Текст книги "Rule"
Автор книги: Jay Crownover
Соавторы: Jay Crownover
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Rule
By: Jay Crownover
Copyright
Rule Copyright © J. Crownover Books Published 2013
Cover photo Stock Photo Pixmac 3D human photos.com
All Rights Reserved
Dedicated to everyone that listened to me complain about needing a new life plan all year long and encouraging me to just do what I do best. I try and write what I know, just a more romantic and idealized version of it so this is also for all the real life tattooed boys that have been in and out of my life over the years that served as inspiration for my heroes.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Epilogue
Chapter 1
Rule
At first I thought the pounding in my head was my brain trying to fight its way out of my skull after the ten or so shots of Crown Royal I had downed last night, but then I remembered that it was Sunday and no matter how many times I told her, or how rude, or whatever kind of debauched and unsavory condition she found me in she showed up on Sunday morning to drag me home for brunch. A soft moan from the other side of the bed reminded me that I hadn’t come home from the bar last night alone, not that I remembered the girl’s name or what she looked like or if had even been worth her time to stumble into my apartment with me. I ran a hand over my face and swung my legs over the edge of the bed just as the bedroom door swung open. I never should have given the little brat a key. I didn’t bother to cover up; she was used to walking in and finding me hung over and naked so I didn’t see why today needed to be any different. The girl on the other side of the bed rolled over and narrowed her eyes at the new addition to our awkward little party.
“I thought you said you were single?” There was accusation in her tone that lifted the hair on the back of my neck. Any chick that was willing to come how with a stranger for a night of unattached sex didn’t get the right to cast judgment around, especially while they were still naked and rumpled in my bed.
“Give me twenty.” I ran a hand through my messy hair and the blond in the doorway lifted an eyebrow.
“You have ten.” I would have lifted an eyebrow back at her tone and attitude but my head was killing me and the gesture would be wasted on her anyway, she was way past immune to my shit. “I’ll make coffee, I already invited Nash but he said he has to go to the shop for an appointment. I’ll be in the car.” She spun on her heel and just like that the doorway was empty and I was struggling to my feet and searching the floor any pair of pants I might have tossed down there last night.
“What’s going on?” I had temporarily forgotten about the girl in my bed so I swore softly under my breath and tugged a black t-shirt that looked reasonably clean over my head. “I have to go.”
“What?”
I frowned at her as she lifted herself up in the bed and clutched the sheet to her chest. She was pretty, had a nice body from what I could see and I wondered what kind of game I had thrown at her in order to get her to come home with me. She was one I wouldn’t have minded waking up to this morning.
“I have somewhere I need to be so that means you need to get up and get going. Normally my roommate would be around so you could hangout for a minute but he had to go to work so that means you need to get that fine ass in gear and get out.”
She sputtered a little at me. “Are you kidding me?”
I looked over my shoulder as I dug my boots out from under a pile of laundry and shoved my feet into them. “No.”
“What kind of asshole does that? Not even a thanks for last night, you were great how about lunch, just get the fuck out!” She threw the sheet aside and I noticed she had a nice tattoo scrawling along her ribs. That was probably what attracted me to her in my drunken stupor in the first place. “You’re a real piece of work, you know that?”
I was a whole lot more than just a piece of work, but this chick that was just one of oh so many didn’t need to know that. I silently cursed at Nash. My roommate was the shit, we had been best friends since elementary school and I could normally rely on him to run interference for me on Sunday mornings when I had to bail but I forgot about the piece he was supposed to be finishing up today so I needed to hustle last night’s tail out the door and get moving before the brat left without me, which was a bigger headache than I needed in my current state.
“Hey what’s your name anyway?” If she wasn’t pissed before she was downright infuriated now as she climbed back into a super short black skirt and barely there tank top. She fluffed up mounds of clearly dyed blond hair and glared at me out of eyes now smudged with worn mascara.
“Lucy, you don’t remember?” I slimed some crap in my hair to make it stand up in a bunch of directions on sprayed on cologne to help mask the scent of sex and booze that I was sure still clung to every visible patch of skin. I shrugged a shoulder at her and waited while she walked in front of me, hopping on one foot to put on a pair of heels that just screamed dirty sex.
