“We got her. I wasn’t at the door when they let her in but now the guys know who she is,” Gabe explains in a low monotone.

I clasp his shoulder on my way in. “Don’t blame yourself. Desiree always finds a way.”

“Bitches, man.” He adjusts himself on the stool and reaches out for the I.D. of the next person in line.

The music, lights, smells, and sounds of the club all feel very differently from when I arrived earlier. I knew there was a sister before I got his text. Jack filled me in. I knew about the money. I knew about his hatred for the whole situation and I was right there with him. It’s a fucked up turn of events to find out what they found out, and to have all that cash going away to someone they don’t know, but who they have to now call family...it’s fucked up.

“You can disown her,” I’d offered when he dropped by my place after the trip downtown to their lawyer’s. “You can act like she doesn’t exist and let her go about her life, with her spending the money you never knew was stashed away for her anyway. What about that?”

He took the beer I offered him and plopped down on my couch. “We had to meet her. We had to see for ourselves who she was. Now Sean’s taken a liking to her.”

Picking my guitar up, I sat back on the ottoman and hit a few chords on a new song. “Of course you had to meet her. I would’ve been curious, too.” I flipped the page of the notebook and wrote down the chord change to f-sharp.

He took a swig and looked into the memory. “She’s a piece of work. Acted like she didn’t care about the money. Can you believe it?”

I raised my eyebrows, trying to picture what she must be like. Shaking my head, I strummed a bit. “No. I really can’t. So, he likes her? Why?”

Jack’s eyes narrowed. “He believes her act. She said she didn’t want the money, didn’t want to take our inheritance from us, blah blah blah. He fell for it and then treated her like she was already part of the family, taking her side over mine. I shit you not. He did that. She’s not family! Family is earned through years of work, arguments, bad holidays...”

I interrupted, “Spoken like a guy who needs to see a shrink.”

He laughed. “Right? Okay, well, my family isn’t going to win the Leave It To Beaver award, but it’s mine. And this girl isn’t a part of it just like that.” He snapped his fingers and a loud crack echoed through the room. “Good acoustics.”

“Yeah, that’s why I write here. It’s got a natural reverb.” I set the guitar on the floor next to me and got up to get another beer. “When do I get to meet her?”

“You’re going to hate her,” Jack smirked.

“You think so?” I opened up the fridge, one of four in my three-story house in the hills. The rows of beer are separated by ten different brands all neatly stacked by my maid, just how I like it. I opted for Dos Equis and popped the cap off as I returned to him. “What’s she like?”

“Bland. Goody-two-shoes. Not your type at all.” He reached up his half-drunk beer to clink it against mine.

Giving it a tap, I sat back down, taking a swig after I chuckled, “I’m not interested in dating your secret half-sister, fucker. What kind of friend do you think I am?”

His eyes lit up and he leaned forward with an idea. “You want to make my fucking life?”

My eyebrows rose and I looked at him warily. “I don’t like that look in your eyes.”

He laughed and stuck his tongue on his bottom lip, shaking his head under the pure genius of his plan. I could see it formulating and I was beginning to get the drift of it before he even voiced the words. “Oh man, this is too perfect.”

Picking up my guitar, I plucked a little. “Lay it on me.”

“You’re going to break her heart. That’s what you’re going to do.”

I blinked and paused, my fingers suspending above the strings. Looking at him from under my eyebrows, I asked, “You really want me to do that?”

“I really want you to do that,” he leaned back with a satisfied smile. “She’s a liar, Alec, You’re going to find that out. You’re going to expose her, because I can’t. I’m her brother, and the way to make her melt is out of my power.”

I grimaced at the thought. “Yeah, that’s gross, man.”

He nodded. “But you! You’re free to make her beg. And so that’s what you’re going to do.”

I chuckled and agreed to the plan.

It might be amusing, I figured.

And I was feeling bored lately.

And honestly? I wanted to find out who she was.

What better way to know if what he thought about her, was true? Was she acting like a good girl, or was she really one? And if she was, I’d let her loose.

It’d be easy.

Just turn off the switch and drop her like she didn’t exist. She’d get over me soon enough. They all did. Except Desiree, but that bitch is crazy. Biggest mistake of my life.

And now here I am tonight, walking in a sea of women who at the snap of my fingers would drop their panties for me, and all I can think about is his secret half-sister. I’m glad they left. I’m glad Sean found us. I’m glad Jack didn’t. He might have seen it in my eyes that I was toast.

What the fuck just happened to me?

When I saw her sitting in the booth with Jack’s arm around her and she met my eyes, a part of me locked into place. I felt it viscerally hit my gut. I had to pull my eyes away from her and look out at the nonsense glittering around us so I could get ahold of myself.

Her face was a mess of smudged mascara and flushed cheeks and frankly, she looked like she’d just been fucked.

Instantly, I suspected Jack of having done that, and jealousy made me want to punch his smug face.

As I stared at a cluster of girls on the dance floor, I had to talk myself off jumping from the high-rise building I was on. I went through the possibilities and realized I was being crazy. Sean was there. He wouldn’t have let Jack do what I was thinking. It was impossible.

Then why couldn’t I stop seeing green?

It was brutal, and like nothing I’d ever felt.

And just now? When I had her alone and she was looking up at me asking me to touch her?

I wanted to take her against that wall in front of the whole world.

I wanted to punch Sean for stopping me.

I wanted to feast on her, and run from her, at the same time.

“What?”

I look up, with Joey staring at me from across the bar, his hands on the counter. “Hey Joey.”

“You just said something about feasting…”

I cut him off before he can finish. “Working out a new lyric. Get me a beer, would ya?”

“Ah.” He nods, like it makes sense, my lie. “You got it.”

I can’t believe I said that out loud.

Fuck. I’m in trouble.

He returns and hands me an iPhone and a bottle of Stella Artois. “Hey, Sean left this on the bar. This in the wrong hands…”

“Yeah, right? Okay. Thanks.” I tuck it into my pocket and turn to face the club, my elbows on the bar as I lean into it, fingers around the bottle comfortably. Suddenly, I get an idea and pull his phone back out, sliding it open. “No password? Sean. Sean. Sean.”

I flick through the contacts list until I find her.

Phone number.

Address.

My cock twitches, getting hard again and I swig my beer, warning myself not to do what I’m thinking of doing.

Fuck it.

I slam the beer on the bar, toss a twenty with it, nod goodbye to Joey and take off.