Three Against All (Peyton Pointe Book 1), page 1
EVERY INCH OF ME IS YOURS
Since they were children, Holden, Finn, and Monroe belonged to each other.
Over time their love changed.
Deepened.
Became More.
Became Everything.
Absent parents with more money than sense and decency left their children
to each other, and they raised themselves. They defined their relationship within
the context of their love for each other.
And now they don't care what anyone thinks.
Days away from graduating high school, their lives are about to change.
For better or for worse, they're in this together.
Forever.
THREE AGAINST ALL
Peyton Pointe – Book One
L.P. Maxa
ALSO BY L.P. MAXA
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Play Nice
Play Dirty
Play Fair
Play Softly
Play Hard
Play For Keeps
St. Leasing
Mouth Watering
Breath Taking
Jaw Dropping
Heart Stopping
Soul Crushing
Earth Shattering
Other Novels
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The Forever Weekend
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www.BOROUGHSPUBLISHINGGROUP.com
PUBLISHER’S NOTE: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, business establishments or persons, living or dead, is coincidental. Boroughs Publishing Group does not have any control over and does not assume responsibility for author or third-party websites, blogs or critiques or their content.
THREE AGAINST ALL
Copyright © 2021 L.P. Maxa
All rights reserved. Unless specifically noted, no part of this publication may be reproduced, scanned, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of Boroughs Publishing Group. The scanning, uploading and distribution of this book via the Internet or by any other means without the permission of Boroughs Publishing Group is illegal and punishable by law. Participation in the piracy of copyrighted materials violates the author’s rights.
ISBN: 978-1-953810-93-9
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I wrote this story over the course of several years. This book, these characters were my favorite distraction. When I was stuck on a book that was due, I would go and play with them.
So my first thank you is to Borough's Publishing Group. Thank you for giving me the space and time I need to create. And thank you for wanting this unconventional love story.
Thank you to my family. Thank you to my husband for taking our girls on countless walks and hikes so I could finish Three Against All.
Thank you to my readers. Thanks for sticking with me and always wanting more. I feel so lucky to have found my place with y’all.
Playlist
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2GV1YtsKhL89VEDEesonKp?si=39661c644c854936
Fire in the Water by Feist
Creep by Carolesdaughter
Carry Me Home by The Sweeplings
12345SEX by UPSAHL
Not How It’s Supposed To Go by Ashe
Villain by K/DA & Madison Beer
The Zombie Song by Stephanie Mabey
Crush by Tessa Violet
Drugs by UPSAHL
Queen by Gray
Violent by carolsdaughter
Moral of the Story by Ashe
People I don’t Like by UPSAHL
THREE AGAINST ALL
Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
Chapter Twenty-six
Chapter Twenty-seven
Chapter Twenty-eight
Chapter Twenty-nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-one
Chapter Thirty-two
Epilogue
Playlist
About the Author
Also by L.P. Maxa
“I hope you are blessed with a heart like a wildflower.”
—Nikita Gill
Prologue
Finnian
From the outside, Peyton Pointe, Georgia looked like the kind of town in which children would dream of growing up. It was the type of place you see in movies where kids are riding their shiny bikes on well-lit sidewalks. Where mansions stood tall behind massive gates with wraparound porches, sprawling green manicured lawns, and glistening pools. Mercedes SUVs and Range Rovers filled the school pickup line, and bake sale treats were handcrafted with all-organic ingredients.
Shame it was all a lie and all a front.
The parents in those cars were too busy to talk to their children, the cookies were made by the help, and not one of the yards was mowed by anyone other than the landscaper. I couldn’t wait to get out of there.
Peyton Pointe, Georgia had never been for me: I’d never belonged.
There were two reasons why I’d never run away. My two saving graces. I met my best friend Holden in kindergarten. We both showed up on the first day in Town Cars driven by our fathers’ chauffeurs. We’d been best friends from that moment on. We needed each other. Rich kids made fun of richer kids. We laid eyes on our girl Monroe a couple of years later while we were out riding our bikes. She was running around her front yard in a turquoise tutu and a tiara doing cartwheels in the grass. Her nanny had come out the front door scolding her loudly. She’d laughed and twirled some more. We knew right then she was one of us.
Our relationship with her had never been a contest. We didn’t vie for her affection, and we didn’t push each other out of the way to gain alone time. But we were boys, so of course we kept a running tally. Holden was the first one to talk to her on her first day at our school and he asked her to sit with us at lunch. He gave her his pudding and I gave her my strawberries. I was the first one to hold her hand. We were playing in the woods behind our neighborhood and she needed help over a big log. Afterward, I never really let go. That was how it went, back and forth between Holden and me.
