Sinful Like Us (Like Us, #5)

by Krista Ritchie

Three lines streak the table. I’ve never done cocaine, but I can’t think of a better reason to. My mind is right. That’s all that matters. “You ready?” Jane asks. “I’m good to go.” She smiles. I hold her hand, and we dip our heads down to the table with Charlie. “Stop!” Beckett shouts. “Wait, just stop!”

“Don’t ever.” He’s speaking to his sister and brother. “Not for me.” Jane tenses. “Only if—” “Yes, okay. Yes. I’m going to stop. I won’t use anymore. Not for performances or rehearsals.” “Or anything,” Charlie says. “Or anything,” he promises. “Because if you do, I’ll be your roommate,” Jane reminds him. “Thatcher, Charlie, and I will be using every single day—” “I know. The threat still stands, I heard you,” Beckett nods. “I know, sis.”

“It’s not just a threat,” Charlie says. “It’s an oath.” Beckett surprisingly nods. “Okay. Let’s spit on it.” “No.” Jane begins to smile. “This one has to be done with blood.” She turns to me, and I unsheathe my knife, th...

I glance at the Omega lead. “She’s the one who ran out of birth control.” This might be affecting her hormones on some level. Quinn shoots me a glare. “What if Luna didn’t want everyone to know?” “We’re fucking past that, Quinn,” I say seriously. Akara nods. “We could be here for another three months, guys. This isn’t the time to censor any shit. You know something, say it.” Donnelly smacks a pack of cigarettes on his palm. “She’s been having bad cramps too.”

But at this meeting with Epsilon, I’m Banks Moretti. Which means that my client is Maximoff Hale, shared with Farrow. So I turn to him beside me. “You go ahead.” Farrow balances back on his chair legs. “Maximoff isn’t sleeping. He’s probably clocked in two hours in three days, and that’s being extremely fucking generous.”

“What about the Rooster?” Donnelly asks. “Won’t he wanna be with his girlfriend if she leaves?” Akara restrains an eye roll at the mention of Will Rochester. “He can’t go. If he wants to complain, he can complain to the nearest wall.” Farrow and Oscar are grinning. Yeah, Akara sounds jealous.

He makes a decision. “The clients going are Charlie, Luna, Beckett, and Sulli. As for the two bodyguards, I have to stay here.” He’s the lead and needs to be with the core group. “So I’m sending Farrow and Banks.” Goddammit.

Fuck

“Shh, Charlie.” Jane puts a finger to her lips. “We’re trying not to wake him.” She’s warning her brother. Farrow is glaring at him to back off. I’m about to stand up and guide him away. “I can help with that.” Charlie pats the hardback on his palm, and then he hurls the book at Maximoff’s head. Farrow catches the book midair, but the action jostles Maximoff. And his eyes snap open. All hell breaks loose. Farrow is on his feet, heat in his eyes, and I tower and have a hand on his chest so he won’t near Charlie.

“I’m dying on the side of the road,” Charlie says. “So is Thatcher. Choose who to save.” She blinks back tears, a sharp breath escaping. “I’m not playing this game.” I will. “She’d choose you,” I tell him strongly. “My brother, Thatcher—he’d want her to choose you.”

“Sadistic.” Charlie nods slowly. “You want to see sadistic?” He addresses the room. “Just so everyone is aware—this isn’t Banks Moretti.” He points at me. I’m rigid. “NO!” Jane screams bloody murder. “Charlie!”

Fuckkkk

He rubs his mouth and spits out, “The good sons. You know that’s what everyone calls you two in the family—the fucking good sons.” He laughs. “What a crock of fucking shit. If only they knew…maybe then I wouldn’t have to hear from my grandma ‘why can’t you be more like those twos, huh?’—or from my uncles, askin’ why I didn’t go to war like the Moretti brothers. Tellin’ me I should be a soldier, a leader like Thatcher. Tellin’ me to go play football like you. And then my sister Nicola, tellin’ me to be good like you.” I fixate on his jealousy.

He gestures to me. “How is it that you could lie to me for weeks about who you are?” “You made it too easy,” I say honestly.

also just heard about the plan—a ten-hour hike to the village’s inn—and how Thatcher is set to go. If the weather stays like it is, the group of six might be able to move out tomorrow. Apparently a storm has delayed the journey for seven days. I wish I could be there to stay back with Jane. My brother must be losing his fucking mind to have to leave her behind with Tony.

