Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 117494 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 587(@200wpm)___ 470(@250wpm)___ 392(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117494 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 587(@200wpm)___ 470(@250wpm)___ 392(@300wpm)
“OH MY FUCKING GOD, ARE YOU LISTENING TO YOURSELF?! FOUR PEOPLE, KALI! Four people! Your boyfriend is the cause of all of this. And you’re right, if we’d not gone out here, then NONE OF THIS WOULD’VE HAPPENED!”
“Babe?” I heard from her end.
She sucked in a dramatic breath, but I could hear her crying.
That was me. That was my fault.
All of this was my fault.
“I’m so sorry, Aly. I’m so sorry.” I didn’t know what else to say, or do. “I’m so sorry. We’ll get him back. I promise.”
Her tone was chilling. “You cannot promise that. Do not even dare touch that.”
Another shiver went through me at her voice.
She hated me. I could hear it. There was pain, but there was loathing.
I’d lost my friend. And I just hoped that I hadn’t physically lost Justin and Harper too. Or Claudia. Goddamn Claudia. I’d not been letting myself think of her either. Claudia chose this life. She knew more than me so her being taken wasn’t on me, but it didn’t matter.
My heart hurt for her too.
Shane needed to find them. He did. He needed to bring them back. All of them.
Please, God. Please. Just, please.
“I’m going to share with Brandon and his family what’s going on, and then I’m going to pray that Harper and Justin are found. Because if they aren’t, Kali, then I’m coming for you because this is all your fault. Damn you.”
Every word she said was a punch to me. I felt them, blow after blow, and by the time she hung up on me, I was right there with her because damn me. This was all my fault.
“Your friend’s a bit unhinged.”
I whirled around, seeing Shelly standing behind me, a lit cigarette in her hand. She’d stood facing the street, her arm crossed over her chest, under her other arm that was holding her cigarette. She looked all casual, but she had followed me.
“I don’t need you to watch over me.”
She took a drag from her cigarette before motioning to my phone, exhaling. “I’m thinking you do if you let that ‘friend’ get in your head. She’s wrong, you know. Nothing is no one’s fault. It just happens. I heard enough to gather that you guys came out here for a reason? You force your friends to get in your car?”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” I started to head back, but she touched my arm, stopping me.
She gestured down the way with her head. “We’re fine down here. Also, some of the girls are going to be arriving. A bunch go to a beauty school not far from here and they will go crazy when they get a load of us being in their place. That’s what they think. I’m hoping to wave some of the guys down here and sneak in the diner behind us for some food when it opens for supper. You in? I’m betting you’re hungry.”
She was right. My stomach growled as if on command. “What do you mean girls?”
“The sweet butts. You know, the girls that sleep with anyone as long as they’re hanging out with the club.”
“There’s actually women who do that?” I knew the term, but hearing it was real was a whole different thing.
“Oh yeah.” She took another drag from her cigarette. “All sorts, but don’t worry. I’ve never heard of the infamous Ghost taking a woman.”
I was still feeling raw from Aly. “Don’t think you know him since he’s not from this charter.”
Shelly laughed, taking a drag again. “You’re right. He’s not and I don’t, but give me a break. Been around enough guys. I can tell. Your guy, he’s a good one. Solid. Loyal. Smart. He’s like my old husband, or I’d like to think so don’t take that away from me. He’s dead after all.”
And I was feeling like a heel. “I’m sorry.”
“No worries. I’m not normal. Life and death doesn’t affect me like it does with others. My husband is gone, on the other side, and I’m here, spending my days out trying to enjoy life as much as I can until I go over and join him. Don’t get me on past lives because that’s a whole other thing with me.” But she took a fourth drag, exhaling, and pointed the cigarette at me. “You know that I have friends who do believe in past lives? They think we’re just energy in these bodies, for this life. Like I have some friends who fully believe they were an Apache in another life. One is convinced she was a horse. And I got another friend who is convinced she was some goddess from Africa. You believe in that stuff?”
I… had absolutely no idea what to say to her. “Why are you telling me this?”
She glanced back to the bar, then to me. “Honestly? One, because I think it’s cool. And two, I’m stalling because the girls all arrived and are inside. Now I’m going to use your phone and give one of the guys down there a call. The owners are opening this diner up behind us in five minutes. Trust me. We want to eat at Mama’s Diner, and not at The Bonfire. They mean well, but their food is shit.”