Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 152045 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 760(@200wpm)___ 608(@250wpm)___ 507(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 152045 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 760(@200wpm)___ 608(@250wpm)___ 507(@300wpm)
I run, hearing engines—one of them definitely Hunter’s car—start up and peel away. Chasing after them, I crash through the back door, seeing the police cars cruising alongside the football field.
Toward me.
Bile crawls up my throat. I’m going to be grounded for life.
Dammit. I scurry to my bike and climb on, speeding away. Their sirens scream into the air when they see me making my escape. I don’t know what the hell I’m doing, but I’m not ready to surrender.
I dart out of the parking lot, spotting the security camera on the lamp post above.
And I just gave it a nice, full view of my goddamn face. Awesome.
I jerk away, coasting left and racing back onto High Street. But then I make a sharp right and then another immediate left, speeding into the alleyway behind Frosted.
I hide the bike between two dumpsters and pull out my keys, letting myself in the back door of Quinn’s shop. I hide inside, safe in the darkness.
This is going to be too much for my parents. They’ll force me to come home.
I run my fingers through my hair, gripping tightly right before I reel my foot back to kick one of her metal kitchen cabinets. But I stop short. I don’t want to dent it. I’ve done enough damage tonight.
Drifting into the front customer area, I take out my phone and scroll pictures of me, texts, comments…
Ur over!!!!
We’ll get her when she comes back.
Loyal to whoever shows her attention…
A laugh escapes me that kind of sounds like a little bit of a sob. “Seriously?”
Is that what people think? That I traded sides and actually vandalized my own school? That I’m so desperate to belong?
My eyes fill with tears, but I don’t let them fall. I’m not quite there yet. I squeeze my phone in my fist, pacing back and forth, but then Farrow bursts through the doors from the kitchen, followed by his entourage.
I throw my phone at him and charge, leaping up and losing my mind as I throw pathetic punches. He slams me down on one of the round tables for customers, prying my arms and legs away from him. I roll off the table, landing on my feet and glaring at all of them, including Hunter who leans against the wall behind the counter. His arms are folded over his chest, his eyes amused.
“Vandalizing schools now?” I growl.
“What did you think they were going to do to my house when you tried to lure everyone there instead?”
I wasn’t trying to lure everyone there. I was trying to lure him there. Bringing the Rebels was his idea.
His eyes sharpen. “Was Kade waiting for us?”
“A lot was waiting, I’m sure,” I retort.
Sure. I warned Kade they were coming, which I wouldn’t have done if it were just Hunter coming. That’s Hunter’s fault.
And it’s mine that I underestimated him.
“How am I supposed to keep the cops from arresting me?” I ask.
“It’s Rivalry Week,” he says yet again. “They expect this.”
One of my eyebrows shoots up. He got arrested right along with Kade, Hawke, and me when we half-buried someone’s car on Weston’s football field more than a year ago. It was property damage. Same as this. Our parents got us out of it. They might not again.
Finally, he shrugs. “I’ll call my dad. You’ll be fine.”
“She won’t be fine.” Farrow looks at me when he says it, though. “The Pirates will never trust her again. Not completely.”
I glare at all of them—T.C., Anders, Luca, Calvin, Constin, Farrow, and Hunter. “I have ten days to turn this around. I can still make your life hell before I leave.”
“You’re never leaving.”
But it’s not Farrow who says it. Or Hunter.
“They don’t want you,” Constin tells me. “We do.”
I stare at him, everyone else falling silent. I’m never leaving? So what, if I try, they’ll kill me and keep my body in Weston forever like Winslet?
“You don’t want me,” I tell them. “You want a Pirate. You don’t give a shit about me. You don’t even know me—”
The alarm goes off and everyone jumps.
But I don’t. “I forgot to disengage the alarm,” I say. “Hunter knows the code.”
He hoods his eyes and pushes off the wall, everyone following him into the kitchen to cut the alarm before the cops show up.
I back up quickly, while everyone is out of sight, and spin around, feeling behind the frame of the mirror for the latch. I press it, the mirror clicking open, and I slip inside, smoothly closing the secret entrance to the old, hidden speakeasy. I stand on the other side of the glass, hearing the alarm go silent as I tap out a text to Kade.
Frosted.
One by one, everyone slips back through the kitchen door, into the bakery, and Calvin whirls around, looking for me.
“Where’d she go?” he shouts. He runs to the front door of the store, yanking on it, but it’s locked.