The Bad Boy's Addiction

Chapter 2 - A night out

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Alaric

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“You missed the spot,” mom says, pointing at a stain on the wall, and Logan heads to it. They’ve been cleaning for the past two hours, and mom has been standing over them, forcing them to scrub even though the place is clean now.

I was not supposed to have returned today from the business trip I took but I wrapped things up early and my parents informed me that they were coming this side, so I decided to come back and meet up. I missed them.

My brothers knew our parents were coming to New York, but they didn’t know they were going to meet up with me since they thought I wouldn’t be here. So, they saw that as an opportunity to come and throw their s*x party here... the horny little shits. Mom thought I let them do this, but I explained that I had just arrived too and didn’t know they were here. Now I wonder if it was the first time, as they said or if this is what they do every time I go away. Why are they even doing it here? There are so many other places our family owns.

Mom is mad at them for leaving our sisters alone and coming here after they were told to stay home, but she’s mostly mad at what she found them doing. She went off at them about self-respect and respecting women. She was even mad at my dad because she felt he was chilled about the whole situation which was the first. She’s always complaining that my dad is too hard on us and too soft on our sisters, which I also agree with. Haylee and Kaylee can do no wrong in my dad’s eyes. They get away with everything but my brothers and I must always be on the straight and narrow.

I offered to organize a cleaning service, but she wanted them to clean the mess they made themselves.

“Are you guys ready?” dad asks, coming inside the living area from the phone call he stepped out to make and I nod.

“My, love?” he asks again, looking at my mother who’s still glaring at Logan and she tears her gaze away from them and says yes.

We are heading out to dinner.

“You guys are really going without us?” Logan asks in disbelief, standing upright from his kneeling position and mom says he must shut it and clean, causing him to look at dad for help.

“Haz lo que dice tu madre,” my dad tells him to do what mother says before grabbing his jacket and mom’s purse.

“Papá!” I hear him call out as we head out the door and I kind of feel bad for them, but staying behind and cleaning is their punishment. Landon gets it, he doesn’t even bother to complain, even though I would bet money that coming here and having this party was Logan’s idea. Every time Landon gets into trouble is because of Logan.

Mom asks me about the shoot I’m going to be working on with aunty Luna next weekend and I tell her about it as we settle inside the car. Aunty Luna’s brand LuVá is one of the biggest brands in fashion. And sometimes I free-lance at her fashion shows. It’s like my play time and I always make time to play, dad taught me that.

I’m a financial analyst and have a CEO position in one of our companies as well. But that’s not all that I do. I chose to be a financial analyst because I’m very good with numbers, but crunching numbers is not my only passion. Cinematography is my first passion, which is how I ended up working with aunty Luna. I’m an artist and my studio is my calming space. It’s where I go after a hectic day of chaos in the corporate world. It’s something that’s therapeutic for me. My parents and I share that in common. They are also artists.

Our driver pulls up and we get inside the car and just then my phone rings. I pick up and it’s one of my guys, telling me to check my emails. I tell him sure and end the call, my serious expression earning me a look from my dad. But this is not something I can discuss in front of my mother. These kinds of things scare her and make her paranoid. It's not easy being a mob boss's wife and now having your children involved in it too. But it's not a life you can just quit either. When you are in, you are in for life.

A few months ago, Ramiro Hernandez, Miguel’s son, took his father’s place at the table after his father suffered a stroke and shortly after, I found out through one of my contacts that he'd been digging around, trying to get information on my father. I told my father, and he said he was going to speak to his father about it, but Ramiro came to my dad before he could. He confessed what he had been doing and made it as if he had no ill intentions and was only trying to get to know the people he was now dealing with.

It’s no secret that we all do background checks on people we associate with. But what he said about having no ill intentions, I found to be a bunch of bullshit. I think he is trouble and the only reason he came to my father and acted as if he was upfront about what he was doing is because he’s up to no good. He didn’t have to come and explain himself, but he did because he wants my father to think he’s a straight-up guy like his father while he’s not.

Dad is relaxed about it. He says he knew what he was doing and chose to ignore it because he can’t do s**t to him. But I can't ignore it. I put someone on him. From the moment I saw Ramiro, I never liked him. He had snake eyes and I never turn my back on snakes. No matter how harmless they may seem. If he’s coming for my family, I want to see him slither from a mile away.

My father doesn’t ask me about the call, after I glance over at my mother, who wasn’t looking, he gets it.

