Mask - A Stepbrother Romance Read online

  She turned and bolted back down the hall and then the stairs, with me only a few steps behind her. She didn’t stop running until we reached the main dining room all the way down on the first floor, and we almost bumped right into our parents who had apparently just returned from the hotel they’d stayed at the night before, after the wedding reception. The echoing bang we’d heard a minute ago must’ve just been from the front door slamming behind them when they came inside.

  “Did you guys seriously miss us that much?” Elena said with a cheeky smile as she noticed Rayna trying to catch her breath. “We were only gone for one night; you didn’t need to run all the way down here!”

  Before we could respond, Dad spotted the book tucked under my arm and gave me a sharp look. “Where the hell have you two been?”

  “On the fourth floor.”

  He sighed and ran a hand through his thinning hair in exasperation. “I thought I told you two not to go up there. There’s still piles of rubble from where the workers knocked out some walls. You could trip over or something.”

  “We’re not idiots, Dad, and we have eyes. We could see the piles and walk around them with these new inventions called legs.”

  He narrowed his eyes. “Don’t get smart with me, son. What were you doing up there, anyway?”

  “Well, I remembered Rayna saying how she thought she saw that woman near the stairwell, and you said you thought it could be an intruder. So I figured if there really was one here that night, then maybe they ran up there to hide when Rayna came out. That’d mean there’d be footprints in all the dust up there. And guess what?”

  I paused, and Elena flashed me a curious look. “What?”

  “There are footprints up there, and they don’t look brand new—more like they’ve been there a few weeks, which is when Rayna saw someone. And they’re not from you or the renovation workers, either. Too small. It’s either a child or a woman, and considering Rayna told you she saw a woman, I think it’s safe to assume it was. So there really was an intruder that night. We should call the police.”

  Dad affected a bored expression. “Jace, I’m glad to see you and Rayna getting along so well now, but you’re behaving like overly-excited children. There’s been no one in this house except for us and the staff, and I can assure you of that. We don’t need to contact the police.”

  “But—“

  He held up a hand. “No buts. I’ve already spoken to security like I said I would. They’ve examined all of the CCTV footage from the entirety of the last six months and they saw no one enter the property other than those who were invited or those who work here.”

  “So how do you explain what Rayna saw, then? The footprints are there. We can prove it.”

  “Rayna was obviously just sleepwalking and having a bad dream that night. As for the prints, perhaps one of the maids wandered up there recently.”

  “Without shoes?”

  He waved his hand. “Who knows how the bloody maids act when we aren’t around? You can’t trust working class people to follow instructions and act with dignity all the time, can you?”

  Elena and Rayna exchanged glances at that, and I almost wanted to smugly tell them, I told you so. He’s an arrogant asshole.

  “Seriously?” I said scornfully. “Christ, Dad.”

  He rubbed his eyes. “Sorry. I’m just tired from all the wedding festivities yesterday,” he said before turning to his brand new wife. “Elena, darling, I didn’t mean that.”

  She took his hand and squeezed it, and I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes. “It’s okay, I understand,” she said quietly, though I could still tell that he’d struck a nerve with his elitist comments.

  Dad turned back to me and Rayna. “I don’t want to tell you again. There are no ghosts in this house; only two very silly young adults.”

  With that, he stalked out of the room, and Elena followed closely behind him. I glanced over at Rayna, wondering if she was thinking the same thing that I was. Dad had made way too big of a deal about this whole thing, and it was strange how vehemently he was denying that there’d been any intruders in the place when someone obviously had been up on the fourth floor within the last few weeks.

  Why the hell was he not more concerned about the obviously lax security in the manor? Clearly the security company who monitored everything weren’t doing a good enough job, and yet my father was brushing it aside as if our safety meant nothing. I couldn’t quite put my finger on why, but I had a weird feeling about the whole thing; a creeping, lingering suspicion that there was something else going on here. I just knew it.

  Now all I had to do was find out what the hell it was.

