“Colton?” Matt turned to his friend and they shared a look. It was one of the few times in my life I experienced Colton Dawson giving in.
“Connor fucked up,” Matt began. I had not been expectingthatfor an opener. I felt my eyebrows crawl into my hairline. “He was being a complete prick after you took off.” I inhaled sharply and Matt held up a hand. “That’s not a dig at you, he was just more out of control than normal. Jake decided to let him ‘run with it’ as he called it.” Matt blew out a frustrated breath.
“I talked him into coming to Cali with me,” Theo jumped in. “I thought before Cole kills him or he kills himself in his recklessness, I’d take him away. Different scenery, get him to unwind.”
I rolled my eyes. I knew exactly what that meant.
“He seemed to settle down. Met up with a few girls, had a good time. Got stupidly drunk and basically took a couple weeks to work you out of his system,” Theo admitted. I shifted uncomfortably.A couple weeks? They told me a few days before. What else were they hiding?
“He met Corey the last week, she was actually the perfect find. He calmed right down and became almost like his normal self.”
“However,” Matt continued, “Jake decided enough was enough. He wanted Colton to change schools for sophomore year and Theo and I decided to do so too. Then Connor said he was tagging along as well. I think Corey had more to do with this decision than she thinks.” I was nodding in agreement. Connor did like his fixations it seemed.
“Matt came to Cali and met up with us,” Theo said. I turned my head to look at him. “Before Jake agreed to let Connor change, he had been acting up again, so Matt came to help me with him.”
I quickly looked at Colton.Where had he been?
“When I got there, I got the call from Cole saying Connor would be joining us at CU.” Matt rolled his eyes, pretty much summing up how he felt about that.
“We got the little drama king back to Big Sky and then made the arrangements to move here,” Theo said. I giggled at the terminology.
“All was good again, Connor graduated in Big Sky, we ended freshman year in Cali, had a normal summer and were getting ready to move here.” Matt took a gulp of his coffee. “Then about two weeks before the semester started, Jake took Colton to Japan for a huge business meeting.” Colton’s brow furrowed. “Shithead went off the rails again,” he shook his head in disgust.
“Honestly, babysitting isn’t my forte,” Matt said snidely. Colton cleared his throat and Matt flushed angrily.
“So, Cole’s in Asia and we’re left with temper tantrum extraordinaire,” Theo carried the story on. “He disappeared for a few days.” Both of them looked at each other.
“We probably should have looked harder,” Matt admitted. Colton snorted in what I think was agreement.
“When he comes back again, he’s like a ghost. All weird and shit and jumping at every little thing.” Matt gripped his coffee cup. “We couldn’t get a word out of him about what was wrong,” he blew out a frustrated breath.
“I called Cole,” Theo said, “he calls Connor. Connor refuses to speak.” This time it was Theo who rolled his eyes. “Colton comes back early from the trip. Tells his dad he wants to make sure he is settled for the start of semester.” I looked at Colton who was still studiously looking out the window.
I frowned.What the hell had Connor done?
“Colton’s back maybe ten minutes. Little shit’s crying and sniffling like a pussy,” Matt muttered.
“Matt.” The low warning tone made Matt pull himself up and he gestured to Theo to continue.
“Seems dipshit decided to make his father proud by getting involved in the shadiest of shady deals with a bloody gangster,” Theo spit out. I gasped.
“What?” I was incredulous.
“Don’t even ask what the deal was, we still don’t know, plus I’m pretty sure knowing what it is makes us guilty by association! We got him to tell us he was trying to impress his dad with a business venture, but he wasn’t smart enough to know it wasn’t legit. However, the crux of it is he took money from his trust fund, ‘invested’ it and lost it all, in about a week, we reckon,” Matt scoffed. “Then to hide the fact that he lost the money, heborrowsmoney from the guy he lost it too, only to then realise that he wouldn’t be able to make the interest payments.” Matt’s voice dripped with contempt.
“We can hide the fact he took the money from his trust fund, that’s not the issue. The issue is the money he borrowed and the rate he needs to pay and the timeframe in which he needs to pay it back by.” Colton said softly. “I found out who the guy is. Aaron works for him now and again. We went to meet with him. We left Connor at home, decided he had done enough damage.” Colton was letting his emotions out and he was more than a little bit bitter.
“He took one look at the three of us and saw dollar signs,” Theo muttered. “Turns out he likes dabbling in underground fighting. We met his criteria for attracting a crowd,” he said equally as bitterly.
“I tried to talk him into letting it just be me, but these two wouldn’t let me do it alone.” Colton’s expression was contrite. His eyes swept over his friends and they both looked at him with mutual love. I saw the bond that they had and with sudden understanding, I knew exactly why Connor acted out. You couldn’t beat that closeness, blood didn’t even trump the bond these three had.
“I couldn’t let him expose my brother or bring my dad’s business into this,” Colton explained. “Aaron runs the fights on the guy’s behalf. If we fight and make the money back that Connor borrowed; he and Aaron will keep quiet.” Colton looked at me for the first time. “We don’t fight because we feel like it, or because of the thrill, we actually need the money. Whatever we make, he keeps and it goes towards the debt,” he looked completely defeated, I ached to reach out and touch him. “It’s for my dad Ari.” Colton added softly.
“Why can’t you just pay him?” I whispered, I knew my eyes were round like saucers. I knew I was on the verge of screaming in frustration at the unfairness of it all.
“We tried. As I said, he looked at us and saw dollar signs, I think Aaron does too. Plus, we can’t have theactualmoney, there’s a chance Jake would find out. This way, there’s no money changing hands and what we win, goes towards the debt,” Theo bit out. “Also, Aaron’s just a sadistic bastard and likes to mess with people.” Well I could vouch for that.
“They’re blackmailing you?” I whispered.