“I’m Rule.” I would have offered to shake her hand but that seemed silly so I just pointed to the front door of the apartment and stepped in the bathroom to brush the stale taste of whiskey out of my mouth. “There’s coffee in the kitchen, maybe you should write your number down and I can give you a call another time. Sunday’s aren’t a good day for me.” She would never know how true that statement was.
She glared at me and tapped the toe of one of those awesome shoes. “You really have no idea who I am do you?”
This time even against my throbbing brains wishes my eyebrow went up and I looked at her with a mouth full of toothpaste foam. I just stared at her until she screeched at me and pointed at her side, “You have to at least remember this!”
No wonder I liked her ink so much it was one of mine. I spit the toothpaste in the sink and gave myself a once over in the mirror. I looked like hell. My eyes were watery and rimmed in red, my skin looked gray and there was a hickey the size of Rhode Island on the side of my neck. Mom was just going to love that, just like she was going to fall all over herself about the current state of my hair. Normally thick and dark, I had shaved the sides of it off and dyed the front a nice, bright purple so that it stuck up straight and looked kind of like a weed-whacker had been used to cut it. Both my folks already had an issue with the scrolling ink that wound around both my arms and up the sides of my neck, so the hair was just going to be icing on the cake. There was nothing I could do to fix the current shit show looking back at me in the mirror so I prowled out of the bathroom and unceremoniously grabbed the girl by the elbow and towed her to the front door. I needed to learn to go home with them instead of letting them come home with me; it was so much easier that way.
“Look I have somewhere I have to be and I don’t particularly love that I have to go, but you freaking out and making a scene is not going to do anything other than piss me off. I hope you had a good time last night and you can leave your number but we both the chances of me calling you are slim to none. If you don’t want to be treated like crap maybe you should stop going home with drunken dudes you don’t know. Trust me we’re really only after one thing and the next morning all we really want is for you to go quietly away. I have a headache and I feel like I’m going to hurl, plus I have to spend the next hour in a car with someone that will be silently loathing me and joyously plotting my death so really can we just save the histrionics and get a move on it?”
By now I had maneuvered her to the entryway of the building and I saw her in the BMW idling in the spot next to my truck. She was impatient and would take off if I wasted anymore time. I gave Lucy a half grin and shrugged a shoulder, after all it wasn’t her fault I was an asshole and even I knew she deserved better than such a callous brush off. “Look don’t feel bad, I can be a charming bastard when I put my mind to it. You are far from the first and won’t the last that has to see this little show. I’m glad your tat turned out badass, I’d prefer you remember me for that rather than last night.”
I jogged down the front steps without looking back and yanked open the door to the fancy black BMW. I hated this car and hated that it suited the driver as well as it did. Classy, sleek and expensive were definitely words that could be used describe my traveling companion and even as Lucy yelled at me and flipped me off as we pulled out of the lot to my apartment building all she did was roll her eyes and mutter, “Classy” under her breath. She was used to the little scenes chicks liked to throw when I bailed on them the morning after; I had even had to replace her windshield once when one of them had chucked a rock at me and missed while I was walking away.
I adjusted the seat to accommodate my long legs and settled in to rest my head against the window. It was always a long and achingly silent drive, sometimes like today I was grateful for it, other times it grated on my very last nerve. We had been a fixture in each other’s lives since middle school, she knew every strength and fault I had, my parents loved her like their own and made no bones about the fact they more often than not preferred her company over mine. One would think with all the history, both good and bad between us that we could make simple small talk for a few hours without it being difficult.
“You’re going to get that junk that’s all in your hair all over my window.” She had a voice that didn’t match the rest of her. It was all cigarettes and whiskey, while she was all champagne and silk. I had always liked her voice, when we got along I could listen to her talk for hours.
“I’ll get it detailed.” She snorted. I closed my eyes and crossed my arms over my chest. I was all set for a silent ride but apparently she had things to say today because as soon as she pulled the car onto the highway she turned the radio down and said my name, “Rule,” I turned my head slightly to the side and cracked open an eye.
