It was like a ritual, like something magic. She’s in my blood now, or her blood is in me. I can still taste her on my lips, her pussy wet against my tongue, her blood on my teeth.

She’s fucking inside of me, and I don’t know how to get her out, or if I even want to.

I know it’ll never happen. She despises me, hates me so much that she can barely look at me most of the time. She refuses to even work with me. What happened down there in the water… it was a fluke.

It was this place.

It’s making us go as insane as Blair. Or maybe it’s opening us up to something we always wanted but never knew we could have.

I never let go of Remi, not once. Even when I was ignoring her in high school, pretending like I hated her, I always kept an eye out. I always watched her from a distance.

But I couldn’t ever get closer.

I’ll never forget the day my father told me I couldn’t see Remi anymore. “She’s bad news, Justin. She’s going to drag you down.”

“She’s my friend.” I’m fourteen years old. I barely understand anything in this world, but I know what it means to have a good friend, how important that is.

“She’s not your friend, not anymore. She’s going to try and take your money, turn you against me.” My father leans in close to me, and I can smell his breath.

Whisky, like always.

“Dad, she’s my friend,” I repeat, like it matters.

“Do you want all this money, Justin?” Almost a whisper, his hand on my shoulder.

“Yes.” I bow my head.

“Good. I’ll give you whatever you want, but you have to stay away from that girl. I forbid you from seeing her.”

“But—” I start, looking up.

“No,” he says, getting angry. “Are you going to make this a problem? You know I hate problems, Justin.”

I know what happens when he gets angry, and I know how he solves his problems at home. Especially when he’s been drinking. I have the scars to prove it.

“Okay.” I lower my head again. “Okay.”

I was never her friend again after that. I was so afraid of my father, that he’d hurt me, that he’d beat me within an inch of my life, that I betrayed my only friend and ignored her for years.

My father got his shit together. Having money helped a lot, but I think it was my mother that really pushed him into getting help. He went through rehab when I was sixteen, and now he’s been sober ever since then. He never hit me after I turned twelve, and the worst beatings happened when I was a little kid, but I’ll never forget it.

We have a relationship, but it’s strained. He’s been trying to make things better between us, been offering me money. He got me the fucking job at Optimum, even though I told him to stay out of it.

I’ve never taken a single dime of his money, and I never will.

I sigh and stretch out on the surprisingly comfortable bed. I hate thinking about my father, but I can’t help it. He always seems to come back to me whenever I’ve been around Remi for a little while.

I’m drifting in between waking and sleep when my phone rings. I hesitate a second. I want to ignore it, but it could be Remi. I grab it from the nightstand and answer without looking at the screen, feeling too groggy to care.

“Hello?”

“Justin!” My father’s voice, chipper and loud. “How the heck are you?”

I sit up slowly, getting my shit together. It’s like he was reading my mind or something and knew the worst possible moment to call.

“I’m fine,” I manage to say.

“I hear you’re on a trip.”

I clench my jaw. Fucking asshole. Of course he knows. “I’m visiting Spine in Hawaii.”

“I love Hawaii!” he says.

“It’s nice.” I lean back against the pillows.

My father is a big deal in the entertainment business these days. He went from writing films to producing them, and now everyone wants a piece of him. He’s all over the place, flying around the globe, producing some pretty solid films.

I’ve never seen any of them, but they make money, and that’s all that matters these days.

“I spoke with your host,” he says, “Blair something-or-other. Weird girl.”

I narrow my eyes. “You talked with Blair?”

“Yes, yes, very eager to talk although not very good at it.” He chuckles to himself, that arrogant ass. “Anyway, she invited me out to her little office, and I thought, why not! I hear it’s wild, and I haven’t seen you in ages.”

I stare at the blankets bunched around me, wanting to fucking scream at him. I wish he were here, right now, right in this room, so I could break his jaw.

“I can’t stop you,” I finally say.

“Not exactly a ringing endorsement, but I’ll take it.”

“Look, what do you want from me? I think I’ve made it clear that I don’t want anything to do with you.” The words come out in a rush. It’s not like I haven’t said any of this to him before, but I know it hurts him to hear.

“I’m trying,” he says softly. “I know I was awful to you, when you were younger. I guess I’m just trying.”

“Yeah, well, don’t bother. I don’t want you to come out here.”

More silence. “Sorry, kiddo,” he says finally. “I’m in the air already.”

My jaw clenches. “Are you kidding?”

“Wish I were. Flying private, heading to Honolulu right now. I’m coming to visit whether you want me to or not.”

“Shit,” I say softly. “This is a bad idea.”

“Look, we can be civil. I can apologize again, if that’s what you need, but—”

“It’s not just that,” I interrupt him. “Remi Brooks is here.”

More silence, but this time I think it’s a stunned silence. I know he remembers the name. I can’t help but smile to myself. Finally, I’m the one doing the surprising.

“Remi Brooks,” he says softly. “Peter’s daughter?”

“That’s right, and you know she hates you, right?”

He laughs softly. “I left that whole thing in the past.”

“You’re not the only one involved.”

“There’s nothing to say about that.” His voice is tight, defensive. He hates talking about what he did to his former best friend. “If she’s there, so be it. I’m not coming for her.”

“Who are you coming for?”

“I’m coming to see my son, whether you want me to or not.” He sighs. “I won’t stay long. I know you have work to do.”

“Fine.” I relax, giving in. I know there’s nothing I can do about it.

When my father says he’s going to do something, he fucking does it whether you want him to or not. That’s just the kind of asshole he is.

I hate to admit that I’ve got some of that in myself.

“Just stay away from Remi, or at least be nice to her. We still have to work together.”

“Okay, I can handle that.” He sounds back to his chipper self. “Looking forward to seeing you, son.”

“Yeah, sure.” I hesitate a second then hang up the phone.

My father is coming here, to this fucking crazy place. The man always did have a knack for ruining things, I guess.

Now I just have to figure out how to break the news to Remi.