“Fine, pussy. If I win I want Kai’s car.”
“Which one?” Kai demands, already sounding wounded. His cars are his pride and joy. The idiot would rather sign away our entire legacy than one of his precious babies.
I scoff. Unlike my brother, material possessions mean nothing to me. Well,almostall material possessions…
“All of them. And Koa? I’ll take your surfboards.”
I grit my teeth and agree, because losing the only items that I care about – my collection of boards from our travels around the globe – is still better than signing away our family business.
I catch Kai’s eye and a moment of silent agreement passes between us, then we accept Finn’s terms. It’s not like we’ll let him win anyway.
“What do we get if we win?” Kai asks Finn thoughtfully.
“What do you want?”
I jump in before my idiot twin can ask for something stupid and pointless. “If I win, Kai’s taking all of my shifts for the rest of the year, including the holidays.” He groans dramatically.
My brother hates work. Why not hit him where it hurts? Demanding his collection of expensive sports cars is pointless; they’re all replaceable. Making himworkfor a living is a true punishment for the lazy and the feckless.
I turn to our best friend and continue, “And you, Finn, have to drop out of Oxford and tell your father that you’re coming to Alderbridge with us instead.”
A beat of silence.
Finn’s cocky mask flickers, something vulnerable beneath it. We all know he wants to come with us, but his father has hislife mapped out. I’d be doing him a favour really, by winning this bet. He even has an unconditional offer on hold to attend Alderbridge because his grades are literally perfect – but his father is making him follow in his footsteps at Oxford, reading a subject he has zero interest in or passion for.
“Impossible,” Finn chuckles but it sounds forced. There’s a tightness around the corner of his eyes that wasn’t there a moment ago. I hope he knows I’m doing this for him. “But as it’s never going to happen, I’ll accept. Kai, your terms?”
“WhenI win,” he begins. I punch him in the arm and he grins at me. “When I win, I’ll take half of your trust fund, Finn.”
“Only half? So generous,” Finn quips. “Deal.”
“How ever will he survive with only a cool five bil to his name?” I snort derisively.
Our family is rich. Millionaires based on our assets alone rather than actual funds in the bank, but there’s no denying that Finn and his father run in completely different circles to us. He likes to joke that we keep him grounded when he slums it with us in the summer. Of course Finn wouldn’t even bat an eyelid at losing five billion pounds to my brother. Fifty percent of his trust fund doesn’t even make a dent on what he has already, or what he’s set to inherit when his dickhead of a father passes away.
“I’d never leave you destitute, mate. Your face ain’t pretty enough to make a living off.”
“But my dick is,” Finn quips. We all laugh, the tension of a moment ago bleeding away.
“Yeah, yeah, poor little rich boy with an evenlittlerdick,” Kai gripes goodnaturedly before turning to me with a hard glint in his eye. “And Koa? When I win, I’m not sure what I’ll take from you yet. But it’ll hurt. I’ll make sure of that.”
I believe him. We may be twins, both alphas, but we couldn’t be more different. Kai takes pleasure in hurting others, whereas I prefer to love them. Usually we get along pretty well – mostlybecause I prefer to avoid conflict – but every once in a while we come to blows.
The tension has been growing between us since last summer when he stole my girl and broke my heart. At least, that’s how I felt at the time. Now I’m not so sure it was love. More like, disappointment and betrayal that my brother couldn’t just let me haveonething for myself, even for a few short sun and fun-filled months. Dickhead.
“So what do each of these cards stand for then?” Kai asks, rubbing his hands together in excitement.
Finn’s smile turns delighted as he grins at us. “I thought you’d never ask.”
I scrub a hand over my jaw, trying to shake it off. It’s nothing. Just the start of summer. The usual bullshit.
Still, there’s a pull in my chest I can’t quite place. Low and insistent. Gone as quickly as it comes, leaving nothing behind but the faintest sense that something’s already shifted. I don’t know why but for the first time in years, I’m not looking forward to competing.
TWO
LANI
I steponto the sun-kissed porch of my grandmother’s house – my home for the summer – ready to embrace the freedom that comes with a much-needed break from reality. My life has been a shit show recently, no thanks to my deadbeat dad, and this summer is going to be my salvation. I can feel it.