Such a Rush by Jennifer Echols Page B

me for this job rather than sending the smoother Alec, and why irresponsible Grayson seemed to be the one in charge. For some reason having to do with the business and their dad’s death, Grayson was manipulating Alec.
    If I could figure out why, I could blackmail Grayson right back.
    I swallowed. “So you’re saying I’m for Alec’s own good.”
    Grayson looked me up and down. He moved his head enough that I wouldn’t miss the tilt of his hat, and the provocative meaning behind it. “Ridiculous as that sounds, yes. Trust me, I have an excellent reason. You trust me, don’t you, Leah?”
    “I thought I had made it very clear that no. ”
    “And Alec can’t know I told you to do this. If he finds out, I will make your life as difficult as I possibly can.”
    Not if I made his life difficult first. I let out a frustrated huff. “Is this all because I didn’t say yes to your job in the first place?”
    “No. I was always going to ask you to do this too. But when you didn’t say yes in the first place, you made me mad, and I went and found something to hold over your head. Now I’m not asking you. I’m telling you.” He took off his straw cowboy hat. I saw his hair so seldom that it always surprised me: how blond it was, almost as light as Alec’s, and how curly, whereas Alec’s was board straight. Grayson’s hair reminded me how young he was, even though he was acting like a boss, a manipulator, a god.
    He passed the back of his wrist across his sweating brow, then put his hat back on. “You kicked Mark out, right?”
    I frowned at Grayson. “What? Why?”
    “Because you’re out here drinking beer. Let me guess. You asked Mark about the crop-dusting job. You found out he made it up, like I said. So you broke up with him. Is that what happened?”
    I ground my teeth together, squeezed my eyes shut behind my shades, anything to keep from sobbing in front of Grayson.
    “Hey, Leah, seriously.” His voice was soft and sweet like the spring wind. “He didn’t threaten to hurt you or anything, did he?”
    I put one hand up to my temple, which had begun to ache. “No, but thanks for asking.”
    Grayson nodded. “We talked about you for a while this morning. I thought he was lying to you about that job, but I don’t think he could fake the way he feels about you.”
    I took the bait. “How does he feel about me?”
    “Very strongly.”
    I flared my nostrils in distaste. “I think he could fake that,” I muttered. “He was cheating on me anyway.”
    “Doesn’t matter with Mark,” Grayson said. “My mother warned me about girls like you.”
    I sighed the longest sigh. “Girls like what, Grayson?”
    “Girls with crazy boyfriends. She says girls like you are bad news. I need to know whether you really are. I want my brother to fall for you, but I don’t want to get him killed.”
    The back of my neck prickled with danger, something the pit bull did not sense for once, because he was silent. This was the second time today someone had warned me about Mark. I didn’t know him that well, honestly. He hadn’t gotten violent when he left. But I knew he’d repeated his final semester in high school because he’d been suspended so many times for fighting.
    “Last year we played a pickup basketball game at thehangar,” Grayson said, “and I beat him. Later that afternoon when we were both trying to land, he cut me off.”
    “In the air ?” I asked.
    “Yeah. He didn’t announce himself. He came in right underneath me. It could have been bad. Of course, nobody was outside watching. I should have told my dad, but he would have blamed it on me and told me to grow up.” He balled his fist and tapped it on his knee. “I wanted you to work for me, Leah, but I also didn’t want you to take a job where you’ll be around that guy.”
    “You said there was no job.”
    “There isn’t,” Grayson insisted, “and if you double-check with Mr. Simon about it, you’re going to be embarrassed. Anyway, you