The Living: A Reverse Harem Bully Romance (The Thorns of Rosewood Book 3) Read online

  Copyright © 2019 by Cassie James & Christine Kelsey

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Contents

  1. Jude

  2. Brennan

  3. Piper

  4. Piper

  5. Tyler

  6. Piper

  7. Brennan

  8. Piper

  9. Piper

  10. Piper

  11. Piper

  12. Piper

  13. Tyler

  14. Piper

  15. Jude

  16. Piper

  17. Piper

  18. Piper

  19. Piper

  20. Piper

  21. Piper

  22. Tyler

  23. Piper

  24. Piper

  25. Brennan

  26. Piper

  27. Piper

  28. Piper

  29. Jude

  30. Piper

  Epilogue

  Books By Cassie James

  Books By Christine Kelsey

  1

  Jude

  “Stan owes me a daughter. He’ll fix this. It’ll be better.” I can barely hear Jackie’s words over my own ragged breathing. I think I’m going to be fucking sick as I hear the door slam closed behind them.

  Tyler looks over from where he’s been peeking around the edge of the bushes. His eyes are wide with panic, and I know instantly that what he saw was even worse than what I heard. Brennan turns to me, too. Both of them silent and waiting for my command. I’ve got to pull it together. And fucking fast.

  I square my shoulders and start to shove past the two of them. “Grab the rest of your shit,” I bark out. We grabbed our clothes, but didn’t have time to get anything else. Phones, keys, wallets. They’re all sitting abandoned poolside. It’s a testament to how worked up the Hawthornes are that they didn’t notice all our shit still scattered around.

  I don’t bother waiting for the guys. The second my shit is in my hand I take off out the side gate. My car’s parked at Tyler’s house, because like a fucking idiot, I for some reason thought leaving it there was a good idea. Now I wish I’d said fuck it. Blocked the driveway or something so that there was no way for Jackie to ruin my goddamn life in the middle of the night. If only I could have seen this fucking coming.

  “Dammit,” I mutter to myself. Of course I should have seen this coming. Why the hell had I let Piper talk us into this in the first place? She could have gotten into the damn pool at my house.

  I’d let her put herself at risk and for what? It might have made me rock-hard watching her come apart in front of all of us like that, but it wasn’t worth this. We could have gone literally anywhere else. I should have insisted on it. We didn’t have to risk being interrupted. We didn’t have to risk fucking losing her.

  I move faster, arms pumping as Tyler’s house comes into view. I can hear the guys’ feet hitting the pavement behind me, and it only takes a second before Tyler passes me. He grinds to a stop next to the passenger side door of my SUV, where I’m parked behind everyone else. I hit the button to unlock the door just in time to yank the driver’s side door open, sliding in and starting the engine up as a panting Brennan finally reaches the car and dives into the backseat.

  No one says a word as we pull out of the driveway and I take off faster than I should through the streets of West Ex. Guilt burns my lungs, making it hard to breathe. Why couldn’t I just say no to her? It was my job to keep her safe, and I fucking failed her.

  “Jude, what’s the goddamn plan?” Tyler asks, his voice hoarse.

  I’ve already turned the car towards Malibu. Maybe we can get there in time. Maybe we can stop this from happening a second time. “We could bluff? Say we found something in those papers and they can’t legally reset her?” Fuck. All the uncertainty I’m feeling comes out in my voice. I can feel Tyler staring at me. I’m sure he fucking noticed it, the way my words are coming out as questions instead of my usual confident commands. This is so fucked.

  “Do you even know where this guy lives?” Tyler’s voice is plagued with doubt. For a good fucking reason.

  “No,” I admit. I glance at Brennan in the rearview mirror, his face illuminated by the glow of his phone. “Brennan. Is there some way for you to get the address?”

  He looks up slowly to meet my eyes in the mirror. “What? Like Stanley Hyde’s address is just hanging out on the internet for anyone to look up?” He lets out a derisive snort. “And even if I find it, what are we going to do? Storm the place? Jackie will never let us set foot in there.”

  “Do you have a better fucking idea?” I slam the breaks, stopping us in the middle of a main road. Not that it matters. There’s barely any traffic on the road this time of night. The people that do drive through just go the fuck around us. The only person I care about right now—the only one I want to consider—is Piper. And Piper, more than anything, needs us to not waste time driving all over the fucking place with no plan.

  “I do.”

  I turn to look at Brennan. “You do?”

  He nods, looking dazed. “I think so.” Well, that’s fucking promising. He buries his face in his phone again, not saying anything else. He looks lost in thought, and I don’t have the time to waste waiting to see if he actually has something to say that’s of any value. I pump the gas pedal, cutting off a Porsche just as it starts to go around us. The fucker honks, but I don’t give a damn.

  “Where the hell are you going?” Tyler grimaces.

  “Malibu.” I press my foot down harder, the speedometer jumping. “Until someone comes up with a better fucking plan.”