“Shaw.” Her name was just as fancy as the rest of her. She was pale, had snowy white blond hair and big ole green eyes that looked like a Granny Smith apple. She was tiny, an easy foot shorter than my own six three, but had curves for days. She was the kind of girl that guys looked at just because they couldn’t help themselves, but as soon as she turned those frosty green eyes in their direction they knew they wouldn’t stand a chance. She exuded unattainability like some other girls oozed come and get me.
She blew a breath out and I watched as a strand of hair twirled around her forehead. She looked at me out of the corner of her eye and I stiffened up when I saw how tight her hands were on the steering wheel.
“What is it Shaw?”
She bit her bottom lip, a sure sign she was nervous. “I don’t suppose you answered any of your mom’s calls this week?”
I wasn’t exactly tight with my folks, in fact our relationship hovered somewhere around the mutually tolerable area which is why my mom sent Shaw to drag me home each weekend. We were both from a small town called Brookside in an affluent part of Colorado. I moved to Denver as soon as I had my diploma in hand and Shaw was a few years behind because she was younger than me and also because she had wanted nothing more than to get into D-U. Not only did the girl look like a fairytale princess but she was also on track to be a freaking doctor. My mom knew there was no way I would make the two hour drive there and back to see them on the weekends, but if Shaw drove and came and got me, not only would I feel guilty for making her take time out of her schedule to get me, but that I had no excuse to not go. Shaw paid for the gas, waited for me to stumble out of bed and dragged my sorry ass home every single Sunday and not once in going on two years had she complained about it.
“No, I was busy all week.” I was busy, but I also just didn’t like talking to my mom so I had ignored her all three times she had called me this week.
Shaw sighed and her hands twisted even tighter on the steering wheel. “She was calling to tell you that Rome got hurt and the Army is sending him home for six weeks of R&R. Your dad went to the military base in the Springs yesterday to pick him up.”
I bolted up in the seat so fast that I smacked my head on the roof of the car. I swore and rubbed the spot that made my head throb anymore. “What? What do you mean he got hurt?” Rome was my older brother, he had three years on me and had been overseas for a good portion of the last six, but we were still tight and even if he didn’t like all the distance I put between me and my parents over the years if he was seriously injured I would have heard about it from him.
“I’m not sure; Margot said something happened to the convoy he was in when they were out on patrol. He was in a pretty bad accident I guess. She said his arm was broken and he had a few snapped ribs but she was pretty upset so I had a hard time understanding her when she called.”
“Rome would have called.”
“Rome is doped up and spent the last two days being debriefed, he asked your mom to call because you Archer boys are nothing if not persistent. Margot told him that you wouldn’t answer but he kept telling her to try.”
My brother was hurt, but he was home and I didn’t know about it. I closed my eyes again and let my head drop back against the headrest. “Well hell, that’s good news I guess.”
“Are you going to go by and see your mom?” I didn’t have to look at her to know that she had stiffened even more. I could practically feel the tension rolling off of her in icy waves.
“No.” She didn’t say more and I didn’t expect her to. The Archers might not have been the closest, warmest bunch, but we didn’t have anything on the Landon’s. Shaw’s family craped gold and breathed money, they also cheated and lied, were divorced and remarried and from what I had seen over the years had little need or interest in the biological daughter that came from a union figured out on a tax form rather than a bedroom. I knew Shaw loved my house, loved my parents because it was the only semblance of normalcy she had ever experienced and I didn’t begrudge her that, in fact I appreciated the fact she took most of the heat off of me. If Shaw was doing good in school, dating an affluent undergrad, living the life my parents had always wanted for their sons but had been denied they stayed off my case and since Rome was usually a continent away I was the only one they could get to so I took no shame in using Shaw as a buffer.
“Man I haven’t even talked to Rome in three months. It’ll be awesome to see him. I wonder if I can convince him to come spend some time in D-town with me and Nash. He’s probably more than ready for a little bit of fun.”
She sighed again and moved to turn the radio back up a little bit. “You’re twenty-two Rule, when are you going to stop acting like an indulgent teenager? Did you even ask this one her name? In case you were wondering you smell like a mix between a distillery and a strip club.”
