Ravenous next book 3, p.1
Ravenous (NeXt Book 3), page 1
RAVENOUS
K.M. SCOTT
Contents
Blurb
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
About the Author
Books by K.M. Scott:
Books by K.M. Scott writing as Gabrielle Bisset:
RAVENOUS
Cash March has everything going for him. With stunning good looks and a sharp mind, he’s set to graduate from law school in just a few months. His future looks bright.
The son of Cassian and Olivia will be the first lawyer in the family. Talk about proud.
Except Cash is hiding something, and if that secret is found out, he may lose everything, including his future.
Savannah Gardener knows far too much about loss. A widow before her twenty-seventh birthday, she longs for the life she thought was hers before fate shattered her dreams.
She has everything a woman could want, except love. All her money can’t buy that. Maybe it can help her find something to make her smile with a sexy man who’s looking for happiness too, though.
But will Cash’s secrets ruin any chance for them when the truth is finally revealed?
Ravenous is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and events are the products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to events, locations, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
2021 Copper Key Media LLC
Copyright © 2021 Copper Key Media LLC
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.
Published in the United States
ISBN: 978-1-955335-01-0
Chapter One
Cash
Up at the house, my mother and grandmother talk about all the parties they need to plan for the next year like it’s the central focus of their lives. No doubt, my family knows how to have a good time. It’s a March tradition. If there’s something to be celebrated, we get together and do it up big. Even when there’s only a handful of us hanging out, we know how to party.
I just wish my mother would focus on someone other than me and what’s happening in my life when it comes to her event planning.
Turning to look at my younger brother relaxing in the beach chair next to me, his eyes closed and his face placid like nothing in the world could even come close to bothering him, I say, “Do you hear Mom and Grandma up there? I think they’ve been talking about that same subject for the past hour.”
Alex slowly opens his eyes and turns his head toward me. “What subject? I’m not listening to them. Some beers, probably too much sun, and swimming for a couple hours this afternoon wiped me out. I think I fell asleep there for a while. What are they talking about?”
Oh, to be my brother and have the attitude toward life he has. I don’t know where he got it from since my mother and father are both Type A people, but Alex is nothing like the three of us. He looks at the world as nothing but a good time to be had, and whatever that involves, whether it be food, drink, sex, or smoke, he’s happy to simply enjoy it all.
“Mom’s cataloguing the parties we all need to hold, and Grandma is making them grow exponentially bigger, like she always does. At any moment, Dad’s going to chime in with something and before you know it, we’ll be hanging out here eating and drinking every weekend until next Fourth of July.”
With a shrug, Alex lets out a sigh. “You’ve been in this family long enough that I’d think you’d know what they’re all about. I don’t see why you’d have a problem with any of what they’re talking about. You get to be the star at one of their parties next year when you graduate. All the food and drink you and everyone you’ve ever met in life right here to celebrate you finishing law school.”
My mind flashes back to when Alex graduated from culinary school. So much food. So many people. Talk about a lost weekend. That party will go down in the annals of March celebrations, for sure.
But I’m not my brother, and the thought of having to mix and mingle with all sorts of guests here only because my parents are so proud they invite every damn soul they’ve ever spoken to makes me cringe.
“It’s not like I discovered a cure for cancer or anything,” I mumble under my breath.
Next to me on my left sits Liam, who I know has been listening to my mother all this time. I glance over at him and see him smirk. Like with most things, he says little but the look on his face tells you he has an opinion on whatever’s going on.
“Well, you might as well say it. It’s written all over your face,” I say.
He shakes his head and laughs. “What? You just seem awfully touchy about having a party thrown in your honor.”
“It’s not that.”
Liam sits up straight in his chair and leans over to grab his drink. “Then what is it? You know how our parents get. Every one of us got the full party treatment for every birthday and graduation. I’m not sure why this one is bothering you.”
Of course, he doesn’t understand. Nobody does. I don’t talk to anyone in our family about what my life’s been like since I moved away to go to law school.
I wave away anything I might want to say, knowing that the more I complain, the more interested my brother and cousin will be in my life. That’s the last thing I need. I love my family, but I don’t love them in my business.
“It’s probably too much sun, like Alex said. I guess I’m getting cranky.”
Eager to change the subject, I ask him about his life, happy to have the focus move to him. “So why aren’t you off doing your job with that music star instead of here? I thought your job with her started already?”
Liam twists his expression into a scowl. “It got postponed because she checked into rehab. For the next three months, I get to do all the sitting on the beach and drinking I want, I guess.”