  We have to get there. We have to stop them before they fuck her up. I can’t keep doing this over and over again for the rest of my life. I have to save her like I promised. And then I have to make sure it’s the last goddamn time we ever face this fucking threat. I won’t spend the rest of my life waiting for shit to always fall apart—and I won’t let Piper, either.

  “Don’t go to Malibu!” Brennan shouts just before I turn the car onto the freeway. I jerk the wheel at the last minute, my whole body going tense. I pull the car over to the side of the road before I cause a whole goddamn accident.

  “Are you fucking kidding me? What?” I snap, looking back over my shoulder.

  Brennan shakes his head, completely unfazed by my anger. “Go to my house.” I raise an eyebrow. “I’m serious. We don’t need to go to Malibu, we just need to get to my computer.”

  I want to tell him no. That we need to go get Piper. But I have to admit that of all of us, Brennan’s most equipped to deal with this fucking disaster. And if he says he needs to get to his computer… I jerk the wheel again, barely checking my mirrors before I pull a u-turn to head the opposite direction.

  The minutes inch by far too damn slowly as I drive double the speed limit all the way to Brennan’s place. When I do finally pull into his driveway, Brennan flings the back door open and jumps out before I’ve even braked all the way. Not that anyone here fucking blames him. Tyler is right behind him, and as soon as I yank the keys out of the ignition, so am I.

  Brennan moves much faster than we do this time, making it into the house and disappearing. He leaves the front door hanging open on its hinges, and I push past Tyler to get inside. I don’t even bother trying to be quiet as I race fr
om the front door to Brennan’s bedroom. I’m surprised Ms. Diaz doesn’t come storming out to see what the hell’s going on. It’s much better for us that she doesn’t.

  In the bedroom, Brennan’s already on his computer, fingers working over the keyboard at an unbelievable speed. I stop in the doorway, Tyler coming up behind me to peer over my shoulder. Both of us stare at him, waiting for an explanation that doesn’t ever fucking come.

  “Do you mind explaining what the hell you’re doing?” I ask after watching him for a minute.

  Brennan huffs as if us wanting a little goddamn reassurance is really such a hassle to him. “I’m hacking the servers.” His work comes to a screeching halt. “And now I’m in. I just have to wait for Hyde to connect her…” he trails off, hunching further over his computer as he starts going at it again. Tyler and I step further into his room, letting the door swing closed behind us as the minutes tick by slowly.

  The bedroom door bursts open. “I’m here! What can I do?”

  Brennan doesn’t budge, but Tyler and I both whip around. Macie. “What are you doing here?” I growl at her. This isn’t any of her business. It’s my job to make sure Piper’s taken care of, not hers. She shouldn’t be here. But she just pushes past me, going to Brennan’s side as if I’m not even there. As if I didn’t just fucking speak directly to her.

  I take a step in her direction, ready to spit a whole world of fury at her right now, but Tyler grabs me by the shirt and drags me back. “Chill the fuck out. She’s not the enemy. She’s obviously here to help.”

  I’m about to turn my anger on Tyler instead, but then Brennan speaks again. “Look.” I take a few steps closer, but it’s Macie he’s talking to. He points something out on the screen to her. I cross my arms over my chest, fists tightening. I don’t like being left out of the fucking loop.

  “Should that have happened?” Macie asks Brennan.

  “In theory, no.” He frowns as he does something else on the computer, then leans back to stare at whatever it is. He’s got a dumb, blank look on his face as he says, “Hmm.”

  “Hmm, what?” I step even closer. I can feel panic rising up in me as I wait for him to deliver the blow. He’s going to tell us it’s too late to do whatever he thought he could do. He’s going to say she’s gone. We’ve lost her. I close my eyes and turn my head away, not wanting anyone to see the moment of pure fucking weakness I’m struggling through.

  He doesn’t say any of the things I was waiting for. The keys start to clack again. I have to open my goddamn eyes because I can’t stand this reckless, out-of-control feeling it’s giving me to not know what the hell is going on. I am never the one not in control.

  I clamp a hand down on Brennan’s shoulder. “You need to start talking before I go get in my car and drive back to the Hawthornes’ to ram the damn thing through their fucking house.”

  Macie puts a hand on my arm but I shake her arm. Undeterred, she explains, “There’s a backup.”

  “What does that mean?” Tyler elbows his way into our too-tight circle.

  She looks to Brennan as we all wait for a full explanation. He pauses to look up at us, looking pretty damn confused himself, which isn’t much comfort. “It’s a total system backup. It’s what makes Piper… Piper. And it’s able to be fully downloaded as-is, as of a few minutes ago. Anything they do to her now, we can undo fairly simply.”

  Tyler breathes out a sigh of relief, but then he sees the same thing that’s keeping me on edge. “Why don’t you look happier about that?” he asks Brennan.

  Brennan exchanges glances with Macie, who I don’t know—can fucking read his mind or something—because now she’s sporting a deep frown, too. She leans closer. Too damn close. I push my arm between her and the back of Brennan’s chair and shove her back a step. Her face goes bright red with anger as I narrow my eyes at her.

  “You don’t need to be that fucking close to any of your friend’s boyfriends.” Well, there’s a weird as fuck thing for me to say.

