A / N

Okay, you guys, this is totally unprecedented but I ran out of chapter titles... It happens when I write too quickly to care about aesthetics/miscellaneous and the such. I'll deal with those later, just bear with the sloppiness right now.

Anyways, Notorious readers, you'll get this one.

x Noelle

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0 6

(aka the one where Noelle has no chapter title)

NEWS TRAVELLED FAST in a small town like Caverly.

I didn't realize it until I headed to the beach. It had been a warm afternoon—warm for winter, anyway—and everyone flocked to the beach to catch some sunlight. On the way over, I couldn't help noticing several stares cast my way and my frown deepened as I approached my brother.

"Here's your sunscreen." I tossed the bottle up to him. Mom had sent me along with a tube of sunscreen and a kiss for him—the latter of which I definitely was not going to give, thank you very much. "Is it just me, or are people staring an awful lot at me today?"

Perched atop his lifeguard chair, Ean glanced down at me, then returned his attention to the water. It was a surprise how many people swam during winter. Or tried to swim, and then flailed and almost drowned because it was just too damn cold.

"They are," he said, and gestured to a group nearby. "Exhibit A."

I turned to look, only to realize that these were people I knew. Heather Fisher was among them, and she threw me a brilliant smile.

I gave her a wary wave and asked Ean, "And what has she been saying?"

Ean shrugged. "That you're selling Sereinn out to Hale & Co."

"That's not even remotely true! I have Sereinn's best interests at heart."

"I know that, idiot. But that's not what they're saying, and..." He stiffened as something in the far distance caught his eye. "Well, fuck, now we've got trouble."

I followed the direction of his gaze, and then groaned aloud at the sight of the new group headed out way. They walked like they owned the whole damn beach. It felt like high school all over again—with the jocks, the cheerleaders, and the sheep following blindly.

"Tulden," I greeted coolly. "What're you doing here?"

"Free beach, isn't it, Darce?" Liam Tulden was all six foot two of strapping muscle. He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned towards me.

"Don't call me that. We're hardly on familiar terms."

"We can be familiar if you just gave me the time of day."

"Oh, you mean familiar like the way you are with half the girls in this town? No, thanks, I'll pass. I tend not to go for my cousin's hand-me-downs."

His eyes flashed in brief annoyance, but he laughed my words off. "Alright, let's get down to business. So what's the deal with you and that Callaghan guy? To be honest, we didn't even know he had a deal until you proved us wrong by dating him back then."

I met Liam's gaze squarely. "Is there a point to this conversation, or are you just peacocking around as usual?"

His eyes narrowed and he took a step closer. Caught unaware, I immediately backed up and hit Ean's lifeguard chair. It seemed to amuse Liam, because his eyes only gleamed.

"Don't play games with me, Darce," he said in a low voice. "I know that fucker Callaghan is after Caverly. No big corporation would even give Caverly a second glance, but Hale & Co. has every intention of breaking into this town and I think I know the reason why. I remember that kid. Always wanted to be one of the big boys, except he hadn't any balls to do anything. No, wait—actually, he'd do almost anything we wanted him to. He really was so tragically desperate to become a legend like his brother."

I clenched my jaw as white hot anger rushed through me. "Except he did become a legend, didn't he? Miles Callaghan might've been a nobody who used to be threatened, but he's now running a company that everyone is threatened by. And what have you done with your life, Tulden?"

This time, Liam really did look furious. "You might still harbor the puppy crush you used to have on him," he hissed. "But from the moment he laid eyes on Caverly, he and I are enemies. Now you tell him to back the fuck off Blue Haven, and to always watch his back because he'll never know when he might get stabbed. Metaphorically, of course."

Ice cold fear shot through my veins. Not for the first time, I wondered how a guy like Liam could turn out to be like...well, this. Back when he dated my cousin, we'd been on good terms. 'd always known he could be harsh—he was, after all, one of the guys on the fraternity that Miles had tried out for. But I hadn't seen the extent of his vindictiveness until recent years.

