Total pages in book: 176
Estimated words: 167257 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 836(@200wpm)___ 669(@250wpm)___ 558(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 167257 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 836(@200wpm)___ 669(@250wpm)___ 558(@300wpm)
There was a frustrated dip in his brow when our gazes met across the room, but he looked away just as quickly and ignored me.
Tuesday and I helped everyone who needed it arrange safe transportation home, and then we started to clean up with the help of the Kings. Ruen gave me a quick hug goodbye once Roc paid her, and then she and her crew left quieter than they’d arrived.
Tuesday was next to go once her ride arrived. She’d gotten tipsy and had spent the last hour of the party making out with Malik in the corner. Weird that he still ended up going home with Ruen.
I finished up, waved goodbye to the Kings—Rowdy still refused to look my way—and headed to my car behind the building.
I’d finally started parking in the employee lot after leaving my shift one day and finding a boot on my car instead of the usual ticket. It had cost me the last of my money to get it removed, but at least I’d gotten paid today.
I was halfway to my car when I noticed it seemed to be favoring one side. As I got closer, I realized the tires on the driver’s side were completely flat, and I was unequivocally screwed. I’d only been working at the shop for a week. My paycheck wasn’t enough to cover two new tires, food, and my room at the motel for another two weeks.
Frustrated tears pricked the back of my eyes, but then footsteps behind me had me holding them back.
“What are you still doing here?” Joren drunkenly inquired. I turned and found him with his arm tossed around some woman who was not his wife. Although, I’d never met the woman, so I couldn’t be sure.
Behind them, Golden was silently helping an equally drunk Roc to his car. He helped him into the passenger seat before hopping in the driver’s seat and racing out of the lot without looking our way even once.
“My tires are flat.”
Joren slipped his arm free from his companion’s shoulders and stumbled over to inspect them himself. He blinked, then blinked again to clear his vision. “Yeah,” he slurred while rubbing a hand over his bald head. “Someone stabbed them motherfuckers.”
I blinked. “What?”
The door to the shop flew open, and out swaggered Rowdy. He now wore a navy-blue pullover with the words Idlewild’s Finest written in bold white letters and his hood tossed over his head, shielding his braids.
Strutting in high heels beside him was none other than the model who’d been all over him at the party. Even after he humiliated her, she was still going home with him. I curled my lip at them both, but then my head began to swim. Bile rose in my throat, so I quickly inhaled to draw fresh air into my lungs.
“O! Yo, O!” Joren’s drunk ass called out when Rowdy walked right past us and toward his gorgeous Hellcat in B5 blue.
“What?” Rowdy snapped back a little aggressively.
Joren seemed oblivious as he waved him over. “Come here.”
Rowdy hesitated only a second before unlocking his car and telling his fuck buddy to get in. I rolled my eyes when she wasted no time obeying him. “What’s up?” he asked after walking over.
“Someone flattened Atlas’s tires.”
Rowdy’s green gaze immediately strayed to me instead of my car. “Yeah? That’s too bad. She must have pissed someone off.”
I crossed my arms instead of rising to Rowdy’s bait and hitting him like I wanted to. I’d already figured out who was responsible for the mutilation of my car the moment Joren said someone had stabbed my tires. “I’m sure they were more than deserving,” I returned.
Rowdy released a pissed-off chuckle before nodding. “All right. See ya.” He spun around and started toward his car again.
“What the—Yo!” Joren called out while throwing his arms out wide. “She needs a ride home.”
“Then take her,” Rowdy tossed over his shoulder.
It was so easy for him, wasn’t it? To inject chaos into my life and then leave me to clean up the mess. There was absolutely no way I was getting in the car with Joren. He could barely stand, and his date didn’t look any better off.
Joren’s head swiveled my way, but I was already shaking mine. “That’s okay,” I declined politely. “I’ll take the bus.”
I pulled up the GPS on my phone to search for routes and saw that the closest bus was a half a mile walk away, so I waved goodbye to Joren and his date and started toward the street before hooking a right on Temperance and beginning the trek home.
I must have been walking for all of three minutes before I heard the roar of Rowdy’s Challenger and looked up just as he sped by me before disappearing down Fourth Street.
Asshole.
I didn’t see Savannah in the car, but I knew she was with him.