Troublemaker (Troublemaker, Book 1) (5 page)

I stand frozen for a moment.
I know exactly what’s he’s saying.

I massage my forehead before I look up at
Ryker.

“So you’re telling me that
Cage was some kind of total bad ass?” I ask.

“Well I ain’t saying it was his fault or nothing but…”

“Wait,
wha
t wasn’t his fault?” I ask.

“Look,” he pauses, “
Cage doesn’t take shit from anybody. And when you’re in the Marines, let’s just say that taking shit from your commanding officer is a requirement for the job.”

I shake my head. “I don’t get it.” I look over
Ryker’s shoulders and see Cage across the room.

“Simply put, things can get real ugly out there.
Real
ugly.” Ryker’s eyes grow distant. “But Cage, he don’t exactly…” he pauses and grabs some unsuspecting partygoer in a Hawaiian shirt by the arm. “Do me a favor bro? Wanna get me a refill?” Ryker asks him.

He looks
Ryker’s 6’5” frame up and down. “Right on, brother. I’ll be back in a flash!”

“Cool man, thanks,” he says.

Ryker turns his eyes back towards me and leans in even closer than before. I feel his warm breath as he’s about to talk until…

“Big fella! What’s going on brother?”
Cage screams from across the room as he catches Ryker’s attention.

“Look I can’t say no more about that,”
Ryker looks over his shoulder, totally paranoid all of a sudden. “Let’s just say that Cage West has twice the balls that I have, and that’s saying a lot.” He winks at me and takes a huge sip from his beer.

“What’s up people?” I startle as
Cage and Jess show up from behind us. “I found your new friend, Ryker,” he says, delivering Jess’s hand to him.

Ryker
lights up as Jess folds into his arms. Only Jess can act like she’s been dating a guy for six months even though she’s only known him for thirty minutes. I wish, just one time, that I could feel that comfortable around men.

Cage
punches his friend in the arm. “Dude, I still can’t friggin’ believe you came out to visit!”

“Ah c’mon C
, we’re brothers for life. Ain’t nothing gonna stop me from checking up on you,” Ryker says. “Plus someone’s gotta make sure you aren’t getting your ass kicked.”

“Whatever bro, you really think it’s possible for someone to kick my ass? Look
at these f-ing guns baby!” Cage flexes his bicep for Ryker.

Ryker
shakes his head at Cage. “Man, I know one thing which is that you are way too full of yourself.”

Cage
takes another huge gulp from his cup. “You speak the truth my friend. Here! Here!” He raises his cup to his friend’s, beer splashing onto the floor.

A Lady Gaga song starts thumping through my father’s sub-unit. I look over and see an old picture of my family on the wall start to vibrate and move out of place.

This really isn’t good.

“C’mon girl, you ready to dance?”
Ryker reaches out for Jess’s hand. She looks at me and giggles, then grabs his hand as they break off into their own private dance world.

Cage turns to me.
“So, you come here often?” he asks.

I smile back
at him. I notice the sweat on his neck and can’t help but want to run my finger along it. “No, first time,” I say, grabbing his cup from his hand. “I heard some freak rents here though.”

“Really? Cuz I heard the opposite,” he says, looking over his shoulder. I take another sip from his cup. “I heard some ultra hot stud rents this apartment from some chic who insists that eating raw pine cones and reading books on applied biology is living it up.” He takes his cup back from me and gulps some more beer down.

I raise my eyes at him. “So that’s what you think about yourself,” I say, reaching for his cup. He pulls it away from me though and throws an amazingly cute smile back at me. “I’m glad to hear you’re not shy anymore about how much you adore yourself.”

“Hey look, somebody’s gotta adore me around here.” He pauses and looks around. “My landlord’s too busy being perfect to notice the gem that is me.” He bows and spills some of his beer onto my sneaker.

I kick my foot towards him, sending droplets of alcohol onto his leg. “Is that what you call yourself, a gem?” I ask.

“You said it lady, not me,” he says, gently poking my shoulder with his finger. My entire arm heats up from his touch.

Not a good sign, McKenzie.

Cage
’s eyes change suddenly. The goofy, arrogant surf boy look disappears from his face.

“You up for checking out the beach?” he asks.

Is he serious?

“Are you serious?” I look around at what seems like a thousand people
reeking havoc in my father’s house. “Right now?”

“Yeah, why not? I’ll put
Ryker in charge,” he says, giving me the thumbs up sign.

“I don’t know, I…”

“Hey,” he pauses and gives me a slight nod, “it’ll be okay. We’re just saying hello to the ocean for a minute.”

My brain is completely flooded. And I can’t figure out what
’s scaring me more, leaving my father’s house with all these strangers partying in it, or going down to the beach.

With
Cage.

“Hey
Ryker, we’ll be back in a few,” Cage yells over to his friend who’s grinding with Jess.

Ryker
raises his red cup in the air. “Right on, brother. I got your back.” He smiles at Cage. He shoots a glance at me, “I got you covered too landlady.” Even though I don’t know Cage’s friend from a hole in the wall, or even Cage for that matter, I somehow trust him to watch over things right now.

“You set?”
Cage ushers me towards the door. He puts his hand on my lower back and allows me to exit the door first.

A wave of fiery electricity starts from where his hand touches my
back and spreads to every area of my body.

I really can’t make sense of any of this. It’s almost like… I’m into this guy way more than I should be.

Or even can be.

We reach the sand and
Cage kicks his sneakers off. I follow suit, looking out in the distance at my poor, abandoned house.