Or had it always been there, cultivated through the years, to make him the threatening man that he was now?

I turned to sidestep him, but Liam grabbed me by the shoulder. Quick as a flash, someone caught his arm. I looked up and realized that Ean had abandoned his post to stand beside me.

"Not on my watch," my brother said.

Liam wrenched his arm free and snarled. "Listen, Evers, both of you. Word has it that when Hale & Co. gets Caverly, they'll jack up the rent sky high and force us to leave. Now it better be just a rumor, because if it's true, then Callaghan will have hell to pay. I don't give a fuck how rich, successful or powerful he thinks he is. He's back at Caverly now, and he plays by our rules."

With that dark promise, Liam left with his cronies in tow. My mind reeled with belated adrenaline and fear. Why was it that six years after we'd left high school, we were still stuck where we once were?

Ean nudged me. "Think he'll go through with it?"

"I don't know," I whispered. "But I won't give him the chance to."

*

With Brielle still settling matters at Swinton, I was stuck with Flo as a confidant. She wasn't the worst, but her counsel tended to be...well, misguided and inappropriate.

She'd let out a saucy "Oh, yum!" when I'd told her about seeing Miles again, and her first question thereafter was, "So how did his ass look in those pants?" Her wise advice on how to deal with Hale & Co. was to show up in Miles's office wearing nothing but a lacy black negligee.

"Or, better yet," she'd added, with a wicked glint in her eye, "Nothing at all!"

I'd braced myself that afternoon that afternoon when Flo showed up at Sereinn, all hopped up on caffeine, to talk to me. Or for the free drinks.

"The free drinks, mostly," she admitted. She took a sip of her Bloody Mary and blew the bartender a kiss."You, my dear, need a raise. Darcy here will give it to you."

The boy flushed brilliantly. Meanwhile, I stared at her in horror. "Don't say things like that! I'm not the boss; I can't give raises whenever I like!"

"Yet," she said, with a cheeky grin. "You'll be getting a rise out of something soon, once you sit on Miles Callaghan's lap."

I rolled my eyes. "Did you even hear a word I said?" I'd told her everything, from Miles's dark promise to Liam's equally dark one. "I even tried to warn Miles about Liam. Just yesterday, I went back to Hale & Co. to arrange a meeting with him—"

"Ooh, a rendezvous with the boss. How exciting! Tell Aunty Flo everything..."

"—nothing happened. The receptionist told me that he wasn't meeting anyone, and that I could only talk to Nate Johnson. I told her to pass on a message to him—that he needs to be careful and watch his back. But I haven't heard a word from him since. Nothing."

Flo's face fell. "That's a shame. I was expecting something juicy."

My eyes narrowed. "I have a feeling that you don't mean news."

"Of course not." She winked, but her expression grew sombre. "I'm sorry, Darce, I know how much you worry about him. But he's all grown up now. You can't protect him if he doesn't want to be protected."

I sighed and wrapped my hands around the bottle of Budweiser. It wasn't often that I drank, but on occasions that I did, it was always this. It held a bittersweet tang that I'd long come to associate with Miles. Sometimes, taste was not a flavor but a memory.

And this taste reminded me of him.

"You know," continued Flo, "I kind of remember him from school."

I blinked. "Really?"

"Mm-hmm. You say he's—what, twenty eight?—so he must've been in the year above mine. I think people only knew him because his dad was the college dean, and his brother used to a legend before he died. Apparently, he was the one who started the tradition of the Hell Weeks—both at Riverton and their affiliate high school, Denver."

My lips flattened into a grim line. I didn't want to think ill of the dead, but Hale Callaghan was not the angel, or legend, everyone said he was. How could he be, when he'd created the very system that Miles had suffered through in the first place?

Hale Callaghan was notorious. That's all he ever was.

But Miles...

Flo waved a hand in my face. "Darce, your phone."

I cast a distracted glance down at it, and the unfamiliar number made me pause. I swiped a finger across the screen, and nearly fell off my seat at the message.

Something to say, Evers?