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)
Priest finds River. “Go grab the keys.”
She disappears into the house before returning to silence. She hands Priest the keys and we all make our way to the outer garage that sits directly beside the house. He taps his phone and the garage rolls open.
I hang back, counting down from ten.
Vaden shoulders me in passing as Priest unlocks the blacked-out Range Rover. “You better fuck something that doesn’t break tonight.”
My jaw clenches, fingers flexing in my fist.
Priest eyes me as he slips into the driver’s seat.
“Vaden in the front!” I fling the back door open and slide in.
River glares at me from the other side of the car, hesitating whether she wants to sit near me. Don’t blame her. I’m not the greatest person to be around when I’m pissed. “Get in the back, River.”
She nods, jumping through the side to get to the very back. Stella doesn’t argue, following her.
Halen finally saddles in beside me, shutting the door and blanketing us all in darkness, except for the lights on the LED dash.
“Where the fuck are we going?” I turn to her, ignoring the impulse to wrap my fingers around her delicate neck.
Vaden turns in his chair to get her attention.
My knee continues to bounce as I rest my head back against the chair, squeezing my eyes closed.
“Where?” A simple word from someone like Vaden and she spills her guts.
“Highway 88.”
My head snaps to her. “What the fuck! Why the fuck were you on Highway 88?” For whatever reason, we thought they were in the back streets of Riverside. Fuck. I gotta GPS this bitch ASAP.
She ignores me.
Priest turns the music on.
“Hale, you need to say something.” I don’t miss the perplexity in Stella’s tone when she says something.
“Well, shit, someone better say fucking something!”
Vaden’s taps on his phone, finding the cleaner.
Leaning over, I unbuckle Halen’s belt and drag her over to the middle seat. It’d be my lap, but hand… throat… rage.
“War…” She quivers and just like that, all the wrath I’d felt build up over the past week diminishes. A little.
She blinks up at me from below and a tear slips from the corner of her eye. “I can’t—”
“Something,” Stella urges quietly.
“You’re not so slick with the undertones, Stella.” I catch Halen’s chin with my thumb. “What is it?” When a tear falls on the top of my thumb, I slide my arm around her waist and pull her in closer.
She takes a deep breath. “You’re going to be mad. All of you. This is bad—it’s so much.”
“Yeah, well, I’m pretty fucking mad at you right now, so I doubt it can get worse.”
She huffs.
Stella clears her throat.
River moans a little.
My fucking stomach drops because, what the fuck could she have possibly done?
She swipes her tears and shakes off her sadness. “I did something.”
Silence.
I catch Priest’s eyes in the rearview mirror, and he holds my stare for a second before going back to the road.
“Do you remember that one winter when everyone got snowed in, in Perdita so the jet couldn’t run? The mothers were in Milan.”
“Yeah, you were fourteen.” I trace the curve of her jaw with my eyes. “You girls had the nanny here, though. Why?”
Halen
I run through the long hall, sliding to a stop with my fluffy socks. Stella and River have long since crashed, and I am bored. Of all the times for us to be snowed in, it had to be when the parents are away. We could have had a movie night. Dad would have failed at making Mom’s favorite pancakes, and then Unc Nate would have to come fix them. Then we’d have to listen to the banter between him and Mom as Aunty Tillie threw fruit at them both and Dad threatened their lives for the millionth time that year.
Now I am snowed in inside the Castle with no one to annoy. Not even War. He is my favorite to work up because he pretends to have patience for me, but really, he has anger issues with a capital I. I use the line that separates the two as a jump rope.
I saddle up on the railing of the stairs and slide down before landing at the bottom. My feet ache when I land on the hard floor. I kind of like that. The feeling of something other than the hollow abundance of luxury and privilege.
“In a hurry?” Linda, our nanny, rests against the wall opposite me clutching a mug. My attachment to her is displayed in the wide smile on my face. My cheeks sting from it, but she makes me happy. Linda has been in our lives since before my brother and I were even born! That’s how long. I am the only one who has a nanny. The other aunties and uncles like to rile Mom up about having one, but Linda helped raise them too. She is everyone's second mom. Even Mom’s second mom.