Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 116268 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 581(@200wpm)___ 465(@250wpm)___ 388(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116268 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 581(@200wpm)___ 465(@250wpm)___ 388(@300wpm)
Kinney is the most vexed.
You turd. You don’t even know what horror is – Kinney
We’ll do a Halloween movie night at mom and dad’s another time. Promise. I reply.
She sends a skull and cross bones emoji.
I don’t want them around alcohol yet. Not when I’m hanging out with men in their twenties. My sister is thirteen. She can stay thirteen.
And Luna—she’s walking a fragile line with our parents after the tongue piercing. I’m doing her a favor by not extending an invite.
Plus, if we invited Luna, we’d have to invite Jane’s two brothers, Eliot Cobalt and Tom Cobalt. Which would probably end with me calling the fire department or our on-call doctor.
So that’s pretty much why we made the “high school graduates only” invite stipulation.
“Sulli?” Her bodyguard’s concerned voice steals my attention. He leans over my cousin and cups her cheek. “Hold on…” He stands and easily hurdles the loveseat.
Sulli hugs her legs tighter to her chest, and then she rests her forehead to her kneecaps. She’s dizzy.
“Sulli,” I start, about to stand, but Akara returns with a new box of donuts.
“Eat this.” He hands Sulli a plain glazed donut. “You can kill your buzz with food.” He pries the beer out of her fingers.
“Thanks,” she mutters and lifts her head enough to grab the donut.
Jane strokes her black cat Lady Macbeth. “The first time I got drunk, I puked everywhere,” she tells Sulli. “Moffy held my hair.” She rests her cheek on my shoulder. I wrap my arm around hers.
“First time I got drunk, I passed out in my own piss,” Quinn says. “Don’t ask.”
Farrow sets aside his empty bottle. “And now I’m going to—”
An object shatters the curtained front-window. Followed by quick, violent pop pop pop pop…
Pop.
24
MAXIMOFF HALE
Firecrackers.
Are you fucking kidding me—I launch to my feet while all three bodyguards bolt into action.
“Farrow!” Akara yells and points to the front door, then he captures his radio off a sleeping bag. “Akara to Alpha. Akara to Alpha.”
Farrow is already sprinting to the exit, and I’m not far behind with hot pinpointed eyes, seething inside-out. Someone broke my window with the intent to harm my family. Those could’ve been gunshots. It’s all I feel.
And I see red.
Farrow grabs the knob, but he suddenly whips around on me. He puts his hand to my bare chest, stopping me from reaching the door. Ire blisters his vigilant gaze in a way that I’ve never seen directed at me.
“Quinn, don’t near the window, there’s glass on the ground!” Akara yells. “Take the girls and Moffy upstairs to the bathroom and lock the door!”
My raging pulse hammers in the pit of my ears.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Farrow sneers at me. “You can’t follow me.” I spot the briefest flash of concern, of trepidation, before his gaze mortars hard and hot again.
I clench my teeth. I need to help. I have to fucking help. The intrinsic need bangs at my head, my ribcage, my heart, and I don’t know how to turn away.
I don’t know how to hide in a bathroom and wait.
“I see him!” Quinn suddenly yells. He charges towards us. Storming through Farrow and me to fling open the door, he runs urgently into the pitch-black night. Paparazzi who’ve been camping out on my street awaken like dormant fireflies and hornets.
Bright in the dark. And ready to sting.
Quickly, Farrow warns me, “Don’t. Follow.” Then he bolts outside, tracing Quinn’s hurried footsteps. Farrow’s caustic voice scalds my fucking ears.
He’s trying to protect me. It’s as simple as that.
My hands stay balled in fists, but I turn to find Jane and Sulli, to keep them safe—
“CARPENTER!” Jane screams bloody-murder, the sound lancing my heart. Everything happens fast—she tears back downstairs and out of Sulli’s grasp.
“Jane!” Sulli yells, almost falling down the staircase after her, but Akara grabs Sulli by the waist. “KITS!”
“You have to stay here!” Akara shouts. “JANE!”
“MOFFY! CARPENTER!” Jane screams, alarmed tears already soaking her cheeks. I try to shut the door, keeping the cats inside, but she shrieks, “HE’S ALREADY OUTSIDE! HE’S OUTSIDE!”
Walrus, the other kitten darts past my ankles, and I reach to catch him, but he scampers into the night. I don’t waste time. I chase the fucking animal down.
Running outside.
These indoor cats are her babies, and we live in the city. Where cars constantly speed by. If one dies—she’ll be gutted. It’s all I think.
All I know.
I fucking run. Onto the sidewalk, towards the street parking. I see Walrus scampering beneath a parked car.
And then I’m swarmed by paparazzi. Cameras in every fucking direction.
“CARPENTER!” Jane calls out, panicked. She’s outside? My head swerves, squinting in the harsh flashes. I can hardly see in front of me.
“JANE!” I shout and then shove paparazzi to work my way towards where I think Jane went. I spot her wobbling and tripping over her bare feet but determinedly chasing after another calico kitten. She’s drunk.