Page 3 of Her Noble Protector

“Leif?” he said louder, with another shoulder nudge.

Apparently, Tallie had had enough. She snatched Leif’s phone out of his hand. “Quit being such a rude asshole,” she hissed. “Raiden’s asking if you want any chicken. He’s asked you like four thousand times.”

“Give me back my phone,” he snarled. He made a grab for it and spilled his water across the table onto Uncle Hideto, who was at least eighty years old. Aunt Hui was beside him, and both of them just shook their heads at Leif and murmured in Japanese about rude teenagers. Raiden passed the plate of food to Tallie and pushed back his chair, tapping Leif on the shoulder.

“Outside. With me. Now.”

Leif’s eyes widened. Raiden had been stuck babysitting Leif and Tallie years ago when he was in college. He made small talk with the boy when he was home for family functions, but now that he realized it, Leif had gone out of his way to avoid him and he should have sought him out long ago.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Auntie Kathleen start to stand up and he gave a brief shake of his head. She sat back down with a nod. She trusted him to handle things. He noticed that Leif’s dad hadn’t even bothered to try to get up, he just kept on eating. Meanwhile, Raiden’s mom was grinning ear to ear. He rolled his eyes at her as he followed the kid to the front door.

As soon as they got outside, Leif pulled his vape pen out of his vest pocket.

“Nope,” Raiden said. “You and I are going to have a little talk, so put that away.”

“You need to mellow out,” Leif sneered at him.

Raiden looked at Leif, really looked at him. He was a good-looking kid. The kid had a whole hell of a lot of things going in his favor. Looks, brains, doting parents, and some money.

Leif was almost as tall as he was. His hair was black like his mom’s, but his eyes were blue like his Norwegian father’s. The only real thing the kid had to bitch about in the looks department was his acne, but even that seemed to be clearing up from the last time Raiden had seen him, and if he’d bother to smile instead of having a surly-assed expression all the time, he might actually get a girlfriend.

Hell, then there was the fact that his parents thought sunshine shot out of his ass. They even bought him a brand new BMW when he turned sixteen. Raiden knew that because his Aunt Kathleen mentioned it every time anyone was within earshot. She also bragged that the kid was a straight-A student and did phenomenally well on his SATs. So why in the hell was he trying to fuck it all up?

“Let’s take a walk,” Raiden said as he started down the path to the sidewalk.

“Jesus, are we actually going to do this? Are you going to go all Mister Military on my ass and try to talk me onto the straight and narrow or some such shit?”

“Just move it along, Leif,” Raiden said mildly.

“And if I say no?” Leif asked belligerently as he stood in the middle of the path.

“Then I’m going to see about blowing your ass out of the water, and make sure everybody knows what you’ve been doing.”

Leif gave him a sideways stare, then gave a half-hearted chuckle. “You’re not making any sense, but I’ll walk with you if it will make you feel better.”

Raiden waited until they were half a block down from his parents’ house before he started talking. “So when did you start selling test answers?”

Leif caught the toe of his sneaker on a crack on the sidewalk and stumbled, then looked up at Raiden. “What are you talking about?”

“Makes me kind of wonder if you’re really as smart as Auntie Kathleen says, or if you just cheated your way through school.”

Raiden watched as Leif’s face flushed. “Who in the hell do you think comes up with the test answers?” he bit out.

“Beats me. Who?”

Leif’s face almost turned purple. It was kind of fun baiting the kid.

“Who in the hell do you think you are, butting your nose into my life? You have no right! I’ve got my shit tight. I don’t need some frogman or whatever you call yourself to come dictating to me.”

“Seems to me you’ve got your kid sister dictating to you. Seems to me more people than me know what you’re into. Seems to me that whatever scholarships and career you’re angling for are going right down the toilet when you’re caught, and believe me, you’ll be caught.”

“How do you figure that?”

“Fuck, kid, did you not see the college admissions take-down last year? Those people were pros. They got caught. People already have eyes on you, and it just takes one of your customers to blow the whistle. You trust every one of them to keep their mouths shut?”

He saw his cousin stop to consider what he was laying down. He might have half a brain after all. Then his eyes narrowed and he sneered. “I’m going to end up with ten times the money you have when I’m your age. I won’t be wasting away risking my life for nothing. I don’t think you give a shit what I’m doing; I think you’re jealous.”

Shit, why was he trying? The kid was showing all kinds of dickish moves. Still, he was family and Auntie Kathleen made a mean Ambrosia salad and she’d be heartbroken if sonny boy got expelled and got blackballed from college. Raiden blew out air and narrowed his eyes.