Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 46095 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 230(@200wpm)___ 184(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46095 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 230(@200wpm)___ 184(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
“Please,” I whispered, backing away from him, my face ashen. And here we went again. More of the world pushing me around. First my mom, always putting me after her own drinking habit, or telling me to “stop being a brat” when my dad got rough. My father, literally pushing me around, and telling me I’d never amount to anything. The bank, taking my home out from under me when I needed it the most.
And now Matt — Matt with the bullet that could destroy the happiness I’d finally found.
“What do you want?” I whispered out, my voice choked with tears.
Matt smiled sickeningly. “You know what I want, Cora.”
I felt the bile rise in my throat as I slowly shook my head. “You’re disgusting.”
“Come to my place, tonight after my last class.”
“No fucking way.”
He grinned. “Fine. Then this hits every free porn video site on the web. You’ll be the talk of the entire campus tomorrow. And your professors will be fucking out of here, or fucking jailed.” His eyes narrowed at me, his sickening smile making me want to throw up. “And that football asshole? Fuck him. I’m going to wait until he’s disgraced from this little porno of yours, and then I’ll sue his ass for hittin—”
“Okay!”
The word felt like poison as it left my lips, my entire body deflating.
“Okay,” I whispered this time.
Matt grinned widely. “That a yes?”
“Yes,” I whispered, looking at my feet as the knife sliced through my heart. “I’ll be there.”
“Good, babe, good.” He snickered. “Hey, wear something nice for me, huh?”
I shivered. I wanted to throw up. I wanted to run until I crashed into something. But I knew what I had to do. I knew what had to be done to keep this all okay, and to protect the men I’d fallen completely in love with.
I knew what I had to do. I knew what the necessary move was here. I just didn’t want to think about it until I had to.
17
Garret
“Where’s Cora?”
I poked my head into the kitchen to see Max chopping up some stuff for dinner, and Nolan glancing over a pile of papers with a drink in his hand. They both looked up wth curious expressions.
“What do you mean?” Max’s brow furrowed.
“I mean she’s not home.”
He shrugged. “Dude she’s at college. She can stay out.” He rolled his eyes at me, putting his knife down and reaching for a beer as he moved to slump into a chair at the kitchen table.
“I just thought she was going to be home. Thought you guys were cooking dinner.”
“I got it handled,” Max shrugged, reaching for his laptop.
Nolan snorted. “You know we’re not actually her daddies, right?”
I gave him the finger. “Har-fucking-har. Her car’s gone, and she usually just walks to campus.”
Nolan’s brow furrowed, and he set his drink down.
“Hmm.”
“Yeah, hmm,” I growled, my anxiety growing. Fuck, I’d never been like this. I’d never been so fucking worried about someone like this — so protective. Immediately, my mind was going to worst-case scenarios — car crashes, a freak accident, Ukrainian sex-traffickers abducting her like some sort of Hollywood movie.
Nolan and I looked at each other, both of us with the same hard, worried expression. But finally, he shook his head.
“Fuck, look at us.”
I sighed, my tension deflating.
“We gotta stop,” he said quietly. “We can’t just be worried about her whenever she’s not here. She’s a tough girl, she can handle herse—”
“Oh fuck.”
We both whirled to see Max staring at his laptop screen, his face white and furious looking.
“What?” Nolan said quickly.
Max ignored him, or didn’t hear him, his eyes growing wide.
“What?” I hissed, my anxiety spiking again.
“I— I let Cora use my laptop the other day.”
“And?”
His eyes dragged from the screen up to look at us. “Her text messenger is still logged in under her account on here.”
I was about to tell him to stop snooping into her life, but there was something fucking real wrong with the look on his face. Nolan and I glanced at each other for half a second before we dashed across the kitchen to see what Max was seeing.
Sure enough, his messenger app was open, but with Cora logged in from when she’d used it. And she was texting with someone.
Matt.
Her fucking ex. The guy Max had laid out, and the one that’d tried to get her to fucking sleep with him for a place to stay like a complete piece of shit.
There were a few messages already on the screen, and I felt anger roar through every part of me.
Cora: “I’m here.”
Matt: “B down in a sec.”
Cora: “Let’s get this over with”
Matt: “U better be dressed nice, slut.”
More rage than I’d ever felt before spiked through me, and I could hear both of my other friends brimming with anger, growling as they read the words on the screen.