Let Go: A Bishop Mafia Book 1 Read online

  Table of Contents

  Table of Contents

  Intro

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Epilogue

  Intro

  Hey there sexy reader (wink)-

  This is the first book in a series still being written. (Oh noooo) I know. You could wait until the rest of the books come out, but the waiting...foreplay can be oh so much fun, no?

  Meet the first of the Bishops that you'll get to read about. Kane is a senior in high school about to graduate and come alongside his father to rule their town's mafia. This is his and Collin's story.

  This book starts briefly in the future and then takes you back there with a "to be continued."

  The next book will not continue Kane and Collin's story, but we will dive into Kane's father-Quinton Bishop- with a spicy age-gap romance. The last book will circle fully around to that "To be continued."

  There are some elements in this book that may be a trigger for some. Sexual abuse, bullying, and drugs.

  This is meant for 18+

  I hope you enjoy.

  And I hope you have fun losing yourself in someone else's sexy story for a while...then go live your own! (Rawr)

  Sincerely-

  O.T

  Chapter 1

  Now

  There are reasons to listen to your heart beating loudly inside of you.

  Thump-

  Thump-

  Thump-

  Fear, pain, danger swarm our systems from time to time to let us know something is off, something is wrong. So the alarms go off. Our hearts beat, pressing against the walls of its protective cage to get our attention.

  Listen-

  Listen-

  Listen-

  And maybe you get to a point where you have known about the danger, the wrongness, for a while but choices were made, turns and twists took over your path until you end up here.

  With your heart pressing against your chest hoping for...what?

  What was I hoping for?

  I have to ask myself that as I look down at the piece of paper in front of me. This piece of paper I knew well.

  I didn't even have to pick up the thin page between my fingers to know what it said, for the words echoed in my mind. Had echoed loudly for twelve years.

  Chapter 2

  12 years ago

  Collin

  I left our three-bedroom house that looked normal, if not a little run-down, on the outside to walk the five blocks and fifteen minutes it took me to get to school. Senior year was stretching out in front of me like a final stretch to a new life. On the other side of Wildwood High was freedom. But in front of me lay a year left of rich mini-adults acting like full adults, advanced classes that prepped me for college, the occasional sniggering comment about me not being from the dripping world of wealth and opportunities. I'm not bullied outright, but I am treated differently by most like I am a tragedy that if I got too close to would create an infectious spread. There are about ten of us at Wildwood there on academic or sports scholarships but the rest of the four hundred students were born into their desk seats.

  I get it. I don't even begrudge them their privilege like most of my old classmates from my old, public school system. Their wealth isn't something that they did to anyone else, and I myself am not above saying I am at Wildwood to get into a good college so that I can create a softer life for myself and whatever kind of family I end up creating. Even if my family ends up just being me.

  Now, how some of these kids swing around their status as if it's a weapon? I don't respect it. And I steer clear of those students. They steer clear of me. It's a fairly peaceful existence that I am grateful for.

  "Collin, wait up!" the voice is out-of-breath and coming from my favorite Wildwood person.

  "I need a couple hours of binge-watching Netflix and some norms tonight after this guaranteed shit first day," Natalie says as she swings into step with me a block before we reach the school's concrete steps.

  I smile. "I kind of love that you would rather hang out with my norms from public school than anyone from Wildwood," I say.

  "Well, they're normal. Caleb drives a Honda and June wears jewelry that doesn't need to be insured. It's excellent."

  I laugh and bump my shoulder against hers to which she laughs and bumps me back. Natalie was the first friend I made at Wildwood when I switched schools my sophomore year. She's tall and graceful, with dark eyes and naturally dark hair that she dyes blonde at the ends which drives her mother crazy. Her mom is from South Korea and her dad is a second-generation immigrant from Thailand who found his fortune in stocks and bonds. The first day Natalie found me in our Spanish class and told me I looked like a "norm" which I later learned meant I wasn't of her world. She liked that. She preferred my small bedroom with dark charcoal walls and worn baseboards to her cream and pink plush room her mom spent thousands outfitting for her. She preferred Caleb and June from my old school and our Netflix nights with junk food to the elaborate mansion parties with drugs and expensive laughter. I also suspected she had a thing for Caleb but the one time I brought it up I felt the cut from her eyes telling me to shut the hell up.

  "And how much is that necklace worth?" I ask teasing her.

  She fingers the diamond and platinum bauble hanging over her Wildwood-crested button-up with a sigh. "From mom. An apology or something," she said with a frown.

  I don't push her because her mom is a sore subject with her. There's a strain, more than a strain, between them and she only hints at it between the sarcasm and smiles.

  "It's beautiful," I say and wink at her.

  "Yeah," she concedes. "Oh look!" she exclaims perking up as we ascend the concrete steps to our towering fortress. "Mafia royalty to welcome us," her lips quirk up as we both take in the four figures sitting on the wide concrete banister to the side of the two ridiculously large doors open to welcome us to a new, ostentatious year.

