Chapter 4 LINKED

JACKSON

CHAPTER FOUR

LINKED

"And you won't even get the roof when I'm done with you."

"Fine. Fine," I said, holding my hands up in defeat. "You win."

"Don't think I don't know your tricks," Morgan said.

"I bow to thee, fair maiden."

I dipped down low, and when I straightened, I threw her over my shoulder. She screamed and beat my back.

"If you throw me in that water, I will murder you!"

I hauled her to the edge of the dock and pretended to release her. She screamed right before I caught her and then dropped her back onto her feet.

But, when she looked up at me, she was laughing. Morgan might be Jensen's mini me, but she and I always had the most fun.

"Come on. Dinner is almost ready," Morgan said, clapping me on the back and then falling into step with Patrick, back up the hill to the house.

I grabbed the beer as I followed them, cracking one open as I went. Adrianna might have joked about me always drinking, but alcohol was just a part of my life. We had a special relationship. The constant buzz. The feeling of the pain disappearing.

That was what alcohol was.

Freedom.

Pure, unadulterated bliss.

If there was anything I could rely on, it was that a drink would silence everything always buzzing around in my head. It kept me numb and pleasant. I didn't even remember my life before it. And, frankly, I didn't want to.

The lake house was in chaos when I entered. Luggage everywhere. People everywhere-cooking, talking, drinking. With all four of my siblings and their plus-ones and kids, we had eleven people at the house for the full weekend. Emery's sister and her family would join us tomorrow. It made me want to get another drink already.

I finally meandered out of the house and found Jensen at the grill. He nodded his head at me.

"What's up?" I said.

"Heard you threw Adrianna into the lake."

"I didn't throw her."

"Semantics," Jensen said. "I don't care what you do, Jackson. Just trying to make this as much of a drama-free weekend as possible. I know that's nearly impossible when we get the whole Dune family together, but don't start shit, okay?"

Jensen, the fixer, the CEO of Dune Construction, and my older brother. No one would ever guess we were only three years apart, considering Jensen treated us more like he was a father than our brother at times. Not that we'd had a good example of a father figure.

"Yeah. Sure. I'll do that."

Jensen reached into a bag on the ground and brought out a bottle of top-shelf whiskey. He grinned as he passed it to me. A peace offering.

I opened the bottle and poured the pair of us a drink. It was smooth and hot as it went down. Perfection in one little bottle.

When the food was ready, we all made up plates and took a seat around the fire pit Heidi had put together. She had schooled Landon in her fire-building skills, and he looked the worse for wear with her torment.

"Girl Scouts," she insisted with a shrug.

I got my food last, feeling more than a buzz for the first time in a while. It took a lot to get me drunk. A lot. But this shit that Jensen had bought was incredible, and we had been downing it like water.

My eyes roamed the seating at the fire pit, and against my better judgment, I decided to do something stupid.

"Hey," I said, nodding at the seat next to Adrianna. "This seat taken?"

Adrianna warily looked up at me. She'd changed out of her wet clothes, and she was in cotton shorts and an Ohio State T-shirt. "Depends."

"On what?"

"If you're done being a dick."

I shrugged and sank into the seat. "Probably not."

She laughed, short and stilted. "Of course not."

"So, you haven't gotten over me pulling you into the lake then?"

"Is this your idea of an apology?"

"No."

"You're really insufferable, you know that, right?" Her chest heaved, and she glanced away from me.

"Maybe you should have a drink." I offered her the bottle of liquor.

"That's your answer to everything. Have a drink. Drinking doesn't solve problems, Jackson. It creates them."

"Your choice."

I set the bottle back down and dug into my cheeseburger. I was starving, so anything would have tasted good, but Jensen really knew what he was doing on the grill. Adrianna had fallen silent and was picking at her food. She was the only one here who wasn't part of the family. Emery and Heidi, unofficially. Patrick had been around since we were kids, so he hardly counted. But Adrianna had only moved here two years ago.

My family was overbearing at the best of times. Had to be completely overwhelming otherwise.

"Hey, you want to see something cool?" I asked.

"I've already seen your dick. It's not that interesting."

"That's a lie, and we both know it."

She arched an eyebrow.

"Look, I'd be happy to give you another look if you don't remember," I said, standing and reaching for my swim trunks.

"Jackson!" she said, jumping to her feet. "Cut it out."

"Come on. Let me show you something."

"I really do not want to go anywhere with you." She pulled back her arm as I reached for it.

"Christ, just trust me, Anna."

"I don't."

She strode back into the lake house, and I followed her at a close clip.

"Anna"

She whirled around. "Stop calling me that. You know I don't like it. It's Adrianna. You can call me Adrianna, like everyone else."

"Fine. Adrianna." I stepped up to her, as if I were approaching a wild animal. And, with her unruly red hair down, tangling around her shoulders, she gave a pretty good impression of being one. "I thought you'd like to see this."

She stumbled forward a step, as if drawn by an invisible cord that linked us together. As drawn to me as I was to her. Or maybe I was drunk and imagining things because her eyes shuttered, and that spark was gone.

"Why do you think I'd like it?"

"You'll know it when you see it."

Her curiosity must have piqued enough because she finally gave me a stiff nod. "All right. Where to?"

I grabbed her wrist, and she only glared at me.

"Follow me. It's almost time."