from Prologue

Kye—Twenty Years Old

June 1

Using my key to unlock the door, I walked inside my mom’s old house, which Genesis was renting during her summer break. My mom had remarried and moved to Key West three years ago, but she’d kept my childhood home for visits here. Genesis using it made me fucking happy.

The vanilla-cinnamon scent hit me, and I smiled. I tossed my keys on the bar as I passed the kitchen and headed to the living room.

“Honey, I’m home!” I called out teasingly.

“You’re earlier than I expected. I just got out of the shower.” Genesis’s voice carried down the hallway. “Give me a few minutes.”

My gaze swung over to the coffee table, covered in snacks. The usual was there—chocolate chip cookies, brownies, Rice Krispies Treats, which she didn’t bake, but bought from a bakery in town because Baby Doll didn’t bake or cook. There was a bowl of regular M&M’s—my favorite—a bowl of popcorn, and the mandatory bowl of fruit that neither of us ate but was there in case we might want something healthy.

The cupcakes in the center of it all were new though. I could tell from here they were my favorite chocolate cake with vanilla icing. Again, those had come from a bakery—no way Genesis had made them. They looked fucking delicious, and when my girl tried to bake, it was rarely edible. The one in the center had an unlit candle. Grinning, I grabbed a cookie and flopped down on the sofa to wait on her.

“I thought I’d have time for a shower before you got here. I figured the party with the Lords of the Underworld would keep you out later,” Genesis told me as she walked around the sofa and took a seat beside me.

She’d been calling the family the Lords of the Underworld since I’d told her about them when I was sixteen.

My dad had gotten me my first tattoo, and I’d been so fucking pumped. Genesis was shocked that my dad would let me get one at my age. Then, Bowie said something about a tattoo being the least of the things my dad would let me do. Genesis had always known how to make me talk. She wouldn’t let that go. Finally, I caved and explained the family to her.

When I was done, she had stared at me and said, “So, you are telling me that instead of college, you’re going to just join the Lords of the Underworld in organized crime?”

Bowie had spit his drink and doubled over, laughing. I’d been annoyed though. In her eyes, I was already the one who didn’t measure up. Bowie was the golden boy. He did all the right things, said all the right things, treated her like a fucking princess. I was the hell-raiser.

I still was, but Bowie had been out of the picture for years.

“So, tell me about the party. How many strippers did you bang? Did y’all slice open the veins of your enemies and drink their blood?” She popped an M&M in her mouth, grinning at me.

Genesis was a complete smart-ass. An adorable smart-ass.

I leaned back and wiggled my eyebrows at her. “You want to know my head count?” I asked.

She sucked on the M&M in her mouth, which was the way she ate the damn things and one of the reasons I loved them so much. “It’s your birthday, Kye. I’m your best friend. You have to share all the details.”

I held up two fingers.

She placed her hand over her heart and gasped. “Just two? You’re slacking in your old age,” she taunted me.

I smirked. “Baby Doll, I can assure you that nothing about me is slacking.”

That got a laugh out of her as she stood back up, slinging her damp locks of hair behind her shoulder.

Genesis might be my best friend, but she was a female, and I wasn’t fucking blind. I’d never been with her. I was just smart. Protected our friendship by ignoring her appearance. Bowie had been the one to fuck it up. He’d been the one to make her something more.

My gaze traveled over her narrow waist and the small flash of flat, tanned stomach as her pink plaid pajama pants hung on her hips. Letting my eyes continue their path, I briefly allowed myself to quickly appreciate the outline of her perky, round tits in the pink tank top she was wearing as she walked over to grab a lighter from the mantel.

Holding it up, she smiled at me. “Since your birthday was in the lair of the Lords of the Underworld and I missed your birthday cake, I thought we’d have some cupcakes here. Don’t worry. I didn’t make them. I bought them from the cute little bakery downtown.”

That made me chuckle. As if I would ever think that the perfectly iced cupcakes had been made by her. Not in this lifetime.

Genesis leaned forward, giving me a view right down the neckline of her tank top, and I jerked my gaze off her tits before I saw nipples. Getting hard over your best friend’s tits wasn’t cool. Although I’d always wondered about her nipples. What they looked like. I couldn’t help it. I had a thing for tits, and Genesis had some great ones.

I heard the lighter flick, and I waited until I could see her standing back up out of the corner of my eye before turning my gaze back to her.

