Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 96402 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 482(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96402 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 482(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
“The Crows.” She spat the name.
Yeah, I didn’t need to fill her in. Paris knew exactly who was responsible.
Nora’s lips pinched. “Those little shits will not lay a hand on you ever again.”
I would’ve been surprised at such a statement coming from the refined woman before me, if she wasn’t going easy on them. There were infinitely harsher things she could’ve said, and all would be appropriate.
“Go on, dear. Get off your feet.” She nudged me toward the bed. “Cairo is staying too. My babies in one place. Your best friend with you,” she told Paris. “You’re safe. Everything’s going to be okay.”
“Is it okay?” I asked Paris after her mom shut the door. “I can give you space if you want.”
“No, stay.” Sniffling, she burrowed in the crook of Cairo’s neck.
It was my first proper look at the cuts and purpling bruises covering her face.
“I want you both here. You’ll stop me going over there and killing them.”
“No.”
“Wrong.”
Cairo and I spoke at the same time.
“I won’t stop you fucking up those bastards,” Cairo said. “Actually, I’ll be your alibi, saying you were here all night if you do, and you’ll be mine when I do.”
“I’m hardly going to stop you going over there,” I added as I climbed in next to Cairo. “When I’m paying a visit myself.”
“Guys...” Paris reached out and took my hand. She didn’t have to say anything else.
Cairo got up and grabbed the tray. “Eat. You too,” he told me. “I’ll put on that alien show you guys like.”
“Doctor Who is so much more than an alien show. You’ve now earned yourself the full in-depth lecture on the Whoverse.”
“No good deed, right?”
We smiled at each other across the room.
Fucking right, he loves me.
THE NEXT MORNING, I stood outside the Crows’ gate.
I didn’t normally wear makeup and I hadn’t changed that fact that morning. Let Jeremy see what he did to me.
I stood under the camera for a full fifteen minutes before someone buzzed me in. Jeremy waited for me at the door.
“Rainey, before you say anything—”
I decked him across the face.
His neck snapped, smashing his temple against the doorframe.
“Ow.” Jeremy cracked his jaw. “You can throw a hit.”
“It’s how you take on a charging bull. Strike hard, fast, and without hesitation. You’re half as smart and twice as aggressive.”
He smirked, wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth. “Fair enough, I deserve that. Got it out of your system?”
“Not even close! She’s my best friend!”
“She’s Sharpe’s sister and the only person in this godforsaken town he gives a shit about. I thought you understood that we couldn’t do this by asking nicely.”
“No, you didn’t think I understood that, or you would’ve told me what you were going to do. You know I’d stop you. Warn Paris.” I punched him again. “We’re not on the same side, Ellis, so you can take your lies and manipulations, and shove them up the same amoral hole the Bedlam Boys keep their twisted justifications. You’re no different from them.”
“Rainey.”
I spun on my heels, flipping him off over my shoulder. “Go fuck your brother up the ass.”
“Rainey!” Footsteps sounded behind me. “If you walk out that gate, you’ll watch the smoldering firepit that used to be your farm on the six o’clock news.”
I ground to a stop.
“That’s right.” His self-satisfied tone grated on my ears. “Turn around. Come inside. And let’s talk this out like adults.”
Stiffly, I picked up one foot, then the other, forcing them to take me inside the lion’s den.
Jeremy slung his arm over my shoulder—a grin riding his lips he didn’t bother to hide. “That’s better.”
The door shut behind me.
Hanging out in the living room were five guys in various states of dress. Two in their boxers. Two missing their shirts. And Micah dressed and looking like he was on his way to class. I pictured him standing outside our window, lofting a rock.
“Who are you?” I asked the two unfamiliar faces. “And which one of you hairy cunts tore Paris’s clothes off?”
They were stony-faced, glaring back at me.
“Who did it?!” I charged them.
Jeremy scooped me around the middle and hauled me upstairs. My threats, each more creative than the last, rained down on the silent crew.
He brought me into the same office where I signed the contract.
“You need to calm down.”
“You need to not stand so close to me.”
He backed up, hands held in surrender. Didn’t stop me noticing he was between me and the door.
“I tried to warn you that it would get bad, and that whatever happened, it wasn’t about you.” He motioned to my face. “If you had walked away, none of that would’ve happened, but you kept coming at us and we didn’t have a choice.”
“Walked away? And let you beat on my best friend? Are you dead inside, Ellis? Because that’s something I should know.”