  Chapter 14

  Jace

  Everything remained the same for the next few days, although my guard was up high. When I wasn’t at work at the finance firm, I was watching my Dad’s every move, just waiting for him to slip up and reveal what the hell was going on around here, but he seemed to be onto me. He was acting even more like the dedicated family man than ever before, which I was finding really off-putting, because it was all so damn fake.

  I just had to wait for his mask to slip again, like it had the other day.

  I tried to speak to Rayna about it, but it just made her upset at the reminder of Dad’s asshole-ish ‘working class’ comments, so I was forced to let it drop. I assumed she thought my Dad’s weird reaction was really down to seeing me holding my Mom’s book, and the unrequited love that she was convinced was still there, but I wasn’t totally sold on that theory. Dad was up to something else shady, and one way or another, I was going to find out what it was.

  I was prepared to let it go for one night, though, because we had finally arrived at Halloween and the night of Tom’s party. Gone were any feelings of unease; I was just excited at the prospect of seeing Rayna let her hair down for a night of silly fun.

  I had my Maverick costume on, and as I sat in the kitchen waiting for Rayna to arrive, I tried to imagine what she could possibly be wearing. I’d asked her a couple of times, but she’d completely shot me down, saying that I’d have to wait. I was certain it would be something cool, and no matter what it was, she’d look amazing. It would kill me to have to watch all the other guys checking her out, though, knowing full well that there was nothing I could do about it.

  It fucking sucked that I couldn’t touch her or hold her in public like I so desperately wanted to, but lately I’d been thinking—just because we couldn’t do it in public didn’t mean we couldn’t in private. What the hell was so wrong about two hormonal young people being attracted to each other and wanting to be with each other? Fuck the platonic friendship attempt…just fuck it. I was going to tell Rayna how I really felt tonight, and maybe—just maybe—she’d stop feeling so guilty about her own feelings, and we’d be able to go back to where we were that night in my room; filled with lust and barely able to stop ourselves from ripping each other’s clothes off.

  I heard her lilting voice call out from the hallway a moment later. “Are you ready?”

  I stood up. “Yeah, get out here and show me this surprise of yours!”

  “Ta-da!” She stepped into the room a moment later, wearing a totally awesome but also completely geeky Battlestar Galactica Cylon costume, complete with chrome-tinted body armor and a helmet.

  “Oh my god….you nerd,” I said, chuckling as I took it all in. “I can barely even tell it’s you under there!”

  “Yep,” she said, her voice sounding slightly metallic under the helmet. “You were totally expecting some sort of sexy surprise instead, weren’t you? Like one of those flimsy Playboy bunny costumes.”

  “Nope,” I said with a grin, although I certainly wouldn’t have minded a sexy surprise. I was glad I wouldn’t have to worry about her flashing a lot of skin in some sort of skimpy outfit, though—that meant there’d be less guys perving on her.

  I loved how confident she was in herself; there weren’t many girls out there who were okay with dressing up in a decidedly un-sexy co
stume on Halloween. Somehow, that actually served to make Rayna sexier, and my heart thudded hard in my chest as I suppressed the urge to sweep her up in my arms, throw her over my shoulder and then tear the costume right off her after throwing her on the nearest bed.

  I needed to get out of the house now, because being this close to Rayna while we were alone was making my head spin. “Come on, let’s go, the car is outside.”

  I’d ordered an exclusive town car to take us to Tom’s party and to pick us up later on, so we could both have a couple of drinks. I knew Rayna wasn’t the type of girl who cared about a guy flashing the cash by ordering a car like that, but I figured it was safer and more efficient than getting a regular cab, and keeping her safe on a night out was a top priority for me.

  The car soon arrived, and I helped Rayna in before climbing in after her. The driver introduced himself to us, confirmed the address and then took off, and as we drove, Rayna turned to me in her seat.

  “Is this party going to be as fancy as the mask party the other week, or more like the raves you guys used to have?”

  “Well, considering the size of Tom’s place, any party will look fancy, but don’t worry, it’ll be more of a casual thing.”