She was holding the cupcake, the candle in the center of it lit, out to me. “Make a wish,” she said to me.

I blew the candle out, then took the cupcake from her. “Thanks, Baby Doll.”

“You’re welcome. Now, you need to pick the movie you want to start with, and I’ll go get the drinks. Corona, or are you ready for your birthday present?”

“I can’t have a drink and my birthday present?” I asked her, trying to figure out the reason she looked almost giddy.

Her aquamarine eyes sparkled when she was excited about something. I was intrigued. What had she done?

“You can, but they could be one and the same,” she said in a singsong voice.

“You got me whiskey for my birthday,” I guessed.

She winked at me, then left me in the living room to go get whatever it was she was so fucking happy about. It felt like my birthday finally. All day had been just a regular day, except for the strippers and drinks I’d had at Huck’s shop with the guys.

As nice as all that had been, it didn’t feel like my birthday until I was with Genesis. She’d been with me on my birthday every year since the summer I’d turned eight. Without her, it just didn’t feel right. There had been a time when I would have wanted Bowie here too. That ship had sailed. He was no longer a regret. I was fucking thrilled he’d left our friendship. I got Genesis all to myself.

She came walking back into the room with two whiskey glasses in one hand and a gift bag in the other. It was times like this that I could see past those killer eyes of hers, that fucking beauty mark that sat just over the left corner of her heart-shaped mouth, and her perfect slightly upturned nose to the tomboy with dirty knees and stringy hair. The girl who had been down to any crazy-ass idea I came up with and did her damn best to do it better than Bowie and me.

She held out the bag to me.

“You look real damn pleased with yourself,” I told her.

“Oh, I am,” she replied.

I opened the bag and pulled out a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve—15 Year. This shit ran close to three grand. I jerked my gaze back up to look at her in shock. I knew exactly how much she made a week. She was working at the boutique in town that my mother owned.

“You got me Pappy’s?” I asked.

She held up the two glasses. “I might have designed a boho wedding dress for a girl at school, whose brother-in-law is a higher-up at the Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort, Kentucky. I clearly didn’t pay what you’re thinking. Not that I don’t love you that much, but because I have to pay rent and all.”

She placed the two glasses on the coffee table in front of me. “Let’s drink to twenty.”

Then, she sank down onto the sofa beside me, curling her legs underneath her. “Now, pour us some Pappy’s.”

I opened the bottle and gave Genesis her two-finger pour while I was more generous with myself. Turning back to her, I handed her the glass and then picked up mine. We tapped the glasses against each other, the clink of our glasses filling the room, because that made my girl smile.

Genesis said, “To twenty. May it be the best year yet.”

I watched her take a sip from the glass and wondered what it would take to convince her not to go back to Savannah in the fall. It was selfish of me, and I knew I’d never let her give up her dream, but, fuck, I missed her like crazy. This past year with her away at college had sucked. I hated it.

Putting the glass to my lips, I tried to push aside thoughts of the future and enjoy tonight.

“Which movie first, birthday boy?” she asked. “The Conjuring, Poltergeist, or Scream?”

I rested my head on the back of the sofa and turned to look at her. “Those are my options?”

She nodded. “Yes. I’ve seen those enough that they no longer scare me. And I live alone, so nothing new that can cause me to lose sleep. Going next door to my parents’ isn’t happening either.”

I reached over and grabbed her chin. “But you have me. A Lord of the Underworld to keep you safe.”

She tilted her head and gave me an amused smirk. “Yes, but you are only staying tonight. What happens tomorrow night when I need to pee and I’m too scared to go to the bathroom? Call Mom and ask her to come over and watch me?”

I laughed because she wasn’t exaggerating. I knew this to be fact. “No, you call me, and I’ll come running.”

“And if you’re in the process of getting busy at the time? I might pee my pants before you can get here.”

I let go of her chin and rolled my eyes. “You know the moment you call, I’ll drop what I’m doing.”

Genesis took a sip from her glass and studied me for a minute. “Okay, fine. What movie do you want to watch? I’ll be brave.”

I leaned forward and took the bowl of popcorn and a brownie, then sat back, handing the brownie to her. “The Conjuring,” I replied with a wink.

Taking her brownie, she shook her head, smiling at me as she settled in close to my side, pointing the remote at the television. “You just like getting me worked up,” she said.

“Always have, Baby Doll. You’re fucking adorable when you get all stressed.”