He starts venting about the Rooster, and I think I mishear Akara. My feet drop to floor, blown forward. Glaring at my phone. “He what?” “He jerked away after touching the hair on her leg.” I hold the phone to my mouth. “Fuuuuck this knuckle-fuckbag.” My blood is boiling. Akara laughs. “Shit. I needed that.” He means the laugh.

“Are you gonna tell Sulli what he said to you?” Right before they boarded the plane, this Richie Rich had words with my best friend.

Wtf whatd he dat

Selfishly, we’d both love for them to break up, but our opinions on the guy don’t hold weight to hers, and that’s how it should be. We’re not the ones making out with him.

Akara sighs out his frustration. “I can’t fucking believe he told me to stop being her friend.” That wasn’t exactly the request. I smile into a swig of beer. “He told you to stop flirting.” I can feel Akara’s glare all the way from Scotland. “Sul and I have never flirted.” They’ve flirted. Hell, I’ve flirted with the girl. She’s funny, competitive, a fucking smokeshow,

“You’re really gonna keep telling me you’re not attracted to Sulli?” He curses me out. “She’s like my…sister.” “Your dick gets hard for your sister?” He laughs lightly, the line cracking. “Always with the one-liners.” “You’re the one freezing your nuts off for sister-fucking jokes.”

“Hey, at least she’s not fucking the Rooster.” He pauses. “If that’s who she loses her virginity to…” “I’d lose my shit.” “Not before me.” “Amen.”

The thought of some piece of shit in their house. In their space. It makes me want to pop a bullet between eyes. Jane’s cats. 4 out of 6 cats are at the Cobalt Estate. Audrey is watching them, thank the fucking Lord. But there are still two left in the other townhouse. The squirrelly little ones that dart every place—they were too hyper to corral in a cat carrier, so I told Audrey I’d take care of them while I’m here. She wanted me to spit on her hand to promise. What the hell—I did it.

I’m on the landing, and I swing open Jane’s door first. Thoughts eject. I’m on automatic, all action as I see a middle-aged white man with his dick out. He stands at the foot of the bed and strokes his erection, thrusting towards her mattress.

WTFfff

Right when he sees me enter the room, my gun raised, he freezes with big wide, bug eyes. I recognize the target. Greasy hair, thin lips. We called him Sneakers. Back in October, we caught him masturbating in his car outside this house.

Ewwww

But first instinct takes hold, and I pull out my phone. Unmuting my best friend, I tell him the target, and Akara asks, “Is he responsive?” “Barely.” I sift through his pockets. Wallet, keys…condom. I go cold. Thank God my brother didn’t see this. He would have committed murder. Thank God Jane wasn’t here. She would have been scarred for fucking life.

We haven’t taken the ten-hour hike to the inn. But weather calms at dawn, and we thought this morning, again, we’d gear up for the trek. Turns out, we don’t have to. Roads are being plowed and salted. Which means after over a month in this house, we’re all finally leaving Scotland. Together.

Yay

“I want to be the Omega lead,” Tony says without pause. I glare. Give the guy a rope and he’ll take the entire fucking ship. “No,” I say severely. “You can’t be a lead.” “Then no deal. Take it or leave it.” O’Malley sends him a hesitant look. “Way to shoot for the stars, man.”

Wtf hes gross akhara position

“I’ve only ever been on Epsilon. Before Jane, you had too, and I always considered you one of us. Even after you transferred to Omega. Even after our fight. I guess the moment I realized you weren’t was when I was the one being kept in the dark about the twin swap.” He lets out a laugh. “Shit, I should’ve known it was you, Thatcher. It sucked that I didn’t figure it out. It sucked being blindsided again by a guy I’d die for.” His forehead wrinkles in a deeper frown. “I just want honesty. Just promise me that going forward.”

Aw:(

“I’m the Omega lead. I can do whatever the fuck I want.” Akara says this while staring at Tony, and he tells him, “Price and Sinclair love you. They’ll be fine with the promotion as long as the recommendation comes from me. Short term: you should stay on Jane’s detail until I have the transfer approved. It’ll probably take a couple months.”

