The day Theo Valentine arrived at Beckett Mansion had been a rainy one.
I’d been standing with my father at the base of the steps leading to the main driveway along with the thirteen servants in our employ, waiting for the arrival of Estelle, Dad’s latest girlfriend, and her seventeen-year-old son. It had been raining for five days in a row, and we were all huddled under black umbrellas like it was a funeral, waiting for the convoy Dad had sent to the airport to arrive.
“Stand up straight,” Dad had ordered. “Stop fidgeting.”
As far as welcomes went, it hadn’t been the most cheerful, or the most creative. Estelle hadn’t been the first girlfriend to move in, and we all knew the drill for the grand welcome by now.
My sister Allie had been certain that she wouldn’t be the last either, and so she’d refused to leave her room for the welcome party.
“Why should I bother playing nice with someone who’s going to leave in a few months?” She flipped a page of her novel angrily, huddled deep in her covers. “It’s not like we don’t know what she’s really after anyway. No socialite would move to a coastal town where nothing ever happens if not for the money.”
“You haven’t met her,” I protested. “Maybe she really cares for Dad.”
“Then I pity her. You were too young to remember, but Mum was miserable with him.” Allie looked away. “Sometimes I’m glad she’s dead.”
“Allie!”
“You wanted to say hi, didn’t you? Better get going.”
“I’ll make up an excuse for you,” I offered, but Allie was pointedly ignoring me and had gone back to her book.
I stood in the driveway that day, decked in a shapeless powder blue dress that reached my knees. I usually roamed around our town in cute print tops and skinny jeans, but today I had to wear the only thing in my closet that Dad had deemed appropriate for a fourteen-year-old girl. I wore a jacket over it to protect against the biting coastal wind, and also to hide the hideous dress. Mrs Smith, our housekeeper, had tied my wild hair back into a thick braid that hung down my back. It was so tight that the corners of my eyes were pulled back.
Dad himself had been dressed in his best, a navy-blue suit set that stretched taut over his generous stomach when buttoned. The pinstripe pattern on the jacket made him look taller than he really was.
At least, that was what his tailors had assured him.
“I’ll have a word with your sister after this.” He took a comb from his back pocket and swiped it through what was left of his hair. “Ungrateful brat. I feed her and give her a roof over her damned head and she repays by embarrassing me.”
“Allie is sick. She has a fever.”
Dad looked unconvinced.
“It’s really bad, she’s coughing super hard.” I was taken by sudden inspiration. “And she’s on her period!”
That did the trick. Dad gave a disgusted look and glanced away, suddenly eager to drop the subject. “Tell her I expect her to greet Estelle properly once her… sickness is over.”
“Oh I will, sir. I’ll drag her to Miss Estelle myself.” A bit overdone, but Dad only made an annoyed sound and looked down the driveway again.
The funeral-like silence of the thirteen of us standing under the rain had been weirdly solemn, made worse by the rain pattering on the cobblestones and the carpet of dead leaves on the ground all around us. I recalled looking over at the small forest across our mansion, counting the number of bare branches I could see to occupy myself.
We heard the rumble of engines in the distance sometime later.
“Get ready,” my father had barked.
Three sleek black Mercedes rolled up the road that led from the main part of town. They passed the towering wrought iron gates that wrapped the Beckett property, pulling up to the driveway where we were assembled.
That particular spot had been intended to display the Beckett Mansion in all its mausoleum glory, with the household servants in their monochrome uniforms completing the look. I had always thought Dad’s girlfriends were horrified at the bleakness, but if they were, they all hid it well. Dad never noticed that the mansion was more creepy than impressive.
Once the convoy pulled to a stop, Dad jogged over to the center car to get the door. He also took the umbrella with him, which left me under the rain until I sought shelter with Mrs Smith’s.
“That man.” Mrs Smith yanked me closer to her side. “His brain grows between his legs instead of his head.”
The servants around us had sniggered until Joe, our butler, turned to glare. “Quiet.”
Dad opened the car door with a theatrical flourish, the extra effort meaning that he especially liked Estelle Valentine. All of us standing at the base of the stairs had craned our necks to see.