  “Any of…” she trails off, shaking her head. With both hands, she reaches out and gives me a good shove back. “Brennan asked me to come help, you jackass. I’m not trying to steal any of Piper’s playthings.” My jaw clenches as I realize she just called me a fucking plaything. I am not a goddamn toy. “Oh, I’m sorry,” she taunts. “Did that hurt your feelings?” She rolls her eyes and turns her attention back to Brennan and his computer.

  After a second, Brennan admits, “There was no backup the last time I was inside of her.” I let out a straight up growl, but then force my shoulders to relax a bit when Brennan hastily adds, “Inside of her system, Jude. Jesus.”

  God, I’m definitely going to fucking break something soon, and if Brennan doesn’t hurry up and get to the damn point, it’s probably going to be his nose. I bounce on the balls of my feet, too keyed up to stand still. I circle around Brennan, trying to see his screen even though it all just looks like a jumbled mess to me.

  Tyler, still keeping his distance, asks again, “The backup is good, right?”

  “I think so.” Brennan’s mouth twists unpleasantly. Doesn’t look so fucking good to me. After a long pause he finally explains, “Piper asked me to hack her back in December. To leave a note for Stan asking him not to reset her once he saw everything that had happened to her the first go around. He hadn’t updated her security protocols at the time, which was strange, but even stranger is that he still hasn’t. And he knows I’ve hacked her system a few times now. It’s fucking reckless not to make changes. It doesn’t make sense unless…”

  “Unless Stan is trying to help save her,” Macie finishes for him, catching on before Tyler and I do.

  My heart feels like it leaps into my throat, nearly making me choke. This is good. This means someone else is on her side. I can’t imagine there’s any better ally than the guy that made her in the first place. “So, what? We can download the backup the next time we see her or something?”

  “I can do better than that.” Brennan frowns in concentration as his fingers fly over the keyboard once more. It doesn’t take long before he’s announcing to us, “The reset was already underway, but I’ve set the backup to download again. When they wake her up, she’ll still be our Piper.”

  I’ve never heard sweeter fucking words.

  2

  Brennan

  I thought things were finally turning around for me. Finding Piper’s backup file? I could never have predicted it. Piper’s it for me, but the idea of working her through another reset had really freaked me out. Not because I wouldn’t do it—I would always be there to pick up the pieces—but there was no way to know how a new Piper would turn out. In that moment, having someone like Stanley Hyde in our corner felt like a fucking blessing I didn’t deserve.

  Now, though? The longer we go without hearing from her, the more a deep sense of dread builds in the pit of my stomach. What if the backup was a fake? What if everything was all just one big old “fuck you and stay out of my things, thank you very much” from Stanley Hyde?

  I’d told Tyler and Jude she’d be fine with all the confidence of a guy who’d never been wrong, but I was wrong. Because how could she be okay if none of us could get ahold of her?

  On Wednesday, the rumors start. My mood sinks lower with every passing class as I listen to the talk going around. I almost have to ask to be excused so I can empty my fucking guts in the bathroom, but I swallow down the sick feeling churning in my stomach. I don’t dare miss a single word of what people are saying. Not if somewhere in the rumors the truth is buried.

  When lunch finally comes, I slam my hands down on the table. “Guys, we have to do something.” Neither Tyler nor Jude look up at me, but Macie, who’s been sitting with us all week waiting for news that one of us heard from Piper, gives me her full attention.

  “Like what?” she asks. She crosses her arms on top of the table and leans on them. “It’s not like you can just march up to her front door and demand to see her. It would only make things wors
e.”

  Shit. That’s exactly what I’d planned to do, as foolish a plan as it was. But short of storming her house, what can we do? It’s not like I can reach out to Hyde, not without admitting I’d been illegally hacking his private property and sharing his proprietary information. I want to argue with Macie, but there’s no use. She’s right. As neurotic as Jackie Hawthorne has become, she’d never let us near Piper. We’d only be making things worse.

  Macie clears her throat softly. When she speaks, both Tyler and Jude perk up to listen. Assholes. “There’s a rumor going around school.” She pauses for a long moment. “That Piper was in some kind of accident? Do you think there’s any merit to that? Could something like that have happened without any of us knowing?”

  She seems like she could say more, but then Jude cuts her off. “I started that rumor.”

  We all turn to stare at him. He leans back in his seat, arms crossed loosely over his chest like he doesn’t have a care in the world. He’s being a real jackass, even before he explains what the hell he’s done.

  “We need to check on Piper,” he says. At least we agree on that. “Brennan, we need to get you close enough to see what the fuck’s going on with that backup file, but we can’t do that if we can’t even get in the door.” He looks around to make sure we’re all paying attention. Of course, we are. “You know what’s important to the Hawthornes? Keeping up appearances. The rumor mill is churning so fucking bad, I’m sure Jackie’s already scrambling for a way to prove Piper’s fine. We’re going to show up at her doorstep, as Piper’s very concerned friends, and now, thanks to me, she’s going to let us in without question. It’s called a long con, you fucking idiots.”