Dirty Sex (11 page)

way I was sitting there and waiting for her to fall asleep.

“Nope, they can’t snuggle. You’re a girl. You can snuggle.” Maybe

she was talking in her sleep. It kind of sounded like it.

“I’ll just go get Ryan.” I stepped away. Immediately, her eyes

snapped open and the set returned to her shoulders.

“No. I will really hate you then.” Her eyes started to close. “I’m

not snuggling with my brother.”

I told myself she would fall asleep soon so it was okay. Quickly,

I shed my jeans and tugged on a pair of gym shorts. Then I climbed in

bed next to her. She turned to her side and pressed back against me. I

curled my arm around her stomach and pulled her close.

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Dirty Sex

“Cooper, I only kind of hate you,” Reese whispered as she wove

her fingers through mine. Moments later, she was asleep. I couldn’t

bring myself to move.

❖

“How is she?” my mom asked an hour later. I’d finally forced

myself to leave Reese and go downstairs.

“All right.” I fell into a kitchen chair across from her.

“Ryan is asleep on the couch. You can sleep in Ade’s room.” She

leaned closer and brushed a hand down my face.

“I’m not tired,” I lied. “Don’t you have work?”

“Not today. I called in.” That was cool of her. “Do you want some

coffee?”

“Sure.” I nodded. “What are we going to do?”

“Nothing, sweetie.” My mom flashed a sympathetic smile as if

that would make it better. Actually, from her it did. I still needed my

mommy. “If Reese doesn’t want to press charges, we can’t make her.”

She placed a cup of coffee in front of me.

“Why not?” I asked even though I knew the answer. All I got was

a look.

“They are both staying here. They can stay as long as they want.”

My mother was adamant. “Maybe we can move the office around.”

She wasn’t even talking to me anymore. “Get some bunk beds so they

don’t have to share. No, we should give Reese that room.” Once she got

started, she’d never stop. “You and Ryan can share.”

“Mom,” I cut her off. “You might want to ask them first.”

“I didn’t say it was optional. You kids will always be my babies.

So If I need to lock you up here to keep you safe…” She shrugged like

it was out of her hands. Mothers.

“They might not be able to. They have to go home sometime.”

“According to whom?”

“The law. Okay not the law, but their mother. Close enough. That

stupid two-week rule thing.”

“I wish Carissa had spoken to us. Before she was killed that is.”

No shit, Mom. A lot of people wish that. The whole dying in a car

accident thing kind of made that more difficult. “Don’t look at me like

that. I was talking about the twins. We would have taken them in a

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heartbeat instead of leaving them with Christopher. We had no idea he

had gotten so bad.”

“That’s nice of you,” I replied sarcastically. “Really, but since

they’re twenty-one, it might be a little late in the game.”

“When did you get so obnoxious? You must have gotten that from

your father. I didn’t teach you that.” Actually, it was a mutual effort.

Thanks, guys.

❖

“Ryan, we need to talk.” Reese stomped into the kitchen. The

twins had been at my house for two weeks. They went home to sleep

and get stuff once so Christopher couldn’t kick them out.

“What’s up, sis?” Ryan asked through a mouthful of macaroni and

cheese. We were at the table with one of those party-sized ones between

us. We were only a third of the way through and already feeling sick.

“This.” She tossed a thick file onto the table.

“What’s this?” He pointed at it with his fork.

“How much do you think Mom left us?” Reese sat at the table and

grimaced at our choice of food. Her face looked much better and she

could fully open her eye now, which really added to her ability to glare.

Neither of us had mentioned me holding her while she fell asleep, and

I sure as hell wasn’t planning on it.

“How much what?”

“Money.”

“I dunno. Couple million.” I loved how nonchalant he was about

that.

“Wrong.” Reese was on some sort of mission.

“What? Please don’t tell me we put up with that douche bag for ten

years for a lousy couple hundred thousand.” Ryan was really distressed.