A long, tanned leg in a towering silver heel emerged from the car, joined to a pair of full hips and a tiny waist, finally coming up to surprisingly modestly-sized boobs. The woman’s trim figure had been wrapped in a white silky mini dress even though it was the middle of March. Her platinum blond hair had been perfectly coiffed in a half-updo.
I couldn’t help gaping at the head attached to that perfect body.
Holy heck. This woman was easily the most beautiful person I had ever seen in my life. I felt like a bystander at a red-carpet event instead of in the middle of a rainy, howling gale.
But before I had a chance to recover, another figure emerged from behind Estelle, tall and with shoulders that were broad like a natural athlete’s. Sharp, piercing amber eyes stared out of a face that was perfectly formed.
My breath had caught.
Estelle was stunning, but the boy was something else.
His facial features were eerily perfect, like it belonged on a marble statue instead of a person. Something in the graceful way he moved made it impossible to look away from him. At first glance, he looked bored, but a closer inspection revealed that he was surveying his surroundings closely, not missing a thing.
Theo Valentine wore a rumpled navy blazer and matching pants, with a school crest embroidered at the left lapel. A loosened tie hung down the middle of his white dress shirt, which had been left untucked.
His school uniform, I’d realized. Mrs Smith had mentioned before that Estelle’s son studied abroad in a boarding school.
That reminder made me self-conscious. The boy and I were only three years apart, but in that shapeless dress I had looked and felt like a little kid.
I hadn’t realized I was staring until I found myself looking right into Theo’s eyes from across the short distance. The look in them hadn’t been friendly. I felt targeted, for some reason.
I quickly averted my gaze.
“Welcome,” Dad had bellowed as he held the umbrella over him and Estelle, who was smiling so beautifully I expected the skies to clear any moment. “Welcome, welcome.” He gestured for one of the chauffeurs to shelter Theo, who gave him such a disdainful glare that the man backed off immediately.
“The servants have prepared the house for you,” my father boomed, “and everything is at your disposal. Use them for anything you want. They are here to serve.”
Mrs Smith cleared her throat irritably, and Joe didn’t stop her this time.
As Dad approached us, his gaze fell onto me as if he’d forgotten I was there. “Ah, this is my younger girl, Karin.”
Estelle glided over, moving with the grace of a swan even in her stilettos. “Hello, dear.”
Her red lips had smiled down at me, her green eyes holding the same sharpness as her son’s. I imagined this was what a skewered kebab felt like.
Dad bristled at my hesitance. “Karin, say hi.”
I locked my knees before I could do something stupid, like curtsy. “Hi.”
“The elder one is sick, but she’ll greet you tonight.”
“When she’s feeling better,” I corrected.
“I said—”
“It’s okay love, she can take her time. We’re all new to this, aren’t we?” Estelle graced me with another smile as she took Dad’s arm and led him down the line of servants to be introduced. Mrs Smith handed her umbrella to me and went with them to do the formal introductions.
I’d breathed my relief until a shadow came over me.
Looking up, I saw that the boy was staring down at me, towering taller than Estelle did in her heels. Tiny droplets of rain glittered on the dark locks of his hair.
Theo was even more handsome up close, and I felt my face heat up under his scrutiny. “Uh, hi. I'm Karin. Nice to meet you.”
Theo Valentine had ignored my outstretched hand, dragging out the moment longer than was comfortable.
I dropped my hand, feeling twitchy with the prolonged silence. I needed to fill it—it was a curse I had been born with.
“Our housekeeper said you’re from England,” I offered shyly. “San Juan’s probably not what you’re used to since you’ve been to so many places—”
“Karin Beckett.” A tiny skitter of pleasure had danced over my skin at the way he pronounced my name in his crisp accent. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Um. Making friends?”
Theo watched me like a tiger that just had its meal and was deciding if it wanted more. “I’m not here to make friends.”
I hadn’t known what to say to that. Aside from my dad, no one had ever been unfriendly with me before. People naturally liked me, and it bothered me that this boy obviously didn’t.
I tried smiling again, wider this time. “Did your mum make you leave England when you didn’t want to? That sucks, but I promise it’ll get much better soon. I’ll even help you settle in. Deal?”
