Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 72090 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 360(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72090 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 360(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
Yes, I had access to money. Dirty money. Guilt money.
Blood money.
Money I refused to touch.
My father had worked for the Godwins. He had done shady, criminal acts for that family. He was so hungry for money, for power, and for respect. He also liked the limelight and the attention he got. He liked to party, drink, do drugs, and sleep with all the ladies who coveted a man in a suit and a big wad of cash in his pocket.
I may have been young, but I wasn’t blind to how my father put food on our table. And though they ruled my father’s death a cold case… I wasn’t stupid either. The Godwins held supreme power over Heathens Hollow and beyond with an iron fist, and those who dared to cross them often met with unfortunate accidents. There were no cold cases in their world. They knew everything. They were Gods Among Men.
They had known what my father was up to. Just how greedy he’d become.
As I walked toward my small bungalow on Cottage Row that sat on the edge of the harbor, I could see the lighthouse in the distance, its solitary white beam shining like a beacon against the darkening night.
My path wound its way through an array of quaint cottages with weathered green roofs, each glowing in its own unique color. Home to fishermen, dockworkers, and merchants, the small dwellings lined the edge of the harbor in a straight path leading up to the thick woods nearby. The sounds of waves crashing against the shore, seagulls squawking, and the creaks of boats in the harbor were soothing yet haunting at the same time.
Heathens Hollow—beauty and darkness woven as one.
The sun never shines. It’s afraid of this island. Fearful of our ghosts.
As I got closer to home, my thoughts returned to Locke. He was a man of many secrets, and I knew that he had guilt over my father’s death, though he never told me why. He had once been my father’s best friend and they’d worked closely together, but something had gone wrong between them shortly before my father’s death. I remembered hearing Locke warn my father that he was flying too close to the sun.
That image stayed with me always.
Clearly, my father didn’t listen to him because my father most certainly got burned, leaving me an orphan.
When I finally arrived home, I saw Fiora standing by the water’s edge, her tiny frame silhouetted against the moonlit sky. She turned toward me as I approached, her eyes gleaming in the darkness.
“I would have driven you home,” she said.
I shrugged. “I needed the walk to clear my head and unwind from the party. Sorry, I should have said goodbye.”
I walked up beside her, looking out onto the harbor. I lived in a small one-bedroom cottage that might as well be called a shack, but at least I had an amazing view. Plus, Fiora lived a couple of cottages down, so I had a friend nearby.
She sighed. “Do you ever think about leaving this place?”
“No,” I answered quickly.
I hated that type of thinking. My father always thought about us packing up and living in Seattle. Heathens Hollow was only two hours away from the city, but it felt like a million miles from the life we lived.
Fiora nodded understandingly. “I get it. This place is like an abyss. It suffocates you and never lets you inhale deeply.”
I smiled wryly. “It’s not all bad. I mean, we have the ocean. And the sea life. And the—”
“Stop trying to convince yourself,” she interrupted. “You’re not happy here. You never have been. Your father wasn’t happy here either.”
“This is home.”
“We’re too good for this place. We deserve to be happy, to be free from the darkness that hangs over Heathens Hollow.”
“Hard night at work tonight?” I asked with a slight chuckle. “You’re awfully moody.”
“It sucked. It always sucks.” She turned to look at me. “Which is why I really want you to consider The Hunt.” She raised her hand to silence me before I could object. “And before you give me the same excuses, hear me out. It starts in two nights, and all I ask is you consider it. I was like you at first too. The thought of doing it made me feel like I was whoring myself out. And maybe that’s how you see me now. But I’m telling you this because you’re my best friend and I trust you… I think you’ll like it. I think you’ll enjoy the thrill of it as much as I did.”
“It sounds… brutal.”
“It is,” Fiora said with a nod. “But it’s also exhilarating, and oddly… sexy. I’m agreeing to do it again, and not just because the basket of goods I got last time was unlike any gifts I’ve ever been given. But I’m agreeing because… I haven’t been able to get the sensations of what I felt out of my mind since.”