Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 86823 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 434(@200wpm)___ 347(@250wpm)___ 289(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86823 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 434(@200wpm)___ 347(@250wpm)___ 289(@300wpm)
If this was love, I didn’t want a part of it.
“Katie, open the door,” Travis said softly from the other side. The tenderness in his tone shocked me, but not enough to make me want to open the door.
“Go away,” I spat, thanking God that my voice was even and strong despite the tears currently pouring down my face.
I hated this!
“Katie, come on, baby; let me explain,” he pleaded.
Explain what? It wasn’t as if we were together. I, the selfish fucking bitch that I was, had pushed him away to save myself. Yet, all I had done was push myself even further over the edge and towards the inevitable.
I had feelings for Travis.
I ignored him, not wanting to reply. I just wanted him to go away and leave me alone. Maybe I could pass this entire situation off as me being embarrassed about walking in on them. He didn’t need to know that I had developed feelings for him. What he didn’t know wouldn’t kill him.
I breathed a sigh of relief when I heard him walk away. My phone buzzed on the bathroom counter, and I grabbed it, looking at the read-out. My eyebrows pulled together in confusion when I realized that it was an unknown number. Nobody ever called me, and they definitely didn’t call me from a number I didn’t recognize. I pressed answer and put the phone to my ear. “Hello?” I asked, my voice wary and on edge.
“Katie!” my best friend, Amy, exclaimed. “Thank God you answered. I need your help.”
Amy and I had been best friends since middle school. She was Nicholas’s daughter, but her mother refused to let Nicholas have anything to do with Amy. I had met her when my dad took me with him and Nicholas to court because Nicholas was trying to gain custody of her. We had hit it off immediately and had been best friends ever since.
“Amy, what’s going on?” I asked her, stepping out of the bathroom into the now empty bedroom to get dressed.
One thing that I knew about Amy was that she never asked for help. She always handled things herself. She was strong, much like her dad. No matter how much of an ass Nicholas was, he got shit done without anyone’s help or input. It was an admirable trait that he had passed down to his daughter.
But when Amy began to sob uncontrollably, I instantly became alarmed. “Katie, I’m lost. I don’t know where I’m at. Mom and I got into an argument, and I stormed out of the house and took off on my bike. I’m in the middle of nowhere, and I crashed my bike.” Her voice was trembling, real fear in her voice. “I’m hurt really bad, and everything is blurry.”
My heart stuttered in my chest in fear for Amy. Amy was like my sister. I couldn’t lose her, too – not after I had lost and pushed away everyone else.
“Amy, calm down,” I told her gently but firmly. “What do you see around you?”
“Just a bunch of graffiti-covered buildings.” I heard her cry out in pain. “Stop!” she screamed. “Leave me alone!”
The line went dead, and I ran down the stairs, not caring that I was only in shorts and a tank top. I tried calling her phone back a couple of times, but it just kept going to voicemail. My heart was in my throat as I stopped at the front door and slid my flip-flops on. “Hey, where in the hell do you think you’re going?” Luke demanded from behind me, coming out of the kitchen.
I ignored him, rapidly dialing Nicholas’s number. I snatched my keys to my car off the table in the foyer and ran out to the garage.
I had to get to her in time. I didn’t know what in the hell I would do if something bad happened to her.
“You know you shouldn’t be calling me since you got kicked out of the club,” Nicholas gruffly spoke when he answered.
“Nicholas, something is wrong with Amy,” I said breathlessly, desperate for him to not hang up on me. “Do you still have that tracking device on her phone?”
“Yeah,” he said, not bothering to argue with me about calling him now that I had mentioned his daughter. “Let me pull it up. What did she get herself into this time?”
I forced myself to slow my breathing – to focus and remember the facts of the phone call. “She called me crying, saying that she wrecked her bike and that it was hard for her to see. She said she was lost.” I drew in a deep, shaky breath, tears filling my eyes. I was absolutely terrified for Amy. “She was screaming at someone to stop and leave her alone before the line got cut off.”
“Found her location,” Nicholas said. “I’m going to head out there. I’ll keep you updated on what’s going on.”