Score - A Stepbrother Romance (16 page)

“
D
o
you understand what you’ve done? You’ve fucking buried me. You’ve lost me this campaign. All this work me and my team have been doing for months…all for nothing!”

My father paced back and forth in the living room, fury etched into his sharp features. Lina had been told to take Lily upstairs, and the campaign aides were elsewhere now. Only Nina remained in the room with us, watching with wide eyes as my father ranted at me.

Fucking Tripp.

He’d actually gone and done it. He’d gone to the media and told them what I’d been doing, and by now it was all over the internet; on local news sites, political blogs, Facebook…you name it, the leaked story was there.

I’d honestly thought Tripp wouldn’t do it, given that it affected him due to his direct relation to us, but I guess he just didn’t give a shit anymore. My discovery of what he’d done to Lina and the subsequent beating I’d given him had clearly set him on a path of vengeance, and he didn’t care if he tore our family apart. Fucking asshole. At least he hadn’t told anyone about me and Lina, though. Thank God for small miracles…

“What the hell were you thinking, Chase?” Dad continued. “Tell me, did I just waste my time and money ensuring you had a good education at the best schools? It certainly seems like it, considering you’ve apparently been participating in this low-life junk for the last year, like some sort of street urchin.”

“Dad, I—”

He cut me off. “Are you still doing it?”

“No,” I replied. “I quit recently.”

He snorted with derision. “Well, how convenient,” he said. “Too little, too late. Christ, how stupid could you possibly be? Did you honestly think you wouldn’t get caught? You obviously hid it quite well, considering that my own background checkers didn’t pick up on it, but you
must
have known that somewhere along the line,
someone
would find out.”

“That’s one of the main reasons I quit,” I said. “I didn’t want to screw things up for you and your campaign.”

It wasn’t enough. He was right. I should’ve known I’d get caught sooner or later, but I’d been too selfish to care.

“Well, you should’ve thought about that before you even started doing it in the first place, you selfish, ungrateful little shit! You should
never
have done this!”

Nina stood up, casting an angry stare at my father. “Peter! Don’t talk to Chase like that! He’s made a mistake. Everyone makes mistakes, and I think he’s sorry. Standing here berating him for hours isn’t going to fix anything. You need to be speaking to your campaign advisors instead, and trying to think of ways to get through this.”

Dad’s eyes narrowed. “Nina, please stay out of this. This is a lot more than a simple
mistake.
Why don’t you go upstairs and see if Lily and Lina are all right?”

Nina put her hands on her hips. “If you intend on marrying me in a week, then you damn well better treat me like an equal partner. I have a say in this just as much as you do. Chase might not be my son, but he’s going to be my stepson, and I want to know that he will be treated just as fairly as you treat my daughters. Unless you plan on one day speaking to my daughters in the same way as you are currently speaking to your son?”

It was nice of her to defend me, but I didn’t deserve it. No, I’d royally fucked up, and I deserved every bit of vitriol my father directed at me.

Dad sighed and ran his hands through his hair before taking a seat across from her. “All right. Sorry, Nina. Why don’t you talk to Chase for a minute? He doesn’t seem to give a damn about anything I have to say.”

“I’m right here, Dad,” I said, my eyes narrowing. “I can hear you. And I never said I don’t care.”

Nina held up a hand, signaling for us both to be quiet. “Chase, you know you’ve done the wrong thing,” she said softly. “You’ve likely caused a lot of damage to your father’s campaign.”

“I know.”

“Good. Now could you tell me what made you start doing this in the first place?”

I shrugged. “Tripp introduced me to it. I liked it. I thought if I was careful enough, no one would realize who I was. But as soon as this campaign started heating up, I quit. I knew people would be looking more closely into my life, and honestly, I wasn’t enjoying it as much anymore.”

Dad muttered under his breath. “Tripp. Of course. That little bastard. I always thought he was a bad influence.”

“It was my decision in the end,” I replied, as much as I hated to even remotely defend Tripp.

“But
why
?” Nina said. “Why did you like it so much?”

“Because it made me feel…something. Something good. Something I don’t get from my regular life,” I said.
Except for Lina
, I silently added. “I’ve never been happy with all the crap you’ve wanted me to do, Dad. The politics degree, the plans for law school after that…I never wanted any of it. I only did it to keep you happy, because I know how hard you’ve worked to pay for my education and everything else.”

