Landon's Obsession: An Endless Series: Book 3 (Series 3) (27 page)

     The male watched her leave with concern, and I could
see in his eyes that he wanted to go after her and only refrained because of
us.

     He gave us a weak smile. “Sorry about that. I’m Gregory
Hayes.” He stepped forward offering his hand to me. I almost didn’t take it,
but then I did, gripping it with excessive force. The guy was as tall as me and
looked to be in pretty good shape, but I had more muscles, and he winced
slightly at my grasp.

     I released him quickly and gritted out. “Landon,
McKay.”

     He gave me a slight frown and turned his attention to
Marie. She took his hand and gave him a brilliant smile like she was trying to
make up for my attitude. “Marie Hollinger. I’m the one interested in the house.
Landon is my cousin.”

    
Gregory
nodded with a smile. “I know you’ve been
talking on the phone with Maya, and she had planned to show you around, but
since she’s not feeling well I guess I get the pleasure.”

     I wanted to knock that smile off his face.

     He began explaining the room we were in but I blocked
him out as my attention was on the woman in the other room. They began moving
out of the room and Marie called to me.

     I refocused. “Go ahead, Marie. I want to look around on
my own.”

     She gave me a look that said I was supposed to be
helping her, but I just waved her away. Rolling her eyes she trailed after
Gregory
.

     I made my way to the kitchen. 

     Maya was standing in front of the sink. However, she
wasn’t getting a drink. She was just clutching the counter with white knuckled
hands staring straight ahead. The sound of my footsteps didn’t even break her
from her trance. The last image I had of her flashed in my head; her naked
lying on top of my brother. I had never been able to get that picture out of my
head, no matter how hard I tried.

     My chest felt like the drum section of an orchestra.

     “So, Maya, how have you been?” I asked through the
banging.

     She stiffened and trembled at the same time, but didn’t
turn around, and didn’t answer.

     I marched further into the room, my gaze fixed on her.
It pissed me off that she was still so stunning…and that my body still reacted
to her. My dick was swelling just being near her. “What…can’t say hello to an
old friend?”

     She continued to stand there stiffly, not answering. My
fury was beginning to boil over. The little bitch wasn’t going to ignore me.
“Turn around or I’ll make you turn around.” I gritted out between my teeth.

     For a minute I thought she was going to continue to
ignore me, but then she slowly turned. Her creamy coffee skin was still pale,
and it made her dark eyes and red stained lips stand out sharply. She looked
frail, breakable, and it just amped my rage. Why the hell was she looking at me
like I might attack her? She was the one that had played me.

     “Why the hell are you looking at me that way?” I
growled.

     She jerked, but held silent.

     The muscles under my skin were beginning to twitch
telling me I needed to move. I paced around the room. “So you’re in real-estate.
What happened to getting a degree in languages and traveling the world?”

     Her gaze followed me, and she seemed to find her voice.
“Things change.” Her voice was soft, hoarse. 

     I laughed darkly. “Let me guess, you found an easier
way to travel the world. Instead of having to go to school and putting in the
hard work you found someone who offered it up to you on a silver platter. All
you had to do was lay back and spread your legs.”

     She shrank back like I’d physically hit her and tears
welled up in her eyes. “Why are you being like this? What did I ever do to
you?”

     She was a better actress than I thought. “Don’t play
innocent with me, because we both know your not; in neither mind nor body. I
know you slept with my brother, Maya, so stop acting like the injured party.”

     Dark eyes stared at me from a pale face and she
appeared to be having a difficult time breathing. This act she was putting on
was only making me more furious, because it was affecting me.

     “You know…” she swallowed.  

     I sneered. “I saw you together. I walked in on you. You
were lying on that bed together, sleeping, naked. You fucked him when you
barely knew him. What did Kris offer you? Did he promise to take you on his
next trip over seas? Or maybe he just offered you money straight up?” I had never
meant to reveal to her that I saw them together. I had wanted her to think I’d
broken things off with her because I was tired of her, but the words flowed out
of me of their own volition. 

     Her hand came up to cover her mouth and she stared at
me in shocked horror.

     “Stop looking like that!” I yelled, anger spilling
over. She was getting to me and I wasn’t going to let her do that again. 

     Her expression suddenly blanked, like she’d cut off
whatever emotion she’d been feeling. It confirmed that she’d only been acting.
Although, her dark eyes still churned with emotion.

     “You need to leave.” She stated in a firm if somewhat
shaky voice.

     I stared at her. “Excuse me?”

     “You need to leave!” She shouted, chest heaving. “Get
away from me…just…get away.”

     “What the hell is going on here?”

     I turned toward the new voice to see
Gregory
standing in the entry way to the kitchen with an angry expression on his face.
Marie stood behind him wearing a shocked one.

