The lies we tell

ELEVEN

I hated these parties. Even worse? Winter. Strutting around in that dress, fucking clueless that men old enough to be her dad were drooling over her. Not to mention that fucker, Granville, who hadn’t taken his eyes from her since he turned up. Asshole.

Downing the rest of my whiskey, I leaned back on the bar, nodding my head at the bartender to pour me another.

“Hey, Cade.”

Portia.

My occasional fuck buddy. Never anything more than that, as much as she liked to pretend otherwise. Tall, curvy, amazing tits—shame her body didn’t make up for her irritating as fuck personality. Even if her personality had matched her looks, I wouldn’t have been interested. Women were great for fucking, but nothing more, as far as I was concerned. I’d had first-hand experience of what our world did to relationships. Putting trust in someone? Hoping they stay faithful to you? Fuck that. Not in our world.

“Hi.” Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Granville making a beeline for Winter, curling his arm around her waist and leaning down to speak in her ear. She beamed up at him, her whole face lighting up, and I clenched my fists.

“Caiden!”

“Huh?” I turned to see Portia frowning at me, her lips pursed in disapproval.

“I was talking to you, but you were too busy watching her,” she hissed. “Why are you interested in Granville’s sloppy seconds, anyway? She’s nothing. A trashy whore with no class. You even wrote as much on her car, remember?” Her lips curved into a sneer. “Look at how she’s dressed, for goodness’ sake! She doesn’t even come from money, so why are you wasting your time lusting over her?”

I bristled at her words, for some reason. “Babe, jealousy doesn’t suit you. But believe me when I say, Winter Huntington means nothing to me.”

“Prove it.” She arched a challenging eyebrow, and I pulled her closer, letting her run her hands all over me, while I picked up my replenished drink and tipped it back, feeling the smooth whiskey slide down my throat. As Portia kissed up my neck, I watched Winter over her shoulder. Our eyes met, and hers narrowed.

I smirked. Snowflake didn’t like seeing me with other women. It was fucking obvious that she liked me, staring at me with those horny eyes every time I was around her. When she wasn’t trying to fight with me, that is.

She slid her hand up Granville’s arm, and he tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. She tore her gaze away from me and returned his smile.

I’d had enough. I downed my drink and turned to Portia. Yeah, I’d been pla

“I thought you’d never ask,” Portia purred.

We headed out of the main party room without another backwards look, Portia well on her way to being drunk already, prancing along next to me, hanging off my arm.

Nah. Away from the crowds and the sight of Winter with Granville, I remembered this was a bad idea. Bad. Portia was more trouble than she was worth. Abruptly I stopped in the corridor, and she stumbled into me.

“I changed my mind. Go find another cock to suck.” I shook her arm off and strode away, ignoring her outraged whine behind me. She’d get over it. Opening the door to the study, where we normally ended up at these parties, I found Zayde, Cass, and West there already, Cass rolling a joint with a girl on his lap, a huge bottle of vodka in front of him, and West and Zayde playing darts, of all things. I raised a brow.

“You boys having fun?”

My brother spun around, his face splitting into a grin when he saw me.

“Want to join us, bro? We’re playing for money. So far Z owes me three grand.”

“Two.”

“Sorry, mate, it’s three.”

“Whatever,” Zayde muttered, taking aim at the board. I shook my head and left them to it, helping myself to Cass’ vodka and rolling my own joint.

“Winter looked hot tonight, don’t you think?” Cassius gave me a sly smile.

“Not as hot as me, though, right?” the girl on his lap piped up, turning her head towards his and pretending to pout.

“Don’t make me pick. You know you’re fucking sexy, babe,” he murmured, kissing up her neck and sliding his hand between her legs as she moaned in pleasure, her eyes falling shut.

Rolling my eyes, I pulled out my phone, taking a long drag of my joint. Might as well check the security feeds since the boys were all occupied. Tech genius that my little brother was, he’d set up an app where we could check the cameras from our phones. I idly scrolled through the feeds; nothing out of the ordinary. It reminded me, though… “Hey, West?”

“Yeah?” My brother took aim at the dartboard, the dart rebounding off the side and falling to the floor with a clatter. “Shit,” he muttered. “You made me lose my concentration.”

I ignored his comment. Glancing over at the girl with Cassius to make sure she was occupied, I beckoned him over. “Can you install your tracking app on Winter’s phone? We can check her messages on that.”

He frowned. “Yeah, I can, but you can’t check the contents of the messages. Just who she’s sending to and receiving from. It’s a bit of an invasion of privacy, though, isn’t it?”

“Do you trust her? When she’s been hanging around Granville, not to mention I watched her looking very friendly with her mother earlier. Don’t be fooled by her, bro.”

“Whatever. I’ll see if I can get hold of her phone.” He shook his head at me and returned to his game.

Grabbing Cassius’ vodka again, ignoring his frown, I tipped it to my lips, the burning liquid sliding down my throat.

Someone started banging loudly on the door, and my head shot up.

“Who’s that?” Weston called.

“How the fuck would I know?” Since everyone else was occupied, I got up with a sigh, heading over to the door and throwing it open.

Cassius’ younger sister, Lena, burst into the room, her usual sulky pout in place, but I barely noticed her. My attention was caught by a familiar figure, way down the corridor. Winter, looking shifty, glancing around her furtively. Staying back so she didn’t notice me, I watched as she slipped past the roped-off area that marked this corridor as out of bounds to most guests, other than those who were in my dad’s i

Every one of my senses was on high alert.

What are you up to, Snowflake?

She shuffled down the corridor and suddenly stopped in front of a door, peering in. Bad, bad idea, Winter. I shook my head at her stupidity. Didn’t she know that curiosity killed the cat? She needed to be more careful, otherwise it wouldn’t just be the cat that ended up dead.

I turned away, crossing back to the sofa and sinking back down. It was so frustrating, not being able to hack into my dad’s security system. West had tried so many times, with no success. I needed to know where else Winter had been tonight, since I’d left her. Clearly, she was up to something. I shouldn’t have left her alone.

Too late, now. She’d wandered somewhere she shouldn’t, and now she was going to wish she’d never gone exploring.

Out of the corner of my eye, I watched Lena as she threw her phone down with a huff. “Can someone take me home?”

“You’re a fucking mess, sis.” Cass looked up from the girl and frowned at her. “Your eye…make-up stuff is all over your face, and your hair looks like you’ve been dragged through a bush. What have you been doing?”