There was never any jealousy, and I think that was the hardest part for people to understand. You see, Monroe Montgomery was the most amazing girl in the world and we both loved her. Girls at school were jealous of her from the start because she was fun and loved to laugh. Boys all wanted to know her because she was pretty. At first we let them come around, let them try to get her attention. The older we got the more things changed, and the less we tolerated anyone touching her. We weren’t being dicks. We belonged to Roe as much as she belonged to us.
Our love, it wasn’t easy for people to understand. Our story needs to be shared. It’s time we laid it all out there, it’s time we put the rumors and the gossip to rest. Because what we had was fucking beautiful. It was perfect and kind and pure.
I got to be the one to introduce you to our tale.
It started with me because it ends with me.
Not the beginning, but where we are starting nonetheless.
Chapter One
Holden
“Finnian Archer?”
I glanced sideways at my best friend, Monroe, catching her attention as our homeroom teacher took attendance on our second to last Monday of senior year. Ten more days and we were out of this hellhole.
“Finnian?”
Monroe half shrugged as she rolled her striking green eyes. We didn’t need words to communicate. I knew what she was saying. Finn was out being Finn. He hadn’t felt like being in homeroom, so he hadn’t bothered to be.
“Finn?”
Our teacher was wasting her time calling his name over and over with increasing annoyance. Did she think he would suddenly pop out of the closet and give her jazz hands? Even on his best day, with the promise of a trillion dollars and the best head of his life, Finn would never do jazz hands.
“Okay, moving on, Holden Benedict?”
I raised my hand a few inches off the desk, not wanting to give her the full satisfaction of an enthusiastic response. High school was basically over, I didn’t have much give a damn left at this point.
“Where is Finn, Mr. Benedict?”
“I’m not Finn’s keeper, Mrs. Scott.” I smiled serenely. I could garner a pretty fucking good guess where my other best friend was, but it wasn’t really any of Mrs. Scott’s business. The three of us answered to no one, including any of the teachers at this godforsaken school.
“We both know you are aware where your partner in crime is today, Mr. Benedict.” She studied me over her laptop, adjusting her rimless glasses, clearly annoyed at my refusal to participate in her virtual “Where’s Waldo.”
“Well, he’s not here. Do the details really matter?” She glared at me for a good five seconds before continuing on down her list. She knew I was right. She knew his whereabouts were none of her concern, and they wouldn’t make any fucking difference. She wouldn’t mark him absent. It wouldn’t do her any good. Finn got straight As, and we were days away from graduation. Finn’s father wouldn’t give a shit his son hadn’t felt obligated to be in school today.
Finn owned and operated the motor speedway here in Peyton Pointe. He’d dubbed it The Track. Finnian Archer already made more money in a month than most CEOs made in a quarter. He didn’t really need a diploma, and being counted present in homeroom ranked real low on his list of priorities. I propped my Tom Ford brown leather sneaks on the top of my desk and put my hands behind my head, already more than bored. I should’ve skipped with Finn.
“Monroe Montgomery?”
Our beautiful girl raised her manicured hand without bothering to look up at the teacher, let alone answer her. I watched Roe. I couldn’t help but watch her all the damn time. She was so sexy. The way she wore her plaid uniform skirt, showing off her creamy thighs. I licked my lips. Roe shook her head, trying to hide her grin. She could feel my gaze on her and she knew what I was thinking. I hazarded a glance around the room, taking inventory of who was here and who wasn’t. Who would be paying attention if I reached over and ran my hand over Roe’s smooth skin?
I put my feet on the floor before leaning over to whisper against her ear. “Where’s our other piece, babe?”
She turned to me, a small smirk on her expertly painted matte lips. “He climbed into bed a little after midnight last night, grumbling something about payroll at The Track.”
The three of us were an anomaly at this school. No one understood us. Not the students, and certainly not the teachers. But they all craved our attention. We came from money. Piles and piles of money, and extremely well-known and connected parents.
We mattered, not by choice, but by birthright.
I licked my lips, speaking with them pressed against her lower jaw. “I never even heard him come in.”
Roe laughed quietly, making sure to keep her voice soft enough so only I could hear. “That’s not surprising, H. You sleep like the dead.” She glanced around, making sure no one was eavesdropping. “He was gone this morning when I woke up.” I didn’t know why she bothered. Everyone assumed what they wanted about the three of us. It didn’t matter if they heard her talking like she cared what they said.
“Is that why I was freezing all night? I woke up with no covers.”
Roe kept her beautiful smile in place, her voice quiet. “My personal heater wasn’t in bed. I needed the extra warmth.”