  The blonde one is Joseph Forbis. Captain of football and class president. He's gregarious enough and has that look of "golden boy" that seems to go over well with most of the female population. The guy with the buzz cut is Terrance Smith and his parents own most of the restaurant chains in our beach town as well as the three adjoining towns. He supplies most of the booze to the elite parties that happen throughout the year. He's got a quieter demeanor but his dark eyes have always seemed a little foreboding to me. Leo Bishop to Terrance's left is taller than the other two, with light brown hair, grey eyes, and a demeanor that says he is at the top of the school but still number two to the real number one: which takes us to the final member of their group. Kane Bishop, Leo's cousin, and our own resident mafia prince. He has
dark hair that is constantly being brushed by his fingers, the wind, and probably plenty of girls, and his eyes are hard to miss because they're so blue in contrast to his dark hair that they sometimes glint. I always thought he was the most beautiful of the four with straight, angular features and a full mouth that I have rarely seen smile.

  They're all good-looking. Girls do that fluttering around thing whenever they're in the vicinity and I fully understand it. But they're also dangerous. Kane's father, Quinton Bishop, runs the mafia in our town that no one really talks about. We all talk about it, but in the presence of those members, the words dance around the lethal implications to keep things safe. Leo's dad is Quinton's brother and like father like son, the man's number two. High school for Kane and Leo seems to be tryouts for their ascension into the nefarious royalty that their families have built for them. There is an empire for them to claim and everyone knows it.

  "You know my motto," I say shaking my head and looking away from them as we walk through the doors out of the stifling heat, "stay out of their path and our path is clear to walk down."

  "Without violence or drugs," Natalie adds under her breath. "They're beautiful to look at though," she says with a dramatic sigh.

  "Mmmhmm," I respond. "Beautiful disasters."

  "You talk with Brian yet?" she asks with a smile.

  Brian and I started seeing each other at the end of our junior year. He asked me out when we were working on a debate team together in one of our classes. At first I was a little thrown because he was fairly popular at Wildwood being the captain of our soccer team, and he was handsome with auburn hair and really pretty eyes for a guy. We flirted during our group debate project and I enjoyed looking forward to seeing him each day, but when he asked me out I truly was taken aback because I was basically a nobody at this school. Which I was perfectly fine with. I thought the flirting was just one of those environmental things where I was his best choice in our small group to pass the time with. I said yes. He took me to The Ice House, one of the local waterfront restaurants that we all navigate as high schoolers. It's one of the places where both public and private schools come together for food, under the table alcohol, the postering game of being seen, and climbing the hierarchy of popularity. The date was fun. He made me laugh, and when he dropped me off he kissed me in the front seat of his BMW.

  So we spent the summer bouncing around town together when I wasn't working at the hospital as an admissions clerk and he wasn't on vacation with his mom or at his dad's law firm learning the ropes.

  When Natalie asked me about him she always had this tone of caution, like she wasn't really sure about him and when I asked her about it she just shrugged and said no one was good enough for me and he better not break my heart. He had joined one of our "norm" Netflix nights with Caleb and June, which had gone fine but he was usually too busy and in his free time, he preferred to have just me.

  "He texted this morning. We have our lunch block together," I said.

  "Ah, lucky bastard. I'm going to have to find some other loser to eat with in my block," she said with a moan.

  "You poor, rich kid," I joked.

  She laughs and bumps my shoulder again. "See you in chem?"

  "Save me a seat," I say as we go our separate ways to find our lockers and tame our first-day nerves walking through the sacred halls of Wildwood.

  When I spot my locker I find a smiling Brian leaning against the metal door waiting for me. He leans down and kisses me softly. "Morning. You didn't wear your hair down," he says with a frown.

  I reach up touching my dark, curly hair I had piled on my head in my morning haste. It was thick, with large curls, and hung down my shoulder blades which was heavy and took a really long time to dry. Even in this New England August heat. "Yeah, well you try spending forty-five minutes blow-drying it," I say as I start on my locker combo.

  He shrugs a shoulder hidden beneath the Wildwood blazer which seemed far too heavy to wear in this heat. But he always had it and I think he liked that it made him look more put-together. Like his lawyer dad. Appearances were important to the Jeffreys and I had started picking up on the idea that I may not be the appearance his family would readily welcome into their home. He had never said anything, but the only time I had been to his house was when he had made sure both parents were gone and while that alone wouldn't make me suspicious, because I myself tried to ensure my friends didn't have to be around my parents, he never introduced us at his soccer games and he seemed to keep a wide path between us.

  Still, I liked him and we enjoyed each other. He was average height at 5'8" but to my 5'2" he had to look down at me. I liked his shoulders. They were broad and you could tell he was a lean athlete and when we made out I liked running my hands over his shoulders. Making out was as far as we had gotten. I hadn't been ready for anything else and he respected that which I was grateful for.

