and I had spent a few weekends there with her grandparents. The house was huge and gorgeous and there were big skylights in all the bedrooms.

Shelby fished around for her keys. “They let me use it last month. I think I still have the key. Here it is.” She separated it from the key ring and passed it over.

“Are you sure?” I asked.

“Yeah. I’ll tell them I’m going to use it with some friends and they won’t care.”

“Are you sure?” Brooklyn asked with a hard look at me.

Of course I was sure. The episode at the garage and the way I’d felt when Ryan had touched me had solidified my decision. He was the one and I had no regrets at the thought of being with him. The key burned into the palm of my hand like a talisman.

*

RYAN

“How could you do this shit?” I asked.

“It’s not a big deal.” Clarke resented me being in his face. He stared at me for a second, then dropped his gaze. “Why are you so jacked?” He spat a circle of blood onto the ground and touched his busted lip with a wince.

“It’s not about me.” I shoved him backward off the concrete block. “Chanos threatened Tana, you stupid fuck.” Chanos had done some pretty evil shit and the thought of him even thinking about hurting Tana resurrected a side of me I’d hoped to leave behind forever. A side that was nothing but trouble. The same old urge to pound the hell out of something rose up in me. I ran my hand through my hair, my head spinning. I hated the guy I’d once been but I’d be whatever kind of bastard I needed to be to keep Tana safe. There was never any question, never any doubt that I would walk through the fires of hell doused in gasoline for her and I would drag anyone down with me that I had to take.

Juvante made a gimme motion at Clarke and Roman with his fingers. “Let me see the cash you have left.”

Roman thrust his hands into his pocket and passed over a folded wad. Clarke did the same and Juvante’s mouth dropped after he finished counting it. “Two grand? For a kilo? You spent the rest?”

“He only gave us five for all of it,” Roman said.

“It’s worth thirty-three at least.” Juvante groaned in frustration.

Running my hand down my face, I walked a few steps away. I couldn’t look at Roman or Clarke without wanting to beat them into bloody stumps. I turned back to face Roman. “Who’s the he you’re talking about?”

“The guy at the warehouse,” Clarke mumbled.

“I warned him. I told Clarke it was a bad idea to take it.” Roman rubbed his closely cropped hair, looking sick to his stomach.

“Yeah, but he’s stupid and you’re not,” Juvante said. “Five for a fucking kilo.” He smacked Roman’s shoulder. “You should’ve looked out for your brother.”

Roman tensed and I stepped between them. “What’s the guy’s name?”