“I agreed to come of my own volition, and it isn’t friendship that I want.” Theo slipped his hands into his pockets and looked around contemplatively, taking in the estate. “It’s everything else. Your home. Your money. Your status.” He cocked his head. “That’s what I want.”
My stomach had sunk like it was the Titanic and Theo Valentine the iceberg. Allie had been right after all—they were here for Dad’s money.
Worse of all, Theo was openly admitting it to me, which meant he didn’t think I was a threat to him at all.
“I'm gonna tell Dad.”
Theo wasn’t worried. He’d actually smiled. “Go ahead, if you think he'll listen.”
Dad wouldn’t have. He had been too in love with Estelle to believe a word I said.
“My suggestion is to go about your life silently and invisibly from now on,” Theo had said in a volume soft enough for only the both of us to hear. His voice had been smooth as velvet wrapped around a knife. “Keep your pretty eyes closed and stay obediently in your little castle sheltered from the world and all its bullshit. A naive princess in a perfect fairy tale.”
“I’m not a princess,” was all I could manage.
Theo’s dark gold eyes flashed mockingly at my poor attempt to claw back ground. “Aren’t you, though?”
I’d been speechless as he brushed past me to enter my home. I hadn’t known what to say to such open hostility.
And to my shame, I kept out of his way in the year that followed, just as he’d commanded.
Theo Valentine had been right about one thing—I was sheltered and naive. I couldn’t understand how people like him and Estelle could lie and take from others without batting an eye.
Theo did his part too, achieving everything he had set his sights on. Within the first year, he had allied himself with three of the most infamous boys in town, terrorizing our high school alongside them.
San Juan High had been governed by those three boys whose personal expenses probably fuelled the entire town’s economy. For some reason, they readily accepted Theo into their ranks as one of them.
“A monster recognizes another when he sees one,” Allie had said. “Stay away from them, K.”
They may be monsters, but they sure didn’t look like it. All four of them were so gorgeous that it was almost too easy to forget who they were.
Ryland Wyatt was the Ice King of San Juan High, the sole heir to a booming real estate empire in New York. He was cold and calculated and arrogant, the kind of guy who thought carefully before he spoke and always gave the perfect answer. His dark hair was neat and immaculate, and not a single strand dared to go where he didn't want it to be. His icy blue eyes matched his personality to a T.
Gabriel Easton was also modern royalty, the son of Logan and Sophia Easton, California's version of the Beckham’s, and he had the biggest fan club on that side of the coast. It had been impossible to hate him with his sandy brown hair and chocolate eyes, and his easy smile put anyone at ease instantly, even if he was a huge narcissist and did all he could to prove it.
Cameron Lancaster was the second son to the founder of a luxury hotel chain. He was a massive bruiser of a guy with cropped dark blond hair and was ultra-competitive and never lost at anything.
And somehow, Theo Valentine had managed to hold his own against all of them. With him in the mix, the school’s dynamics went from a tyranny to an organized dictatorship.
If Ryland was the Ice King, Theo was simply the Devil—not that anyone ever dared to say it to his face. Amongst the boys, Theo was the one who spoke the least, but whenever he did, people tended to shut up and listen because he’d deliver it in the smoothest, most cutting way. His mood was highly volatile, going from cruel amusement to chilling anger in mere seconds.
But more importantly, Theo Valentine was easily bored.
And when he got bored, that’s when things got truly scary.
Just months after he’d arrived in San Juan, rumors started springing up across town about vicious fights between our school’s boys and the ones from Dunford High, our rival. Worse, there were whispers of a dangerous game where the boys took their cars to the cliffs above the coast, charging at each other at full speed to see who would chicken out first and swerve before they all crashed and burned.
As far as we knew, no one was ever caught—or killed—but it had been unspoken knowledge that the new boy in town was behind the chaos. Everyone simultaneously avoided him and tried to stay on his good side.
From the rumors, Theo had only gotten more dangerous in the ten years since then, and there was no one else who believed them more than Alecia Beckett.
“The dirty, lying, double-crossing asshole!” Allie’s hair whipped behind her like a dark cape as she paced the living room.
I kept silent as my sister fumed, knowing better than to interrupt her when she got worked into one of her tempers. So did Ryland Wyatt, apparently.