I snorted and let my eyes drift back shut. “You’re nineteen, Shaw when are you going to stop living your life by everyone else’s standards? My eighty-two year old grandma has more of a social calendar than you and I think she’s less uptight.” I wasn’t going to tell her what she smelled like because it was sweet and lovely and I had no desire to be nice at the moment.
I could feel her glaring at me and I hid a grin. “I like Ethel.” Her tone was surly.
“Everybody likes Ethel. She’s feisty and won’t take crap from anyone. You could learn a thing or two from her.”
“Oh maybe I should just dye my hair pink, tattoo every visible surface of my body, shove a bunch of metal in my face and sleep with everything that moves, isn’t that your philosophy on how to live a rich and fulfilling life?”
That made me crank my eyes back open and the marching band in my head decided to go for round two.
“At least I’m doing what I want. I know who and what I am Shaw, and I don’t make any apologies for it. I hear plenty of Margot Archer coming out of your pretty mouth right now.”
Her mouth twisted down into a frown. “Whatever, let’s just go back to ignoring each other, I just thought you should know about Rome, the Archer boys have never been big on surprises.”
She was right. In my experience surprises were never a good thing, they usually resulted in someone getting pissed and me ending up in some kind of fight. I loved my brother but I had to admit I was kind of irritated he hadn’t one, bothered to let me know he was hurt, and two, was still trying to force me to play nice with my folks. I figured her plan to ignore each other the rest of the way was a winner so I slumped down as far as the sporty little car would allow and started to doze off. I was only out for twenty minutes or so when her phone started singing The Civil Wars and jarred me awake. I blinked gritty eyes and rubbed a hand over the scruff on my face. If the hair didn’t piss mom off the fact I was too busy to shave for her precious brunch might just send her into hysterics.
“No, I told you I’m going to Brookside and won’t be back until late.” I looked across the car at her and she must have felt my gaze because she looked at me quickly and I saw a little bit of pink work its way into her high cheeks. “No Gabe, I told you I don’t have time and that I have a lab due.” I couldn’t make out the words but whoever was on the other end of the phone sounded angry at her brush off. I saw her fingers tighten on the phone. “It’s none of your business; I have to go now, so I’ll talk to you later.” She swiped a finger across the screen and tossed the fancy device into the cup holder by my knee.
“Trouble in paradise?” I didn’t really care about Shaw and her richer than God, future ruler of the known universe boyfriend, but it was polite to ask when someone was obviously upset. I hadn’t ever met Gabe, but from what I heard from mom when I bothered to listen he was custom made to go with Shaw’s future doctor persona. His family was as loaded as hers, his dad was a judge, or lawyer, or some other political nonsense I had no use for and I was sure beyond the shadow of a doubt the dude had to wear pleated slacks and pink polo shirts with white loafers. For a long moment I didn’t think she was going to respond but she cleared her throat and started tapping out a beat on the steering wheel with her obviously expensively manicured fingers.
“Not really, we broke up but I don’t think Gabe really gets it.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, a couple weeks ago actually. I’ve been thinking about doing it for a while. I’m just too busy with school and work to have a boyfriend.”
“If it was the right guy you wouldn’t feel that way. You would make the time because you wanted to be with him.”
She looked at me with both blond brows raised up to her hair line. “Are you, Mr. Manwhore of the Century seriously trying to give me relationship advice?”
I rolled my eyes which made my head scream in protest. “Just because there hasn’t been one girl I wanted to hang out with exclusively doesn’t mean I don’t know that difference between quality and quantity.”
“Could have fooled me, besides Gabe wanted more than I was willing to give and it’s going to be a pain because my Mom and Dad both loved him.”
“True that, from what I’ve heard he was pretty much custom made to make your folks happy. What do you mean he wanted to more than you were willing to give? Did he try and put a rock on your finger after only six months?”
She gave me a look and curled her lip up in a sneer. “Not even close, he just wanted things to be more serious than I wanted them to be.”
I laughed a little and rubbed between my eyebrows. My headache had turned into a dull throb but was starting to be manageable. I needed to ask her to swing by a Starbucks or something if I was going to get through this afternoon.