     “Get away from her.” Striding forward he dragged Maya
away and I realized that I’d moved to where I was only a foot away from Maya.
He pulled her into his arms and she went willingly, burying her face in his
chest.

     I had to hold myself back from hauling her back.

     “You both need to leave now.” He continued speaking,
spitting orders out like I would listen.

     Marie rushed forward and grabbed my arm. “We’re going.
Landon, come on.”

     I stood my ground and glared at him, than at Maya. I
wasn’t ready to leave.

     Marie tugged at my arm forcefully. “Landon! Now!”

     “Fine.” I growled. Whirling, I stomped toward the door,
out of the house, and into my car. As soon as Marie got into the passenger seat
I squealed out of the driveway.

     “What the hell were you doing, Landon? It looked like
you were terrorizing that woman.”

     My guts roiled with emotions. It did look like that.

∞                   
∞                    ∞

     The rest of the week went for shit. I wasn’t able to
concentrate on anything; Maya’s face kept pushing its way into my mind. Her distress
had appeared so genuine and I wasn’t sure why that was. What did she have to be
scared of? Thinking about her distress bothered me, and it infuriated me that I
was bothered.    

     Because of this I was snappy and basically a total dick
to everyone around me.

     Two of my roommates; Nic and Noah ended up at their
girlfriends most of the week so they were spared the majority of my bad mood.
Seth mooned over Nadia all week and barely noticed my temper, and Evan learned
to stay out of my way by the second day.

     To add to my irritability the house we were renting was
getting new plumbing installed so our water was being turned off and on. By the
time the weekend rolled around for our beach getaway I was ready to tear
someone’s head off.

     Seth had worked up the nerve to invite the Russian
girl, Nadezhda, the night before we left and she was also bringing her fifteen
year old brother and ten year old sister. I about shit a brick when Seth told
me this.

     How are you supposed to party with elementary kids
around?

     I wasn’t going to let some pre-schooler’s stop me from
getting wasted and forgetting the week I’d had so everyone could kiss my ass if
they had problem with that. Besides my roommates I’d also invited another
teammate, Blake, and his sister, Samantha, who were both Carrie’s cousins.
Noah’s girlfriend, Amanda, was also coming, so that made twelve people total.  

     Saturday morning we all headed over to Virginia Beach. I hitched a ride in Nic’s truck with his girlfriend, Carrie, and slept the
entire way. When we arrived I told everyone to pick a room and after some quick
introductions with the new people we started to enjoy the last of the ninety
degree weather of the season.

     “Landon, I never would have guessed that under those
buttoned up shirts you had the body of a
bratva
.” Nadezhda, or Nadia as
she liked to be called, declared with her slight Russian accent.

     She was sitting in the boat with her sister sitting
next to her. I was finding that having a ten year old around wasn’t as much of
a downer as I thought it would be. Her name was Issy and she was shy, quiet,
and cute as hell, and it made me and everyone around her want to draw her out
of her shell. The only problem, I had to really watch my language.

     Now Nadia’s fifteen year old brother was more like her;
funny and gregarious. The kid was taller than me and was nearly as big as Seth.
Came to find out he was a wrestler. I would hate to be matched against him.  

     I was securing the water ski’s to the boat, but looked
up inquiringly. “What is a
bratva
?”

     “Someone in the Russian mafia.” Nadia grinned.

     “I’m part Irish so if I was in any mafia it would be
IRA or something like that.” I retorted with a smirk. “You know, with your fair
skin tattoos would look amazing on you.”  

     Seth was pulling safety vests out from under the seats
and gave me a scowl for daring to mention Nadia’s body in any way. My smirk
grew at his jealousy. The guy really had it bad for the girl, and while Nadia
was hot in a strawberry blonde Russian princess way I wasn’t a guy who poached.
However, I did like raising his ire. While Seth had a grumpy disposition about
him it took quite a lot to get under his skin, but Nadia seemed to be his
kryptonite.        

     “Is that a roundabout way of calling me pasty white?”
Nadia rolled her eyes in amusement.

     “I wouldn’t say pasty, but you do look like a possible
relative of Casper’s.” I mocked. Her skin, in truth, had pearl quality that was
in no way ghostlike, and her and Seth actually made a striking pair; her with
her fair skin and blonde/red hair, and him with his dark brown hair and dark
tan.

     She sneered at me over a grin.

     “Here you go, Nadia.” Seth interrupted our banter by
offering Nadia and her sister life jackets. When she turned his way he wiped
the scowl he’d been throwing me off his face giving her a smile. I smirked even
harder over her head to piss him off because seeing him this way was too funny.

     “His tattoo shocked me when I first saw it too.” Amanda
commented with a grin. She was in the boat as well. She was just as attractive
as Nadia, but had more of a blonde California girl about her. “He has this
overall persona of stylish businessman with his clothes on, but when they come
off he’s all badass hunk.”