  She hesitated, and I finally understood what she really meant by her question. “Don’t worry,” I said. “Tom is a decent, clean guy. He doesn’t let people in who do drugs or anything like that.”

  That was true for the most part. I hoped the second he saw Roy show up at the party thanks to Marie’s invitation, he’d kick him out or at least make sure he wasn’t trying to do anything seedy.

  Rayna nodded, and our conversation drifted into different territory for the rest of the drive. When we arrived at Tom’s, the party was already in full swing, and the place had been decorated with typical Halloween decorations—faux spider webs, skeletons and ghosts. There was even a cauldron in the middle of the main party room, filled with a green liquid I could only assume was some sort of punch, seeing as there was a group of girls currently ladling some of it out into cups.

  “Ooh, there’s Liana!” Rayna said, pointing out a tall, svelte blonde girl who I’d been introduced to by Tom a few times. She was dressed as Elsa from Frozen with a long blonde wig done up in an intricate braid and a blue cape swinging from her matching dress. When Rayna pulled off her helmet, she finally noticed us and dashed over to us.

  “Hey, Jace,” she said to me with a smile before turning to Rayna and hugging her. “Oh my god…I thought you were kidding when you said you were coming as a Cylon!” she added as she pulled away.

  Rayna grinned. “Nope.”

  “Well, it looks awesome. Want a drink? Tom has a bar set up over there,” she said, pointing over to the left of the room. “By the way, stay away from the punch—someone poured way too much tequila in it. It’s so gross.”

  “Will do. Where’s your date?” Rayna asked.

  Liana pointed at a tall brown-haired guy wearing a wizard costume. “Over there. And yes, you can say ‘I told you so’ if you want.”

  I must’ve looked puzzled, because Liana smiled and explained. “I met this guy at the masquerade party a few weeks ago, and I was worried he’d never call me again. But Miss Positive here said he totally would, and she was right. We’re dating now.”

  “Cool,” I said, smiling at Rayna.

  “Anyway, Jace, do you mind if I steal Rayna for a while?” Liana asked.

  “Sure.”

  The two girls headed off to the bar to grab some drinks, and I smiled as I watched them go. I was glad Rayna already had other friends here in London. The more people she had around her, the more fun she’d have, and she deserved to have some fun.

  After chatting to a group of people whom I hadn’t seen in a while, I decided to try some of the green punch to see if it was as bad as Liana said it was, and I headed over to the cauldron. As I stood by the table which had been set up next to it, I didn’t notice the presence looming over my shoulder until it was too late and the person was tapping on my shoulder. Expecting to see Tom or another old friend behind me, I turned around with a smile, but that smile quickly faded as I saw Roy standing behind me, a Halloween monster mask dangling from one hand.

  “Hey, Jace. Was wondering when you’d turn up. Been looking forward to seeing you again,” he said.

  “Can’t say I thought the same about you,” I replied. There was no sense in even pretending we were friends anymore, considering how he’d spoken to me at the pub the other week, and now that Rayna wasn’t around, I didn’t have to play nice to avoid awkward conversations.

  Even in the dim light of the party room, I could see that Roy looked dreadful; even worse than before. His skin was pale and spotty, and his whole body was twitching.

  “I guess I deserve that for what I said to you in the pub the other week,” he said.

  “Yeah, you do. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go and—”

  He cut me off by placing a hand on my arm. “Jace, mate, I’m really sorry, okay? I need you to be my friend again right now. I need you to help me.”

  “With what?” I asked, my eyebrows furrowing. Perhaps he was trying to quit the drugs, and he actually needed my advice and help. I would never say no to someone who genuinely needed help, so I leaned in and waited for his response.

  “I can’t stand it. I need something, man. I can’t cope. You have to help me. You went through it; you know what it’s like.”

  I didn’t correct him by saying I hadn’t really gone through any of this. Sure, it hadn’t been easy to keep away from the rough crowds and that whole dodgy party atmosphere once I’d decided to leave, but I hadn’t had any real withdrawal symptoms when I’d stopped taking stuff. I hadn’t been in deep enough, and I hadn’t done anything as serious as Roy apparently had in the last year, judging by the look of him.

