Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 70940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 236(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 236(@300wpm)
Now seems like a really bad time to tell them.
I need to lie down and rest.
“I’m going to get some more sleep,” I murmur, my voice dull and flat. “Let me know when you find something.”
I turn and walk back into the room where I take painkillers, jerk the blinds shut, and crawl into the bed.
This has to get better eventually, right?
Or am I going to feel this way forever?
15
THEN - BRIELLA
“Nobody has seen her for days,” Alarick tells me when I roll into the clubhouse a few days after all hell broke loose at Aviana’s house.
We’ve looked high and low; nobody has seen her.
It’s like she just disappeared.
I don’t even know where to start, let alone who she might know that she could be with.
We’ve tried the little family she had left, but none of them claimed to have seen her. Wherever she’s gone, she’s either done it on purpose or someone has her.
The idea that someone has her makes me feel sick to my stomach.
“Do you think someone has her?” I ask him.
He shrugs. “It’s hard to know without knowing what happened.”
“You know what happened, Flick, I told you. Your dad was part of this, if anyone knows where she is, it’s him.”
“He wasn’t there, Bri.”
“You’re still defending him?” I whisper, narrowing my eyes and expressing my hurt through my gaze. “Even after I told you exactly what happened that day.”
“You didn’t see anything. Aviana did, but she’s not here to tell her story. King told me he wasn’t there, I believe that.”
“Did he tell you he wasn’t involved?”
“Briella ...”
“He’s mixing his words so he doesn’t have to come outright and say it, but he was calling the shots with that murder and he was the reason they were at that house to begin with. He’s lying to you.”
“I trust my father, and if he isn’t giving me information there is a reason for it. He’s not a cold-blooded killer, Bri. If that family all died, there was good reason for it.”
I shake my head, angry and frustrated that he doesn’t have my back. Everyone is going about their business, trying to convince me that I’m basically losing my mind and that I don’t know what really happened.
I was there.
I know what happened.
I know what I heard.
King has something to do with this, I just don’t know why everyone keeps defending him.
“You know what, I’m not getting into this with you,” I say, turning and walking toward the front door.
“Briella, wait,” Flick calls, following me out to my car.
“Don’t,” I say, spinning around and glaring at him. “Don’t you come after me when you’re not hearing me out. You’re not even trying to understand my side of it. You’re always just going to defend your dad and this club. I’m not going to matter more.”
“You’re wrong about that,” he growls, crossing his arms. “I care about you more than you could ever fuckin’ know, but I trust my dad and I know there are things about certain situations that you don’t understand. You were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and I’m sorry you got caught in the crossfire of whatever the fuck went down with Aviana’s family, but hatin’ my dad for it isn’t going to make it go away.”
“I hate him because he’s a god damned monster. He ordered an attack on a family and left my friend to suffer alone. She has nobody left now, that’s if she’s still alive. He put her in danger. He didn’t check that she was safe before carrying out his dirty work. He is to blame for this and nothing you can say will make me change my mind.”
Alarick exhales. “You’re makin’ this so fuckin’ hard for me.”
“No, Alarick, you’re making it hard on yourself. You won’t admit your dad did wrong and was careless and cruel. You’re too wrapped up in this world.”
I get into my car and he slams the side of it with his fist, frustrated, as I back out.
I drive out of the lot and pull out my phone, dialing Aviana again. I know she’s not going to answer, I know that, but I can’t help but hope.
I don’t know what’s happened to her, but I do know that she didn’t deserve any of it.
She didn’t deserve to see that.
She didn’t deserve to lose the last people she had left.
She just didn’t deserve any of it.
I get back home and pull up on the curb just in time to see two men in a car, reversing out. For a moment, I think maybe it’s one of mom’s friends, but when their eyes meet mine and I see the evil coldness in their gazes, I know that’s not the case. They disappear down the road before I can even get a good look at them.