Chapter Four
Axton
“Not bad, not bad!” Benji exclaimed, his face and hands pressed against the glass of the limousine window as we pulled down the gravel ridge in front of the cabins. He looked like an eager child, and Wyatt was starting to mimic him as he leaned up next to Benji’s side.
I couldn’t give a shit less what the cabin, or the lake, or nature looked like. The only reason I had rented the cabin out for the summer was to get away from my family, and the crippling life choices they were making for me. It wasn’t the mountain air I was after, it was the isolation. I wasn’t nearly as excited as my friends were about where we were going to live for the next two months. Just as long as it wasn’t anywhere my family could find me.
“Axton!” Wyatt waved his hand frantically over his shoulder at me. “Do you see that?”
“What?” I rolled my eyes without attempting to look over his shoulder. The limousine was slowly rolling into park. I could hear the gravel crunching beneath the tires.
“That lake is fucking huge,” Wyatt answered. “And the mountains behind it? It’s awesome, man.”
“Great.” I shifted along the leather seat and shoved the door opposite of where Benji and Wyatt were open. I was ready to get out of the stuffy limo and get our things inside. The quicker we set up the quicker we could invite everyone over for a party.
I only hung out with the rich and powerful – people that could easily jet set to the tiny Colorado cabin I’d rented on a moment’s notice in order to be present at whatever party I was going to throw. The women my friends and I knew were thirsty to be around us. They knew we were loaded, and they wanted in on the lifestyle we had to offer them. I was born with the East family name. Finding friends wasn’t hard for me to do.
It had made life difficult, as far as romance went. I hadn’t had a real girlfriend in years, not since my first year of college, and even that had been a joke. I didn’t think I was missing anything, though. What else could I want? I had endless money, thanks to my parent’s fortune and my father being the president and founder of a pharmaceutical company in New York City. I was projected to inherit the company from him within the next three years, so my bank account was only going to get bigger. I got everything I wanted, and most of the time I didn’t even have to ask.
Romance. The reason why I had left New York City in favor of living in a remote Colorado cabin for a few months.
My hands balled into fists as I stood in the gravel driveway, closing my eyes tightly shut. I didn’t need to think about what was going on back home. On what my parents were trying to force me into. That was why I had run away in the first place.
What I needed was to completely forget about my life back home.
“You must be Mr. East.” The voice came from my behind my left shoulder.
I turned to glance at the wrinkled old man with sprouts of wispy white hair sticking out from beneath a red flannel cap. “George Spaniel?” I assumed, and reached out a hand.
He shook my hand, more firmly than I had expected, and gave a little snort. “Welcome to the lake.”
My nostrils flared as I took in the cold mountain air. Everything seemed so alarmingly fresh. I could smell the pine needles of the trees surrounding the cabins, the moisture in the air that came off the lake right behind the cabin.
“Glad to be here.” I lied. Half lied. I was glad to be away from my family. I just didn’t care about the exact location. I wasn’t particularly enthused about Colorado, the cabin, or the lake. And I really didn’t want to make small talk with some sad old man who had probably lived most of his life in the woods, isolated from all forms of a social life.
George Spaniel seemed to pick up on my disinterest in talking. “Well, I’ll be out of your hair shortly. I’m sure you boys can figure out the lay of the land without a tour guide.” He wasn’t offering.
My lips pinched into a thin line. “I’m sure we can.”
“The contract is in the kitchen, just some basic rules to follow and the like,” he added quickly, cutting to the point of what he really wanted to say before he handed over his cabin to the likes of me and my friends. “Everything else has been set up and ready to go.”
I knew he was referring to the payment plan we had already established, even though he didn’t get specific. I had already sent him the first month’s rent and deposit. Compared to my normal lifestyle, the payments were barely anything. I nodded to the old man to show I understood what he was hinting at. I really just wanted him to leave. I wanted to be left alone for a few minutes. I could feel the pinching stabs of an onset migraine in the space right behind my right eye.
George shuffled across the gravel towards a beat-up red pickup truck. “Have a good one,” he called politely over his shoulder before crawling into the truck and slowly pulling away from the cabin.