  Natalie lost her virginity to a mystery guy our sophomore year before we had really become good friends and when we talked guys and sex she closed off about who, what, where, and why. My friend held a lot of cards close to the chest, and I was fine with that. I understood it. Too well. Plus, I didn't have much to share myself having kept my virginity intact and only kissed a handful of guys in my 18 years.

  "Ice House later?" Brian asks me as he walks me to my first class.

  "I actually promised Natalie we'd do a movie night with Caleb and June. Wanna come?"

  "Nah, that's alright. You have fun with your friends. I'll find some of the guys from the team to dick around with."

  I smile a little disappointed but keep it to myself. "This is me," I say and he leans in for another kiss which is interrupted by an intense jostle that throws me against the doorframe. When I look up in shock a smirking Leo Bishop pushes his way into the classroom.

  "Dude," Brian says disgruntled.

  "Learn how to kiss your girl, Jeffreys," Leo taunts. "That was pathetic," his smirk as he makes his way to one of the desks is wide and directed at Brian but makes me blush.

  Brian narrows his eyes and shakes his head. "I really hate that dick," he says in a low voice for only me to hear.

  I pull in a breath and give Brian a smile. "See you at lunch," I say ignoring Leo's interruption.

  Brian pulls his narrowed eyes away from a still smiling Leo to give me a small peck on my cheek before pulling away with a tight smile.

  I keep my eyes away from where Leo is sitting, feeling his taunt as I make my way to a desk far from him on the other side of the room.

  "What's wrong, Two? Scared if you sit too close to me you'll be tempted to ask me to show you how a real man kisses?"

  I close my eyes as heat blooms along my cheeks again. "Two" was what some of the elite sometimes called me. "Tax write-off". But I smile and look back at him. "No," I say in a voice I hope isn't too soft. "I just don't want to sit next to you."

  Two other guys in the class laugh and jostle Leo at my remark and I keep my fake smile on my face as he laughs, leaning forward in his seat, his eyes widening as he says, "If you change your mind, I don't mind teaching you what it should feel like to get hot and bothered." He wiggles his light brown eyebrows and I roll my eyes as I turn away determined this time to ignore him. He just wants to get a rise out of me, which was one of his favorite games I had noticed in the time that I had been at Wildwood. Leo taunted, poked at people, made girls blush, and had no qualms about saying what he was thinking.

  But as I turn away from him, his broodier leader is taking a seat next to Leo, and his eyes catch mine. Kane is the darker side to the coin when it comes to the Bishops. I'd rarely interacted with the darker Bishop, and never by myself, but there was something about him that made me think that being caught in his concentrated attention would be too much and not at all something I would want to try to figure out how to react to. Based on having his blue attention now, I know for a fact I don't want to keep it.

  I immediately break eye contact and fully turn to get myself ready for class as mor
e students trickle in and find their seats.Conversation about summer and the upcoming year floats around batting at the stale and pretentious energy left over from the end of last school year. Leo is talking loudly about the new female History teacher's breasts and I shake my head thinking how much of an ass he is.

  Class is the usual first-day perusal of rules and syllabus, getting us ready before pushing us into the deep end. I'm not one of those students who love homework and the smell of fresh school supplies, but the fact that we can consume information and learn to build something, to create a life for ourselves is incredible to me. I fully intend to make the most of my education so that the life I build is a far cry from the one I grew up in. And that's why I'm here at Wildwood.

  As I slide into the line of students leaving the class I hear Leo's voice behind me. "Seriously, Two, you slide me your number and I will take time out of my precious life to get you wet."

  His words make me turn around with a furious expression and he laughs, his handsome face taking in my blush and frustration.

  But then Kane's deep voice slashes through his cousin's laughter. "Shut the fuck up, Leo."

  I meet his blue gaze and feel trapped again in their intensity. His straight face darkens as his eyes stay riveted to mine. "Two isn't one of those girls who is interested in getting wet. She probably never has been wet in her life," he finishes, one side of his lips twisting up as his words twist into me.

  Leo throws his head back and laughs harder, a few guys around us joining into the pack mentality guys tend to follow at the expense of prey and my face is a mess of crimson.

  "Well fuck, now I really want to try," Leo says leaning forward causing me to lean back. "I will pay you a hundred bucks for your phone number, Two," he says with a snicker.

  My heart is thumping in my chest at this confrontation that I didn't instigate but something in me flares in anger. "The name is Collin, and I can guarantee you could not get me wet if I laid down and gave you an hour of uninterrupted time," I say in a low voice that shocks Leo and causes an uproar of laughter around us. Kane's dark eyebrow raises slightly and I turn, exiting the classroom to leave behind the scene and make my way to the girl's bathroom for safety and reprieve.