“How am I supposed to buy a house in Hawaii, smoke pot, and live off

the interest if it’s only half a million? I can’t even buy a house for that.”

“Wow, great plan for the future,” I interjected.

“It may be simple, but it will make me happy.” Ryan shouldn’t

have smoked so much pot that morning. Or in the last six years.

“I think it’s time to cut back on the weed,” I said.

“I agree, but could we focus?” Reese said.

“Okay, how much money?” he asked.

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Dirty Sex

“She left a total of almost forty million.” Ryan dropped his fork

into the mac and cheese. “We each get about twelve million. The

remainder goes to Christopher.”

I inhaled the food in my mouth and had to rush to the sink to

cough it up. “You should have pressed charges against the bastard.”

“It wouldn’t matter. That’s what I want to talk about. The money’s

gone.” Reese delivered her information like an executioner, with

precision and entirely lacking remorse.

“What do you mean the money’s gone?” I sat back at the table. It

looked like Ryan was still in shock. His fork was still in the mac and

cheese.

“I mean the accounts have all been closed and there’s no trace of

the money.”

“But what does that mean?” Yes, I was dense.

“My best guess would be that Christopher somehow bribed the

lawyer in charge of the trust to close it out and transfer the money.”

“How did you figure this shit out?” Ryan found his voice.

“When he hit me, I knew there had to be a reason, but I couldn’t

figure anything out. And then I thought maybe he was stressed or

something. So I hired a lawyer and a private detective. The kind who

look at paper trails. I wanted them to figure out what he does for a

living. Because we still don’t know and that’s weird.”

“Wait. He hit you so you decided to figure out what his job is?” I

asked.

“Yeah. Why?”

“That doesn’t make sense.”

Reese looked annoyed. “Sure it does. I had to figure out why he

didn’t want me to apply to grad school.”

“I don’t get it,” I said.

“Don’t worry about it. Just keep up for a sec, ‘kay?”

I was confused. But with Reese, I was usually confused.

“Whatever.”

“So what’s he do?” Ryan wanted to know.

“Nothing. Oh, and those business trips he takes? There’s no record

of it. Or at least no flight records. He apparently drives wherever he’s

going.”

“But I thought he had a job,” I said.

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AShley BArtlett

“No need. The trust and interest pay for everything. The way it’s

set up, Christopher has access to it with the permission of the lawyer

so he can pay our expenses. You know, tuition, health insurance, food,

things like that.”

“So where’s our fuckin’ money?” Ryan was starting to comprehend

what she was saying.

“I don’t know. The people I hired couldn’t find it.”

“Isn’t that totally illegal?” I was there to ask the obvious questions.

“Of course.” Reese looked at me like I was stupid. “Get this. The

lawyer is gone. My private detective couldn’t find him.”

“So call the cops,” I said.

“What good would it do?” Reese asked.

“Um, dude did something illegal. So you call the cops on his ass.”

It seemed like a logical move to me.

“They can’t bring the money back.”

I was missing something here. Or Reese was hiding something.

“Uh, I think Coop’s right. We need to call the cops,” Ryan said.

“And what? They’ll find what I found. The money is gone. So

is Christopher. So is the lawyer. They’ll just dig into the paper trail.”

Reese stared hard at Ryan. He shrugged.

“Good call.” Ryan.

“Yeah.” Reese.

“Cops suck.” Ryan.

Something had just happened. That look. I decided to roll with it.

For now.

“So what are you going to do?” I asked.

“Not a damn clue. Mooch until he kicks us out.”

“You guys are fucked.”

“Thanks, asshole.” They both glared.

“Okay, no, maybe not.” I figured it couldn’t hurt to throw out

some dumb ideas. “Your credit cards are paid by his account, right?”

They nodded.

“So what?” Ryan didn’t follow.

“So buy your house in Hawaii, he’ll have to pay it off. Buy cars in

your names and sell them off later. Run your credit cards up to the limit

until he stops paying them off. He’ll probably catch on pretty quick, but

until he does buy everything you can.”

