I shrugged. “Cops are ass**les.”

“This week it’s this. You’re flipping off the elderly and using coarse language on purpose?” She leaned forward and lowered her tone. “That lady wasn’t doing anything to you.”

“She was judging us.” I stared right back at her. “She was judging you, Mom. I don’t give a shit what she says about me. Bad reputations aren’t a bad thing for guys like me, but you,” I tsked at her, shaking my head. “Trust me, she would’ve been on the phone with her biddies and all their daughters about that woman James Kade is leaving.”

Helen sucked in her breath and her fingers curled on the table, holding onto it for support. She realized that I was right.

I said, “Now she’ll talk about what a horrible son James Kade has.” I finished my water and gave my mother a polite smile. “That was a win-win for us. No gossip on you and my badass rep continues to grow.”

A soft curse slipped from her lips, and she leaned back in her chair. Her hands lifted to rub her forehead, massaging it in circles. “You’re right, except I wish your reputation was only a reputation.”

“Yeah.” I shrugged. My phone buzzed again, and I said to her, “I have to go. Nate’s waiting.”

“Mason—”

I got up and shot from the table, ignoring the rest of whatever she was going to lecture me about. I didn’t want to sit there and hear what I knew she’d say. She would ask questions about who would be at Nate’s house, but it would only torture her further. Nate’s parents were having a party. I was fully aware of who would be in attendance, lots and lots of my father’s mistresses. Nate thought I was going to hang out with him in the basement. Nope. I was going to have some fun tonight. Logan was off having a nice, normal date so the coast was clear. I was going to rip into a few people tonight, whether Nate’s parents kicked me out or not.

Nate saw the fight in me the second I walked through the basement patio door. He put the video controller aside and cursed, raking his hand through his hair. “You’re going to cause a problem tonight, aren’t you?”

There were four other people sitting on the couches and chairs in the room. I didn’t recognize any of them, but at Nate’s words they all looked at me. I said to them, “Who are you people?”

“They’re friends. Their parents are friends with my parents.” Nate pointed to a guy. “That’s Nick.”

A lanky guy, wearing a polo and trendy jeans nodded to me. “Yo.”

Nate continued, pointing to the girl next to him. “That’s Maria.”

“Hi.” She gave me a nervous smile. Brushing some of her blonde hair back, she moved away from Nick’s hand and her eyes grew more welcoming. He frowned at her, then it turned into scowl as he turned to me. I shot him a warning look. I wasn’t going to take any crap from him. At that, it went back to a frown, but there was still heat in his eyes. He could be a problem later.

Nate kept on with the introductions. He gestured to the opposite couch where a girl sat. She had black hair and could’ve been a model. He said, “That’s Wren and the guy next to her is Wayne. They’re twins.” The guy said hello, but I ignored him and lingered on Wren. Her lips pressed together in a smug smirk, and she adjusted her legs, opening them for a second before she swung them back underneath her bottom. She wore a shirt that looked like a corset with a black bra underneath. Her br**sts were full and I imagined cupping them later. They’d be a good handful.

When my gaze snapped up to hers, the invitation was there and I nodded. If I didn’t get thrown out of the party or arrested, I knew what I’d be doing later. I gave the other guy a nod and headed for the bar in the basement. “Did you guys start drinking?”

Nate followed me. He hopped on a bar stool when I went behind the counter and poured rum into a glass. As he watched me, he said, “Yeah, but we were waiting for you to start doing shots.”

The others got up and stood around the bar. I skimmed them again and grunted. Nate’s parents were rich movie directors. That meant they had rich friends, who had rich kids, and since Nate’s parents directed major motion pictures, I knew the who’s-who were upstairs. I was a rich kid. I was aware of this, but I wasn’t an entitled prick like these four were. And the people upstairs were worse. Even now, glancing towards the ceiling, I could list the people up there.

I finished mixing my drink and asked Nate, “Is my dad up there?”

He tensed and shook his head. “No.”

“Is he?”

“Come on, Mason. Don’t do this.”

I flashed him a hard grin. He was up there. “Is there food up there? I think I’m hungry.”

“Mason. Seriously. Don’t.”

Nick frowned. “What’s going on?”

Maria and Wren shared a look, both smiling at each other. Wayne frowned at them, then at me, and swung to Nate. “What’s going on?”

I slammed my drink back and started for the stairs.

“Mason.” Nate got in front of me and tried to block me from the stairs. “Think about this. This is my parents’ house.”

I stopped and flashed him a heated look. “Move, Monson.”

He shook his head. “My parents already don’t like you. They threatened me the last time we got into trouble. They want to move from Fallen Crest and take me with them.”

A voice in the back of my head was telling me to listen to him. He was my best friend. He was always by my side. He did whatever I needed and he took a lot of crap because of it. The other part of me wasn’t a voice. It was the need to pummel someone. The voice got silenced and a calm came over me. I needed to do this. “My dad is up there.”

Nate was holding his hands up to me, but they lowered. An air of acceptance came over him and he said, “I know he is.”

“You know who else is up there?” My voice grew rough, hardening. My jaw clenched and I lowered my head, as if I was going to charge right through him.

He nodded. “I do.”

“I’m going up there, Nate. I’m sorry, but I am. All his colleagues are up there. All those women he’s slept with. He keeps them around. He works with them. He introduces them to his friends. They’re all in the same social circle.”

He gazed at me, studying me.