Total pages in book: 177
Estimated words: 178117 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 891(@200wpm)___ 712(@250wpm)___ 594(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 178117 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 891(@200wpm)___ 712(@250wpm)___ 594(@300wpm)
“Fuck you.” She spits in my face.
I slowly wipe off the saliva and grasp her mouth, forcefully lowering her chin. I shove my fingers inside and swipe them across her tongue. “Fucking bite,” I growl. “I dare you.”
The murderous look in her eyes makes me almost want to smother her in kisses.
But she … she did something unforgivable.
When I pull my fingers out again, I pinch her cheeks together. “You know I won’t let you get away with this.”
“So what?” she growls. “I don’t fucking care anymore.”
I don’t like that tone. Like she’s given up.
But she isn’t fucking allowed to give up until after I finish with her. “Why? Why did you do it?”
She shrugs. “You all deserved to go to hell for what you did to my sister.”
“Goddammit, Pen, I already told you we didn’t make her jump. Just because she broke up with us doesn’t mean anything. And the school didn’t have anything to do with it!” I yell back.
A wicked smirk grows on her face but quickly dissipates. “This school had everything to do with it. And seeing it burn is the highlight of my life.”
Fuck. Dylan’s right. She’s just as crazy as we are.
Did I just not notice? Or has she just always hidden this side of her?
The car comes to a screeching stop behind us, and I peer over my shoulder. Dylan and Alistair jump out and run to us. And Penelope thrashes around underneath me to try to escape, but I keep her in my vise grip.
“I won’t allow you to run away again,” I growl.
“I’m not the fucking enemy!” she shrieks, still flailing around with her legs.
Dylan swiftly grabs one foot while Alistair grabs the other.
“Well, hello there, Pen. So nice to finally see you again,” Dylan says. “Had a nice barbecue?”
She smirks gleefully. “I was taught by the best.”
He gloats. “Why, thank you.”
I smack him in the arm. “This ain’t a fucking joke. You know what she fucking unleashed with this fire.”
“Unleashed?” She scoffs. “Oh, fucking tell the world what I unleashed, Felix. Are you gonna tell them about the body you dropped in front of everyone in the school?”
Dylan frowns. “Uh … what is she talking about, Felix?”
“Yeah, tell him, Felix,” she taunts.
But she knows as well as I do why there was a dead body in that hallway. “I did what you asked. A contract is a contract. A body for a body.”
“Bullshit. You just wanted to remind me that I can’t fucking get away from you, just like I can’t fucking get away from you now.” She writhes underneath me.
I slam her down onto the ground, knocking the air out of her lungs. “I did that for you.”
She stares at me for a moment, blinking rapidly, like she’s digesting my words.
But none of them seem to land. “You think you can hide from the world, but I will expose all of you.”
She fights me off again, but I grasp her hands and shove them into the grass. “You lied to us. Your last name isn’t Richards. It’s Ricci.” I stare into her eyes. “Your family is notorious for destroying every fucking crime family they come across. And now you tried to do it to us too.”
“I’d clap for you for finding out, but my hands are kind of busy right now,” she muses.
My fingers squeeze her wrists. “Stop fucking around.”
She raises her brow. “Why? So you can tell yourself I deserve this?” She starts to rage. “You’re just like your father. He murders his wife, and you murder your girlfriends!”
How dare she? How fucking dare she bring my father and mother into this?
I plant a fist into the ground right beside her head. “My father killed my mother to protect me from her!”
Her pupils dilate, and she stops thrashing. For a moment, all we can do is stare at each other, into the void of our own making.
“What?” she mutters after a few seconds.
I didn’t want to be reminded of that day.
I never do.
But she’s managed to drag all my weaknesses to the surface, and that’s on me.
“You have no fucking clue how much our family does for the people we love.” My teeth grind together, and I tilt my head back to meet Dylan’s gaze. “Tie her up.”
“What?” she rasps.
Dylan nods and runs back to the car only to return with some rope we always keep in the back for emergencies such as this.
Penelope starts fighting me again. “Give it up, Pen. You knew this was coming the moment you decided to burn the place.”
“Fuck you! I’m gonna scream the entire way. I don’t fucking care where you take me. I’ll yell until my lungs give out.”
Dylan throws me a tape roll. “Thanks. Gonna need this because she won’t shut up.”
Tears well up in her eyes as she focuses on Dylan. “I thought you all cared about her, and you fucking drove her to her death along with your father!”