I rolled my eyes and turned around to face the cabin. Benji and Wyatt were nowhere in sight, and I could only assume they were already peeking into every corner of the cabin. I crossed to the driver’s side window of the limousine and nodded to my private driver, signaling to him that he could go ahead and leave. He would go back to Denver, only a phone call away if I needed him. But I had decided before I left that I wanted no connection to the outside world, no way to escape back into it. I wanted to trap myself in a remote location, so I could hopefully work through the issues that I had going on back home without the distraction of the city at my beck and call.
My phone vibrated from my pocket again.
“Fuck,” I grumbled as I pulled it out. I had been expecting to see yet another call from my mother, but instead the name Peter East stared up at me from the screen. My father.
My fingers tightened around the phone as I reluctantly hit answer. “Hello?”
“Where the fuck are you?” My father rarely cursed.
“Vacation.” I answered dryly, closing my eyes. The migraine was pounding away.
“Very funny.” My father’s voice was raging. I could imagine him, beet-purple face and thick vein protruding out from his forehead from all of his anger. My mother always teased that he would die of an aneurism if he wasn’t careful. I didn’t think she was wrong. “I expect to see you at dinner tonight.”
“You won’t.”
“Axton,” my father breathed slowly into the phone, trying not to explode in a fit of incoherent screams. “This little game you’re playing is not cute.”
“I’m not trying to be cute,” I argued bluntly.
“Then what exactly are you trying to do?”
I sighed. How many times had I explained to him I didn’t want to do the things he and my mother were trying to force me into? Had he ever listened? There was no point explaining myself to him all over again. He was going to be outraged either way, because no matter what, I was not going back home until the summer was over.
“Answer me,” his impatient voice boomed in my ear.
“Like I said, I’m taking a vacation. I’ll be back at the end of the summer.” I wasn’t even lying.
My father groaned loudly. “Fine, you have your little vacation, son. But when you get back we’re taking care of business. No waiting. No messing around.”
“I don’t see why you’re in such a rush to run my life.” I was pacing in the gravel driveway, pinching at the bridge of my nose as I felt the migraine spreading across my forehead, and my anger blossom in fiery rage through my chest.
“Shut up,” my father’s voice was threatening. “The time for your jokes and your bullshit is over, Axton.”
I was silent. Exactly as he told me to be.
“If you don’t come back here and get this shit straightened out at the end of the summer you can kiss your fortune goodbye,” he laid out the ultimatum like an anvil on my chest.
I nearly dropped the phone. “What?”
“You heard me.” There was undeniable joy in his voice. He had found out exactly how to pressure me into doing what he wanted. He was holding it over my head, and relishing the fear in my voice. “This company has no place for little boys who refuse to grow up. You want to spend the rest of your life acting like a bratty playboy? Go ahead. It just won’t be with my money.”
My jaw dropped. I couldn’t find any words to say to him. He was threatening to take everything away from me. The only life I had ever known. The only life I was prepared for.
He took my silence as acceptance. “It’s up to you, Axton. I’ll see you in two months.”
The phone went silent as he ended the call.
I shoved my phone back into the pocket of my pants and paced down to the edge of the gravel, staring into the green forest that extended in front of me. I hated my father. Heat swarmed my face as the anger took over my body and I threw my head back to let out a violent scream. The scream felt gigantic as it echoed off the trees and exploded behind me towards the cabin. But it felt good. Really good.
Benji and Wyatt’s footsteps sounded as they came out of the house and jumped down the wooden steps of the front porch.
“Axton?” Wyatt questioned, almost fearfully, but mostly just confused.
I turned to look over my shoulder at my two best friends. I would tell them later. Maybe. Or maybe not at all. Maybe I just wouldn’t go back to New York City ever again.
“How’s the cabin?” I pretended like I hadn’t just screamed like a madman as I walked up towards the cabin to join my friends.
Wyatt exchanged a quick glance with Benji but then got excited, “It’s so cool. Did you know there’s a hot tub on the back deck?”
I shrugged. “No.” I didn’t know anything about the cabin. I had just found the furthest, most isolated place I could and didn’t take a second to think about it.
“Well,” Wyatt’s face was grinning from ear to ear. “There is.”
“Fantastic,” I walked up the steps and took my first step into the cabin. “We’ll need to make sure to tell everyone to bring their bikinis.” I smirked.
We were going to make this the summer of our lives, because I was pretty sure it was going to be my last.