Total pages in book: 122
Estimated words: 115590 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 578(@200wpm)___ 462(@250wpm)___ 385(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115590 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 578(@200wpm)___ 462(@250wpm)___ 385(@300wpm)
“Oh, sorry for thinking you might want to make some money!” She stomped a few feet away. Then whirled around with her finger pointed at me. “You know, you’re an asshole.”
“Tell me something I don’t know, Jesus Christ.” I pulled another cigarette from the pack, thinking this girl was going to give me black lungs before the end of the year.
She stormed over and snatched the cigarette from my hand. Chucking it to the concrete, she stomped on it, then headed toward the road, her hips swaying with each heavy step.
God, she made me livid. She headed across the deserted parking lot, fuming.
I grabbed another cigarette, placed it to my lips, and lit it. “Now, who’s the asshole?”
“I’m not riding with you!” She started down the shoulder of the highway.
I blew out a cloud of smoke, guessing she thought she was going to walk the thirty miles back to Dayton. And I was going to let her. She made it to a graffitied telephone booth, then stopped.
“Change your mind?” I shouted.
Her back was to me, but I could still see the movement when she crossed her arms over her chest. I could only imagine she was huffing and puffing, pissed as hell because she knew she had no choice but to ride back with me.
The low rumble of an engine came from the distance. An old pickup barreled down the road toward us, and Monroe hitched out a thumb. My jaw tensed. The girl had no self-preservation. At all. At this rate, she was going to give me black lung and an aneurysm. The truck slowed. Just great.
I tossed my smoke and stormed after her. “Are you insane?”
The Chevy sputtered to a stop right as I reached her. The window lowered, and a middle-aged man wearing a baseball hat leaned out. “Need a lift?” His gaze dragged over her like he was starving and she was a rare T-bone steak.
I grabbed her arm to yank her back a step. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“What does it look like I’m doing?” Monroe’s nostrils flared as she wrangled free of my hold.
“You okay, sugar?” the man asked.
I shot a pronounced look at him. “She’s fine.” My blood pressure spiked when he didn’t pull off. “I said, she’s fine.”
Her defiant glare met mine. If she tried to get into that car… “I’m good,” she practically growled. “Thanks.”
Gravel crunched under the tires when the truck moved off the shoulder, back onto the highway. A sick feeling settled in my gut. She was going to get in the car with that guy. “Seriously.” I pointed to the taillights disappearing over the small hill in the distance. “That was stupid.”
“I don’t want to ride with you! And I do it all the time.” She gave a wave full of attitude down her body. “I’m still alive.”
Jesus Christ. I dragged both hands down my face, frustrated. God, I needed something to punch.
“You don’t think I can take care of myself? Is that it?”
“Don’t start this shit.” I jabbed a finger toward her and took a step. “You’re a girl. You don’t stand a chance against a guy, Monroe. No matter how tough you think you are.”
Her eyes went wide, her hands balled into fists, and then she threw a punch to my stomach. That was probably the hardest blow she could land, and I didn’t even flinch.
“Case in fucking point.” I flicked her forehead. “You’re a. Girl!”
Her face glowed nuclear red. An actual growl rumbled through her clench teeth when she shoved at my chest. “I don’t need you!”
That was an unexpected blow dart to the chest. I thought we both needed each other on some level. Or maybe I just wanted her to need me because there was a part of me already too entwined with Monroe to let her go.
I gripped her jaw and drove her against the cracked glass of the phone booth. “Say it again.”
She moved closer. Her heated breath washed over my face, bending my frustration into want, and my grip on her tightened.
“I don’t need you,” she whispered.
“You’re a goddamn liar!” I covered her mouth with an angry kiss, full of teeth and tongue. The feel of her lips and her tiny frame pressed against me was something I had desperately needed. Her kiss, the drug that granted me the fix I had been craving. Her fingers raked through my hair, pulling me closer, and the kiss grew deeper, more brutal. I would have kissed that girl forever, and that was enough of a realization to terrify me, which was why I shoved away from her.
To protect me.
To protect her.
“Fucking liar,” I said, turning back to the Piggly Wiggly parking lot.
18
Monroe
The country roads rushed by the window as I sat in the back of the old sedan, refusing to look in Zepp’s direction. He’d pissed me off. And then he’d kissed me—when I was pissed. I hated the way my heart beat a little faster, the way that kiss made me feel—weak.