Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 152045 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 760(@200wpm)___ 608(@250wpm)___ 507(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 152045 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 760(@200wpm)___ 608(@250wpm)___ 507(@300wpm)
We come back into the upstairs kitchen, and I hear him quietly grunt as he searches for a word.
“Rapey?” I offer.
“Yeah, rapey.”
I turn to face him. “Because if you ruin this for me—when I will undoubtedly ruin it all on my own just fine—I will tell Hunter all about Carnival Tower.” I smile. “And its location. He’s family. He should know. It won’t be my fault if he tells the Rebels.”
“You brat.” He pinches his eyebrows together. “You wouldn’t.”
I offer a contrite look. “I would hate myself a little, Hawke, but gosh, it would make tonight fun, wouldn’t it?”
And I bat my eyelashes twice.
He arches a brow, tipping his chin up. “I guess you’ve kept all of my secrets.”
“I’ve helped you and Aro hide from the police.”
“Yeah, all right,” he spits out.
“Stand by me, not in front of me.”
“All right,” he growls.
I grab the lemonade and take another drink, really damn grateful for my overbearing cousin. Thanks to him, I now have dinner, clothes, a spare phone, and money.
“How does Hunter look?” he asks.
I shrug. “Healthy.” I’m not sure how to answer that. Hunter looks very healthy. “A little bigger,” I tell him. “He got on the weights, it looks like.”
“Well, at least you have him here.” He breathes out, appearing to relax. “He’ll keep an eye out for you.”
I swallow the truth and simply say, “Yeah. Sure.”
I don’t have the energy, and he doesn’t have the time for me to explain that Hunter won’t be protecting me from shit.
I start to close the stairwell door, but Hawke stops me, peering back inside. “What’s that?”
I open it again, following his gaze to the frame, just inside. Notches are carved into the wood in two distinct lines, the kind you see when parents record heights, along with children’s ages. Four, five, six, and so on. Both of them, head-to-head, in sync.
At the top are names.
“Deacon.” I trace the carvings with my fingers. “And Conor.”
I reach up, touching the highest cuts, and then bring my hand over to Hawke. Just about his height the last time they were measured. Both of them.
I look up at my cousin. “Twins.”
“Yeah,” he whispers, lost in thought.
If this was the house, then…
“It was only twenty-two years ago.” I tell him. “They have to be on the Internet somewhere.”
He flexes his jaw. “On it.”
Birth certificates, school records, social media pictures. No one is invisible. And now we have their names.
Engines rumble in the distance, motorcycles and at least one car. I look to Hawke. “Go.”
He ruffles my hair and slips out the back door to his car, hopefully parked on another street.
Hunter
I push the hoodie off my head, leaving my duffel bag in the car.
“Hunter!”
“I need a shower,” I call out to Farrow behind me.
We all head to the barber shop every Monday, but I’ve seen them enough today.
He slams my car door just as I hear everyone’s bike engines roar down the street. They skid to halts at the curb, and I step up onto the sidewalk, heading for the house.
“She’s coming with me to Phelan’s Throat!” Farrow yells.
“I don’t give a shit.”
I jog up the steps in my track pants and sneakers, unlocking the door with my keys, but the lock is already unsecured. I push it open and slip inside.
Farrow’s shout hits my back. “You need someone to suck your dick, you know that?”
I hear their laughter behind me before I close the door and shut my eyes.
Prick. I may as well be home with Kade.
I’ve barely spoken to Kade in a year, and I’ve talked to him twice today.
I don’t want to talk to him again before the game. Not when I’m so close. If we’re ever going to get over this, it can wait until I beat him on the field. After that, I’ll be happy to talk.
I doubt he really wants to, though. He called this morning to get in my head. He had Dylan, now he doesn’t. He feels like he’s losing control.
He hasn’t changed one bit.
Coral Lapinksi breezes past, carrying a trash bag into the living room. “Hey.”
I head for the stairs, glancing in and seeing Codi Gundry, Coral, and Arlet Rhodes sweeping, dusting, and picking up Farrow and the guys’ pizza boxes.
“I told you, you guys don’t have to do that,” I grumble.
Arlet dumps an armful of beer cans in the bag that Coral holds open. “Farrow says we do.”
I shake my head. “My mother would never pick up my dad’s shit,” I say. “And he married her. Farrow Kelly won’t fall in love with you for this. Put it down.”
“Who says he’s the one we come over here to see?” Coral teases.
I arch my brow.
Arlet’s eyes gleam. “You’re cute.”
“And nice,” Coral adds. “Smart.”
“And rich,” Arlet chimes in again.
They both laugh.
“And,” the latter continues, “There’s two of you.”
They laugh louder, and I turn away. That was pretty much the gist of it in Shelburne Falls too.