Chapter Four

CHAPTER FOUR

Parrish

Iwas surprised when Riven showed up for work on time the next day, and then the one following that too. He kept to himself, didn’t talk unless someone spoke to him or he had to because of the job. He kept his head down and stayed busy. I was still trying to fit this piece of him in with whom I’d known Riven to be my whole life. He’d moved to Clayton to live with his grandma when he’d been about five and I was three. He and Rex had become friends in first or second grade, so there wasn’t a time in my life that I remembered not knowing him.

This was the guy who had always been just like Rex, had hardly ever seen anything through, graduated by the skin of his teeth, and not because he couldn’t do it, but because he hadn’t cared. When he was working on this house with us, he seemed to care.

But then, maybe it was more that it was a condition of his parole than anything else, and he simply didn’t want to be locked up again.

As we finished out our third day, Wayne again asked Riven if he wanted to hang out, and again he was told no. That was just the way Wayne was. He was a people person and struggled to keep his mouth closed. If he could, he would go out every night just to shoot the shit with people.

I waited for Riven while the other guys left, following the same routine from the last two days. He never asked me to sign his paper in front of Wayne and Smitty, and I didn’t push it. Riven was a dick, but his business was his business, and I wasn’t the type to share it around.

I watched as he approached me. Despite just getting out of prison, his skin was golden. He had a light dusting of dark scruff along his jaw, his nose was slightly pointed, his lips a sexy bow shape.

Silently, he handed me the paper. I couldn’t help noticing the way his black hair, dripping with sweat, stuck out from beneath his dark ball cap. Riven was only thirty-one, but he looked… I wouldn’t say older than that, but like he’d seen a lot of life—hell, we all had around here. Freckles dotted his skin, brows pinched together like he was always pissed or in deep thought. He wore a small silver hoop in each ear, which he’d had before getting locked up too. Had his holes stayed open, or had he pierced them again when he got out? I didn’t know why I wondered, but then, his brown eyes told stories that made me hate myself for wanting to know.

“Why are you staring at me like that?”

Shit. I had been, hadn’t I? But it was a blast from the past, seeing again the first guy I’d ever jerked off to—someone who, if I let myself remember, had been kind to me in a way my own family hadn’t. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t trouble. “Now, is that any way to talk to your superiors?” I said, just to get under his skin.

“Fuck off, Parrish.” He tried to pull the unsigned paper out of my hand, only I held on and the damn thing ripped. Without looking back, he began stomping toward his truck, proving that he was still the same hothead he’d always been. Neither him nor Rex could ever control their tempers.

“Is that all you know how to say to me?” I called after him, but Riven didn’t respond, kicking up dirt as his feet hit the ground. “Jesus, Riven. I assume you need to show these to your PO when you meet with him.”

He jerked open the door of his old truck, the same one Rex used to climb into with him before they went out to cause trouble. At the time I’d wished I were in the seat beside Riven, partly because of my crush, and partly because, for some strange-ass reason I couldn’t make sense of, I’d always looked up to Riven. I’d thought the sun rose and set on him, and my head hadn’t cleared until he’d admitted to killing someone.

“Riven!” I called out again, but he slammed the door, started his truck, and peeled out of the driveway like he was on fire. He was lucky as shit Harold hadn’t been here to see it.

Typical Riven. If he didn’t care about getting into trouble with his PO, then I sure as shit shouldn’t care about it, so I headed to my truck and went home.

My fingers drummed against the steering wheel as I drove, the flash of anger I’d seen in his eyes playing in my head. Had it really been anger, though, or something else? At first it seemed like it was just Riven being Riven, but then there’d been something more. I was pretty sure he’d also been embarrassed, which made me feel like shit, then made me pissed at myself for feeling like shit because Riven McKenna was a dick who didn’t deserve for me to feel bad for him.

When I got home, I brought the paper inside and set it on the coffee table.

I took a shower, then changed into another pair of jeans and a T-shirt, my attention still drawn to his PO form. What if he had to turn them in daily and got in trouble for it?

“Ugh!” I groaned, tugging at my hair. It was his choice. He was the one who couldn’t control his temper. Given what happened, I’d have thought he’d learned that actions have consequences.

I told myself that all evening, tried to get thoughts of him out of my head while I cooked dinner, then while I sat down at the coffee table to eat it. The whole time my gaze kept getting drawn to where I was supposed to sign to confirm Riven was at work and did what he was supposed to be doing.

By nine o’clock I was rummaging around for a goddamned pen so I could sign the sheet, take it to his place, and get Riven McKenna off my mind. If not, I’d drive myself crazy stressing about it because that was the kind of guy I was.

After taping it together, folding it up, and stuffing it into an envelope, I tugged on a pair of sneakers and headed out to the truck.

