Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 152045 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 760(@200wpm)___ 608(@250wpm)___ 507(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 152045 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 760(@200wpm)___ 608(@250wpm)___ 507(@300wpm)
Brothers. Twins.
My cousins.
In a way, they’re my family. Protective. Indulgent. My best friends. But there was something else there, too. That ever-present whisper that reminded me more as I got older that we didn’t actually share any blood.
They used to be inseparable. We all were, but not anymore. I don’t know why Hunter left or why he joined a rival team in Weston—that Rebel town across the river—to stand on the opposite side of the field from his brother, but Kade is out for blood now and Hunter has finally decided to engage.
Rivalry Week.
Parades. Parties. Pranks.
And the Prisoner Exchange.
Weston will send a hostage to our school, and they’re taking me. I’m Hunter’s for two weeks. In a dilapidated brownstone on a nearly abandoned street with almost no supervision.
Ten days in an enemy school. Fourteen nights in a town full of bullies with no curfews and no rules.
And Hunter has no intention of protecting his little cousin anymore.
The Pirates will come for me. How can they not? A Pirate never sits out on the fun.
But I never needed protection or rescue, because a Pirate never runs, either.
*Pirate Girls is a new adult romance suitable for ages 18+.
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
“You have to fight twice—once against your fear and once against your enemy.”
― Carolyn Keene,
Captive Witness (Nancy Drew Mystery Stories #64)
To Aunt Carol, who read Bully
and asked, “Where the hell are their parents?”
They’re now the parents!
Dylan
I lock eyes on Aro, willing her not to say it.
“You’re half an hour late,” she tells me.
Yeah, duh.
I cross the parking lot, speed-walking up to her as she waits near one of our school’s rear entrances. The lights from the football stadium brighten the night sky off to my right, and an announcer’s voice booms so loudly I can’t make out what he’s saying. But the crowd cheers anyway. I swipe my hand under my chin, wiping off the mud, and tuck my keys in the pocket of my filthy motorcycle jacket.
My cousin’s girlfriend lowers her voice as I approach the door. “Your dad thinks I went to get you,” she says.
I pull out a metal nail file, Aro moving to the side as I grab the door handle and start working the lock. I need to clean up before my parents come out of the stadium. I have a change of clothes in my gym locker. If my dad sees the dirt all over me…
I glance at her. “You didn’t tell him where I was, did you?”
She hoods her brown eyes and locks her jaw, and I realize I’ve insulted her. She wouldn’t rat me out. It’s code.
“Good.” I nod and continue working. “Just don’t say anything if he asks.”
“He’s going to know,” she fires back. “If I don’t respond, it’s because I don’t want to lie, and he knows that.”
I jiggle the nail file and then twist. “Well, you can lie...”
It’s always an option, of course. He can’t ground her.
I guess he can try to force my uncle Jax—his brother—to ground her, since she and her two siblings live with him and his wife next door to us. But Jax won’t do that. Aro stopped being a child long before she should have, and Jax understands that better than most.
I grip the tool, twisting and jiggling some more, but then I feel the heat of her stare.
I look over, meeting very different eyes this time. Darker.
I shake my head, completely fed up with myself. She loves her life here. My dad is her boss. She lives in his brother’s house. She dates my cousin, Hawke. She goes to school with me. Her brother and sister are thriving in our community...
I’m asking her to disrespect all of that.
“That wasn’t okay.” I pause. “I’m sorry.”
Her left eyebrow arches, and she holds out for a moment more before finally giving in. “It’s fine.” She sighs. “Last year I was kicking your ass. This year, I’m the only one you tell all of your secrets.”
Kicking my ass…what?
She smiles smugly. “You’re so lucky to have me, aren’t you?”
I am. I adore her.
But she did not kick my ass…
I jam and jiggle the tool in my hand, trying to muscle it.
If we hadn’t been pulled off each other during that fight…
The thin edge of the nail file cuts into my hand as I try to pry the lock.
Nearly all of my cousins are guys. I know how to wrestle, thank you.
But then…the file snaps in two, half of it still lodged in the lock.
I dart my eyes over to Aro, a groan expelling from my lungs as my shoulders slump.
She rolls her eyes and moves in. “Seriously, get out of the way.”
I step off to the side and watch her pull out her key ring full of carefully hidden little tools from her misspent youth. Digging my broken nail file out of the lock, she inserts a small tension wrench. Holding it with one hand, she finds another little thingy and slides that into the doorknob.
I’m glad I asked her to meet me here. She’s taught me how to do this three times, but I still struggle. I should’ve just gone home to clean up, but Rivalry Week starts tonight. I need to be here.
Her eyes flash to my hand. “You’re bleeding.”
I look down, seeing blood spread over the long bone of my index finger.
I graze my chin again and hold my hand up, seeing a few thin crimson lines. Yeah, that wasn’t mud I felt before. It’s going to be hard to hide that.
She works the lock, and I can tell she’s biting her tongue. She knows I fell off my bike, while I was training illegally and without permission tonight, and that my face is bleeding, because I took off my helmet while I was racing.
“What happens if you get injured and you’re all alone out there?” she asks.
I check my phone, seeing two missed calls from my dad. I tuck it back into my pocket. “You’ve faced people with guns. Alone,” I point out. “This is nothing.”