Cocked: A Stepbrother Romance Read Free

remembered him as a good-looking troublemaker, but he looked more like a smooth-talking businessman. Only the tattoos poking out of the corners of his simple white button-down shirt hinted at his criminal past.
    “Camden?” I said softly, my heart racing.
    I couldn’t believe it was him. I thought he was dead. I thought he’d never come back. I’d lived my life all these years convinced I’d never see him again.
    He had to be a ghost.
    “In the flesh. It’s been a while, Lace.”
    “What . . . what are you doing here?” I managed to say.
    He took a step closer but didn’t move to come past the doorway.
    “I was back in town. I figured I’d stop by.” His smile widened. “You look good.”
    Camden was home. Camden, the stepbrother that had disappeared, the asshole and the criminal. Actually, he probably didn’t even realize that we were stepsiblings. One day we all thought he was dead, and the next he was ringing the doorbell like it was no big deal.
    And holy shit does he look amazing, I couldn’t help but think. Any sign of adolescent uncertainty was totally gone. The Camden standing in front of me was a man, through and through, confident and gorgeous.
    And then the rage came back to me.
    Camden left us. He never said a single word. Lynn was a mess after he left, called every hospital, mental ward, and police station in a fifty-mile radius. She organized search parties to comb through the local parks and woods for any sign of him. She even hired a private detective to try to track him down. Even when everyone said hope was lost, she kept trying, calling more and more places, sending out his description online, everything.
    Eventually, she was forced to move on. Life got in the way. It wasn’t something that happened overnight, but gradually. Bit by bit she became used to Camden not being around, and eventually she accepted that he was never coming home. The pain was probably still there, but it was less. She could handle it.
    And then he showed back up on our doorstep, just like that.
    After everything he put my family through.
    I was pissed. I was so angry I could barely understand it.
    “Fuck off, asshole,” I said.
    I loved the look on his face as I slammed the door shut and stormed back into the house.

Chapter Two: Camden
     

     
    I ’d had a lot of doors slammed in my face.
    Some by ex-girlfriends, some by jaded ex-employers. One or two by victims. But never had it bothered me so much as when Lacey did it.
    I meant it when I said she looked good. I hadn’t seen her pretty face in a very long time, though I had thought about it a lot. When you disappeared to Mexico, you didn’t tend to come back. Most people stayed lost.
    But I wasn’t like most people.
    I left all those years ago to protect my family. Now, well, I guess I hadn’t changed all that much.
    I rang the doorbell again, sighing.
    “Go the fuck away,” I heard her yell again from inside.
    “Open up, Lacey. Aren’t you happy to see me?”
    I grinned to myself as I heard her huff and stomp away. I rang the doorbell again and again, glancing around the neighborhood. I had to be careful. I couldn’t draw too much attention to myself. People knew me in Hammond, knew what kind of person I was.
    But they had no clue what kind of person I had become.
    Finally, after the fifth ring, the door pulled open.
    My heart hammered in my chest. “Hey, Mom.”
    She stared at me. I hadn’t seen her in four years, not since the day I’d left, but there she was, basically unchanged. I had thought about her a lot over the years, figured I had hurt her pretty badly. But I couldn’t risk contacting her and putting her in danger.
    “Camden?” she said softly.
    I smiled sheepishly. “I’m home.”
    She stared for half a second more before throwing her arms around me. “I can’t believe it,” she said, choking back a sob.
    I returned her hug. “I’m sorry,” I said softly.
    “I knew you weren’t dead,” she said. “I never gave up on