Class is a waste of my time, but it’s demanded of me. It’s officially my last year, then I can take what’s mine. If he gives it to me, that is. My father owns most of the nightclubs in Darwin, and they’re soon to be all mine. He’s promised me head position in his business if I complete my last year of schooling. Eleven months and counting, and I’ll be running my own line of businesses. It’s always fascinated me, his work. The hours seem too perfect, the pay even better. We have the fancy house, the fancy cars, and above all, we have money. More than you can spend in a lifetime.

I’m a spoiled, privately-schooled boy, who’s soon to be a spoiled rich man in a few months.

“What’s up with her, man? Did you speak to her?”

Cane’s talking about Barbie.

Barbie who’s well and truly off limits.

Soon I’ll be leaving school, and she’ll be... well, who fucking knows. Unfortunately, someone like her doesn’t mesh well with my world. It’s a part of the reason I try my hardest to hate her. If I hate her, I won’t want her. That’s logical, right?

“She’s feisty.” Cane smirks at me and nudges me with his elbow.

“You in love, yet?”

I roll my eyes at his words. “No, you idiot.” Slouching back in my chair, my eyes fall to the front of the room, but it isn’t the teacher who grabs my attention, it’s Livia. Who’s currently watching me?

“Nope, look away,” Cane says under his breath. Livia doesn’t hear him, but I do.

Livia is known to be the heartbreaker. She’s broken her fair share, so I’ve been told. Currently, Nate’s the next in line to have his heart shattered into a million tiny pieces. She always seems cool, but I’ve never spoken to her much before today. I can see the appeal, though. Why the boys all lust over her. Why they fall for her. She has that type of charisma.

It’s naughty. With her knee-high socks and her skirt that’s just a tad shorter than every other girl at the school. She knows how to get noticed and keep you noticing.

“You’ll fall into the trap. You’ll never be able to escape,” Cane says louder this time.

Livia turns around, her pen tapping on her desk.

Leaning over so I’m closer to Cane, I whisper, “You tapped that?”

He laughs. It’s loud. So loud all the students turn back to have a look.

“No! Fuck no. She probably has a built-in cunt trap.”

I must also mention here that Cane has no filter. None. None at all.

“Cunt trap?” I ask him confused.

His hands form a fist with a hole in the middle, he sticks his finger in it then closes his hands around it tight holding onto his finger. His dark hair falls in his face. “Cunt trap. That fucker sucks you in never to escape. I like my cock in multiple cunts, thank you very much.” He nods his head like he agrees with himself, and then turns back to the front of the class to concentrate on what the teacher’s saying.

Got to say, it takes a lot of my energy not to laugh loudly at his analogy.

Instead, I look back and see Livia standing, turning, then she makes her way to me. Her long nails touch my desk, and she taps them, looking straight at me. People are standing and leaving as the bell rings, but Livia still stands in place looking down at me and blinking her eyes in that seductive way she has about her.

“You’re attending tonight, right?”

She’s talking about Cane’s party. If it was at someone else’s house, I might have answered no. But it’s Cane’s. He’s the first friend I made when I came to this school. I’d just left my mother’s to live with my father, to finish up my schooling before I could take over the business. Cane’s family is even wealthier than my father. They have money tied up in oil. He won’t ever have to work a day in his life if he doesn’t want to.

“Yes,” I answer her.

She smiles. “Good.” Then she turns, walking away, swinging her hair Jan Brady style as she disappears out the door.

“Cunt trap,” Cane says loud enough for the teacher to chastise him as we get up to leave.

***

I SEE Barbie again, but this time we don’t bump into each other. I’m watching her like she’s some kind of foreign creature. Why she intrigues me so, I just don’t know. When she looks at me, it feels as if she can see everything I’m hiding, and that shakes me more then I care to admit.

“Offer her a lift,” Cane says as we walk to my car. Saskia’s standing at the end of the driveway waiting for the school bus. She takes it almost every day unless her cousin drives her, which is rare from what I see.

“She might come to this one,” I tell him as I watch her climb the steps of the bus, her white-blonde hair disappearing from view.

“She may not, but cunt trap will be there for sure.”

We get into my car, but the bus Saskia’s on has gone long before we pull out. I’d heard stories of Saskia. Stories that she doesn’t come from money, and she’s at this school on a scholarship. Also, it’s thanks to her cousin’s family who help with her schooling. Supposedly, she lives in a trailer and comes from the not-so-wealthy side of town, unlike everyone else at our school. That doesn’t bother me, though, not in the least.

“She’s with Nate.”

Cane laughs, hitting the dashboard of my car with his fists. “Until tonight. I bet you a grand she comes tonight... single.”

“I’m not interested.”

“So you and half the male population say until her claws reach you. You’ll be putty in her hands. Plus, she may be more your type. You’ll be running the club scene soon. Do you really want to have a Virgin Mary near you who won’t do the night scene, or someone by your side who you can play with?”