“Is that your prissy way of telling me that he was trying to get in your pants and you weren’t having it?”
She narrowed her eyes at me and pulled off on the exit that took us towards Brookside.
“I need you to stop by Starbucks before going to my parents’ house, and don’t think I didn’t notice you aren’t answering my question?”
“If we stop we’re going to be late and not every boy thinks with what’s in their pants.”
“The sky isn’t going to fall on us if we show up five minutes behind Margot’s schedule, and you have got to be kidding me, you strung that loser along for six months without giving it up, what a joke.”
That made me flat-out laugh at her. I laughed so hard that I had to hold my head in both hands as my whisky logged brain started to protest by screaming at me. I gasped a little and looked at her with watery eyes. “If you really believe that you aren’t nearly as smart as I always thought you were. Every single dude under the age of ninety is trying to get in your pants, Shaw, especially if he’s thinking that he’s your boy. I’m a guy, I know this shit.”
She bit her lip again conceding I probably had a valid point and pulled the car into the coffee shop. I practically bolted out, eager to stretch my legs and get a little distance from her typically haughty attitude. There was a line when I got inside and I cast a quick look around to see if I recognized anyone because Brookside was a pretty small town and usually when I stopped by on the weekends I inevitably ran into some I used to go to school with. I hadn’t bothered to ask Shaw if she wanted me to grab her anything because she was still being all uppity about having to stop in the first place. It was almost my turn to order when my phone started blasting a Social Distortion song in my pocket. I dug it out after ordering a big ass black coffee and took a spot on the counter next to a cute brunette that was trying her hardest not get caught checking me out.
“What up?”
I could hear the music in the shop blaring behind Nash when he asked, “How did this morning go?”
Nash knew my faults and bad habits better than anyone and the reason we had maintained our friendship as long as we had was because he never judged me based on those factors.
“Sucked. I’m hung-over, grumpy and about to sit through yet another forced family function, plus Shaw is rare form today.”
“How was the chick from last night?”
“No clue. I don’t even remember getting home from the bar but apparently I did a huge piece on her side so she was a little pissed I didn’t remember who she was, so ouch.”
He chuckled on the other end of the line. “She told you that like six times last night, she even tried to pull her top off to show you and I drove your dumb ass home last drunko. I tried to get you to leave at like midnight but you weren’t having any of it as usual.”
I snorted and reached for the coffee when the guy behind the counter called my name. I noticed the brunette’s eyes follow the hand that wrapped around the cardboard cup. It was the one that had the flared head of a king cobra on it. The rest of the snake wound its way up my forearm and around my elbow, the extended forked tongue made the “L” on my ring finger in the tattoo of my name that was inked across the four knuckles of the same hand. Her mouth made a little O of surprise so I flashed her a wink and walked back to the BMW.
“Sorry dude. How did your appointment go?”
Nash’s Uncle Phil had opened the shop years ago on Capitol Hill when it mainly catered to gangbangers and bikers, now with the influx of young urbanites and hipsters’ populating the area ‘The Marked’ was one of the busiest tattoo parlors in town. Nash and I met in fifth grade in art class and had been inseparable since, in fact it had been his plan since we were about twelve that we would eventually move to the city and work for Phil. We both had mad skills and the personality to make the shop bump with business so Phil had no qualms apprenticing us and putting us to work before we were both in our twenties. It was killer to have a friend in the same field; I had a plethora of ink on my skin that ranged from great to not so great that chronicled Nash getting better and better at his craft and he could state the exact same thing.
“Finished that back piece that I’ve been working on since July, it turned out better than I thought and the dude is talking about doing the front so I’ll take it because he’s a fat tipper.”
“Nice”, I was juggling the phone and the coffee and trying to open the door to the car when a female voice stopped me in my tracks.
“Hey,” I looked over my shoulder and the brunette was standing a car over with a smile on her face. “I really like your tattoos.”
I smiled back at her and jumped back narrowly missing spilling scalding coffee all down my crotch as Shaw shoved the door open from the inside.