     “Babe, I do not like you calling other guys hunks.” Noah
complained.

     She rolled her eyes. “Don’t get all bent out of shape,
sweetie, nobody comes close to your hunkiness.”

     “Dam…darn, right they don’t.” He proclaimed with
exaggerated self-importance, while correcting his language.

     “I think it’s beautiful.” Carrie declared as Nic
assisted her in the boat. They were an arresting couple as well, but were the
opposite of Seth and Nadia. Nic was fair-haired while Carrie was dark. 

     Nic was extremely protective of Carrie and barely left her
side. They’d been through a lot together in the short time they been dating and
it had created something powerful, and consuming, between them.

     I would never admit it out loud, but it made me jealous
as hell. I’d also kept the fact that Carrie’s slight resemblance in manner and
looks to another female had made being around her difficult. She was half Latin
instead of African American, and had ice blue eyes, but her dark complexion and
dark hair were almost identical. I’d moved past it
mostly
, because I knew
now that Carrie wasn’t faking it.

     I shook my head at the return of agitation I’d been
experiencing periodically all week, not wanting to go down that road at the
moment…or any moment.

     “It is stunning; it’s too bad it has to be hidden most
of the time.” Nadia commented; a comment that brought another scowl to Seth’s
face. The guy was revealing way too much. He was nearly as bad as Nic. “And
your language fits more with the tattoos than the suits.” She smirked.

     “Yeah, Landon, why do you wear clothes that cover it up
most of the time?” Amanda asked.

     “My mom dresses me.” I answered in a deadpan tone.

     Everyone laughed at the same time I finished with the
water ski line allowing us to finally get on the water…thankfully. While I didn’t
mind people admiring my art I didn’t like talking about it. It was personal and
I’d put it there for me, not for everyone else to ‘ohh’ and ‘auh’ over.

     I hadn’t been kidding about the fact that my mom
dressed me either, although it wasn’t as loser’ish’ as it sounded. When I’d
started working with my father mother had made an appointment with a
professional personal shopper who had outfitted me with business attire. I
hadn’t argued about it because I’d understood her point of view. I couldn’t go
to work in jeans and t-shirts. However, I’d chosen my own style.

     Why I continued to wear them outside of work was my own
idiosyncrasy. I wasn’t even sure why I did it. Rebelling against rebelling
maybe?

     The rest of the day was less thought inducing. We water
skied, rode the Jet Ski’s, swam, played volleyball, and grilled out. At around
seven Issy fell asleep on the sand and Nadia took her inside so she could put
her to bed. The rest of us went in soon after to clean up.

     After our showers we hung out on the veranda drinking,
at least those of us who could drink, and playing a trivia board game for a
couple hours, but the down time was too much for me. My brain wasn’t focused on
the trivia questions; other questions overtook my mind. 

     I couldn’t get Maya’s reaction at seeing me out of my
head; I couldn’t get
her
out of my head. After all these years she still
affected me. If I was honest with myself she’d been affecting me throughout the
last four years, but I was good at lying to myself and acting as if she didn’t.

     After the end of the game I jumped up, my nerves
jittery. “It’s been fun folk, but I need more action than this. Who’s coming?”

     Blake, a teammate and friend, rose as well. “I’m in.”

     Samantha and Luka were too young to go drinking at the
bar. Carrie was barely nineteen and wasn’t going to leave her cousin Samantha
behind anyway so that meant Nic was staying. Nadia wasn’t leaving with her sister
sleeping upstairs, so Seth wasn’t going anywhere.

    However, Noah, Amanda, and Evan were in for a night out.

     We all clambered in Blake’s SUV and headed toward Main
Street, and ten minutes later we were sitting in our first bar waiting for
drinks.

     “Am I imagining things or are you a little high strung
tonight?” Evan asked.

     I shrugged, looking around for some entertainment. I
needed more than alcohol tonight; my frustration and nerves needed some relief.

     “Not in the mood to talk, are we?” He chided.

     “Not about my high strungness.” I retorted with a
pointed brow.

     The waitress walked up dropping off our drinks and I
swapped her for cash with a big tip. She gave me what I could see was a
practiced coy smile, but she was working and likely wouldn’t be available for
hours, so I ignored it.       

     “Auh, come on, I want to talk about our feelings and
shit.” Evan whined.

     Amanda squealed and grabbed at Evan’s arm. “Really
Evan, I’ve been dying to talk to someone about mine. Noah just falls asleep
whenever I do.”

     Noah rolled his eyes back and nodded, but stayed
silent, while Blake adopted a look of horror scooting his chair away. Any other
time I would have shot back my own quip, but I wasn’t feeling it tonight.
Instead I gave a half smile and chugged my shot.

     The rest of the night went the same. The three of them
joked around, but I just wasn’t able to dig up the desire to join in. They
noticed and tried to bring me out of my bad mood it wasn’t happening. The bar
scene wasn’t distracting my like I thought it would either.