“Greedy little thing.” I reached over and ran my palm up her bare thigh, no longer able to help myself. Like most rich fucks, I had self-control issues. “I’m giving you the boot next time Finn decides to be a workaholic and comes to bed at an unreasonable hour.”
She raised a perfectly micro-bladed eyebrow. “Says the guy who hasn’t slept alone since he was ten years old.”
At the age of ten, the co-ed sleepover thing wasn’t such a big deal. Now, at the age of eighteen, people had their suspicions. While we were somewhat careful about the way we acted at school, we let them talk. We had no control over it anyway, so we let the gossip spread like fucking wildfire.
I nodded, dancing my fingers even higher toward the apex of her thighs. “You’re right. Maybe you should try sleeping in actual clothes instead? Oversized threadbare t-shirts don’t provide much warmth, yeah?” Roe loved to sleep in our old clothes. Finn’s and mine. She had a drawer full of our shirts and refused to sleep in anything else, no matter how cold Finn cranked the AC.
She tsked, her mouth forming a sexy pout as her palm slapped down to stop my wandering hands. “Now, H, you know you don’t mean that.”
I winked, letting my gaze travel from her plump lips to her peek-a-boo cleavage. “Right again, babe.” Falling asleep at night with Roe’s scantily clad body pressed up against mine? That was something I wouldn’t trade for anything in this world. I could assure you, neither would Finn.
The three of us stayed at Finn’s house last night. After he turned fourteen, he’d basically lived alone after he fired his nanny. He had staff, like the rest of the kids here at Peyton Prep, who kept their opinions to themselves. None of us had those good Southern nannies you read about. You know, the ones who are more like your parent and love you unconditionally. Not even fucking close. We had the kind of nannies who liked a fat paycheck and a child who didn’t cause problems. So when we started demanding sleepovers, they agreed without hesitation. They were smart, got together, and started a rotation schedule. Each one getting a paid weekend off a month with our parents being none the wiser. It was difficult to keep tabs on your children when you traveled nonstop and never took them with you.
“Now all I can think about is you in bed, your hot little body spread out underneath me.” I was whispering again, putting my mouth as close to her ear as I could. I was hard as a fucking rock underneath my desk, which was no one’s fault but my own. “Let’s get out of here.” I chuckled when Roe immediately reached down and grabbed the Gucci tote I’d given her on the first day of senior year, her gorgeous honey hair sliding in front of her face.
She was the most beautiful girl in the world, she really was. Her light brown hair was thick and shiny, and hung down to the middle of her back. Her skin was smooth and clear except for the light dusting of freckles on her button nose, and you could only really see them in the last few months of summer. Her eyes were green, deep dark green, like the dark moss growing near the water. Don’t even get me started on her body. Long legs, tiny waist, round ass, and perky tits. Roe never had those awkward preteen years. She’d been a beautiful child and she’d grown more appealing and more beautiful as the years went by.
Her gaze met mine, confused. “What are you doing? I thought we were leaving.”
I shook my head. “I was kidding.” I tilted my head and stuck out my bottom lip, playing with her. “Sorry, Roe Boat. I helped you study for that makeup government final for two miserable hours last night.” I leaned back in my seat. “Take the test, and I’ll get you out of here. Deal?”
“You’re such a tease.” She put her bag down, a small pout on her mouth. “Deal.”
The three of us were raised in gilded cages where everything was so pretty sometimes you forgot you were actually trapped: distracted for a moment by the glitter and shine. We had parents who never showed us love or affection, they certainly couldn’t be bothered with things like family dinner or quality time.
We had classmates who wanted to be near us because their shitty parents wanted to be buddies with ours, or because they wanted to play with our cool toys. The three of us were kids when we met, kindred spirits, and we did normal kid things. We rode our bikes and played tag. Then somewhere along the way Finn started holding Roe’s hand. Then I’d leaned in and kissed her one night after walking her home.
The next thing you know, Finn had his tongue down her throat at the movies and I felt her up in the backseat of my Town Car. We’d known. We’d never actually talked about it out loud, we’d simply known. Hell, we’d been friends for years by then. We understood each other inside and out. I kept waiting for the jealousy to surface.
I’d watch them together, watch Finn slip his fingers under her prim little uniform skirt, and I’d be ready for the rage to come. I would tense when she moaned my name, preparing for Finn to beat the shit out of me. Nope. The anger never came. Not once. Instead, it turned me on to see them getting hot and heavy in the backseat. It felt right. Finn felt the same. I’d caught him smirking at me more than once when I’d had Roe panting in the media room.
