Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 73683 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 368(@200wpm)___ 295(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73683 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 368(@200wpm)___ 295(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
“What would you have done if you had?” I questioned. “I highly doubt you would’ve been able to do much more than call 9-1-1 seeing as the first hack of that ax straight up killed him.”
She wrinkled her nose. “I know. I watched the autopsy being performed.”
A little over a year ago, Jubilee hadn’t thought that her life was hectic enough, so she decided to build onto her mortuary, allowing a certified pathologist to be able to perform autopsies here instead of us shipping the bodies that died of unnatural causes off to bigger cities to perform them.
I supposed one of the perks of having that sort of thing going on in your own building meant that you got special considerations such as getting to watch the autopsies performed.
“That’s…interesting,” I finally said.
She snickered. “You couldn’t sound any less enthused about my life.”
I shrugged.
“I’m more of an ‘alive’ person than a ‘dead’ person. I can’t find anything interesting about people once they’ve kicked the bucket,” I explained.
“You shouldn’t want to investigate his cause of death,” she said. “That requires being around ‘dead’ people…so to speak.”
I snorted. “I see where you’re coming from, but saying that, it doesn’t actually require me to be around the dead person. Only the person’s life before they were dead. We’re not comparing apples to apples.”
Jubilee suddenly yawned, and I had the sick feeling that she could open her mouth pretty wide…wide enough for me to shove my dick inside.
She closed her mouth, and I turned away from her and went to the swing that was at her side.
Sitting down, I sat in silence for a few long moments before saying, “I think that what was done to that man was done because he was a sick fuck. But you should still be careful. That means no more running at four in the morning without someone around to watch over you.”
She turned her face to mine. “And you’re volunteering? Why? Why do you all of a sudden care? Is it because you fucked me and think that somehow entitles you to take care of me? Is that why you’re being so nice? Because if I’m being honest, I’m kind of worried here. I’ve never seen you be nice in your life—at least not to me. And I like it that way.”
My lip curled at her in disgust. “You think that I like taking care of you? I don’t. I think you’re spoiled. I wish you had never followed me here, and you’re a painful reminder of what I lost.”
She looked away.
I immediately felt like shit for the words that had come out of my mouth, but I couldn’t spit out an apology to save my life. That, and I wasn’t sure there was anything to apologize for.
It was the truth.
She was a painful reminder of what I’d lost.
When Annmarie had died, I’d been eighteen and she’d been fifteen. Sure, that was young in the grand scheme of things, but I missed her every single day. I also missed Eitan just as much.
And if I were being honest, I did blame Jubilee for us being out there in the first place.
If she hadn’t gone outside all half-cocked like she always did when she got pissed, we might’ve been inside having the conversation when the lightning had struck.
“You’re blaming me right now,” she said softly.
Her eyes were on me, or more particularly, my fingers.
I’d been absently running my fingers along the raised scars that ran down the length of my forearm. The same ones that matched the ones on Jubilee’s opposite forearm.
When we’d all been struck by that lightning, Jubilee had been struck at the back of her hand. It’d traveled all the way through her body, into mine where I’d been holding onto her, and out through my opposite forearm.
Where the Lichtenberg Figures had started on her left hand and traveled upward, they continued all the way across her shoulder blades, to mine, and then down my right arm, stopping just at the tip of one fingertip.
They were scraggly, jagged scars that resembled a tiny lightning strike—or even a snowflake pattern—all the way across our bodies.
Mine was a very light shade of pink whereas Jubilee’s appeared a much deeper shade of purple due to her skin color.
“We shouldn’t have allowed you to go outside,” I said softly. “Eitan should’ve handled that better.”
Chapter 6
You’re not allowed to play the lottery. You hit the jackpot when you found me.
-Jubilee’s secret thoughts
Jubilee
Eitan should’ve handled that better was an understatement.
Eitan had announced before my departure from the McGrew house that he no longer wanted to see me if I couldn’t get along with his brother.
Me, being pissed off because his goddamn brother—Zee—had been terrorizing me over my terrible grades. I hadn’t been able to take it anymore—at least that day seeing as I was on the verge of failing not just a class, but the grade itself. I hadn’t been very understanding. I’d been pissed, and annoyed that Eitan would once again side with his brother over me, and I’d just wanted to go home to cool off before things could go farther south. Before things were said that couldn’t be taken back.