“Man do I love the beach at night.”
Cage opens his arms to the sky and tilts his head back. “It’s so… I don’t know what it is,” he pauses to pick up a handful of sand and let it filter through his fingers, “I guess I just feel at home.”

Believe me, I know the feeling.

“I’m with you. My mother used to take me to the beach at night when I was a little girl.” I look out into the water and feel a shooting pain rip through my body. “Every time I come down to the ocean, even in the day, I get these major flashbacks.”

I can see the
silhouette of Cage’s head nod up and down. “It’s weird, right?” He grabs another handful of sand and tosses it with the wind. “I get a lot of flashbacks too from when I was a little kid. And some of the good ones feel the worst.” He kicks some sand on me feet. “Go figure.”

“Yeah, me too. Maybe it’s because we’re afraid we’ll never get to feel that good again,” I say.

He chuckles in agreement. “Ya know what Kenz, I think you’re onto something. “It’s like you get this awful sting from some old memory, and it could even be about something really cool that happened…” he pauses, “but whatever, you gotta let it go and move on, no matter what.”

“I don’t have any choice,” I say.
“Sometimes it feels like my entire life has been laid out for me. My future takes ups way too much space for my past to have any chance of surviving for more than a second or two.”

“Well, landlady, there’s nothing wrong with having your own plans,” he says. “I got some plans of my own.”

“I know, plans are fine. I’m just not sure that my plans are actually
my
plans.”

“
I hear that.” His fingers gently slide across the back of my arm. “Come on.” He gestures for me to walk closer to the water as he dips his bare feet into the ocean. I stand frozen for a minute, still holding onto the feeling from his touch.

Why does he feel so good
?
I still can’t come to terms with the fact that every time he even comes near me I practically hyperventilate.

“McKenzie, you coming or what?” he asks. His dark
silhouette looks so wild and amazing under the moonlight.

“Listen, Kenz,” he pauses and kicks a little water onto my shin, “you gotta live your own life. You can’t let
your parents pave every part of the way for you.”

“That’s easy for you to sa
y. Not everyone’s as cool as Cage West.”

“That’s for sure.” He nudges me in the shoulder. “But even if you’re ten percent as cool as me, you still have to make your own life, ya know? You got one real chance to live
your
life.”

I know h
e’s right. And it kind of hurts.

Because the last thing I’ve ever done is lived
my life the way
I
want to live it.

“Y
ou’re telling me that you have everything figured out? That Cage West never let’s anybody push him around or tell him what to do?” I ask.

“That’s the basic idea, Kenz.”

“What about Julia?” I ask, pointing to the tattoo on his wrist that’s just barely lit up from the moonlight. “Did your girlfriend tell you to do that or did you do that on your own too?”

He shakes
his head back and forth. “Way off, McKenzie.” He walks a couple of steps away from me, deeper into the water. He doesn’t say another word.

His silence is
crushing to me.
Way off?
What the hell is that supposed to mean? This guy is no easy read. And complicated has never exactly been my strong suit.

He turns to face me again.
“Look, we’re supposed to be partying right now. Will you lighten up, at least for tonight?” he teases.

I still don’t have a clue what just happened. But I can’t help but feel relieved that he seems back to himself.

“Me lighten up? You’re the one who started philosophizing about the power of mother earth and all that stuff you were rambling about a few minutes ago,” I say.

“Whatever, Kenz. I just wanted you to see that I’m more than just a hot body with a
surfboard.” He starts to walk towards me.

I shake my head at his arrogance. “
And you thought your little pseudo Henry David Thoreau speech was going to do the trick?” I ask.

He snickers. “Give me a break. I kick so much ass and you know it.” He punches me in the arm lightly
. “You know I’m the total package landlady.”

“Jesus. I have literally never even heard of someone loving thems
elves as much as you love yourself.”

“I know, neither have I.” He runs his finger along my jaw line. “You can’t help but want more though, right
?”

Holy. Crap.

I freeze my head in the exact same position it was in when he touched my face. It feels like my entire body is going up in flames.

This can’t be happening to me.

Can’t be happening.

I’d be totally lying if I told myself I didn’t want him to rip all of my clothes off right now, on this beach. I can barely contain myself, I literally might die.

Enough.

I never let things get this far out of control. I seriously begin to wonder if some fucking alien got inside my brain.

“Snap out of it, will ya Kenz? You look like a friggn’ zombie all of a sudden.”

Exactly.

“A gorgeous one, I might add,” he says.

Okay, seriously?

“Sure Cage, I’ll bet you say that to all the zombies you meet,” I say.

He chuckles. “You’re
probably right about that Kenz,” he pauses, “but still, you might as well take the compliment.”

“
Being called a pretty zombie is a real self-esteem booster.” I jab him in the shoulder. “Thanks Cage-O.”

“Ya know something, you can be a real pain in the ass,” he says.

I can’t hide my laughter. “Me? I’m the pain in the ass?” I ask. “What, you can’t take a little jab from a girl?” I punch him in the arm again, but this time he catches my fist and won’t let it go.

Having him just hold my fist is like… be
tter than any sex I’ve ever had. Not that I’ve had that much sex.

This.

Is.

Bad.

“I’ll let your hand go on one condition,” he says.

For some outrageous reason unknown even to myself, the last thing in the world I want is for him to let me go. But let’s get serious here.

“You do realize I’m your landlord, don’t you?” I ask, trying to pull my hand away.

He smirks as he toys with my fist in his tight grasp. “No offense, but…”