“So I’ve failed as a father as well as a politician. Fantastic.”

Nina reached over and squeezed his hand. “I don’t think that’s what he’s saying. And the campaign isn’t over yet. You can still come back from this.”

There was silence for a moment, and Dad finally looked up at me. For a second, I thought there might be peace, but then rage flickered in his eyes again.

“No, that’s
exactly
what he’s saying,” he said, his voice icy. “Well, son…if you’re so unhappy with the life I’ve supposedly forced on you…then so be it. I’ll freeze your trust, and you can get a job. You can move out, like you’ve been wanting to do for so long. You can drop out of college too, if you want. If not, then your tuition will be your responsibility.”

Nina gasped. “Peter, no…that’s not what—"

He cut her off with a wave of his hand. “Sorry, Nina, but this is the only way he’ll learn. He needs to go out into the real world and figure things out himself.”

He was right. I needed to experience life on my own if I ever wanted to be truly independent. I didn’t really give a shit about the trust fund, anyway. I still had some money left over from my winnings from the fights, and I could use that for a while. Most of it had been donated, but I’d kept about ten percent of it. Not for myself; I’d been saving it up to donate to a charity of my choosing later on, after it had been invested and tripled in size. But I suppose I could dip into it, if it was the only means I had to support myself for a while until I found a proper job.

“And what about your campaign?” I said, folding my arms across my chest. “Do you want me out of that too?”

“You will be seen with me at political and media events as per usual. No one needs to know what’s really happening. If anyone does find out and asks why you aren’t living with us anymore, we’ll say you decided to move out to gain some more independence. At the wedding, you’ll attend as expected, and you won’t speak to any members of the media between now and then. Even then, you’ll only say what I tell you to. If you can do that, then I might consider revisiting my decision to cut you off from your trust.”

“Fine,” I replied with a curt nod. “I’ll pack my things.”

Tears brimmed in Nina’s eyes. “Peter…I really don’t think this is a good idea.”

“No, he’s right,” I said, looking over at her. “I need to do this on my own. I should’ve been honest about this months ago. Hell, I should’ve been honest about what I wanted out of life
years
ago.”

With that, I strode upstairs and into my room. A soft knock at my door drew my attention a second later, and I looked over my shoulder.

“Hey,” Lina said, lingering by the doorway. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” I replied. “But I have to leave.”

She gasped. “You’re…you’re going?”

“Yep.”

She quietly closed the door, then walked over and grabbed my arm, tears filling her eyes. “Chase, please don’t leave. I don’t want you to.”

“It’s not my decision,” I said. “Dad wants me to go. I deserve it anyway. I probably ruined his campaign. I’m a fucking idiot.”

She sighed, and her shoulders slumped. She knew I was right. I’d wrecked everything with my selfish stupidity, and now my family was paying the price.

“Where will you go?” she asked.

“I’ll go stay with a friend for now, until I figure out what I’m doing. Maybe Brett. He has heaps of spare rooms at his place, and he actually asked me if I wanted to move in a while ago. I’m sure the offer still stands.”

She chewed on her lower lip. “What does this mean for…for us?”

I looked down at her gorgeous face and grabbed the sides of it, tilting it up to mine as I leaned down and planted a kiss on her plump lips.

“Nothing,” I said as I broke away. “Nothing changes for you and me. Unless you want it to.”

She shook her head. “Of course not. I’m just worried…you said that Tripp knew about you and me.”

“Yeah. He guessed.”

“Well, if he went to the media about your fights, then what’s stopping him from telling the world about us as well?”

“I don’t know. Maybe he will. Maybe he won’t. He’s probably keeping it as a trump card in case this fighting scandal doesn’t end up wrecking Dad’s campaign.”

Her lips trembled, and she nodded. “That’s what I’m worried about. Do you think…do you think we should stop seeing each other for a while? Just for a little bit, until this has all blown over.”

I sighed. “Fuck, Lina, I don’t want to do that. You know that.”

“Neither.”

“Then let’s just take each day one at a time. Like you said, this whole fighting scandal will blow over soon. Maybe Dad will ask me to come home. Who knows? Either way, we’ll be fine. We’ll try to see each other as much as we can. Okay?”