     We hit two more bars and at some point I forgot about
finding entertainment and settled on drinking…a lot. However, Evan found a
chick and she had a sidekick who found her way mashed to my side, and I noted
that Blake had found one of his own as well.

     I kept forgetting the chick’s name sitting next to me
trying her best to get my attention, and after a while she seemed to finally
get sick of it and took her interest elsewhere. I wasn’t disappointed.

     We decided to call it a night a little before one in
the morning. The busy day we had in the sun was finally catching up with all of
us. I wasn’t wasted, surprisingly, but I was drunk enough that I dropped right
off to sleep when my head hit the pillow back at the house.

∞                   
∞                    ∞

     “Landon…Landon!”

     I jerked out of a sound, inebriated sleep to someone
yelling my name.

     Shooting up to a sitting position I looked around in
blurry eyed alarm. “What…what’s going on?”

     “There are some intruders in the house!”

    
What
!? “What!?”  I jumped up from the bed and
blinked toward the door. Blake stood there with Evan in their boxers looking as
alarmed as I felt. They dashed down the hall and I ran after them. Luka was in
the hallway holding Issy in his arm and she was clutching at him with her head
stuffed in his chest. Luka’s expression displayed both concern and anger as he
pointed to the bedroom further down the hall. The three of us followed his
silent directive, and I took note that the hall window showed it was still dark
outside.

     We hurtled into the bedroom and then stopped short at
the scene meeting our eyes.

     Nadia and Seth were both holding down two males on one
of the beds. While the situation was shocking and alarming, seeing Seth
restraining a male wasn’t all that startling. However, the sight of Nadia in
panties and a camisole pinning down a guy was a little more staggering. Any
lingering intoxication seemed to drain out of me.  

     I knew the girl was tough, but shit! “What in the hell?”

     But Nadia wasn’t the focus here. I switched my
attention to the two fucker’s on the bed. I stepped closer and then stopped
short; irritation rising with my anger. “Kris! What in the fuck?” The male
Nadia was holding down was my brother. I was never happy to see him, but I was
even less so now. What the hell was he doing here, and what the hell had he’d
done to be restrained? Had he walked in by accident and Nadia just reacted?

     “I take it this
is
your brother?” Seth asked.

     From Seth’s tone Kris must have tried to explain who he
was, but Seth hadn’t chosen to take him at his word. If I were him I wouldn’t
have either.

     I nodded. “What happened?” 

     Nadia pushed off the Kris, none too gently, backing
away. Seth did the same with the other guy and immediately went to the opposite
bed grabbing the top coverlet to throw around her. Any other time I would have
grinned at his possessiveness, but I was too angry at the moment.        

     Storming forward I grabbed him by his collar and hauled
him into a sitting position. “What the hell are you doing here, Kris?”

     The other guy struggled to sit up as well and I noticed
he was holding a bloody nose. Was that from Nadia or Seth? Seth seized Nadia’s
hand grumbling that she’d had better not have broken her hand again answering
my question about who’d popped the guy in the nose. Nadia said she was fine,
and then Blake began commending Nadia on her incredibleness, and this had Seth
grumbling further in jealousy trying to get everyone’s focus off Nadia, and the
entire time I just glared at Kris.

     “Can we get back to the matter at hand?” Seth growled.

     “Yeah, Kris, you still haven’t answered my question.
What are you doing in here?”

     Kris looked up with drunken resentment, rubbing at his
arm. I hope Nadia had wrenched his arm good. “Rob and I were in town partying
and came here to crash for the night.”

     “If you had checked with mother and father you would
know that I reserved the house this weekend…and it’s a full house.” I reported
angrily. “But the question I was asking you was why are you in
this
room? And why was Nadia restraining you?”

     “I checked a few of the other room but they were taken.
When I got to this one…” Kris threw a surly expression at Nadia which had Seth
moving forward to most likely wipe it off. Nadia held him back though by
seizing his arm.

     “When you got to this one, what asshole?  Why is it
that she felt threatened enough to where she had to fight you, both of you”
Seth growled with a glare.

     That was a very good question.

     Kris’s surly expression instantly morphed into
apprehension as Seth loomed over him. Seth would have no problem tearing him
from limb to limb so he better look apprehensive. “I was just checking out who
was in the bed when she jumped up all of a sudden and hit Rob in the nose, and
then she grabbed my arm and twisted it, pushing me down on the bed.” In his
intoxicated state he was dense enough to throw Nadia another surly look. “What
is she, some kind of martial arts chick?”

     I shook my head at his stupidity. “You’re lucky she
didn’t have a knife or she would have probably gutted you.” I said derisively.
I didn’t say this just to scare him, I’d seen Nadia handle a knife and she was
damn awesome with the thing.