Total pages in book: 169
Estimated words: 167671 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 838(@200wpm)___ 671(@250wpm)___ 559(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 167671 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 838(@200wpm)___ 671(@250wpm)___ 559(@300wpm)
Does she owe someone money?
Is this the reason she kept stealing from us?
I flip the page and gawk my eyes out at the hasty drawing scribbled on here with arrows and illegible writings all over, and with all those stripes and squares it almost looks like a map.
Or more specifically, a map of the Phantom Society.
I fish my phone from my pocket and take a couple of pictures of both sides before I put the page down exactly the way I found it. Then I exit the apartment and close the door behind me, locking it with the same key I used to open this Pandora’s box with.
A long-drawn-out sigh leaves my mouth before I head down the hallway and grab my phone, dialing Silas’s number.
“Hey. Guess what we’re doing tomorrow evening?” I pull the hairband from my hair and let it all fall over my shoulders. “Crashing a party at the Phantom Society.”
CHAPTER 31
Max
“Why are you looking so gloomy?” Dad asks, rolling up his sleeves as he prepares to dice some veggies. “C’mon, where’s that fucking Fletcher smile?”
I throw him a stupidly fake smile while trying to make sure no one else but him sees. I don’t want the customers in this high-end restaurant during their lunch break to flee at the sight of my stupid grin.
“That’s my boy.” He scoots a whole plate of sushi underneath my nose. “Bon appétit.”
“I’m not hungry anymore.”
His brows drop as hard as his jaw does. “Since when?”
“Since my life got so goddamn complicated.” I groan and flatten my face on the bar, barely avoiding the sushi.
“Max …” Dad says. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know if I wanna talk about it. If I should.”
“Then eat.”
“No.”
“Then why did you come here?” he asks.
“Why?” I frown and lift my head. “I come to your restaurant every week.”
“Exactly. So either eat or talk or get out and do something else.” He throws the towel he just used to wet his sushi over his shoulder.
I groan again and put my hand under my face to support myself while I languish in self-misery. “It’s this girl.”
He places two flat hands on the bar and stares at me. “A girl? Tell me all about her. What does she look like? What’s her name? What does she like? Where does she live?”
“Wow, wow, calm down,” I say.
“No, I need all the details. You’ve never mentioned any girl before.” I can almost see the hearts floating in his eyes. “I can’t believe it, my boy is all grown up and falling in love.” He wipes his forehead and pretends to faint.
I snort. “Oh God. Do I sound like that too?”
“Like what?” He picks up one of the sushi he gave to me and chucks it into his own mouth. “Mmm, delicious.”
I roll my eyes. “Anyway, I kinda messed up.”
“Messed up what?”
“With the girl.”
“Oh, right. Spill the beans.” He leans onto the bar and winks. “I can help.”
“Can you?”
“C’mon, give me a chance.”
I sigh out loud. “Well … I sort of fell in love with her the moment I saw her.”
“Oh wow.” A big smile forms on his face. “You really are just like me.”
“What, you fell in love with Mom the first time you saw her?” I frown. “But she’s an angry b—”
Dad slaps his hand in front of my mouth. “Don’t. Don’t say that shit out loud.” He leans in. “She can hear you.”
Now I’m frowning even more. “She’s not here.”
He points at the cameras in the corners.
Oh. Is that how she keeps tabs on us?
“It makes her feel better if she knows we’re safe,” he adds, picking up his knife.
“Obsessive.”
He cuts through the carrots. “I prefer to call it ‘affection.’”
“Right. Anyway, my girl is not like that. But she is cunning. And beautiful. And … so damn spicy.”
“Spicy,” he repeats before plopping some wasabi in front of me. “Try this.”
“Dad. I’m trying to talk about the girl.”
“Why is she trouble for you, then? You’ve only mentioned positive things.”
“I thought I didn’t like girls. I thought I liked boys. And it makes me so confused.”
He snorts. “Max, you do realize there’s such a thing as bisexuals?”
“What?” I stutter.
“You can like both.”
My entire face turns red. “Oh …”
Why didn’t I consider that option?
“So, I don’t see any issue so far,” he says.
“She stole from my friends, Silas and Heath, and now they want to make her pay for it.”
“The Rivera and Preston boys?” he says, like the surnames make him do a double take. “Okay, that complicates it. But it’s not a deal breaker.”
I narrow my eyes. “A thief? Not a dealbreaker?”
“Yeah. Didn’t I tell you how your mom and I met for the first time?” He puts down his knife. “Me, Nathan, and Kai were trying to rob this guy. He deserved it, trust me. Then your mom came to try to murder him, but she found me instead, and we ended up fighting on the pavement in front of his house, and her shoe nearly stabbed me in the heart.” He sighs in a woeful way. “Oh, I was smitten on impact.”