My sister's boyfriend sat on the sofa beside me with an empty seat between us that was recently vacated by Allie. He watched her patiently, which was surprising because Ryland Wyatt wasn't the kind to be patient.
Ryland was now the infamous CEO of Wyatt Corporation, Manhattan’s ex-favorite-eligible-bachelor and master of the icy glare. He was so cold that when he started talking, the ice caps stopped melting out of respect. The world was at his beck and call and he waited on nothing and no one.
No one except my sister, of course. She could wear a potato sack and he’d still worship her.
Now she was wearing a scooped black tank top and denim cut-offs, which meant that Ryland’s gaze was hungrily following her every move.
“He has all the evidence we need to convict a murderer, he literally held it in his hands and waved it in front of my face, and now he's holding it hostage? What kind of sadist does that!”
“The kind who also happens to be the son of the murderer?” I offered.
Ryland shot me a warning glance, but it was too late.
Allie whipped around like an avenging Valkyrie, her gray eyes wide. “Are you defending him?”
I held up my hands in surrender. “I’m just saying! I’m not sure I wouldn't have done the same thing if I had been in his shoes.”
“K, Theo is not doing this for Estelle. You weren't part of his grand kidnapping plan, but I was, and trust me, that guy is batshit. He put his freaking head to the gun and dared Estelle to pull the trigger. And she did! The bitch actually did it. Sure, the chamber was empty, but do you think Theo Valentine is the kind of guy who would ever let that go?”
I blinked. “Is that a trick question?”
Allie gaped at me. “K, he’s doing this to protect himself! Just imagine the headlines; “Law firm CEO's mother convicted of murder.” He'd go bankrupt overnight. Nothing is stopping us from going to the police and turning him in either, and that’s why he refuses to give us that stupid recording.”
“Or,” I hedged, “he could really be protecting Estelle. She is his only family.”
“That word means nothing to that asshole. I swear to god, if he ever appears in front of me with that smirk again—”
“Come here, babe,” Ryland suddenly said.
Allie gave a long-suffering groan and dropped into the sofa beside Ryland, who gave no care about creasing his shirtsleeves as he took Allie's nape and started massaging.
I couldn’t help feeling like I was intruding on a personal moment. Allie had always been the kind of girl who functioned better alone, and it was new seeing her get along so well with a man who had a similarly independent personality. The two of them looked perfectly in sync, a couple made stronger by their partnership.
I felt a little stirring of envy.
“You're going to leave this matter to me, whether it's talking, or trying to knock him out.” Ryland's expression held no room for argument. “The guys and I will handle this, and I want you to assure me you'll stay out of it. Same goes for you,” he told me.
“I can handle him,” Allie grumbled, her eyes still closed as she enjoyed the massage. “You know I can.”
“Just because Theo hasn’t hurt you yet doesn't mean he won't do it in the future. He was my best friend, so I know what he's capable of.” Ryland’s jaw hardened. “And if the rumors are correct, he's only gotten worse. That man's a walking time bomb, and you will stay out of this.”
“Are you ordering me?”
“I’m asking firmly.” He raised a brow that challenged her to contradict. “I can’t let anything happen to you, Allie cat.”
Allie exhaled. “Fine. Don't think I don't know you're managing me.”
“How are you gonna do it?” I piped up.
Theo had said that Ryland tried persuading him, which was quite frankly unlike his practice as a businessman. I thought Ryland would have tried to buy him out like Cam had.
“I met with him a few days ago,” Ryland admitted. “When we last spoke two months back, Theo had a reaction to something I said that made me wonder…” He gave me a speculative look, his sharp blue eyes narrowing in thought. “But it was probably nothing. I came out empty handed.”
“You could try punching him again,” Allie muttered.
“Theo doesn't respond well to hard approaches,” I found myself saying. “I think we should leave him alone for now and come back again when his temper has cooled.”
“You want to coax him out like he's a feral beast?” Allie said incredulously. “What are we, animal rescue?”
Ryland was less outraged. “What makes you say that?”
I shrugged, forcing myself not to shift under his piercing stare. “Just a hunch. Even a broken Karin is right twice a day.”
No one had ever guessed how well Theo and I knew each other back then. Theo was the kind to be insanely private, and I was someone with a reputation for being too romantic. I hadn’t been about to cement that by announcing my friendship with the town’s bad boy.
