Chapter 3

Kendall

Oh fuck no.

The last time I saw these three idiots was when I finished school. That was the day I’d moved out of home, leaving behind my brother and his dickhead mates. As was often the case with families like ours, I hadn’t seen Finn a lot since, so that saved me from confronting the three banes of my existence.

Gage, Van and Connor.

Van turned around, holding out a hand then shooting me a panty melting grin. Those blue eyes sparkled, as if that was enough to get me doing what he wanted, while Connor and Gage stepped closer.

So I stepped back.

Barbie watched all of this going down like I had lost my mind and perhaps I had. A full colour flashback of the way my brother, Finn, used to torment me hit me square in the gut. And who were my brother’s greatest henchmen? These guys. I shook my head, trying to clear the red haze that now covered my eyes as I retook surrendered ground.

“Ken, what the actual fuck…?” Barbie hissed. “These are the guys that are renting the room. The one with the nice pool, remember? Margaritas, suntan lotion and me—”

“I make a damn fine frozen margarita,” Connor said, crossing his stupid muscly arms across his stupid broad chest before smirking. God, I forgot he had dimples.

“I’m sure you do,” I said, trying for calm and failing utterly. “But is it so good that I’d forget the crimes against humanity you committed on my pillow? Farting on it when I was getting ready for bed.” Connor’s lips twitched, but didn’t form a smile. “Making it smell like sweaty arse by rubbing your balls on it.” Van blinked twice and then shook his head as his hand raked through his blond hair. “It took me weeks to work out what you’d done. I had to change my pillowcase every day, and Mum was at me for all the washing. Then Finn said it was just because I stank before…”

I sucked in a breath, then another.

“Before you stole my pillow and then left it in the dog’s bed.”

Gage just stared me down, those flat hazel eyes of his giving nothing away, just as they did when we were kids. Before, he was a tank, but now he was just this huge wall of impervious muscle.

“Bluey didn’t tear it up,” he said.

“No, but it got infested with fleas.” My hand rose up, feeling an instinctive need to scratch, even though it had been years since that moment. “It was only when Dad had to have the place fumigated that you lot got into trouble.”

“We’ve got lots of pillows here now.” Van stepped forward, a sheepish smile on his face. As if that would make everything better. “A whole bunch on the couch. You can take one… Take all of them, but Ken—”

“Nope, not doing this.” I turned on my heel and went to march away, but Barbie grabbed my arm and held on tight.

“Cool your jets, Fanta Pants.” I had red hair, so that epithet followed me everywhere. She glanced back at the guys then the house before staring up at me. “Remember the shed.”

“There’ll be other pla—”

“The people who were trying to pass off the living area as a bedroom?”

That place had no door on it at all. The ‘room’ was little other than an expansive corridor that had a bed set up in it.

“The one where all the spoons were blackened?”

Apparently that was from cooking up heroin, something I hadn’t known was a thing until now. Barbie took one look at the cutlery, the place, and the inhabitants and steered us right out the door.

“I’m fairly sure these guys aren’t junkies.” We both looked back up the path speculatively, but she didn’t see what I saw. My teenage tormentors come back to haunt me. It was only the dire situation with rentals right now that even had me considering the idea of going inside with them. “You’ve obviously got some history with these guys.”

I nodded slowly before turning back to face them. Because I wasn’t eighteen anymore. I didn’t need to scuttle out of anywhere to get clear of them.

“Barbie…” I said. “These are my brother’s best friends and co-owners of his business. That’s Gage.” The prick barely nodded in acknowledgement. “And the one with a gormless smile is Van.” I watched it fade, feeling a surge of satisfaction when Van’s hand went to his chin in concern. “And that bastard is Connor.” I turned to face her. “You know how teenage brothers live to torment their sisters? Well, officially I only had one brother, but in reality I had four. They spent their entire existence invading my space, annoying the hell out of me, and basically making my life miserable.”

“Oh.” Her face fell. “So, no pool then?”

“Maybe we could take this inside?” Connor said coolly, looking out across the quiet street, nodding to the neighbours out cutting their lawns. “You can discuss all of our shortcomings over a cup of coffee.”

“How do I know you won’t use Mylanta instead of milk?” I asked sharply, remembering that particular incident all too well. “Or milk that’s off?”

“Because…” He tried to smile and failed, looking across to the other guys for support, but I didn’t give a rat’s arse about their opinions right now. “Because that was nine years ago, Kendall. We’re not the same dickheads doing dumb shit to get a girl’s attention anymore.”

“Get my attention?”

I didn’t want to be doing any of this. Not looking at people’s sheds or their corridors and considering paying nearly four hundred bucks a week for it. I assumed by now I’d meet a great guy, get married, have my own house I was paying off, not my rent going towards other people’s mortgages. Instead, I just stared at Connor, unable to stop myself from taking in all the ways he’d changed. There was no sign of the boy anymore, he was all man, a big, tall, so very muscular man.

While being convinced he hadn’t changed at all.

“You’re trying to tell me all of the crap you put me through was a way to get my attention?”

My voice was getting so shrill, only a dog would be able to hear it.

“Hey.” Barbie’s voice jerked me out of the rage spiral I was just starting to spin into. “Look at me.” I couldn’t do anything else but, her familiar face suppressing the urge to spontaneously start murdering people. “Lets just go inside and see what the place is like. Maybe it”s ugly, mouldy, and has bad Feng Shui?”

“No mould, and if you don’t like it, we can remodel it.” Van’s words came out in a messy tumble, and I just stared at him. “I mean, we know how.”

He nodded to the work van that sported the same logo that was plastered across my brother’s work car: The Three Musketeers Construction. They used to pretend to be the musketeers when they were kids, arguing over which one of them was d’Artagnan.

“A room with access to a pool and guys who’re prepared to remodel it to your tastes?” She was using her best dickhead whisperer voice, pleading with me to be reasonable. “C’mon, you’ve gotta take a look.”

“G’day, mate,” another voice said from beyond the fence, and I turned around to see several guys standing there. “I’m here about the room?”

“Room’s taken.”

Gage nodded to the lot of them, his steely glare having them nodding and pulling away, ready to go back to their car. When his focus shifted back to me, one eyebrow rose slowly, willing me to contradict him. I saw the challenge and felt a need to step up to it, but the days of me being provoked by the three of them were long gone. I nodded and smiled, just like I did with difficult customers, showing way too much teeth.

This was just a quick pit stop. I could use this little catch up as a means to grab a drink and recollect my thoughts, working out what to do next. Mum and Dad had moved out of the city when property prices started going up, and had said I could always move back in with them…

“Fine,” I said with little grace. “Just a quick cuppa and then I’ll leave you to interview other people.”

“Still take it with milk and two sugars?” Van asked as I stepped into the house, watching me pause and take the place in with wide eyes. It was perfect. Of course, it was. This is what they did all day. Buy up old, dated places and then do them up before flipping them.

“Black,” I said, trying to stuff down my excitement as I took in the open plan living area, the glossy granite tiled floor. My focus shifted to Van, meeting his stare head on. “Like my soul.”

“Black coffee it is,” he said, wandering over to a shiny new coffee machine that almost had me salivating. The bakery I worked at didn’t even have something as fancy as that.

“So,” Connor said, leaning over the counter, no doubt aware that every muscle was popping, hoping to catch Barbie’s eye. “It’s been a while. What’ve you been up to?”