She nodded and wrapped her arms around me, and I closed my eyes and breathed in her sweet scent. I wasn’t lying to her or myself. No matter what happened, we’d be all right. We had each other, and no matter what kind of shit happened to us, it would all work out in the end.

I just wished I didn’t have to leave her here.

A
lot could change
in six days.

The media scandal hadn’t exactly blown over, but it had evolved in ways I hadn’t expected. At first, a lot of people had been commenting on my father and implying that he was a bad parent for not knowing what I’d been doing, and others had speculated that he’d known all along, and that he’d allowed me to participate in the fights. Either way, they were painting him as a terrible parent and thus a terrible candidate for state governor.

However, that hadn’t lasted long. A lot of other people actually hadn’t cared all that much, or they’d thought that my underground fighting career was cool, and within three days I’d already begun to see the effects of that. It was finals week at college, and every time I walked across campus, I was inundated with requests from guys to help them train. Turns out a lot of people were interested in what I’d been doing, and my reputation had made them think I’d be a decent trainer.

The whole thing had given me a pretty good idea of what I could do to support myself in the future…and Lina, too, if she ever needed it.

But that could wait. I needed to finish my exams first, just in case I decided that college was the right path for me after all. No sense in wasting an entire semester’s already-paid tuition.

I’d been staying at Brett’s place, and he’d been pretty cool about the whole thing. He’d had no idea what I’d been up to with the fights, but he hadn’t given me shit about it, and he hadn’t been pissed at me for not telling him. He’d said I could stay with him as long as I needed to sort myself out, and it had been working out pretty well.

I’d only seen Lina on campus since I’d left the Highland Park house, because I didn’t want to piss off my Dad by going home, and we hadn’t wanted to risk anyone seeing her visit me at Brett’s house, considering what we’d more than likely get up to. The last thing we needed was
another
media scandal, and Brett always had people over…and any one of them might sell us out if they had an inkling that Lina and I were more than friends.

I’d see her again soon enough, though. My father’s wedding to Nina was tomorrow, and I had a lot of plans for the pale pink bridesmaid’s dress which I knew Lina would be wearing; plans which included tearing that dress off the second we managed to sneak off and get some time alone. Fuck, I missed being able to grab her, squeeze her, feel her…

Right now, I was lying around on the bed in the spare room I was staying in at Brett’s. I’d just finished my last exam, and it was time for some much-needed rest and relaxation.

Of course, there’s no rest for the wicked, as they say.

Brett knocked on the door a second later and poked his head around. “Hey, man. Your Dad’s here to see you.”

“My Dad?” I said, rising to my feet. “What’s he doing here?”

Brett shrugged. “I dunno. He just said he wants to talk.”

Probably wants to give me another lecture on what an asshole I am,
I thought. Either that or the State’s Attorney had decided to launch a formal investigation into illegal fights, making an example out of me.

I trudged downstairs to see my father sitting in the lounge room. His main aide, Rupert, was whispering in his ear, and as soon as he saw me, he nodded and walked outside.

“Er…hey,” I said, crossing the room and standing in front of Dad.

“Hello, son,” he said.

There was an awkward tension in the room, and I shifted uncomfortably where I stood. “Do you want a drink or something?” I asked.

He shook his head. “No, I can’t stay long. I have an interview to get to. Chase…the reason I’m here is to apologize. I think I overreacted the other day. I shouldn’t have thrown you out and cut you off from your trust.”

Well, that wasn’t what I’d expected to hear…

I stood still, waiting for him to continue.

“What you did—this whole underground fighting thing—it was wrong. We both know you shouldn’t have done it, but that doesn’t mean I should have reacted so poorly. I admit, I had my own fair share of youthful indiscretions back in the day.”

“Oh yeah?”

He pressed his lips into a thin line. “I’m sure your grandparents have never mentioned this, but there was a stage during my teen years when I was a little…rebellious. On several occasions, they had to drag me out of bars where I’d been drinking; underage, of course. I also got in quite a few fights, and one time I even tried…err…marijuana, and was caught doing so. The police were called each time, and my parents paid off the right people to keep my name out of any records. You know how it goes.”

“Wow. Wouldn’t have thought that, looking at you now.”

