Chapter Five - OLIVER
“What exactly does that mean?” I ask Pax. I’m sorta still pissed off about him dating my sister, but I can’t be a broody bitch about it forever. Might as well get over it now.
Pax gets up from his chair and walks over to the window, scrubs a palm up and down his unshaven face, and then puts his hands in his pockets.
I look at West, who’s looking at me. We both shrug.
“Pax,” I say. “What the fuck does that mean?”
“He didn’t say.”
“Give me your best guess.”
“He’s supposed to kill me, Oliver,” West says. “Finish the job. Liam Henry got his ass handed to him on a silver platter. He’s justifiably pissed off. He thinks I still have that treasure and he wants it.”
Pax turns away from the window very slowly. He trains his gaze on West and asks, “Do you still have it?”
“I told you I didn’t. It’s still in that cave. I can’t fit in there.”
“But you have a kid now, right?”
“What?” West says, his eyes narrowing.
“Come on, Pax,” I say, letting out a long breath.
“Come on what?” Pax says, turning to me. “Does he or does he not have a kid just the right size to swim down into that cave?”
“It’s not that easy, you dumbass. What do you think I’m gonna do? Throw Ethan into the ocean and say, ‘Hold your breath, kid. Find that underwater cave, wiggle your way into it—there may or may not be air inside there so you don’t die—and then grab as many gold coins as you can, and bring back up to me so we can repeat that sixty more times and get our money back?’”
“Sounds like you put a lot of thought into this,” Pax deadpans back.
West lunges at him, but I grab his arm and hold him back. “Don’t,” I say, looking into his eyes. “Don’t feed him, man. He’s fucking with you.”
“I’m dead serious,” Pax says.
“Look,” I say, still holding on to West. “Let’s just have a drink—”
West jerks his arm away and says, “Fuck that. It’s not even noon. If you fuck-ups want to get drunk before lunch, go ahead. But I’ve got a family to think about.”
West straightens his shirt and walks out, jumping down the stairs two at a time.
“Hey,” we hear him say on the third floor. “Let’s go, Tori. I told Ethan we’d take him ice-skating in Broomfield today.”
I look back at Pax. “Smooth, motherfucker. Real smooth.”
Pax shrugs and takes a seat in the chair in front of my desk. “You and I both know he’s lying about that gold.”
“I never said that. All I said was that I can understand why Liam Henry thinks he got fucked over.”
“Same thing.”
“It’s not the same, Pax. I don’t think West is gonna use that kid to get his money back, OK? You went too far. You never know when to stop.”
“Yeah? Well, not knowing when to stop is what saved your sister’s life two weeks ago. So stop trying to make every choice I make sound so questionable.”
He’s got me there. So I just sigh and say, “Where the fuck are you guys staying, anyway?”
Pax smiles. “Ariel offered.”
“Oh, fuck that. You can’t stay in the same house as Weston.”
He shrugs. “She offered.”
“Well, decline her offer. My dad has a condo a few blocks over that he hardly ever uses. You two can stay there. And if you make one joke about him using it to cheat on my mom, I will—”
“Don’t be a dick,” Pax says.
“Me?” Fucking asshole. I walk over to the desk, open the top drawer, and go looking for the keys. “I’ll let him know you’re staying there so he doesn’t come blow your head off if the neighbors report suspicious activity.” I find the keys stashed in the back, and toss them over. “Go tell Cindy. I got shit to do, so I’ll see you guys later.”
Pax stands up and stretches his arms up toward the ceiling. “You coming to dinner then?”
“Dinner where?”
“Ariel’s house, I guess. We’re all invited.”
I squint my eyes at him.
“What? Wasn’t my idea. I think the girls have some kind of thing going on.”
“So West mentioned. Tori isn’t convinced the Conrads are on the up and up.”
“Are you?” Pax asks.
“I dunno. I haven’t really thought much about it, to be honest.”
“Well, I have. And I have a pretty good feeling that Liam Henry knows something about them. I’m not convinced this is just about those gold coins, you know? I think there’s something much bigger going on with him and Weston’s family.”
And then he tosses the key ring in the air, catches it, and walks out.
I slump back into my desk chair and let out a long breath.
Why the fuck can’t this shit just go away already?
I glance at my desk, spy the folder with Katya’s profile on the top of the pile, and wonder if Pax was taking notes while he was here. That’s all I need. Him digging into my past.
“Relax,” I tell myself. “Just relax.” Paxton has no idea I have a history with this girl. He’s got no idea what’s happening. Hell, he’s my best friend and he doesn’t even know what I really do for a living.
I’m still good. Everything’s cool.
I open up my laptop and Kat’s face pops up again on her profile. A little red check mark indicates she posted a new video. My fingers can’t tap the pad fast enough. I click the play button and… holy fuck.
She’s naked from waist to shoulders again. Sitting on a couch. No sound, even though I fuck with the volume control for several seconds. Her fingertips stroke circles around her nipples, then she pinches them, making them bunch up like hard, little spikes.
It’s not long, only about a minute thirty seconds. But I play it on loop, over and over again, until Ariel calls up from down below.
“We’re all going to lunch for Lisa L’s birthday, Oli. You gonna come?”
“No,” I yell back. “No. I got too much work to do here.”
“You want us to bring you anything back?”
“Pass.”
“OK,” she says. When I look over at the stairwell, she’s standing there on the top step. “But you better show up at my house for dinner tonight. We have shit to go over.”
Ariel doesn’t wait for my reply. Just skips back down the stairs and then there’s a bustle of bodies and voices down below. The sound of all the office girls leaving.
I start my webcam, stand up, kick the chair back, and then reach behind my head and pull my thermal shirt off. “You like that, Katya? Have you been waiting to see me like this all these years? Well, why stop there?” I reach down and unbuckle my belt. The leather comes apart, the buckle clinking as my hand bumps it trying to undo the button on my jeans.
I drag the zipper down and bring out my cock. I’ve been semi-hard for almost an hour thinking about her. Waiting to be alone in the building. I don’t need more than one or two pumps to be ready.
“If you were here,” I tell her through the camera, “I’d come all over your face. But since you’re not…” I sit back down in the chair, angling the webcam to get the right shot. “I’m just gonna have to talk you through it.”
My breathing picks up as I stroke myself. My balls tighten, lifting up. One hand reaches underneath them. Cupping them as I continue to jerk off.
“Turn your camera on, Katya,” I say, staring into the lens like it’s a window to her soul. “Now get on your knees and open your mouth.”
I wait a few seconds to give her time to do that in the future, and then I smile. “Good girl,” I whisper. “You’re a very good girl.” I picture her the way I remember. That private-school uniform. The blue tartan pattern. Her long sexy legs and the white knee socks.
It was a costume. The Parson School for Girls doesn’t have a tartan skirt. I saw her on that bench. Sitting there like fucking bait. She looked nervous, but not scared. The car pulled up next to her and I was already walking across the street to pick a fight.
I fucked her over and over that summer, until she left that August.
“You want to have fun again, Kat? You want to relive what we did back then?” I smile at her. I picture her hand slipping down between her legs as she watches me getting off to the image of us in my head. “Then stick two fingers in your mouth and suck them like you used to suck my cock.”