Page 50 of Bad Boy Next Door
Sixteen
Nick
“Earth to Nick.”
“Huh?” I turned toward my brother Cormac as we climbed the hill toward Shady Oaks. “What did you say?”
Lifting his shades, Mac stared at me. “Have you heardanythingI said?”
“Nope.” I didn’t want to be involved in the job Keagan and Shane were planning.
“Come on,” Mac said. “You know you’ll eventually cave.”
I ran up the last half of the hill, regretting the last few slices of spicy pizza I’d just devoured.
“What’s going on with you?” Mac asked when he caught up. “Problems in sex-slave paradise?”
I shoved him.
He stumbled off the edge of the sidewalk, laughing. “Seriously, man. What’s wrong?”
We reached the Shady Oaks gate, and I dug out my keys to open it.
It had been ten days, seven hours and—I checked my phone—twenty-four minutes since I’d told Jade the truth and she’d thrown me out. The same amount of time since she’d talked to me.
We worked at the same place, so we’d seen each other every day except Mondays when the club was closed, but Jade hadn’t said a word to me. She wouldn’t even look at me, and I’d never felt so invisible. I’d also lost my easy lift to the club, letting Jade go with Melodie.
“She’s not talking to me,” I said.
Mac walked through the gate first. “Talking isn’t typically what you want from a sex slave.”
“Fuck you, Mac.” I stomped past him and into the courtyard. “Fuck! You!”
He caught up with me just before we passed the pool. “Hey. You actually like this girl, don’t you?”
I headed for the stairs, wishing Mac would just leave me the hell alone.
“Come on,” he called after me. “Hey, man. Wait. Sit. I’ll grab us some beers.”
I stopped. Of all my brothers, Mac was the one who might actually be able to give me some solid advice. Keagan had women lining up to be with him; I’m sure he never had problems like this. Dillon knew more about gadgets than girls, and Shane… Well, these days talking to my next-oldest brother was a non-starter.
But Mac—Mac knew people, what made them tick.
Already dragging two chairs over to the side of the pool, he looked toward me and grinned. “I’ll grab those beers.”
Instead of heading to the two-bedroom he shared with Dillon, he made a beeline for Keagan’s.
I glanced up to the third-floor balcony, thinking I’d caught a glimpse of Jade, but she wasn’t there. Wishful thinking.
I leaned on one of the chairs. This pool was such a fucking joke. When I’d moved in, there were signs up saying the pool was undergoing maintenance and would reopen soon, but over the past four and a half years it had gotten worse, not better. The signs had eventually faded, then fallen down. But given how cheap the rent was, no one complained, and the hilarious thing was: the Oaks residents—including the Downeys—often hung out around the pool as if it were a feature instead of a pond scum factory.
I walked to the edge. The shade of green was actually pretty when the sun hit it this time of day.
I saw the flowers. I tipped back my head, looking up at the sky.
“What?” Coming up beside me, Mac handed me a beer. He’d grabbed a six-pack from Keagan’s fridge and set the rest of them under one of the chairs.
“She’s not down there, is she?” he asked with mock worry. “Need me to do mouth-to-mouth?” He glanced into the pool. “Hey. Someone tossed out a bunch of flowers.”