I couldn’t keep the grin off my face as I tried to imagine my stiff, uptight father lighting up a joint, getting into fights, and being arrested.

“Exactly. Anyway, son, I didn’t come to give you a history lesson. I know that what you did was wrong for various reasons, but I think I’ve done some things wrong as well, in the way that I’ve raised you. I shouldn’t have assumed you’d want to be exactly like me. I shouldn’t have forced you to go to college and follow in my footsteps.”

“Dad, it’s okay. You just wanted to do what you thought was right for me.”

He shook his head before letting out a deep sigh. “No, I wanted to do what was right for
me.
You were never interested in politics, or anything of the sort, but I chose to ignore that,” he said. “Anyway, I’d like you to move back home…if that’s what you want. I’m also going to have your trust fund unfrozen.”

I held up a hand. “Dad, I appreciate that, but you were right the other day, even if you were harsh. I need to be more independent. I can make my own money, and I shouldn’t have to rely on you for that. Keep the trust. It’s yours, not mine.”

A hint of a smile played on his lips. “Very well. That’s a very mature decision, Chase. Just don’t tell me you’ll be making all your money by going back to those warehouses and fighting again.”

I shook my head. “Nah. I’ve decided to open my own fitness center. There’s a lot of guys who don’t know the first thing about how to keep themselves fit and healthy, and I can help.”

Dad rubbed his chin, a thoughtful expression on his face. “I see. Wouldn’t that cost money to start up, though?”

“Yeah. But I have some cash left over from my winnings. I donated the rest earlier, and I was going to save this last ten percent and invest it so that I’d have more money to donate in the future, but I figured I could use some of it to start up this gym, and then when I’m making enough, I’ll still have some to invest in charities.”

“That’s very generous of you. And what about college?”

“If it’s okay with you, I was thinking I’d drop my political science major and study business instead. On a part-time basis. That way I’m learning the ins and outs of running a business, but I’ll also have time to set everything up.”

He nodded. “That sounds like a good idea. I’d be happy to continue paying your tuition.”

I shook my head again. “Nah. I’ll figure it out on my own.”

He nodded slowly. “All right. Just know that if anything happens, I’ll be here to help. That’s what fathers are for.”

“Thanks, Dad,” I said. “You didn’t get in any legal trouble over the whole illegal fight thing, did you?”

“No, and you’re off the hook too. While the SA’s office doesn’t condone the fights, they know they’re fighting a losing battle trying to stop them—so to speak—so they’re concentrating on bringing down worse offenders in other areas. Drug dealers, and so on.”

I sighed with relief. “That’s good, I guess.”

“Anyway, I better be off,” he said, checking his watch. “Thanks for the chat, son.”

“All right. No worries,” I replied. “Wait, before you go…how’s the campaign? Did I ruin everything?”

He smiled and shook his head again. “Rupert has informed me that the fallout hasn’t been anywhere near as drastic as we predicted. We’ve lost some votes from certain areas, but we’ve gained others we’d probably have never had if this hadn’t happened. See, there’s a certain demographic we didn’t have before; younger working-class men. Neither candidate had them, because most of them usually don’t even bother voting, but my team have been out polling various members of the public for the last few days, and it seems that a lot of them have decided to head to the polls on election day just so they can vote for me. Apparently I’m ‘cool’, because of what my son has been doing.”

“Are you serious?” I said, arching an eyebrow. Christ, the world was a strange place sometimes.

He chuckled. “Yes. Ironic, isn’t it? I thought you’d lost me the election, but as it turns out, you actually helped somewhat. I’m still slightly behind Eric Bond overall, but I’m still in with a chance. I might turn this around and win after all.”

“That’s great. I’m glad to hear it,” I said. “And again…I’m sorry for what I did.”

“It’s all right,” he said. “In a way, I’m glad this happened. I feel as if I know you better now. I’m ashamed to say, I didn’t know you anywhere near as well as I should have before this, given that you’re my son. But…I’m proud of you, Chase. You really seem to have figured things out for yourself, especially in these last few days.”

“Thanks,” I said softly. He’d never said he was proud of me before, not even once.

“I’ll see you bright and early at the church for the wedding tomorrow,” he said.

“All right. Looking forward to it.”