Besides, Allie would kill Theo if she knew, right before she killed me.
“We don't have time to wait,” she said, her mind going back to the matter again. “We still don't know where Estelle is, and we haven't made progress on Dad's murder at all. Worst of all, you guys are still under her blackmail threat.”
“We're in the clear for now.” Ryland frowned, looking puzzled and suspicious. “God knows why, but Theo’s using the recording to keep us all in this weird limbo. It’s like fucking purgatory.”
“I just want this solved before I start my first semester. I’m finally going to college, and I won’t let that asshole ruin it for me.”
“We’ll work it out, Allie cat.”
They gave each other such an intimate look that I decided that was my cue to go.
“Welp, I'm off for now. I’ll be downstairs in my swanky new home, so let me know if there's anything I can do to help.”
Ryland got up to walk me to the front door.
“How are you holding up?” he asked as I stepped out of their penthouse.
“I’m fine. Cried a lot at first, but I've had two months to make sense of this. Life’s a party, I’m the piñata, et cetera.” I shrugged. “It’s just surreal when something you thought happened ten years ago is actually more sinister. Especially when it’s someone you know that was behind it.”
And especially so when that someone was a boy you once loved.
I read once before that your first love wasn’t the first person you slept with. It was the first person who broke your heart, ripping it apart into two ugly, jagged pieces that would never mend perfectly.
That kind of love altered you. It cleaved you into who you were before and after it happened. The seams of the wound would always be there, something you couldn’t see but felt just as keenly as the ridges on a scar.
Theo had been that boy for me.
“I’m fine,” I assured Ryland again. “Don’t worry about me.”
Ryland watched me closely with his striking blue eyes. I felt like I was staring into the eyes of a White Walker, if the White Walker was freakishly tall and unfrozen and all-round hunky.
“I promised your sister I'll take care of her,” he told me, “and I'll do the same for you. Allie and I aren't married yet, but I hope you'll be able to see me as a brother.”
“Wellll, you did pay off my student loans plus give me a sweet new apartment. Karin is a free elf.” I squinted at him. “So when are you proposing? I want cute dark-haired nieces and nephews ASAP.”
Ryland returned my grin, a startling sight from someone who was once renowned for being a block of ice. “Pretty soon, actually, but don’t say a word.”
On an impulsive move, I threw my arms around his neck. He was so tall that I could only hook my forearms around him.
“Thanks for taking care of my sister,” I whispered. “She's happy with you, I can tell.”
Ryland was surprised, but he recovered quickly, squeezing me back before letting go. “I plan to make her happier. Crazy huh,” he mused, rubbing the back of his neck like he was embarrassed. “Ten years ago, the four of us guys were so close and we barely knew you and Allie. Now we’re going to be family. If Allie accepts my proposal,” he added.
“Oh, she will,” I assured him.
But I couldn’t help wondering about what he said. We were all together now, all except Theo.
And ever since that night that I went to his apartment, I couldn’t help thinking that he had seemed so...alone.
That didn't change the fact that he was in the wrong, though.
Allie was right, I was sympathizing too much with the enemy. If a person’s goodness could be measured by the shade of oil paints, Theo Valentine would be the second-darkest one—Payne’s Gray, just teetering on Mars Black. He was cunning and unscrupulous enough that trusting him would prove a fatal mistake. It was one I couldn't afford to make again.
My resolve grew stronger.
If I wanted my plan to work out, I had to keep my head screwed on the right way, and my eye on the prize.
I would get my hands on the flash drive and give nothing of myself in return. Zip in, zip out, and bam!
“Karin, you haven't given me your promise.”
Dang it, I was hoping he'd forgotten. “Promised what?”
Ryland raised a brow. “Focus on your upcoming graduation, and don't get involved with Valentine. He's more dangerous than you realize.”
Didn't I know it. One full week had passed and I could still feel the heat from his body, his tongue on my skin. Theo was dangerous precisely because of the reaction he could coax from my body.
“I want your word.” Ryland folded his arms in that pose that made even the most powerful men in the country rush to obey. “Do not have anything to do with Theo Valentine.”
“Okay.” I crossed my fingers behind my back. “I promise.”