Total pages in book: 177
Estimated words: 173392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 867(@200wpm)___ 694(@250wpm)___ 578(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 173392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 867(@200wpm)___ 694(@250wpm)___ 578(@300wpm)
He stops, leaning into the doorframe and folding his arms over his chest. “What are you up to?”
“Why are you here?” I blurt out.
“I’ve been helping the football and basketball coaches.”
“They’re letting you around high school girls?”
He literally finished his senior year from home last spring, and while no formal charges were brought, everyone knew why.
But his smile spreads behind his closed lips. “Mmm.” He nods. “And nothing’s really changed with them, either.” He looks me up and down, because once upon a time I was that naïve, too. “Other than that, there are no Bay kids like last year,” he points out.
Liv Jaeger was the only Bay kid who ever went here.
“You know half the parents here have interests in seeing that shithole torn down,” Milo tells me. “They’re all wondering how the Jaegers are able to keep the developers off their backs.”
“Do they know?”
He grins. “They do now.”
What does that mean? I haven’t told anyone about the cameras at Fox Hill. Did they find some?
And then it hits me. Cate, Emaline, and Antoinette aren’t the only ones heading for the Bay tonight.
“It’ll be lockdown,” I remind him. “The cops will pull those little shits over even before they get across the tracks.”
The canals flood in a big storm. Curfew will be in effect.
“Those little shits,” he replies, “used to be your classmates. You think you’re a Jaeger now?”
If Macon has cameras on our turf, is it possible that Saints have cameras in the Bay? St. Carmen wants trouble there tonight. They’re coming over to cause trouble. On purpose.
“The local news should be entertaining tomorrow,” Milo says.
“Why are you warning me that there’s something going down tonight? You know I’ll tell them.”
He backs into the office. “The more the merrier.” And he shuts the door, heading into the men’s locker room.
Son of a bitch.
Whipping around, I dig out my phone, forgetting all about Coomer.
Clay picks up, but I’m already speaking before she has a chance to say hi.
“Is Liv in town?”
Clay takes a second, but then replies. “Just got in. Why?”
Fuck. I’d rather she wasn’t here for this, but it’s almost the holiday. Of course she was coming back.
“I need your help tonight,” I say. “And I need you both to trust me.”
12
Army
God, I don’t want to go home.
He’s there. He’s always fucking there, and he never leaves anymore. It’s like being in a room that’s on fire. You’re constantly aware of it. Never not aware of how much time you have until it reaches you.
I pull off my shirt, using it to wipe off the sweat on my back and forehead before tossing it into the cab of the truck. Clouds block out the sun, while the wind cools my skin.
“I think she’d pay me,” Trace pipes up.
I follow his gaze, seeing Elaine Bertrand and her perfect timing as she walks to her pool that we just cleaned, behind hedges we just trimmed, in her white bikini. She casts us a glance that lingers just long enough that there’s no mistake what she wants. Daniel Bertrand’s young wife wouldn’t be a chore.
I tighten the strap, securing the equipment. “I’d get more.”
“Is that a bet?”
He stares down at me from where he stands in the bed of the truck, his eyebrows raised.
“Oh, shut the fuck up.” I shake my head. “If you do anything like that for money, we’re both dead.”
Macon will kill me, too.
Dallas throws trash bags filled with clippings into the truck as Trace jumps down, sweat matting his hair to his temples. “But you have already, haven’t you?”
I stop, gaping at him. “How many rumors are flying around about Macon and me exactly?”
“No, that one’s just about you.”
I grumble, “Great.”
I grab the cooler off the driveway and slide it onto the floor in the back seat.
Trace follows me. “You know, I wouldn’t care,” he tells me. “You were my age when you and Macon had a houseful of kids to take care of. And that doesn’t even count the people you guys took care of in the Bay. If you did what you had to, then …”
I don’t look at him, every muscle inside of me tensing. “Then what?”
“Then I’m glad,” he says. “I mean, not glad glad. I would wish you didn’t have to do it, but I’m grateful. I never would’ve been able to do whatever it took to take care of us.”
I didn’t do whatever it took. I never had to.
I draw in a breath. “When you’re tested, you find out exactly what you’re capable of.” I drop my voice to a whisper. “And what you’re not.”
“So, then you did—”
“I didn’t fuck for money,” I blurt out. “Dipshit.”
He smiles, and I roll my eyes. Trace never asks questions. Usually.
I know they all know the rumors about what Macon and I did to pay bills. Some of it’s true, some of it’s not, but none of it I care to relive. Iron’s old enough to remember some things, so he knows better than to ask. Dallas doesn’t get personal, and Liv doesn’t want to know, because it would hurt her to learn how much we put ourselves through for them. What’s done is done.