Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 75720 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75720 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
One, two, three, four. I picked up my wineglass and took a gulp.
“No, I forgot to ask the seller that question,” Yvette said dryly.
“When do you think she figures it out?” Eric asked.
Jess chuckled, swirling her glass of wine. “Probably not until the last chapter, duh.”
“What about the house?” Jake asked, drawing all eyes toward him. “The way it’s falling apart, how it’s described as ‘showing off its bones’ all the time. Do you think—”
“Bones!” Jess shouted, pointing at her girlfriend, who was glaring at her over the rim of the wineglass. “Tia’s word is bones.”
“Is it?” I asked, smiling.
She flipped over her card. “Bones” was written in bold letters across the center. She threw her locs over her shoulder and rolled her eyes. “Out of everyone here, you’re going to get your girlfriend out first?”
“Sorry, babe, I just can’t ever keep my eyes off you.”
Tia shook her head and smiled, accepting the apologetic kiss on the cheek from Jess. “Don’t worry,” Jess said, leaning back in her chair. “If I win, we’re splitting the gift card anyway.”
Underneath the table, just next to me, Jake’s knee brushed against mine. I froze, like a meek mouse turning a corner and spotting the salivating house cat. The conversation around me grew jumbled as I realized Jake wasn’t moving his leg away. I shot a glance at him, seeing nothing but a neutral expression set amongst those glittering blue orbs of his. I wondered if he felt it, too? The sudden burst of fireworks that lit up the inside of my chest, sparking through my nerves, settling between my thighs.
Of course he doesn’t feel it. He probably doesn’t even realize he’s touching me.
I rolled my neck, cracking a couple of spots loud enough to earn a glare from Eric, who hated the popping noises with a fiery passion. Jake shifted, and his leg separated from mine, letting me bring my attention back to the discussion, even though my thoughts were still being pulled in Jake’s direction.
What the hell was it about him that had me so sprung? Yes, he was handsome and funny and smart and kind and tall and just my type and…
Okay. Maybe I did know what the hell it was about him that had me so entranced.
“Noah, what about you?” Tristan asked, leaning across the table, his liquid-gold eyes pinning me in place.
“Huh? Sorry, I missed the question.”
He cocked his head, eyes darting to Jake before coming back to me. “What’s got you so distracted tonight?”
“That was the question?” I asked, looking away from Tristan’s pointed glare.
“No,” Eric said. “The question was if you thought there was any importance in how the author describes Archie, the killer’s ex-husband, as being as monstrous as ‘what lurks in the darkest corners of a soul.’ Think that’s important? Did he have anything to do with the murders?”
“Yeah, actually, I wrote that down.” I flipped open my notebook and skimmed through the pages for my notes. Four, Five. I took a drink of my wine, setting it down and feeling good that no one called me out.
“Murder,” Jake said, head cocked, eyes drilling a hole through me. “That’s your word, isn’t it?”
“Ah crap,” I said. “You got me.”
“Nice job, Jake.”
I shot a slicing glare at Tristan. “Don’t side with the new guy,” I said.
Tristan looked like he was about to say something that likely would have had the entire table blushing, judging by the gleam in his eyes. But before he could get the words out, a shrill and piercing scream cut through the air, coming from the open window just over his shoulder. It was the kind of scream that could have only come from intense fear, born from a terror that instantly transferred to every single person in the room. It wasn’t a happy yell or an angry one or an excited one.
It was a horrified scream, and it made us all freeze in shared panic.
What was even worse? That it sounded like it came from right behind the front door.
4
JAKE PEREZ
I shot up from my chair, nearly tipping it over. It was an instant reaction. Hearing that scream brought me directly to being in my mom’s house, hearing her yell in her bedroom. It was never a shout filled with as much terror as the one we just heard, but still, it triggered a fight-or-flight response in me. I was already at the front door by the time I realized Noah was at my side. The other book club members were close behind, Eric putting a hand on my shoulder before I could open the door.
“Let me. I used to be a cop.”
“We’ll all check it out,” Noah said. There was fear in his eyes, but there was also a swell of courage in the way his jaw set and his brows furrowed.