  “So you want my help with the withdrawal stuff? Look, I know of some decent centers you could go to. They have programs and therapists who—”

  He cut me off again. “Man, I don’t need fucking therapy. I just need to borrow some cash from you.”

  I sighed. “Roy, you can’t keep behaving like this. You know I’m not going to buy you anything. You need rehab.”

  “Fuck, man, you seriously won’t help me out even when I fucking need it? A few thousand quid, that’s all I need.”

  I took a step backwards, losing all patience with him. “You don’t need coke or pills. You never needed it, so just leave me out of this shit. I can’t do anything to help you if you won’t help yourself, so you can call me if you ever decide to get some real help, but until then, don’t bother.”

  “You’re supposed to be my friend!” he pleaded, pulling me back towards him by my shirt. “Have some heart. Don’t you give a shit about any of us anymore? Why won’t you fucking help me, when you know for a fact that you can?”

  “Of course I care about you!” I snapped back. “That’s exactly why I won’t pay for your shit anymore. You need to get away from that life, like I did. I don’t want to be involved in any of it anymore. Not in any way. And you shouldn’t either.”

  Roy pushed me, but it barely affected me—he was so scrawny compared to me that it was like being attacked by a fourth grader. “You were always a shitty friend. You always thought you were so much better than the rest of us just because your Dad’s so fucking rich.”

  “Right.” It wasn’t true, but there was no point arguing with an addict when they were angry.

  “You’ll fucking regret treating me like this,” he continued, voice shaking with anger.

  I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, I’m sure I will.”

  “Better watch your back, cunt,” he spat out before turning and disappearing into the crowd of costumed revelers.

  I watched him go, not even bothering to come up with any sort of retort. What the hell was the point? He was fucked; he wouldn’t see reason or care about anything I had to say, unless I was offering him cash to support his habit. It was sad to see how far
down the rabbit hole he’d gone, but at the same time, I couldn’t help him unless he wanted to be helped.

  I needed to take a leak, so I grabbed my drink, cut through the crowd and headed for the stairs so I could use the bathroom. As I reached the top of the stairs and headed down the hall, I overheard familiar feminine voices and turned to see Rayna and Liana standing in the doorway to one of the bathrooms, where they must’ve gone to have some sort of private girly chat. I was about to go over and see how they were going when I heard my name being said. I froze and turned away so that I could still hear, but they couldn’t see me. Eavesdropping might have been the wrong thing to do, but I was curious to see what kind of stuff Rayna said about me to her friends when I wasn’t around.

  “….couldn’t happen anyway, now that your parents are actually married,” Liana was saying.

  “Exactly. Anyway, in the last week or so, he’s just been like a brother to me. And it’s great. We get along really well, so I’m happy with it,” Rayna replied. “I don’t want anything more from him.”

  “Okay, well, if that’s really the case, then you have to meet my friend Eric. Hot blond guy, lots of muscles…”

  A raucously-giggling couple suddenly came up the stairs and headed for a nearby bedroom, drowning out the girls’ conversation, and I stepped away and headed for another bathroom down the hall so I could splash my face as everything I’d just heard sank in.

  So much for my plan to tell Rayna that I wanted to be more than friends with her tonight…not only did she actually see me as a friend, she apparently already saw me as some sort of brotherly figure, and in her words, she ‘didn’t want anything more from me’ than that. That hadn’t taken long, but then again, I was the one who’d had the bright idea of telling her we should have a platonic relationship the other week. She’d obviously taken it to heart and really committed to the idea, and she’d started to seriously view me as nothing more than a platonic stepbrother.

  Shit. I’d missed my chance with her. I couldn’t reveal anything to her tonight and tell her that I was sick of acting like I was okay with only friendship from her; not when she was obviously perfectly content with the way things were….not to mention the fact that her friends were already scouting out other ‘hot’ guys for her.