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Dirty Sex

“It’s better than nothing.” Reese was resigned. “I wonder if we can

use our credit cards for mutual funds.”

“Fuck, Reese. You’re so boring.” It was actually a good idea.

“Anyway, you can probably get cash advances.”

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but you’re a genius.”

“Why? You guys would have thought about cash advances.”

“No, the whole buy everything thing,” Reese said.

“You guys are taking this really well.” They shrugged. Maybe

they were in shock. “When Christopher gets back into town again you

should probably confront him.” I knew they weren’t going to like that

idea.

“I guess,” Ryan told his mac and cheese.

“If he gets back in town, that is. The dude is probably long gone.”

If I stole a bunch of money, I would take the fuck off.

“We’ll deal with that when we need to.” Reese was all business.

“In the meantime, let’s spend some money.” She grinned.

“So are you guys going to throw me a kick ass party for my

birthday?”

“Fuck, yeah.” Ryan and I slapped our palms together.

Whatever had just happened was weird. But Ryan would fill me in

later. I was sure of it.

• 83 •

• 84 •

Dirty Sex

The newest slasher flick was playing at midnight so we were

totally going. There’s nothing better than thirty-year-olds

playing teenagers bleeding all over the screen.

The theater was insane. Not in a good way. After graduation, you

really don’t want to see most of the people you went to high school

with, but it was unavoidable at the theaters in the middle of summer.

Midnight releases of big movies increased the chances. By the time

I got to the ticket window, I’d seen at least twenty people from my

graduating class, three girls gave me their new numbers, and two guys

gave me the evil eye. It wasn’t my fault about the guys. Their girlfriends

had wanted me and were hot. What was I supposed to do? Anyway, that

was for days ago.

“Coop, did you see Melanie Hendricks?” Derek asked as Ryan

and I approached.

“Who?” I tried to remember a Melanie.

“You know.” Carson smacked my arm. “Hendricks. We went to

middle school with her. And she had government with us senior year.”

This was why I went to theaters in Sacramento.

“No idea. Should I remember her?”

“Sweetness,” Austin said. “You made out with her at homecoming

when we were juniors. Remember?” he said like there was a reason for

me to remember.

“Did I go to homecoming?” Dances weren’t my thing. Neither

were games.

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AShley BArtlett

“Yes. I was playing so I made you go. Instead of watching the

game, you got drunk with Melanie under the bleachers.” Carson seemed

to know more than I did. But the story did seem familiar.

“Coop? Cooper, I knew you’d show up.” I turned and should

have looked at her eyes, except my gaze strayed a bit south. “Oh, yeah,

definitely you.”

“Shit, Mel?” Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the guys

rolling their eyes and fighting laughter. “How are you?” Now I

remembered her. Mel Tricks. I thought Tricks was actually her last

name. Guess it was just a not-so-flattering nickname. Last names would

be a good idea in the future. I promised myself that I would know the

last name of the next woman I kissed.

“Great. I’m going to school in LA now. You?”

“Still at Sac State with these losers.” Ryan was standing close

enough for me to yank him next to me. I hated talking to people. No

way I was talking to her alone.

“I’m not a loser,” he replied indignantly. “How’s it going, Mel?”

“Not bad. I was kind of hoping I’d run into you.” One of her hands

landed on my arm. Interesting. No, not interesting. I managed to smile

when I really just wanted to watch a psycho massacring teenagers on a

very large screen. Over Mel’s shoulder, I caught sight of Reese. Maybe

she’d help me since the guys were no help. She still owed me from the

bar that night she got home.

“Hey, peanut butter,” I called to see if she would bite. Then I

remembered why Mel and I were under the bleachers. So her girlfriend

wouldn’t find us. Her girlfriend Reese. Shit.

“Hey, babe,” Reese called back.

Mel turned to see who I was talking to. Simultaneously, they