I know him well enough that the last thing he wants to do is lounge out for that long. Liam may choose to say very little at times, but he’s more like me and my Type A personality than like my brother. Alex would love to just sit at the edge of the water and look out toward the horizon for days on end. As long as he could indulge in whatever desires arose in him, he’d be as happy as a clam.
“You can’t take any other security jobs?”
Shaking his head, Liam gives me another grimace. “She’s gone for just long enough that any assignments are impossible. If she could hang out at that cushy place for even four months, then I could take something to fill the time before I start with her, but three months doesn’t work. I mean, I can do some one day jobs, but there’s not much in those.”
On my right, Alex says, “Must be nice to just be able to sit around for months on end. When I grow up, I think I want to be you, Liam. Or Cash here. But instead, I get to be me.”
Liam and I laugh at my brother’s faux woe is me routine. “You love what you do, Alex,” I say, knowing how much his job means to him.
“Yeah. Why are you acting like doing your job isn’t the thing you love the most in life?” Liam asks with a chuckle.
Alex sits up and leans over to look at the two of us. With a sly smile, he nods. “I do, but I wouldn’t be against hanging out for a few months.”
“Trust me,” Liam says in his serious voice. “You don’t want to be me or Cash. If you want to be anyone, it’s Wilder. Now there’s a guy who’s living his best life.”
I give my brother a quick glance of recognition at the hint of sarcasm in Liam’s voice. Closer to Wilder than any of the rest of us in the family, except for Kane and Abbi, he says little about his adopted brother, but when he does talk about him, what he says always seems to be tinged with something dark, like if he ever did decide to really get chatty about Wilder, he’d have something pretty damn big to say.
But while I never venture into those waters with my cousin, Alex has no issues with giving his opinion about Wilder. “Oh yeah? Has he moved on from busting up my kitchen to bigger and better things?”
No missing the contempt there.
“I don’t know,” Liam says as he sits back in his chair and takes a drink of his beer. “We aren’t exactly close these days. I’m usually working, so I don’t see him much.”
“I noticed he isn’t here today,” I say as I look around for any sign of him.
Neither Liam nor Alex say anything to that, even though I have a sense my brother would love to respond. That he doesn’t is only because he likes Liam.
“You three have been down here all afternoon. Are you avoiding us up at the house?”
I turn around to see my father walking toward where we sit. Dressed in his usual dress pants and a blue golf shirt, Cassian March looks like the quintessential businessman. Every day of my life, my father has looked like this. I admire him for that, though. He cares about what he looks like, even after being married to my mother for all these years. He never let himself go or sto
He’s the picture of success, and he’s proud of it.
“We can hear Mom down here talking about all the parties coming up,” I say, forcing a smile. “I figured I’d stay out of the way of all that. I can’t say why these two flanking me have grown roots, though.”
Alex and Liam laugh at my attempt to throw them under the bus. “This is where I always camp out at these things, so no need to wonder about me,” Alex says.
“I’m sulking about my job situation, so you don’t want me up there with you guys,” Liam says quietly.
“I heard about your client’s unfortunate turn of events,” my father says, nodding his head like he’s sympathetic.
Only Cassian March could refer to someone getting in trouble with drugs and forced to go to rehab by the court as an unfortunate turn of events and sound sincere.
“Yeah, well, I’m sulking about it with your sons today, Cassian.”
My father gives him another nod and turns his attention to me. “As for your mother and her party planning, she’s got the event of the season coming up with your graduation party. It’s not every day that a person graduates from law school, so she’s pulling out all the stops.”
“I heard. It’s really not such a big deal, Dad. I mean, I appreciate all she’s doing, but it’s just like when I graduated from college.”
All my father hears in that is some fake humility and not my real desire for no big party. “Are you kidding? You’re going to be the first lawyer in the family, Cash. You have no idea how much Stefan, Kane, and I could have used a lawyer who was related to us all those times we got into scrapes.”
My father, the king of euphemisms. Unfortunate turn of events. Scrapes. What he so lightly terms scrapes were more than once when each of them, my father and my two uncles, were looking at real jail time. The businessman in his golf shirt standing in front of me wasn’t always the upstanding citizen he is today.
And my uncles? They were even worse.
Liam laughs at that and says, “I’ve heard my father say the amount you three used to pay in legal bills for Stefan alone used to make him want to tear his hair out.”
Throwing his head back, my father lets out a belly laugh at that memory. “Your uncle did have a way of keeping this town’s lawyers in business. That guy you see now isn’t the one Kane and I had to work with. You get the grown up version of your uncle. We got the OG Stefan.”