“Thanks.” If we were closer to home and Shaw wasn’t already putting the car in reverse I probably would have taken a second to ask the girl for her number. Shaw shot me a look of contempt that I promptly ignored and went back to my conversation with Nash. “Rome is home, apparently he got in an accident and Shaw said he’s got a few weeks of R&R coming to him. I guess that’s why mom was blowing my phone up all week.”
“Kick ass. Ask him if he wants to roll with us for a few days, I miss that surly bastard.”
I sipped on the coffee and my head finally started to calm down. “That’s the plan. I’ll hit you up on my way home and let you know what the story is.”
I flicked my thumb across the screen to end the call and settled back into the seat. Shaw glowered at me and I swore her eyes glowed at me in her anger. Really I had never seen anything that green anywhere else in nature and when she was mad they were just otherworldly.
“Your mom called while you were busy flirting. She’s mad we’re late.”
I sucked on more of the black nectar of the Gods and started tapping out a beat on my knee with my free hand. I was always kind of a fidgety guy and the closer we got to my parent’s house the worse it usually got. Brunch was always stilted and forced, I couldn’t figure out why they insisted on going through with it every single week, couldn’t figure out why Shaw enabled the farce, but I went every week even when I knew nothing would ever change.
“She’s mad you’re late. We both know she could care less if I was there or not.” My fingers moved faster and faster as she wheeled the car into a gated community and past rows and rows of cookie cutter mini mansions that were built back into the mountains.
“That’s not true and you know it, Rule. I do not suffer through these car rides every weekend, subject myself to the delight of your morning after nastiness because your parents want me to have eggs and pancakes every Sunday. I do it because they want to see you, want to try and have a relationship with you no matter how many times you hurt them or push them away. I owe it to your parents and more importantly I owe it to Remy to try and make you act right even though lord knows that’s almost a full time job.”
I sucked in a breath as the blinding pain that always came when someone mentioned Remy’s name barreled through my chest. My fingers involuntarily opened and closed around the coffee cup and I whipped my head around to glare at her.
“Remy wouldn’t be all over my ass to try and be something to them I’m not. I was never good enough for them, and never will be. He understood that better than anyone and worked overtime to try and be everything to them I never could be.”
She sighed and pulled the car to a stop in the driveway behind my dad’s SUV. “The only difference between you and Remy was that he let people love him and you,” she yanked open the driver’s door and glared at me across the space that separated us. “You have always been determined to make everyone that cares about you prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt. You’ve never wanted to be easy to love Rule and you make damn sure that nobody can ever forget it.” She slammed the door with enough force that it rattled my back teeth and made my head start to throb again.
It had been three years. Three lonely, three empty, three sorrow filled years since the Archer brothers went from a trifecta to a duo. I was close to Rome, he was awesome and had always been my role model when it came to being a badass, but Remy was my other half, both figuratively and literally. He was my identical twin, the light to my dark, the easy to my hard, the joy to my angst, the perfect to my oh so totally fucked up and without him I was only half the person I would ever be. It had been three years since I had called him in the middle of the night to come pick me up from some lame ass party because I was too drunk to drive. It had been three years since he had left the apartment we shared to come get me with zero questions asked because that’s just what he did. It had been three years since he had lost control of his car on a rainy and slick I-25 and slammed into the back of a semi-truck going well over eighty. It had been three years since we had put my twin in the ground and my mother had looked at me with tears in her eyes and stated point blank, “It should have been you,” as they lowered Remy into the ground. It had been three years and his name alone was enough to drop me to my knees, especially coming from the one person in the world Remy had loved as much as he loved me.
Remy was everything I wasn’t, clean cut, well dressed, interested in education and building a secure future and the only person on the planet that was good enough and classy enough to match all the magnificence that he possessed it was Shaw Landon. The two of them had been inseparable since the first time he brought her home when she was thirteen and trying to escape the fortress of the Landon compound. He insisted they were just friends, that he loved Shaw like a sister, that he just wanted to protect her from her awful, sterile family but the way he was with her was full of reverence and care. I knew he loved her and since Remy could do no wrong Shaw had quickly become an honorary member of my family and as much as it galled me she was the only one that really, truly understood the depth of my pain when it came to losing him.
