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)
“No.” I hesitate, sliding into first gear. Shit. They could be. Since we all share a similar style, in a way that none of us are consistent, I don’t know who leaves what in my room.
“I have your Dolce shoes, anyway.” She shrugs, tapping the mirror down to check her lipstick. “Figure you won’t need them since you have them in every other color, and besides—” I glare at her from over my arm. And besides what? “—you know pink isn’t your color.”
She has a point. “True.”
“What’s the plan tonight?”
I tap my finger against the steering wheel, looking between the road and the LED dash that illuminates the time.
“Hales…” Her voice breaks through my thoughts and she shifts in her seat to face me. “I know that fucking look. What are you thinking?”
“The Kings are doing their usual tonight and being bossy with it.” I’m not sure if I’m thinking at all, since I’m pretty sure if I get caught doing what I’m about to suggest we do, that it will end in one or two ways. The first? Priest will lock me in my room like fucking Rapunzel and won’t let me out for weeks, or… War. War’s wrath isn’t something I particularly want to witness.
I pump the brakes when we reach a red light, my eyes flicking between the two signs in front of us. One points to the Riverside town center, and the other to the highway that leads straight to Chevalier Hill.
“I mean…” Evie teases as she removes her sunglasses. Her eyes glisten with mischief as she looks between me and the sign, rubbing her hands down her brown thighs. “This would absolutely piss your brother off.”
“He’s not the one I’m trying to piss off.” I squeeze the steering wheel.
Evie pauses, raising a perfectly laminated brow. She knows who I’m referring to. “What did he do now?”
I push the clutch and drive it into first. They’ll be spilling through these streets any minute now and when they do, I don’t want to be here.
I punch in the clutch and tap the accelerator with my other foot. Just as I hit a high RPM, I release the clutch and slam that same foot down on the brakes until my back tires lose traction and smoke veils the windows of the car. Evie and I both breathe in the familiar smell of hot asphalt and burnt rubber as if it’s our signature perfume.
Dropping it into second, I release the brakes and floor us forward. I’d never go to Chevalier Hill, but it would be fun to see how far we can actually go until someone, or something, stops us.
First stop: pick up the girls.
Love was nothing more than a mask used to forgive someone for all the wrongs they did. Love didn’t exist. Obsession did.
My fingers touched the top of the water as my eyes closed. Birds chirped around the crashing waterfall as I dug my toes deeper into the sand. I’d waited for this moment. The elated minutes that passed when I knew I shouldn’t be here.
I opened my eyes and looked over my shoulder. Where the hell did River go? Our towels were sprawled out over the sand as the sound of Metallica played through the air. I loved it here.
Water continued to swallow my body as I moved deeper and deeper out. As soon as the bite of cold evaporated, I dipped beneath the water, holding my nose. My skin no longer prickled like a furnace as I pushed up from the sandy ground, surfacing back to the top. I swiped my eyes clean as ink bled down my hands from my mascara, and I spun around to face the shoreline once again, hoping to find River, only to collide with a hard body. My hand flew and landed against his chest. I knew who it was. Even without his telling tattoos, I’d know. The vehemence that followed him everywhere was trailed by a tongue of flames that always seemed to taste me anytime he was near. One of these days he was going to swallow me whole.
Stop, Halen. Think. Not that. Not now.
“War…” I shoved myself away from him, but his hand snapped around my back, forcing me close. As if he knew that I didn’t want him to be near, but more I needed him to. In darkness, even the violent burn of hatred could lead you home. “What the fuck are you doing?” I managed to writhe my way around in his arms, and just when I thought he was going to let me swim to the shoreline, his hand was on my belly, pressing me back again.
His fingers sprawled out over my skin. “Stop fucking talking.” I bit down on my bottom lip as my breath caught in my throat. I didn’t fucking want to stop talking. I wanted to be angry at him for touching me. I wanted to let that fire burn until it turned us both to ash.