Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 75734 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75734 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
The other girl looked up then and studied me for a moment. I smiled at her.
“Hi. I’m Maddy,” I said.
“I know,” she replied, then looked back down at her phone.
“Jesus, everyone knows who you are. Stop introducing yourself,” Gina said. “That’s Rose. She’s pissy tonight. Ignore her.”
I looked behind me to make sure Huck hadn’t shown up in here to stop me from asking a simple question. When I didn’t see him or anyone else, I turned back to Gina.
“How?” I asked her, knowing she’d understand.
She took another chip and waved it around in a circle. “You’re his,” she replied, as if that explained everything.
There was that possessive-belonging thing again. I didn’t belong to Blaise. Currently, I wasn’t sure I would ever come back to this place or have anything to do with Blaise. He’d been gone for half an hour now.
I wished I hadn’t left my phone in the damn cave. I could call Trev since I didn’t want Saxon getting in trouble with his parents. He could pick me up at the gate. I felt insignificant and abandoned.
I glanced at the phone in Rose’s hand, then looked at Gina.
“Do you have a phone?” I asked her.
Gina raised her eyebrows at me and smirked. “Yeah, and I’m not handing it over to you so you can call the Houston kid to come get you.”
I smiled, impressed she was so close to my idea. “I wasn’t going to call him. I was going to call Trev,” I replied.
She laughed then and shook her head. “I wish you would. That would be epic. But it’s not happening on my phone. I know better,” she said, then took another chip while laughing some more. “God, Rose, could you see it? Trev showing his ass up here to take her away?”
I looked over at Rose, and she was smirking now as she looked down at her phone. Maybe she’d let me use hers. I started to open my mouth, and she lifted her gaze to meet mine and shook her head.
“Who is she?” I asked Gina.
Gina frowned and picked up her glass. “You talking about Angel?” she asked me in a whisper.
“Of course she is,” Rose replied while tapping away on her phone.
I nodded, finding myself relieved that he didn’t call her angel as an endearment. It was her actual name.
“I don’t think I can talk about that,” she said, still whispering.
“Not if you want to live,” Rose replied.
Gina glanced at the other woman and nodded in agreement, then went back to eating chips.
Secrets. There were still things I wasn’t being told. The racing thing, the boss thing, the power thing—he’d explained those, but what about the weirdness with his friends? What about Angel? Why did everyone act like I was his possession?
“Can I have another drink?” I asked.
“That I can do for you,” Gina replied and pulled out a glass. Then, she put in ice cubes and poured vodka and soda water into the glass. When she handed it to me, she smiled. “Drink up!”
Cheering came from the other room.
I drank it down quickly and looked at the food, but I wasn’t hungry. I’d lost my appetite along with my date.
“I’m guessing you wouldn’t give me a ride?” I asked Gina.
She scrunched her nose and shook her head. “Sorry. I like you. But I can’t do that.”
Rose chuckled again from her seat.
“Madeline.”
Blaise’s voice startled me, and I spun around to see him standing just inside the kitchen entrance. He seemed tense, but I didn’t care. He motioned with his fingers for me to go to him.
I shook my head. “I’m good, thanks,” I replied and turned my back on him.
This time, Rose looked up from her phone. She looked at me like I was insane. Gina’s eyes went wide, and she put another chip in her mouth.
“Madeline.” His warning tone annoyed me.
I didn’t care how he said my name. I wasn’t going to go running to him.
I thought about telling him that just then when his hand clamped around my upper arm. I tried to pull it free, but he didn’t let go. Instead, he forced me to walk past Gina and Rose. We were headed to his cave, and I wiggled, trying to get free.
“Stop it. You’re hurting me,” I said as he used his free hand to unlock and jerk open the door.
He released my arm and pressed my back to the open door. “Calm the fuck down,” he ordered.
I felt the urge to cry again. This was frustrating. Everything about this was confusing. He was confusing. He was giving me whiplash with his mood swings.
“This was too much, too soon,” he said then, his tone and eyes softer now. “I pushed for too much, and I needed to give you time.”
Was this how he was going to end it and send me home? My chest started to ache, and the idea of this being over, my time with Blaise ending suddenly, felt much bigger than all the other stuff. Tears stung my eyes. That wasn’t what I wanted.