Total pages in book: 159
Estimated words: 150546 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 753(@200wpm)___ 602(@250wpm)___ 502(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 150546 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 753(@200wpm)___ 602(@250wpm)___ 502(@300wpm)
She laughs, shoving me in the arm with a side-eye. “I didn’t! He drove off himself!” Her eyes widen on me with mock insult. Yeah. Sure. We all know that’s a lie.
Stella steals the microphone off Kevin, who’s leaning against his Mazda 323. He presses his hand to his heart, as if offended. He isn’t. He knows the rules.
She lifts it to her mouth, widening her smile so far that her straight, white teeth almost blind us. “If you haven’t dropped your phones in the basket, do so now before you’re checked. You know the rules. If you’re found to have it on you, you’re out.” She bats her long lashes at the spotlight on her. “This is our new spot. As expected, Nismo Hayes will be the first to burn the way. We ride how we do back at Devil’s Cockpit—but let’s…”
My eyes narrow on Stella when I see her brain ticking over. I know that look. We’ve all seen it one or two times growing up.
Her shoulders straighten as she lifts her chin. “The loser has to do whatever I say for the rest of the night.”
I roll my eyes as people whistle and hoot. How is she going to threaten everyone with a good time? Now they’re going to want to lose just to have her attention.
“And trust me—” She turns to me, her eyes darkening. “—no one wants to be my pet.”
Once a few of the boys who chill with Kevin have checked everyone’s phones, except mine, Stella continues, “Twenty races. One final. One winner. Since Halen wins all hers, like always, she doesn’t go into the pool of winners. We have to make it fair…” She pauses a moment. “I have a little something special for the losing team tonight.”
She lowers the mic and throws it back to Kevin, who pushes off his car and waltzes toward me.
“You make me question my sexuality, little Nismo. You know where you’re going tonight?”
I chuckle, revving my engine. “Who am I racing, Kev?” I had barely turned my head to him when a Honda pulls up beside me with its windows down.
When the driver shifts his arm out of the way of his face, my smile hits the ground hard. Words fail me because my chest tightens as I try to suck in deep breaths.
Fear.
This is what fear feels like.
War
I tap my phone against my thigh as people file through my parents’ front door. Thank fuck they’re never home, and even if they were, you’ve got a one hundred percent chance of my mom smoking a joint with you instead of her throwing you out.
It didn’t matter. They were here through all the parties we threw growing up. And we threw a lot of them. Kind of still do since we all find ourselves with a lot of time on our hands.
This time was different, because this time I was fucking pissed.
Halen thought we were still on Perdita, but between her ignoring our calls and Evie going live on TikTok long enough for us to figure out that they were all up to some shit, it warranted a flight straight home. They left Perdita in a hurry, with no text or call. We hadn’t spoken to any of them since showing them our extracurricular activities. Was she turned off? Hardly. She could pretend that she wasn’t as fucked up as the rest of us all she wanted, but the truth is, she’s just a better liar.
Just when she thought she wasn’t like her daddy…
And don’t get me wrong. I ain’t mad at it, but the girl is pissing me off.
D12 raps in the background as people scream from the pool behind us. The lounge isn’t as busy as the backyard, but it’s enough for us to all talk, hear the music, and do whatever the fuck else.
“How do we know they’ll come back here?” Vaden asks, leaning against the chair opposite me. My knee doesn’t stop moving. I’m on edge. We didn’t get to finish what we were doing tonight because of this, and now, I’m fucking agitated. And that’s not at all where I want to be when I’m anywhere near civilians on land.
Fuck.
“Because I’ve made sure they do…” Priest murmurs, dodging a girl who has her hand on his shoulder from behind.
He flicks it off like one would a piece of trash, before glaring at her coldly. Her lips roll behind her teeth, her cheeks pink. He rests back on me. He knows every single thing that’s going through my head right now and all of them don’t put his sister in a very good position.
Literally.
“You know that at the ritual, by oath, we shouldn’t hide shit from them.”
Another girl screams from the pool and my teeth clench. “I know.”
Vaden kicks my shin with his foot, and I tear my eyes away from the front door. I can be patient with my wrath. I don’t have to tear her apart out of rage, because I’ll fucking dismember her with a smirk. “So what is it with you and Halen?”