Total pages in book: 122
Estimated words: 115590 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 578(@200wpm)___ 462(@250wpm)___ 385(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115590 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 578(@200wpm)___ 462(@250wpm)___ 385(@300wpm)
I heard the jingle of keys before the car door opened and slammed shut. Not even two seconds later, the engine growled to life, shaking the ground.
“What the hell, man?” Bellamy shouted, running up behind me when the reverse lights came on. The tires spun, kicking gravel everywhere before she shot off, leaving nothing but a cloud of dust in the glow of the taillights.
“Did she just take the car?” Bellamy snatched the bag from the patch of grass.
Still clutching my nuts, I staggered to my feet. “What does it look like?”
“That was four grand!” Bellamy paced behind an old Cadillac, the flash of Velma’s neon sign bouncing off the back window. “Your dick just cost us four grand.”
Not only had Monroe stolen a car out from under me, but she had also just taken a blowtorch to my ego.
“Shut up, Bellamy.” I started toward Wolf’s pickup.
Wolf’s brow wrinkled when I opened the passenger door. He glanced back at Bellamy settling into the extended cab. “Am I high, or did Monroe James just steal that car?” He snorted. “I mean, tell me I smoked too much weed and I’m hallucinating.”
I swiped a hard hand over my face, then slumped down in the seat. “Just drive, would you, Wolf?”
“Holy shit.” He put the truck in reverse, while I stared through the dirty windshield. “She stole the car?”
“Because Zepp was trying to fuck her.”
I turned in my seat to glare at Bellamy. “Like you wouldn’t.”
“I would,” Wolf offered. “Always wondered if the whole red in the head, fire in the hole thing was true.” The neon lights bounced over the dashboard before the truck sputtered onto the highway.
We made it to the four-way stop before Bellamy exhaled in the back seat. “She cost us four grand. Four grand.”
Wolf shot a sadistic smile my way. “Wanna go set fire to her trailer?”
The guys gave me grief about Monroe getting one up on me the whole way back to Wolf’s. By the time he pulled up to his double-wide, I was fuming. I climbed out before the other guys did, slamming the door hard enough to rock the truck. I was almost to my motorcycle before I noticed the tarp-covered car parked in Monroe’s drive.
“Oh, you have to be kiddin’ me.” Halfway across the road, a smile spread over my face. I couldn’t believe the girl was that stupid.
2
Monroe
Shit, what did I do? I had kneed Zeppelin Hunt in the balls. People said that Zepp was the king of Dayton High, but I didn’t think so. No, Hunt wasn’t anything so shiny. He was simply at the top of the food chain—a thug. The bad guy without morals. And in a place like Dayton, that was saying a lot. He was not a guy you kneed in the balls and stole a car from. But if it were a toss-up between him and Jerry, my mom’s shithead boyfriend, I’d take my chances with Zepp.
I gripped the leather steering wheel in my hands, flooring the accelerator as I drove down the deserted county highway. The car fishtailed when I turned onto the dirt road that led to the trailer park. Like the rest of Dayton, it was a shit hole. Park homes littered the place like garbage spilled from a bag. My stomach knotted when I sped past Wolf Brooke’s trailer, hoping Zepp had never noticed I lived by one of his friends. I cut the engine outside my mom’s, hurrying to cover the stolen car with a tarp before I went inside.
My mom had passed out on one of the ratty floral couches, a fresh track mark in her arm. She didn’t budge when the trailer door slammed closed behind me or when a thud came from the back. Jerry stumbled out of the bathroom, the ash falling from the cigarette between his lips when he fastened his belt.
He swiped a hand over his greasy hair. “You get the car?”
I dropped the keys into his waiting palm and held my breath as I shouldered past his huge frame, hoping he’d just let me go. My mom’s boyfriend could be unpredictable at the best of times. I breathed a sigh of relief when I closed the flimsy door to my bedroom and slid the lock in place.
I’d almost fallen asleep when I heard the smash of glass outside somewhere. It wasn’t unusual in Dayton. People were forever fighting, breaking shit, stealing things… The sound of an engine coughing to life made me sit up, though. A horn blared right outside the trailer. Headlights poured through the threadbare curtains, bouncing over the walls of my bedroom as I headed to the door.
Jerry stood at the living room window, the curtain yanked back just as a car gunned it away. I knew—I just knew it was the Hurst. And I knew exactly who had stolen it right off my drive.