I used to go with my brother, when Rex and Riven needed help with whatever they were up to, needed me to keep guard, help them transport stolen shit or even sell it for them. Those were the few times Rex would let me tag along.

Fuck, I still hated myself for some of the things I’d done back then, and I did my best to make amends for it now. Especially when it came to Betsy. I shouldn’t have stayed quiet while they’d done illegal shit on her property. Did Riven know about that, I wondered? Me coming to his grandma’s when he was locked up?

I parked down the street from Riven’s place. While they didn’t live as far out as Rex or Dad, they lived down a driveway with only two houses, quite a bit of space between them.

I’d be lucky if I didn’t get my ass shot, creeping down their gravel driveway like this after dark, but I thought that was a better alternative than risking Riven seeing me.

The lights in the house were off, but the ones in Riven’s garage were on and muted behind the blinds. I tried the door on his truck, which was unlocked the way I figured it would be. I set the envelope on the seat, and just as I was quietly closing the door behind me, I noticed the red glow of the end of a cigarette from the porch.

“What are you doing here, Parrish?” he grumbled through the dark in that almost scratchy voice.

“Jesus, you could have said something earlier.”

“But where’s the fun in that? I’d much rather watch you try to sneak around like you’re smooth.”

He was such a dick, but the truth was, I couldn’t say I wouldn’t have done the same in his situation. What I asked, though, was, “You smoke?” because he hadn’t before he’d been locked up—not cigarettes, at least.

“Nope.”

“I don’t know why you have to be an asshole. You’re just like him. How long until you’re up to your old shit with him?” For a reason I couldn’t understand, I found myself walking toward Riven rather than away from him.

“Fuck your brother,” he spit out, his voice seething in a way I’d never heard. That was…really interesting. “Fuck your dad. Fuck your whole family.”

“Do you know many words other than fuck?”

“Fu—get the hell out of here, Hunt. I don’t have time for this shit.”

I stopped in front of him, Riven looking up at me from where he sat on the single porch stair. He wasn’t wearing his cap, his dark hair messy like he’d spent the evening running his fingers through it…or had someone else’s fingers running through it.

That definitely wasn’t where my thoughts needed to go.

“Real busy, are you?” I asked.

He stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray. “Why are you here?”

Good question. There was no reason to be, but something about Riven got me all tangled up. It always had, and clearly, it always would. “Because you’re a hothead and took off without your signed form. Jesus, when will you guys learn that biting off your nose to spite your face isn’t going to get you anywhere? Rex does the same shit. Control your temper.”

He shoved to his feet. “Who the hell are you to tell me what to do and to pretend you know me? You don’t know shit about me. All you are is a grown-up version of that kid who was always smarter than the rest of us and who never should have gotten his ass trapped in this place, but instead you cared too much about fitting in with your dad and your brother to do shit.”

Rage surged through me, an electric current I couldn’t control. I shoved him, making Riven stumble backward and almost trip over the porch. “Fuck you.” My heart raced, blood boiling inside me, filling me with anger at him…and myself. I didn’t do shit like this. I didn’t push people. I didn’t lose my temper the way they did.

“Do you know many words other than fuck?” he tossed back at me.

“I should have let you get in trouble. Maybe you’d lose your job sooner rather than later because we both know you won’t keep your nose clean.”

He shook his head, huffing out a breath. I thought he was going to argue with me or tell me again that I didn’t know him, but instead he asked, “Why did you come? If you think I owe you now, you have another thing coming. I don’t owe anyone shit, especially a Hunt.”

Venom dripped off my last name. Was all this because of Bec? Was he that pissed Rex had stolen his girl?

“I don’t want you to owe me. I did this for me, not you. I didn’t want your inevitable fuckup on my conscience. You can handle that shit all on your own.”

The moon was bright enough that I could see his face, could see his brows furrowed the way they almost always were, and the hard set of his lips. “Don’t use me to clear your conscience. Get out of here, Hunt.”

“Shit.” I rubbed a hand over my face. The last thing I wanted was to give an inch when it came to Riven, but I hated being like my family more. Fighting with Riven made me feel like them because I could see he was trying. It was more than I could ever say for my dad or Rex. “Listen, we have to work together. We need to find a way to be civil to each other.”

“You mean the way you were when you pushed me? You’re lucky I’m on parole, otherwise I wouldn’t let that shit fly. You act like I’m the only one with a temper, but you’re not that different. You’re not any better than I am.”

I’ve never killed someone…Even though it was true, those words felt somehow wrong to say, and when it came down to it, Riven was right. Plus, it had been self-defense; he hadn’t intended to kill Jerry. “I had no business putting my hands on you.”

“Don’t do it again.”

“I won’t. Listen, I don’t like you any more than you seem to like me, but we have to work together, and I’d rather not be miserable every day.”

“Then leave me alone,” was all Riven said before he turned and went inside, slamming the door behind him.