Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 103008 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 515(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103008 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 515(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
“Did I say for him or fun in general? I’ll be right back, and we can pick our vantage points.”
I run upstairs and lay an arsenal of plastic guns for Harley to arm himself with on my side of the bed. Knowing Harley has pen and paper stashed everywhere, I find some in his bedside drawer and write:
These are the type of guns I’m comfortable with you using. Choose wisely and come find me when you wake up.
I draw a winky face at the bottom.
All my moving around the room makes him stir, so I don’t think we’ll be waiting long for him to come find us.
I sneak back out and am immediately hit in the shoulder with a foam bullet. But it’s not from Harley.
Jamie stands at the end of the hall, and she gives me a quick salute before ducking around the corner.
Oh, so that’s how it’s going to be, is it?
Even though it will give both of them the advantage of shooting at me from above, I run down the stairs and hide behind one of the couches in the formal sitting room Harley never uses. There’re a lot of rooms in this place that don’t get used.
The creaking of Harley’s door echoes off the high ceilings.
I risk a peek around the side of the couch.
Harley stands at the banister in just his boxer shorts.
I’m almost disappointed that he chose the toy crossbow. Looks cool, yeah, but he’s going to be slaught—
Jamie hits him from his left but disappears before Harley can register it.
“Brix?” he asks with a confused croak in his voice.
I aim my gun for him and take my shot.
Bam, right on his nipple. Totally a happy fluke. I was aiming for his head.
“What the fuck?” Harley glances around the room, no doubt wondering where the bullets are coming from.
When he turns to go down the hall, I crawl toward the foot of the stairs.
I stand and shoot him in the back and then duck behind the wall next to the glass doors that open to the backyard.
Footsteps get louder as he comes back my way, but then I hear the click of another bullet being released followed by Harley’s grunt of frustration.
“How are you doing this?” he whines. “I knew you were, like, a badass extraordinaire, but I didn’t know you were a ninja.”
“Just bringing you some normal, babe,” I call out.
“Ah, there you are.” His footsteps are faster now. Louder.
He’s running down the stairs and will get to me any minute.
I quickly turn the corner and shoot, but not before Harley gets his own shot off. I dive and then scramble behind an armchair.
“Can’t run, Brix.” A bullet hits the cushion in front of me, and I laugh.
I think the bullet must’ve come from Harley until he says, “Wait … what?”
“Hi,” Jamie says.
“You’re on his side?” he exclaims.
“He made me do it. I swear!”
“She’s lying. She jumped at the chance,” I call out.
Next thing I know, we’re in a three-way shoot-out, and I go down in a blaze of plastic bullets.
When Harley runs out, he tackles me and pins me to the rug.
I pretend to struggle against him, as if I couldn’t easily overpower him, which makes him grin triumphantly.
“Don’t get too cocky.” I dig my fingers into his ribs.
“Oh shit, no.” He twitches.
I roll us over so I’m on top, which turns into a wrestling match to the point we both end up with carpet burns everywhere.
It only stops when Jamie clears her throat. “Are you two done yet?”
She’s now standing above us, a toy gun in each hand.
When I look around, I realize she’s kicked away our weapons while we were distracted.
Harley and I throw our hands up.
“You wouldn’t,” Harley says.
He gets shot first.
“Hey—”
He gets shot again. Every time he tries to speak, she shoots a foam bullet at him.
Jamie laughs. “You’re right, Brix. Harley needed this to forget about the stupid letter.”
I make a slashing motion at my neck, but it’s too late.
Harley’s face falls.
Jamie realizes what she’s done. “Oh, shit. Sorry.”
Harley shrugs and gets to his feet. “All good. For a while there, I did forget, and it was nice.”
Well, it was good while it lasted.
Harley heads toward the stairs to go back up to his room.
I stand and chase after him.
Not even caring if Jamie’s still watching, I catch up to him and pull him into my arms. I lower my head and kiss him, making a silent vow to give him as much of a distraction from this bullshit as I can for as long as I can.
Any way I can.
“I know other ways to make you forget.” I waggle my eyebrows.
Harley smiles. “I might need that distraction every day. All day.”
“I’m prepared to make that sacrifice as long as you need me to.”
“On that note,” Jamie says, “I’ll leave you boys to it.”