“Thank you,” I thank him as he hands me a glass of champagne and go back to talking about the shoot with mom, but just then my phone goes off again. I have to put it off. I take it out and look at it and I choke on my drink, looking at a nude picture of Taylor with her legs spread on her dresser, and I quickly put the phone away.

“Are you alright?” my mother asks with a concerned frown, looking at my flushed face as I try to regain my composure and I swallow hard. “Yeah-Yes,” I stutter, grabbing the bottle of water from my dad while shaking the image out of my head.

Fuck! I’m with my parents!

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Cameron

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“Are you okay?” I hear a voice speak and I look up, feeling a hand on my shoulder to be met with my brother's face, Callum, and he sits down next to me. Callum is my younger brother. He’s two years younger than me. We are a blended family of eight and Christian, my dad is his biological father. Chris adopted my three siblings and I when he married our mother after our father died.

Merlot, who comes after me, Tyler, who's fifteen and named after our father, and I share the same mother and father. We have an older sister, Kiara who's twenty-three and with whom we only share a father. We also have a younger brother, Asa and we only share a mother with him. He’s the last born and he and Callum share a father.

Chris was my mother’s first husband. But their marriage didn’t work out. Mom got together with my biological father and Chris moved on with his life and had Callum. He and my sister Merlot are the same age. They are eighteen. Even though my mother is not Callum’s biological mother, she’s the only mother he’s ever really known. His mother was never there for him, and she gave all parental rights to dad. Meagan Gusev, his mother, is a well-known businesswoman and philanthropist, but she’s a cold-hearted b***h.

We bumped into her one time in the Maldives, vacationing and it was two days after Callum’s seventeenth birthday, and she hadn’t seen him since he was four but had no reaction to seeing her son after so many years. She looked at him like she looked at all of us, like he wasn’t her son. I don’t know how dad ever got together with someone like her. I hate the bloody b***h. The encounter ruined our weekend because we were all worried about him after that. Callum carried on as if nothing happened. He still carries on as if his mother’s situation doesn’t bother him, but I know it must and even though mom doesn’t love him any less than she loves us, I know it must still it hurt knowing your mother doesn’t love you or care about you.

“Cam?” he speaks again, reminding me I haven’t replied to him.

“I’m fine, I was just thinking,” I lie to him. I promised Kiara I wouldn’t talk to anyone about it, and I don’t want to break the promise. I already broke the first one. Two days ago, I found Kiara crying next to our father’s grave. She didn’t get a part she had auditioned for, and she really thought she was going to get it, but that wasn’t the only reason she was falling apart.

My sister has been going through a tough time after her fiancé cheated on her, but she has been hiding it from us. We thought she had moved past it and it broke my heart knowing she was still in so much pain and going through all of it alone. I hate that f*****g son of a b***h together with that trash that betrayed her.

Kiara lives overseas and we speak over the phone, but not as often as we should and when we do, she doesn’t really open up to us. She keeps things bottled up inside. It’s how she’s always been ever since I could remember. Mom says the only person she used to open up to was our father. She says they talked about everything together, but for the first time, she opened up to me at the gravesite. She told me what she’s been going through but made me promise not to tell anyone. I offered to pull some strings, but she refused even after I promised I wasn’t going to tell mom and dad. She says she doesn’t want to worry them, but I think it’s more like she doesn’t want them to help her.

Kiara doesn’t like using our name to get things, and she doesn’t want things handed to her either. She wants to work for things like everyone else and I admire that about my sister, but it can also be really frustrating and worrisome, like now. She clearly needs help but she won’t accept it.

So, after thinking about it all night, I decided, f**k it, I’m going to break my promise and intervene. Hearing all she had to say and seeing her like that broke my heart, and I cannot just sit by and do nothing. If she won’t let me look out for her, then I’ll have to do it behind her back. So, I got in touch with some contacts in her industry and they promised to make a plan. I just told them not to tell her I had anything to do with it.

I ask my brother if he’s joining us and he says he’ll pass. He’s got a shift at the hospital tonight. Callum is studying to become a doctor like my parents, and he spends his free time at the hospital, helping. He isn’t into clubbing… he isn’t into a lot of things. I’m doing Enterprise Architecture and in my third year and, unlike him, I love going out.

Just then, we hear voices and I hear Merlot telling Levi and Ney that we are out here. Levi and Ney are my best friends. We met when I was nine and we have been friends since. They are a year older than me. Caleb Neymar Muller is uncle Matt’s son. His first name is Caleb, but he likes to go by Ney. Levi is Kyle’s son.

