Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 110549 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 553(@200wpm)___ 442(@250wpm)___ 368(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110549 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 553(@200wpm)___ 442(@250wpm)___ 368(@300wpm)
But I couldn’t bring myself to regret what had happened—not one bit. My only regret was that someone had interrupted us.
I looked past his shoulder out to his driveway where my mother was getting out of her car. Every muscle in my body tensed, almost locking. Jessie placed a restraining hand on my shoulder. “Go on out the back door. I’ll handle this.”
I ripped my shoulder from his grip and stormed out of the front door, meeting my mother on Jessie’s concrete driveway. I didn’t run from my shit, and she was the one who had violated the restraining order, not me. I wasn’t leaving my own fucking home.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” I snarled at her.
She smiled at me. To anyone looking at us from the outside, she looked genuinely happy to see her daughter, but I could see straight through her. Her eyes were cold as she met my angry glare. “Jay got arrested last night. Cops raided his place and found enough drugs to put him away for a few good years.”
“Good,” I snarled. “It’s not close to the shit he deserves, but it’s something.” But I knew he wouldn’t stay gone a few years. He never did. Jay had too many people in his pocket.
She sneered at me. “Jay bent over backward to provide for you.” I snorted. Bent over backward. Right. “But you’re just an ungrateful fucking brat.”
“Get the fuck off my property,” Jessie barked as he came up behind me. He placed his hand on my lower back, his massive frame towering over mine as he glared at my mother.
My mom smirked as she looked back at me. “You always had a thing for older men. First Jay, then Lincoln, and now Jessie. And you call me the fucking slut.” She sneered as she ran her eyes over me. “Like mother, like daughter. Apple really doesn’t fall far from the tree, does it?”
I swung my fist out, not giving a fuck anymore. Let them send me back to fucking jail. Jail was better than this fucking shit hole town where everyone fucking hated me and my own goddamn flesh and blood had a fucking vendetta against me.
I blocked out the pain, and the hydrocodone that I was on certainly helped.
She screamed in pain and tried to scramble away from me, but I straddled her on the ground, sending blow after blow to her face. I could feel Jessie trying to get me off of her, but I shoved him off of me. He finally yanked me up, and I kicked and screamed, shouting at him to fucking let me go. But he only kept me lifted from the ground, my arms locked at my sides.
I could see a couple of neighbors on their phones, but by the time I registered that they were speaking to the police as they stared at my mother’s unconscious form on the ground, it was too late.
I could already hear the sirens coming toward us.
“Fuck,” Jessie swore, his arms tightening around me, like if he held me tightly enough, they couldn’t take me away again.
I sighed softly. “I’m going to jail, Jessie,” I grumbled. And I was okay with that.
He set me on my feet, turning me to face him as the sirens got closer. His eyes searched my face, finally meeting my own. I saw the same longing in his eyes that I knew was in mine as he gazed down at me. “I’ll get you out of this shit, West.”
I shook my head in defeat with a tired sigh. You do the crime, you do the time. “This town has it out for me, Jessie. They’ll find something; they’ll always find something.”
He reached up and cupped my cheeks, his head moving down until his lips met mine. I kissed him back eagerly, wrapping my arms around his neck as I did so. He tugged me closer to him, his lips working hard and fast against mine until a police officer rudely interrupted our moment.
“Step back and put your hands up in the air!” I heard a cop shout.
I reluctantly pulled back from Jessie, tears filling my eyes. He was the only person in this town I would miss. Sure, Lincoln was calming for me, but I had always promised myself I would never get attached to anyone else. I didn’t need anything in this town holding me down when I finally got to leave. And I knew Jessie would never hold me back when it was time for me to dip.
Lincoln was fun and comforting while it lasted, and while I knew I felt something for him, he wasn’t Jessie. Jessie—he was my rock.
“Don’t cry,” Jessie said gently. “It’s time to survive again, West. Lock it all up and fucking survive.”
Swallowing hard, I held my tears in, nodding once at him. I felt a cop roughly grab my wrists, the metal securing my arms together a moment later. I shut my eyes, forcing myself to lock it all up inside.