Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 104239 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 521(@200wpm)___ 417(@250wpm)___ 347(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 104239 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 521(@200wpm)___ 417(@250wpm)___ 347(@300wpm)
My eyes are turned toward the floor as I round a corner—just in time to smack straight into somebody.
“Watch where the fuck you’re going,” she snarls. I look up to find Anja glaring at me. Sure, I crashed into her, but she barely stumbled. All we’d have to do is mumble an apology and walk past each other. But nobody in this fucking place is particularly sane or reasonable.
“Sorry.” I try to sidestep her, but she mirrors my action and ends up in front of me again. This isn’t one of those situations where two people laugh it off, and one of them asks if they want to dance. That would be corny, but better than this.
“Excuse me. I have someplace to be.” I try again, and again she places herself in my way. At least nobody is around to see what I’m sure will happen next. Something snaps in me. There’s only so much a person can take, after all. She just so happens to be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
“What the fuck is your problem?” I grit out, glaring at her. “I didn’t do anything to you.”
Her eyes light up. “You’re my problem, you pathetic bitch. Haven’t you figured it out yet? Nobody fucking wants you here. You don’t belong in this school.”
“Yeah, no shit,” I fire back. “Do you think I’d stay here if I had a choice? Who would put themselves through this? I don’t want to be anywhere near you assholes.”
“Then, by all means, get the hell out.” She shoves me with both hands against my chest, and I fall back a few steps but manage to stay on my feet.
“Don’t put your fucking hands on me,” I warn.
“Um, looks like I just did. What are you going to do about it?”
I’d think they would want to stay out of my way, seeing as how they all call me a murderer and know how I killed Nathaniel. Why would anybody want to pick a fight with somebody capable of taking down a man of his size?
I don’t know, and I don’t care. I also don’t care what happens after I raise the book I’m carrying in both hands and whack her with it. She must not have figured I would strike back, so she didn’t defend herself. Her head snaps around, and she raises a hand to her lips. When she lifts her fingers, there’s blood on the tips.
Damn, it feels good. Like I took a little bit of myself back.
“You bitch!” She backhands me before I know what’s happening. My head snaps back, and pain radiates across my face. I lick my lips, the coppery tang of blood exploding against my tongue.
I’m about to drop the book, ready to beat the shit out of her when something shiny catches the light. She raises her arm, and I get a good look at the knife in her hand.
In utter shock, I watch the blade heading straight for my chest. Raising the book, I block the attack, using the momentum to bring the book down on her hand. She loses her grasp, and the knife falls to the ground between us.
Tightening my grip on the thick novel, I use it as a weapon, hitting Anja over and over again. At this moment, I’m not only beating her but I’m also beating everybody who’s ever hurt me.
“Hey! What do you two think you’re doing?” Footsteps pound our way as we both back off, flushed and guilty. It’s one of the instructors, Mr. Daniels, and he’s pissed as hell. “Don’t try to deny that you were fighting. I can see the blood on both your faces.”
He sighs, shaking his head. “You’re going to have to see the headmaster about this.”
Terrific. Just when I didn’t think the day could get any worse.
19
LUCAS
“You’re going to have to explain this to me slowly.” It’s a good thing I already picked the whiskey out of the cabinet since I’m going to need a stiff drink after this. Maybe the entire contents of the bottle. How often does a man hear the voice of a woman he believed was dead?
“I know you must be confused.”
“Confused? That doesn’t begin to describe what I’m feeling.”
“I know. I’m sorry. I didn’t want it to happen this way.”
Her voice is the same: sweet, filled with apology. She did a lot of apologizing when we were together, for reasons I don’t remember anymore. Maybe there weren’t any reasons in the first place. Maybe I wanted her to be wrong, wanted a reason to hurt her.
“You make it sound like you didn’t have any choice but to pretend you were dead.”
“I didn’t. Her adoptive parents sent me to Europe and made it look like I had died. They wouldn’t give me details. I didn’t know anything about it. I didn’t disappear because I wanted to. I disappeared because they made me. They didn’t want me to have anything to do with her and were afraid I might try to have a relationship with her.“