“Hey, man,” Levi says as they walk up to me, and we share a side hug. “Are you ready?” Ney asks and I tell him I am. He asks Callum if he’s tagging along, promising him it will be fun, but Callum is not interested and heads back inside. I take out my phone to call the driver, but end the call when we hear a scream coming from inside the house. We rush inside to find Kiara bouncing on her tippy toes, and a knowing smile makes its way onto my face, having an idea of what this could be about.

“What happened?” Callum asks, and she tells us she’s just been offered a gig and has been pre-hired if she accepts.

“Wow! That’s awesome!” Callum says, and we agree, congratulating her. We ask her more about it and she tells us, unable to stop grinning from ear to ear and the smile on her face makes my night. We hug her and I bid both her and Callum good night, and the guys and I turn to walk away, but she calls us and we stop and look at her.

“Are you guys going out?”

“No-Yes,” Levi and I answer at the same time, and he says yes, causing me to glare at him.

“Can I come? I’m in the mood to celebrate,” she asks, stopping in front of me and I tell her she can, not having the heart to say no. This motherfucker’s dead.

“You are dead,” I mouth to Levi as Kiara runs back to her room to change and he opens his mouth to say something, but just then someone else speaks.

“Can I come too?”

“No.”

“Please, Cam. I’m eighteen.”

“I don’t care. I’m not going clubbing with you. Go shopping with your friends or something,” I tell Merlot before telling the guys we must go wait for Kia in the car.

“She is eighteen,” Levi dares speak, the bastard who’s just ruined our night.

“I don’t care. I’m not taking my little sister to the club.”

What the hell is wrong with him? Isn’t it enough that he’s already ruined my night by telling Kiara? He knows the s**t we get up to. I don’t want to have my sisters witnessing that, and I don't want to have to babysit them all f*****g night long. Merlot can go clubbing with her own friends when I’m not there and know nothing about it. We head out after that and just then our driver pulls up and we get inside the car. It’s time to let out some steam. This week's been hectic.

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Unknown Person’s Pov

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“Finally!” Felim, my cousin, says as the driver opens his door and I open mine and step out. “I'm low on fuel.”

“You and me both,” I mutter as we make our way inside the club. We enter and are taken to the VIP lounge, where we find company waiting for us. The server brings our drinks and preps everything else that we are going to need for the night. Felim invites her to join us, but she doesn’t part take. He’s always doing that; he’s always after the thing he can’t have. She walks away, and he pulls one of the girls keeping us company onto his lap, the coke starting to kick in. The music is pumping, the women are beautiful, and the place looks great. I can tell it’s going to be a great night.

“So, what do you think?” Felim asks, and I tell him the place is great. He said he was going to show me around and take me to some great spots. We are here on business and it’s my first time here, but it’s not his first time. He’s been here on several occasions, and he knows his way around. He asked me to accompany him and promised me a good time.

The girls do the lines again and he joins them, but I’m not in a hurry. The night is still young. He gets up and heads to the men’s and I pull one of the girls onto my lap, but just as she starts kissing my neck, I see her, and I freeze before taking the girl off of me. Our eyes meet and she gives me a soft smile. I try to return it but I'm not sure if I manage to as my heart skips several beats, everyone and everything fading to the background.

“Who’s that?” I hear Felim ask as he takes his place again and I whisper I don’t know, but I’m going to find out.

“One of them has got to be her boyfriend,” he says, snapping me out of the trance, looking at the three guys she’s with, but I don’t care. Since when has that ever stopped me or him?

They sit down at a table not so far from us and I can’t take my eyes off of her. She catches me looking at her again and gives me a smile that I'm sure I return this time.

They fall into conversation and I can't keep my eyes off of her the whole time.

“I'm going to invite them over to our table," Felim says but just as I'm about to speak, I see her take out her phone and look at it before whispering something in one of the guys' ear. He nods and she gets up and heads towards the deck.

I take that as my cue and quickly make sure my nose is good before getting up and following in the direction she went in. I see her speaking on her phone and stand just a little further from her, pretending to enjoy the view of the city below while waiting for her to finish. I hear her bid the person on the other side of the line goodnight and I quickly run my fingers through my hair, noticing it’s a little disheveled, before walking up to her just as she turns around.

“Beautiful,” I speak just as she notices me and she smiles, looking back at the view of the city again before saying, yes, it is. But I tell her I wasn’t talking about that view.

“You were not?”

“No, I was talking about you. You are beautiful,” I tell her, and she gives me that beautiful smile again, blushing.

“Thank you…”

“Kayden... Kayden Berrigan. It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Ms...”

“…. Kiara Roberts.”