Page 8 of Mr. Match

“Right? No good, right?”

Weston Conrad might look a little panicked. But… well, I can’t blame him. My sisters are what most people would call… wild. Even Belle, who is the tame one, has a very unusual dark side.

“Are you gonna try to tell me this has nothing to do with what went down a couple weeks ago? Because if so, I’ll save you the trouble. I don’t buy it. Victoria is obsessed, man. Fucking obsessed.”

“With Ariel?”

“No, you dumbass. With my parents.”

“What? Why?”

“They called me up the other day, said they were coming for a visit and they want to meet Ethan. Said they might never get another grandchild, so they’re all in for this adoption thing. Tori threw a fucking fit.”

“Fuck.”

“Fuck is right. Your dirty parents, blah, blah, blah. Buying children, blah, blah, blah. Over my dead body. Etc., etc., etc.”

“Well, why doesn’t she tell you what she really thinks?” I laugh, rubbing my hand down my face.

West shoots me a look that makes it very clear he does not find this funny. “So now we’re in Fort Collins. Staying at your sister’s house, Oliver.”

“For how long?”

“Until my parents back off, she said.”

“How long’s that?”

“I dunno,” he snaps. “Do I look like I know how long I’m going to be held hostage in Shrikeville? You need to tell Ariel to talk her down for me, OK? You need to ask her to—”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” I say, holding up my hands. “I’m not getting involved in your bullshit. Fuck that. I don’t even like you.”

“Scared?” West says, unsmiling.

“Uh, yeah. Dude, I don’t fuck with my sister’s plans. We get along because I keep my mouth shut and let her do whatever the hell she wants.”

“Well, that certainly worked with Cindy,” he says, half laughing. “Mysterious swooped right into your territory and took over.”

I sneer at him. “Like I could stop that after the fact.”

“Look,” West says. “Do you really want Tori hanging out with Ariel? Can you even imagine the trouble they will cause? I mean, I get you know what your sister’s capable of, but you have no clue how crazy Victoria Arias can be.”

“I have an idea,” I say. “Maybe we weren’t close after that shit went down in college, but Pax filled me in about the two of you. If she does something crazy—”

“She will, Oliver. They are planning something, I just know it. And you’re the only one who can figure out what it is so we can put a stop to it. Do you understand that? I mean, can’t you talk to her? Just a quick, ‘Hey, did you know Victoria is kinda psycho? Maybe you should send her packing and save this town some trouble?’”

“Right.” I laugh. “I say that to Ariel and she becomes even more interested. I don’t think you know her very well. Cindy is the calm sister in this family. Belle is a hard-ass like you’ve never seen before. She took lessons from my Uncle Ford. Who, by the way, is Five’s father, just to give you an idea of what that means. And Jasmine spends her days tattooing bikers with my batshit-crazy uncles. We just better hope Ariel doesn’t get them all together because things will go down.”

“This is all your fault.”

“My fault?” I laugh. “Victoria is the instigator in this whole mess. Don’t pass this off on me.”

“Pass what off?”

Corporate and I both whirl around to find Tori and Ariel standing at the top of the stairwell.

“Yeah,” Ariel says. They both step forward into my office. “What are you talking about?”

“Just how long you guys are gonna be in town,” I say, directing that statement to Victoria.