“Too bad Cade isn’t here. He loves hearing about his father back in the day,” Alex says, now interested in the conversation.
“It’s better he isn’t. It only gives him more ammunition for those fights he and my brother have over the club. Shay said he and Hailey had to leave early today. So much for gang of five like it’s always been.”
“Yeah. We single guys have to fly solo now,” Alex says with a sigh.
Before my father can say another word, my mother walks up behind me and tousles my hair. “You should know your grandmother and I are planning the party to end all parties for when you graduate, Cassian March IV.”
I always know she’s serious when she uses my full name and includes the fourth. She makes me sound like I’m some king waiting in the wings for the third to give up his throne.
Tilting my head back, I look up at her and force a smile. “You really don’t have to do that, Mom. I know you guys are proud and everything, but you don’t have to make a big deal. Honest.”
Thankfully, my grandmother announcing that Wilder has shown up deflects my parents’ attention from me and their celebration plans. My mother quickly kisses the top of my head and then my brother’s before she and my father walk back up to the porch to welcome our cousin. Like always, it reeks of overcompensation, as if Wilder requires so much reassurance that everyone loves him that all attention must be paid to him.
On a normal day, it would grate on my nerves, but today, I’m thankful for him being a distraction.
Leaning over toward Alex, I say in a low voice, “I’ll even take having to deal with Wilder if it means it takes the focus off of me for a little while.”
For one of the few times I can remember, my brother looks at me with complete seriousness in his eyes. “You’re a big deal, Cash. Mom and Dad are prouder than I’ve ever seen them. You can’t blame them. This is huge.”
“Is being a lawyer that important? It’s not more impressive than your being a chef.”
A smile brightens his dark brown eyes. “Yes, it is. If you’re thinking I’m bothered by all of this attention on you, don’t. I’m fine with it. You deserve it, Cash. Graduating from law school is a big fucking deal.”
“Not really. It’s just school. I read the books and took the tests. Nothing special.”
He studies my face for a long moment before asking, “Why do you sound so unhappy? You’ve wanted to be a lawyer since you were old enough to answer the question ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ Your answer has never changed. You always said you wanted to be a lawyer. You’re almost there. You got the brass ring. Enjoy it.”
Under my breath, I repeat those words, “Enjoy it.”
Alex points his finger toward my face. “See, that’s what your problem is. Type A’s like you don’t know how to enjoy what you’ve earned. Take it from someone who definitely knows how to enjoy things. This is something you savor. As for Mom and Dad, they’re just trying to enjoy your success in their own way. Just go with it and have fun. You earned it.”
I hear my grandmother mention the graduation party and know my reprieve courtesy of Wilder’s arrival is already over. So much for that short-lived chance to not deal with the reality of next spring.
Chapter Two
Cash
“Five hundred says the Dolphins don’t make the playoffs this year,” Damon says, pointing his right hand and the beer bottle in it toward the TV. “I swear to God they have an allergy to fucking winning.”
A diehard Miami fan, he says things like this before every season and every game. Just to bust his balls, I say, “You know, has it ever occurred to you that you jinx them when you say things like that? And betting on them to not make the playoffs seems like you’re just begging for them to fail.”
He lifts the bottle to his mouth and takes a drink before rolling his eyes. “You sound like that girl I was seeing a while back. She was always going on about me putting negativity into the universe. Are you on that bullshit now?”
I can’t help but laugh at how touchy he gets whenever he’s talking about his team. Anything else, Damon’s as cool as a cucumber. He’s a lot like my brother in that way. But get him talking about football and he becomes unglued.
“No. I just thought I’d put it out there. Maybe you should think positively about them. It couldn’t hurt. I think it’s the only part of your life you’re not sure is going to succeed beyond your wildest dreams. You know that?”
A look of utter disgust comes over his face. “That’s because I’m not in control of what they do every Sunday. If I was, they’d have a better defensive line, for Christ’s sake, and they’d draft a decent quarterback and stop trying to make do with the fucking castoffs from other teams. They run that team like it’s a pig on fucking stilts.”
The image of that fills my mind, and I throw my head back and laugh. “So much for positive thoughts, huh? I guess I should be thankful you don’t talk like this about our business.”
After taking another gulp of beer, he sets his bottle down on the table in front of him. “Our business is run like a goddamned business should be. They run that team like it’s some half-hearted effort nobody gives a shit about.”
I’d love to change the subject, but all I can think about is my family and their need to throw the biggest party the city of Tampa has ever seen, and that’s including when they won the damn Super Bowl. I think I need to skip going to my grandmother’s for a few trips.