Wtfff

“It’s two months.” He pulls a beanie over his head. “You and Jane can handle it.” To Tony, he says, “Long term: you can’t stay on her detail. So pick someone else.” “Charlie,” he says. “You all say he’s the most difficult client, but he just hasn’t had me on his detail yet.” Fuck. “Done,” Akara says. “We good?” “All good.” Tony nods. “And Akara, if this doesn’t happen in two months, I’m going to tell Price and Sinclair what I know.” “That’s fair.”

Wtffff

We watch Akara leave, and Oscar says, “Either Kitsuwon is the smartest motherfucker here or we’ve all just been fucked raw.” “Tony as our lead,” Farrow says the unbelievable reality. “Count me out, boys.” “You’re quitting?” Quinn asks. “No.” Farrow slings his duffel across his chest, and walking backwards, he says, “I’m just not listening to a thing that fucker says.”

“Don’t be.” Oscar ties a bandana around his forehead, curly pieces falling over. “We’re all glad that you and Banks switched.” Confusion hardens my face. Oscar is already telling me, “She needed you here.”

isolated our frustration, anger, feuds, fistfights, hurt, and rage—but I’m going to remember the good. The laughter, the love. Growing closer to Jane. Growing closer to her family, to Farrow and this brotherhood of men. I smile.

When I finish, she takes a sharp breath. “Akara said not to worry?” “Yeah, pretty much.” “Then we shouldn’t worry.” Her confidence is palpable.

She sniffs the air and smiles brightly. “It smells like heaven.” “You hungry?” “Mmhmm,” Jane nods. “I’m mortadafam’.” I didn’t teach her that word. “Where’d you hear that?” “Banks.”

I fixate on the calico cat she picks off the floorboards. Carpenter nuzzles his furry head against her cheek. She smiles and scratches behind his ears. “I missed you too, my love.” Carpenter—that cat, he’d been in the bedroom with a fucking pervert, and that fact might kill her more than the other. It’s staking me in the chest.

Jane strokes her fur. “I thought…perhaps, the culprit just touched my bed, and that’s why you changed the duvet.” “I threw away everything: the sheets, the blankets.” I pause. “The mattress is new too.” She fights a swell of emotion. “Thank you.” Her eyes redden, hand staying still on her cat’s belly.

Brushing tears away with the heels of her palms, she glances up. “I have an overactive imagination, you see, and I just keep picturing some gross old man in our room with his cum on our bed…” She perches her elbows on the table, palms covering her face, agonized. “They saw, didn’t they?” My brows knit, and I shake my head. “Who?” “The way you were staring at Carpenter.” She lets out a guttural noise that wrenches me to my feet. Lady Macbeth springs off her lap.

“Back in Scotland, you missed your sister, your parents, your brothers, cousins and your cats.” I take another beat. “A home isn’t a house, Jane. It’s the people you love, and by moving, you’re protecting them and you’re protecting yourself.”

“But it’s such a drastic change, and I don’t just want to snap my fingers and be done here.” “I understand,” I say deeply. “This doesn’t have to be a fire drill. You can take your time looking for a new place.” “We,” she corrects. I nod, “You and Maximoff.” She frowns and clutches my shoulder stronger. “You and me.” We.

“No boy’s allowed!” my mom screams from the treehouse window. “Go away, Loren!” Uncle Loren glares up at her from the foot of the tree. “Fine, Cruella, I was just asking if you needed more blankets. Freeze your titanium pussy off for all I care!” “Go fuck a cactus!” My mom gets the last word in before returning to the mound of blankets.

“At the moment, we’re only certain about one thing.” “What?” Aunt Lily asks. “We all still want to live together.” I nod with each name. “Luna, Sulli, Moffy, Farrow, Thatcher, and me.”

“We have this handled,” I assure. “We just want to spend one more summer there. Sulli is the exception, of course.” Aunt Daisy nods. Her daughter has already moved completely out of the townhouse. As soon as Sullivan heard that a pervert “busted a nut” on my bed, she told me, “I’m GTFO-ing really the fuck fast.” She’s staying with her parents and little sister until we find a new place.

Lmao