As a kid I wished for a lot of things, but nothing more than to wake up in a different place than the one I went to sleep, so long as my sister’s room was still right next door.

When I was in sixth grade, I got my wish.

Our grandfather, who we never knew existed, had passed away and left us what my twelve-year-old self considered a mansion. Just like that, I thought everything would be better, but life only got worse.

My parents were sick with something a home can’t heal, and money can buy.

The reality of the situation was my sister and I were never enough for the assholes who spawned us and we never would be, but then I met Beretta and Arsen, and suddenly I didn’t care anymore.

We were always together. They would stay in with me when no one was home to watch Sienna and brought food from their houses when we had none.

They became my family.

When I almost lost my sister, they were right there the whole time, sat in the ICU waiting room with me day in and day out. All three of us missed most of our sophomore years, fell behind to what felt like the point of no return, but not once did they consider walking out of that hospital when I wasn’t the first to push to my feet.

I fell into a bit of darkness after that, and together we tried to break me out, but it was no use. I was smirking on the outside, drowning from within.

And then Jameson Filano came along and every nerve in my body sparked. She lit my ass on fire.

She was a tempest, a gorgeous fucking hailstorm that beat down on my senses until they snapped. She woke me from the nightmare my life shoved me into without trying and completely unaware.

But she was a flame, and I was less than ash.

Once again, that nasty little whisper crept into the back of my mind and screamed I was a fool, that it was a long shot, that a girl like her could never want a guy like me, not for more than a night’s play.

That if I wasn’t enough for my parents, I could never be enough for her.

I knew the score, understood my place in the world, but I wouldn’t let that stop me from trying... and then I looked into her hazel eyes.

All it took was that one time, right there in the dressing room of a store I couldn’t afford to piss in.

In her gaze, I didn’t find heated intrigue of a society girl faced with a dirty little secret she wanted to cash in on.