DECEIT (B723) by Hazel Grace (ebook reader for surface pro .TXT) 📕

a hug. Thanking God for giving me a small piece of relief from the physical pain of whatever is going to happen tonight.

“Why are you here?” I mutter into his chest, smelling his mint and cedarwood cologne before stepping away and peering up at him.

“You told me you came home alone, and I remember once you telling me how much you hated it here. I didn’t want you to spend your day like shit.” He furrows his brows. “Why did you come?”

I give a noncommittal shrug of my shoulders, not wanting to provide him with the whole truth. Bishop would never follow me here, and I needed my brain to rest from everything he said to me.

“My mom has been bugging the shit out of me for months about this party. Not that it’s really for me or anything. I hardly know anyone here.”

“She’s been bugging the shit out of you for years,” he counters with a lopsided smile. “So you decided to come on your birthday, of all times?”

I shake my head. “No, I wanted to check out this Hampton party for that Willy Wonka character.”

Mills frowns. “Didn’t Bishop tell you to lay off going on solo missions?”

I cock my head to the side. The boys are always talking about me and my interests behind my back. “How the hell would you know?”

Mills mocks my actions and throws up a brow for good measure. “Why wouldn’t I know? We’re a team.”

“I wasn’t going to do anything.”

“But show up,” he deadpans, not buying a word of what I was saying even though it was true.

Have I been known to go off the mapped-out plan, sure, but I don’t do it all the time like they do.

“Yeah, I just wanted to vibe him out.”

Mills eyes me. “Sure…well, good thing I brought the crew with me then.”

“The what?”

Oh, I know what he means. I just don’t believe it. The Hamptons aren’t really my second fam’s style as much as it’s mine.

Mills rearranges his body, stepping to the side to give me a clear view of the fully stocked bar on the sidewall. And there, like the unconventional and out-of-place group they are, stands Blue, Marty, Kyson, and Bishop—staring dead at me with drinks in their hands.

All of them dressed casually in jeans—which I don’t give a shit about, but my mother is going to croak from a heart attack with her rule on formal attire.

Oops. 

Mills waves them over, and I watch them study my childhood home without an ounce of awe or excitement as they approach.

Killing and adrenaline are what’s invigorating.

Fancy parties, not so much.

“Happy Birthday, Emmy Lou,” Blue chirps the moment she’s within earshot, then lifts her red drink. “Nice party.”

I barely take in the fact that she looks gorgeous as always without even trying.

I also send her a warning glare through my tight jaw.

“Talk to my brothers, and I’ll kill you.”

Blue attempts to hold back a grin and fails miserably while Kyson holds out his arms for me to walk into.

“Ditching us for the extravagant party?” he accuses teasingly as he encases me into him. “Always knew you were a fucking brat.”

“You should’ve known that already with Miss Light-On-The-Ice every time she asks someone for a drink,” Marty chimes in, gripping my forearm to pull me out of Kyson’s grip. He squeezes me tightly—too tightly on purpose—to his frame and kisses the top of my head. “What are you like eighteen now?”

I roll my eyes, my nose smooched into his hard chest. “Leave me alone,” I half-ass whine.

Another pair of hands wrap around my wrists, and I know the feel of them anywhere. Marty promptly releases me and allows Bishop to haul me in front of him, blue eyes glimmering in something I can’t read.

“Eighteen?” he repeats off a smirk. “Aren’t you a year older than me?”

My nostrils flare because what the fuck is wrong with these assholes about age? Isn’t it just a number, and who the fuck cares?

“So that’d make her at least eleven because aren’t you like ten or something, Bish?” Mills interjects. “You throw temper tantrums like one.”

I smile, big and wide, and Bishop shoots one of his famous glares at him.

“Want me to remind you how my eleven-year-old ass hits?” he challenges.

“Don’t get us kicked out just yet,” Blue states. “I want to at least eat.”

Like a fly to shit, she gains all my focus.

“Don’t try eating one of my brothers’—“ Marty turns Blue away by the shoulders and sends me an exasperated look.

“I’ll go feed the redhead; you enjoy your party,” he offers. “We’ll be back.”

“And I’m going with them,” Mills adds, following close behind. “I want to know how good the wealthy eat.”

They take off, leaving me with the Ying and Yang twins.

Kyson looks around the place and raises both his brows. “Sooo…this is where you grew up?”

“Unfortunately.”

“Hey, Emmy Lou,” a male voice says from behind me. “Would you like to—“

“Fuck off,” Kyson growls out before I can even turn around to face whoever was just behind me.

“Ky,” I scold through narrowed and surprised eyes. “What the hell?”

“Bishop wanted to dance with you.” He slices his eyes to his best friend, and the look on his face tells me that he’s purposely either trying to piss him off or make him uncomfortable.

Regardless, I’d like to not be the science project tonight.

Bishop must’ve done something on the way here, and it’s payback.

I swear I have no clue how they are so close because they’re constantly fucking with each other, but who am I?

Men are fucking weird.

“I’ll dance with little Emmy if she wants to,” Bishop replies, surprising the absolute shit out of me. “It’s her day, after all.”

Both of their gazes fall on me, waiting for me to reply, and I feel my cheeks flush. The room is suddenly too hot, and I need to stop telling Mills so much.

“Sure.” I shrug my shoulder, attempting to appear unaffected. But it quickly fades when Bishop reaches for my hand and laces our fingers intimately.

Without a word, he turns us towards the