Total pages in book: 159
Estimated words: 150546 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 753(@200wpm)___ 602(@250wpm)___ 502(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 150546 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 753(@200wpm)___ 602(@250wpm)___ 502(@300wpm)
“Samson and Aire? They won’t be part of this either?”
“Their duties and training will be completed elsewhere.” Hector pushes open the high-wire gate, straightening his suit. He takes a moment to look between all of us. “Your fathers didn’t have this opportunity. They were thrust into this life by my choice and the sins of their own fathers. You’re all privileged in that aspect, where none of yours screwed up.” He pauses, his eyes narrowing on Vaden. “Yours didn’t force you to have sex with another girl while recording it and then try to kill everyone around you. Yours,” he points to War. “Well, to be fair, Nate’s old man wasn’t horrible compared to both me and Brantley’s Dad, and your—" He finally settles on Priest, and none of us miss the pride in his eyes.
Priest is about as expressionless as a fucking blank wall begging to be graffitied, but the corner of his mouth moves up a little. Hector winks at him. “Well, yours didn’t try to kill your girl, among other things, to say the least.”
“Don’t worry, Pop…” Priest steps closer to his grandfather. We all watch in silence as he grabs Hector by the back of the head and pulls him in for a hug. “I won’t let you down, ever.”
I bite the inside of my cheek. Well, goddamn. This is going to be an EKC Hector two point oh.
“No more killing Swans…” I sneer at Hector in passing, hiding my snicker. He can think I’m joking, and if I didn’t see the love he has for Halen, I would probably be skeptical around the subject. But if anyone comes near any of those girls, they’ll have to go through all of us first. As much as Priest loves his pop and he’s EKC first, his sister is more than a sister to him. She’s his soulmate. She’s his other half. It’s why he’s so unfazed by her.
If the Kingdom falls, anyone left standing would be eradicated.
“Come on…” The gate slams closed. “Someone here wants to meet you.”
We had started training when we were five years old. For years, it was the simple things. I have a feeling it is only going to go up from there.
50 Cent’s “Just a Lil Bit” plays through one of the cars parked up near the water hole, and I lean back on the hood of my R32, one leg perched on the bonnet and the other laid flat. I think we all silently agreed to give the girls until the ritual before we thrust them right into the belly of the fire. They think they can handle it, and shit, maybe they can. Halen, most definitely. And Stella, because she’s a fucking menace. But River? I’m not so sure. She puts on a hard front, but we all know she keeps everything bottled.
“So?”
Candy? Cassandra? Fuck…
“What do you say?” She drags her long nail down my chest, stopping at the tattoo that sits below my collarbone. We had long since driven out to Devil’s Cockpit, after following Halen here. I got the feeling this wasn’t the final destination, though.
“What?” I try to hold the bottle of beer to my lips, but my head spins from all of the alcohol and weed. I definitely can’t fucking drive from here.
“Give me your fucking keys.” Priest shoves his hand into my jeans pocket and I lose my feet, tipping sideways.
In front of the cascading waterfalls, modified cars line the empty patch of land. Engines overpower all other sounds except for the thudding of distant music. There has to be fifty odd cars parked. Most JDM, others exotic. We have our fancy bullshit cars too, we just never drive them unless we have to. Priest with his McLaren, me with the LaFerrari, and Vaden with his Phantom.
“No one drives my car.”
He rolls his eyes and pockets them. He and I both know I can’t say shit right now.
“So that’s a yes?” the annoying voice yaps off again from below.
I catch her with a thumb beneath her chin, forcing her eyes up to mine. I don’t hold them long enough to care, because I don’t.
“Shut the fuck up.”
Her little mouth opens, and then closes, before she turns in my grip and backs her ass up against my shit. Candy. Her name is Candy and I’m pretty sure she’s been here before. By here, I don’t mean Devil’s Cockpit. Tonight isn’t for racing, more for cars to just burn rubber and show off.
Beside me, Vaden chuckles with a soft laugh, lighting his joint and inhaling deeply. “You’ll make her cry.”
She doesn’t say a word.
Halen’s car is almost as familiar as her touch. Not that I’ve felt it, well, at all since that night I shoved her off my lap, but I know everything there is to know about Halen, and her car is no different.