Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 103104 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 516(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 344(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103104 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 516(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 344(@300wpm)
He’s almost there. Just needs a little more pushing…
I tap my pen on the table. “How did you get to be the head Shark? You’re a jerk, A-plus on that, but I don’t really see you as part of some hierarchy of school society. You’re really more of a stoic loner, I think. If you weren’t rich, I bet you’d be a gang leader. The Knox Gang. You’d have a cheap shark tattoo on your neck. Real badass.”
Come on, Knox. Break. Show me who you really are.
“Good thing I’m rich.”
“You still jacking off in bathrooms?”
He starts. “You still fingering yourself in tubs?”
“Not lately.”
“Too bad.”
“Sometimes I wonder what might have happened if you hadn’t left that bathroom. I wonder how things might have been different. If I’d gone to that keg party for you, if I’d been with you—”
“Ava, stop. Please.”
Whatever infinitesimal inches of ground I gained have vanished. He scoots his chair away from me.
“Something about me really gets under your skin. What is it? I don’t think it’s the whole she’s a scholarship girl and so not worth my notice angle. Nope, it’s deeper.”
He sighs.
But I don’t want to stop.
“You asked me about Persephone and Hades once. Remember that? It was one of my favorite myths, Hades falling for the beautiful goddess. He wasn’t interested in any of those other she-demons that lurked around his domain. He only wanted her.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“It’s rather romantic in a god and goddess sort of way. He did kidnap her, I suppose, but he loved her, and kidnapping is really minor compared to what some of those other gods did. She loved him deeply in spite of everyone warning her to stay away. She ate those pomegranate seeds because she knew her mother would never let her live in Hell.”
“She only got to live there with him for six months out of the year—then she had to go back to her mother. To me, it sounds like their relationship couldn’t have been that solid.”
“So you do remember.” I let him hear the satisfaction in my voice. “And as far as being solid, absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that. Did you miss me when I was gone?”
My breath hitches as I wait for him to reply, but like the wily devil he is, he avoids my direct question and asks me one instead. He turns and gives me an even better look at his eye, the skin puffy and purple and painful-looking. “I also recall Hades rising up from hell in his black chariot, snatching Persephone, and carting her down to live with dead people. He tricked her into eating those seeds so she’d want to be with him. Is that a sign of a good relationship?”
I shrug. “She was in love with him and she knew it was the only way. Admittedly, he probably scared the bejesus out of her, but she took a chance on her man.”
He grunts. “Really? No one wanted them to be together. None of the gods approved. Who’d love the king of the underworld?”
“The right person.”
He inhales.
Jolena walks past our table and gives Knox a withering look, and I pause.
That black eye…hmmm.
“Your eye has to hurt. It’s like it’s sentient, like it might step right off your face and tell a story. If it did, I’d ask it why the hell Knox Grayson lost control the night of Chance’s party.”
His eyes flare at me.
“Fine. I can tell you’re clamming up as usual. Let’s discuss the fight you obviously got in. I saw my mom with a couple of shiners, you know. Tyler’s dad, Cooper, was a real winner—no job, on drugs, angry. Once, he had her pinned against the wall while he smacked her face. One side. The other. Back and forth. Red welts. Her feet dangled right off the floor, just like in the movies—can you believe it? Vodka bottles rolling—geeze, always with the dang vodka. He looked over his shoulder at me and said, ‘Leave or you’re next.’ I ran.” My chest rises rapidly at my admission.
He leans in. “Where did you go?”
“I didn’t come home for three days. Went to my inner-city school, ate lunch, and went to the tents at night. There were always open ones I could crawl in and no one would notice, plus it was spring and the weather was nice.”
He scowls. “Shit, Ava. Under the bridge? Anything could have happened to you! Why didn’t you go to the police?”
“Rich kid, please. You don’t get it. If I went to the cops, they’d call social services and put me in another foster home. No thanks. I’ll take the devil I know any day.”
A long exhalation comes from him and I see his hands clench. “What happened when you went back?”
Shrugging, I say, “They were fine, all kissy-kissy. She was pregnant and I was just sticking around for my little brother to arrive anyway.” I pause. “Sometimes I wonder if she’s still alive.”