With that, he left, and I went and sat down on the sofa, rubbing my temples with my fingertips. Jesus…I hadn’t expected any of what had just happened. Yes, I’d been a complete dumbass by keeping up my underground fighting for so long, but I hadn’t fucked up my Dad’s campaign anywhere near as much as I’d thought I would, and it had somehow brought us a lot closer together.

I guess there really was a silver lining to every cloud.
Suck on that, Tripp,
I thought bitterly.
You thought you’d screwed us, but you didn’t do shit.

There was a sharp knock at the front door a moment later, and I heard a muffled feminine voice on the other side. “Hello? Chase, are you home?”

“Lina?” I called out. I hadn’t been expecting to see her till the wedding tomorrow, but maybe she hadn’t been able to wait. Thank God for that, because I wasn’t sure I could wait any longer either.

I opened the door, and my heart sank as I saw Jessie standing there instead. She was wearing tight black jeans, a low-cut top, too much mascara, and enough perfume to suffocate an entire army.

“Hi, sexy,” she purred.

I rolled my eyes. “What are you doing here?”

She giggled; a shrill sound which made me want to strangle myself to death just so I wouldn’t have to hear it. “I heard you were staying here. I thought I’d come visit.”

She pushed past me and pranced over to the sofa before sitting down and patting the seat next to her. “Come, sit! Talk to me.”

I folded my arms. “What do you want, Jessie? I have things to do. I don’t really have time to chat.”

She pouted. “Aw, come on. Exams are over! It’s not like you need to study. I just wanted to talk for a little while. Our dads are competing against each other for governor, you know.”

“I know. So what?”

“Well, we have so much in common, so I think we totally need to hang out more,” she replied, fluttering her eyelashes at me.

For fuck’s sake
. I didn’t want to be her friend, especially after the way she’d treated Lina. Unfortunately, it didn’t look like she was planning on leaving unless I gave her at least five minutes of attention, and I couldn’t be fucked dealing with the drama she’d likely cause if I tried to kick her out.

“Fine,” I said, sitting down across from her. She could have five minutes, and then she was out. “So you want to talk about the election, huh?”

“Yes,” she said, throwing her head back and pushing her tits out. “It’s so hard sometimes, being the child of a famous politician. Don’t you agree?”

“I guess,” I said. “But it’s not all bad. And considering the fact that you’re carrying around a two-thousand dollar purse, I don’t think you have too much to whine about.”

She giggled. “I suppose. It’s just all these smear campaigns,” she said, batting her eyelashes again. “They’re so hard to deal with. People are saying the meanest things about my Daddy in the papers right now.”

“Well, count yourself lucky. They aren’t saying anything about
you
.”

“You mean like how they’re saying stuff about you, with your fighting thing?”

“Yeah,” I replied.

“It’s pretty sexy, you know. Everyone thinks so, and I
always
knew there was something different about you. Something…mysterious. And exciting. I
totally
had a heart attack when you almost lost that match and practically split your head open. I thought you were going to die.”

She clapped her hand over her mouth a second later, as if she’d said too much, and my eyes narrowed as her last words sank in. “What? How’d you know about that? That was weeks ago. The media only just found out about what I’ve been doing six days ago.”

Her eyes widened with guilt, and I sprang to my feet. “Holy shit. You were there, weren’t you? You saw.”

She didn’t answer, and I narrowed my eyes as jigsaw pieces seemed to fall into place in my mind. “You’re the one who took it to the media, aren’t you? Fuck, this whole time I thought it was my cousin, but it was you, right?”

Everything suddenly made a lot more sense. If it had been Tripp, then he would’ve also told them about me and Lina, yet that particular piece of information had escaped the media’s attention. Now I knew why. It hadn’t been him; he was too scared of me after what I’d done to him. It had been Jessie all along.

“Um…” She tried and failed to construct a response, casting her eyes helplessly around.

I grabbed her arm and pulled her to her feet, and she yelped with surprise. “How’d you find out?” I said, leaning right down in her face. “You’re not the sort of girl who goes to that kinda shit. Or are you?”

“Maybe I am,” she said, pulling back and twirling a piece of hair around her finger.

Fuck, if she was a guy, I’d have laid her out with one punch by now. She was the most infuriating person I’d ever met.