Kings of Decay (The Winston Brothers Duet #1)

12. Ainsley

Chapter twelve

Ainsley

W illow was an interesting little mouse. It didn’t take much effort to pull up almost every part of her life online.

I glanced down at her driver’s license. Even the DMV couldn’t make her look ugly. Willow grew up in a small town in Oregon, was at the top of her high school class, and was active in clubs and teams. She was supposed to go to UCLA until her grades went down the shitter in her senior year. She had no siblings, and her mom had died when she was in her final year.

Well, that explained the grades and UCLA rescinding their offer.

Willow's social media was pretty dead for a twenty-year-old, and perhaps the most disappointing was the lack of leaked nudes or even an Instagram booty pic. She hadn’t made a single snap or post in months, and before that, it was mostly food pics or cheesy quotes.

I’d been earnestly hoping for something at least a little spicy. But Willow was just a broken-hearted mama’s girl with not a single black mark on her record. Now, she was stuck up here in this frozen hell. With us. With me.

I turned her ID card in my fingers before shoving it in my pocket. I’d have to make sure to return it to her during her next shift. Not that I needed an excuse to ruin her day, but it was nice to have, anyway.

There was barely a sound as my bedroom door opened. Pearce.

I turned to Pearce and raised an eyebrow. "Do you mind? I could have been jerkin' it."

Pearce laughed and gestured up to the open Facebook page with photos of Willow's prom. "Unlikely," he said. "Unless you found some nudes."

"Unfortunately not," I snorted. "Would have been good to have something to blackmail her with."

"Clean record?" He strode over, his hands in his pockets.

"She's a fucking saint."

Pearce's tongue flicked over his bottom lip. "Deliciously untouched. Perfect." He dropped down onto the edge of my bed, watching with rapt attention as I continued to scroll through Willow's social media.

I snorted. "She doesn't even drink."

"No drinks?" Pearce's eyes widened in mock surprise. "Not one?"

I shook my head.

"I still have questions," he said.

"It's pretty cut and dry. A good girl who's mom croaked and fucked her life up. She's still holding out for a miracle, it seems."

"How did her mom die?"

"Cancer," I said, letting the word fall heavy between us.

Pearce's throat bobbed as he cleared his throat. "Ah." Any sign of emotion was wiped from his face in a blink. There was a pause before he spoke again. "And her dad?"

"Works at the mine," I explained. "Some middle manager foreman or something."

Pearce leaned back and crossed his arms. "That might make things more complicated."

"Nah," I said, closing the incognito browser. "Dad's been less involved with the mine lately."

"For now," Pearce said sharply. "All it takes is one new manager to get big ideas, and he'll have to bring the hammer down again."

My father. Our father. The former mayor of Greyling Pass. Our entire family situation was just as fucked up as people thought. But, it kept peoples' noses out of our business.

That's the way it had to be, and I wasn't one to question him when it came to money. We were the heirs to the fortune he'd built in this desolate place. He could have moved us all to the Caribbean a hundred times, but he wanted to be here in his icy stronghold in the North.

"Plus, the new Governor has a hard-on for protecting wildlife and living wages, so that's going to make things more complicated," Pearce added.

"Whatever. Either way, I want to play with this girl and make her ours."

My lust for Willow was simmering, threatening to turn into a full-blown wildfire if I didn’t have her soon. She was so pretty and broken, brave and scared. She was a beautiful girl full of contradictions.

I’d never wanted anyone more than her. The selection of good-looking girls in this place was pretty much zero.

Pearce's expression darkened as he grinned. "Oh, brother, I was counting on that," Pearce said, throwing himself back onto my bed with a dramatic sigh, disrupting the dust that had settled on the sheets. "So what's the plan?"

"Hmm," I turned in my chair. "I want us to take our time with this little mouse. Soon, the winter snow will come, and she'll have no way out. That's when we'll make our move."

Pearce adjusted his pants. "I don't know if I can wait that long."

"What about an appetizer at the Halloween Party?"

"Ainsley," my brother said. "You're a genius."