He’s right. Still my mind goes back to mocha-colored eyes.

Stopping out front of Cane’s house, we pull out our backpacks and walk straight around into the backyard where his pool sits with its sparkling fresh water. Darwin’s weather was hot, even in winter, not that we call it winter. You can’t wear anything with long sleeves unless you want to sweat your ass off. Humid heat is what this state’s known for, and owning a pool is on every responsible homeowner’s list. That plus damn fucking good air-conditioning.

“Fuck, man.”

The pool’s full of floaties that look like fruit. Watermelon, strawberries, pineapples, large fucking pieces of fruit float around on the surface.

“Sick, right? Mum found them on eBay.”

Cane will turn eighteen a few weeks before me. In exactly two months, he will be legal to enter my soon-to-be-owned nightclubs. In exactly one month and two days after him, I turn eighteen. It’s a day I’m counting down to. So these parties we always attend or host will be a thing of the past. No more turning away year eight girls who are simply way too young to come in here. Year ten and up is our policy. Police are pretty good around this area. Unless they hear about kids that come to the parties we hold. So we have to try to be as sensible as we can possibly be. Especially if I want to prove to my father that I’m responsible.

Cane’s parents are away for a month now that school’s started back. They’re off on a cruise. We have the house to ourselves. There’s a bar that’s fully loaded and lots of girls coming around. It’s Cane’s perfect night. He comes outside dressed in nothing but speedo’s and a pair of flip-flops on his feet. The laugh that leaves my mouth is loud. What the fuck is he wearing? He’s lucky he isn’t hairy because that would have been the worst sight of all fucking time.

“I’m going to fuck all the cunts tonight,” he yells with his beer in hand, lifting it up to the night sky.

I’ve been sitting outside near the pool drinking, and when I stand, I don’t realize how much I’ve actually had to drink while waiting for Cane to come back. Straight scotch isn’t my wisest choice.

“Enough with that word. Fuck! Maybe try ‘pussy’?” My head’s spinning, but I shake it off as people begin to walk through the door.

“Why on earth would I do that? When cunt is such a sweet word.”

“Because most women hate it.”

His shoulders shrug. “This is why I only say it to you.”

He should learn to filter his thoughts around me too, but that doesn’t mean he will.

“She will hunt you down tonight. I bet my money on it...” He pauses his speech, making me look up. Nate moves across to stand beside him. “Fuck man, you look like shit. That girl of yours break your heart?”

Nate thinks Cane’s being a caring friend. He isn’t, because he turns to me and winks with a smirk.

“Told me we didn't fit anymore.” He laughs dryly, putting his beer to his lips. His mates around him slap him on the shoulder and drink with him. Cane, on the other hand, can’t wipe the smirk off his face.

“So you wouldn’t care if say... Ryken hit that ass then?”

I could punch him. Honestly. Hard. Right in the fucking nose or throat, I don’t care which right now.

“What, man? Fuck! She hasn’t moved on that fast.” Nate’s looking at me like I’ve betrayed him. Maybe I should tell him it’s the other Tyler family member I’m more interested in.

“What about her cousin? Maybe I should hit that to get back at her,” Nate pipes up to one of his mates.

Nate’s friend chimes in nodding his head smiling. “That would kill her. Her precious Sass... I could break her in.”

That comment makes me want to break him in half. And then quarters, and let’s see what comes after that.

“Leave her out of it, man. She can’t help it that her cousin’s a whore,” Cane says, and for the first time his words aren’t bitchy toward a girl. He respects Saskia as much as I do, and I hardly know her. She’s an enigma. We just want to find out more about her, but she doesn’t seem to give anyone any more information than she’s willing to give.

“I heard her saying she was coming tonight. That Liv was bringing her.” Nate laughs at his words. “That should be interesting.”

Turning away, I move through the throngs of people already here and partying, and decide I should change. Not into what Cane’s wearing—he looks ridiculous. Who the fuck in their right mind wears that shit if they can see straight. No, just out of this uniform that feels like it strangles me every fucking day. As I pull the tie free from around my neck, my cell starts ringing.

It’s my father.

Did I mention that my father doesn’t just own nightclubs?

No! My father’s a major underground player.

His main work.

I’m not sure I could handle what he does.

My father is ruthless. The worst man I’ve ever met. There’s not an ounce of remorse in his body. Regret, sorrow, self-reproach don’t enter his mind. Ever. Even with the type of work he carries out.

“Yes.” Kicking my shoes off I wait for his reply.

“You aren’t coming home tonight?” There’s no, hi how are you son? No, is everything all right? Just straight to the point.

“No.”

“Good.” Then he hangs up on me. That means he has company. The type of company he doesn’t want me around to see. He’s kept me out of that side of the business and intends to continue to do so. Instead, he only wants me to take over the club business.

I’m Ryken Lord.

And my father is a sex slave trafficker.

The most wanted man in all of Australia. They just don’t know it and haven’t caught him yet.