Addicted (Ethan Frost #2)(42)

“I told you, caveman speak.”

Ethan chooses that moment to open the door and before I can even see who it is, a fist flashes over the threshold and nails my boyfriend right in the nose.

“Huh,” Tori says right before she takes another bite of her apple. “Even for one fluent in caveman speak, I didn’t see that coming.”





Chapter Thirteen


“What the hell!” Ethan staggers under the force of the punch, but he doesn’t go down. Instead, he grabs the guy on the other side of the door and drags him inside by the neck, shoving his head down and bending him in half as he does.

I brace myself for it to be Brandon here, at my apartment—who else would just punch Ethan like that—but in the end I couldn’t be more wrong. Because it’s not his brother in the middle of our foyer, bent over at the waist and swearing like a sailor.

It’s mine.

“Miles!” I demand, leaping off the couch. “What are you doing here? Let him go, Ethan!”

“He’s the one who sucker punched me.” Ethan wipes a trickle of blood away from his nose. “How am I the one getting yelled at?”

“Believe me, I’ll yell at him, too. After I figure out what he’s doing here. But let him go, please.”

He releases my brother reluctantly, but I can tell by the way he’s holding his body that he’s ready for another attack. I know Miles, though—he’s an inventor not a fighter and unless things have changed drastically in the three years since I came to San Diego for school, that punch was pretty much all he has in him. I’m shocked my absentminded, nerdy brother had even that much, to be honest.

“Miles! What were you thinking—”

To my surprise and horror, he launches himself at Ethan a second time. And this time, Ethan shoves back, sending my brother sprawling onto the floor forcefully enough that he cracks his head on the hardwood.

“Stop it!” I’m yelling now as I get between the two of them. “Come on, Miles, please. What is wrong with you?”

“Wrong with me?” Miles climbs back to his feet. “I’m trying to defend you against this bastard. Do you even know who he is?”

“He’s my boyfriend. Of course I know who he is.”

“No! That’s why I’ve been trying to call you for the last three weeks! If you’d return my damn phone calls every once in a while, I wouldn’t have had to fly all the way out here to talk to you. Ethan Frost is Brandon Jacobs’s—”

“Brother. Yes, I know who he is.”

It’s Miles’s turn to gape. “You knew?” I don’t think he could look more shocked if I pulled out a gun and shot someone. “And you’re with him anyway?” A moment of silence, then, “Are you crazy? Or is this just another attempt to punish yourself?”

My first instinct is to jump down his throat, to tell him to mind his own business. But even though it’s been three years since I last saw him, he came out here to warn me because he was worried about me. Though I don’t want it to, that counts for something in the running tally I’m keeping in my head between my family and me.

Before I can say anything, though, Ethan jumps in. “Chloe, are you going to introduce me or am I just supposed to guess who this clown is?” His voice is low and his eyes are narrowed dangerously. That’s when it hits me that he’s flying blind here. He has no idea who Miles is, other than the guy who punched him in the face and who it appears is trying to break us up. No wonder he looks murderous.

“I’m sorry, Ethan. This is Miles Pierce. My brother.”

“Don’t apologize to this guy, Chloe. He’s scum.”

“Stop it, Miles!”

“What do you want me to say, Chloe? That I’m happy to find you here, with him? After everything his family has put you through?”

“His family,” I say angrily. “Not him.”

“Does it really matter?” my brother sneers. “When they’re that rich, they’re all the same.”

“Who the f*ck do you think you are?” Ethan demands quietly. “You, of all people, don’t get to come in here and get Chloe all upset.”

“I’m the one getting Chloe upset?”

Ethan steps in front of me, arms crossed over his chest and an implacable look that I’ve only ever seen on his face during business meetings. “That’s what it looks like to me.”

“Screw you, Frost. What are you doing f*cking around with my sister anyway? She’s definitely not your usual type.”

His voice implies that I’m not hot enough—not exactly a shock considering my own thoughts on the matter—but for the first time, Ethan loses it. He puts a hand on my brother’s shoulder and squeezes hard enough to have Miles wincing. “This is Chloe’s apartment and you’re Chloe’s brother, so I’m not going to tell you to leave. But you need to watch what you say or when you finally do leave, it’s going to be in pieces.”

“God, you really are a barbarian, aren’t you? It must be nice to have so much money that nobody gives a shit how you act.”

“And here I was just thinking the same about you. All money, no conscience. Why the hell else would you be coming in here and trying to kick your sister while she’s down?” Ethan’s face is totally deadpan, but his barb slams home.