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)
A smirk forms on my lips.
“What are you laughing at?” her father asks.
“It seems like your daughter has chosen,” I reply.
His nostrils flare, and he lifts his gun again. “Watch it, boy.”
Every one of his guards behind us is on edge, ready to start attacking again at even the slightest of signals.
“Dad!” Penelope warns, grabbing the gun to point it away from me. “Stop. Please. If you love me, you’ll let me do this.”
Only after a few seconds does he actually stop. “I don’t want to lose another daughter …” He looks me in the eye. “But I value your love more than anything in this world.”
Tears spring into my eyes, and I swiftly hug him, catching him off guard. His arm still snakes its way around my waist.
“I love you too, honey,” he says.
Felix just stands there, staring at the men still waiting at the front door. “Will they let me pass without putting a bullet through my head?”
“Perhaps,” Dad replies. “Can’t guarantee you’ll keep all your limbs, though.”
I stomp on his foot, and he grunts from the pain. “Dad.”
“Fine,” he says through gritted teeth as I step off again. He focuses on Felix as though he wants to gouge his eyes out. “As long as you keep your hands off my daughter.”
Felix raises his hands like he’s committed to keeping a truce.
And I’ve honestly never seen him this docile before. Normally, he would’ve sliced a finger or two off already.
My father tucks his gun into his belt and waves his hand around. “Go.”
I don’t take his permission lightly. “Thanks, Dad.”
Felix and I run off toward the exit, passing by my father’s men even though some of them still grimace when they make eye contact with him. But I don’t care about their judgment. Right now, we need to stop Dylan’s father, and I want my fucking revenge.
Felix jumps on his bike outside and says, “Hop on.”
He hands me a helmet, and I swiftly put it on, then jump on the rear seat.
“Hold on tight,” he says, and he lowers his visor and races off.
My hands wrap tightly around his waist as we drive, turning corners, the tires screeching across the asphalt. I’ve never gone this fast before, but I don’t know if my heart is raging from the speed or from how close I am to his body. I can feel each of his ripped muscles and ragged breaths, and for a second, I wonder if his heart has picked up too.
One part of me wants to put a knife to his throat for letting my sister die. For hurting me after I burned the whole place down.
But they didn’t know Eve was pregnant. Or that Dylan’s father was responsible for all our misery.
And when they realized their mistake … all they wanted to do was make things better, despite what an impossible task it truly is.
I sigh and close my eyes, waiting until the storm inside my heart passes, but it’s as relentless as the darkness outside. It doesn’t take us long to reach the gates of the property, which are still open to allow firefighters and police inside. We slip past a new convoy of cars and drive off the campus.
It’s only been a couple of minutes since Dylan was jumped and knocked out with a gun.
They couldn’t have gone far, right?
Felix’s body tightens against my hands as he looks around at our surroundings, checking to see if there’s a car anywhere.
“There!” I scream and point at an abandoned car in the grass just beyond a few trees near where the bonfire was this summer.
Felix immediately hits the throttle, and we take a sharp turn, directly headed toward the car. A body is curled on the grass near it, and two guys are crawling up from the ground.
Dylan and Alistair.
Dylan
I push away from Ali and stand on my own two feet as I barge over to my father, enraged. With a simple flick, I pull out a knife, clutching it tightly as I approach.
“Dylan, are you sure you wanna do this?” Alistair asks as he follows right behind me.
“I have to,” I reply. “All the things Penelope accused him of … it’s all true.”
I suck in a breath. The baby. The breakup. Eve jumping because she saw no other way out.
All because of him.
I clutch the knife so hard it leaves a painful indent in the palm of my hand.
But no amount of physical pain can ever come close to what’s in this decrepit my heart.
The loss, the grief … the unending rage.
My father is crawling away like a coward. A maggot.
“But he didn’t stop there,” I growl, hovering over my father’s body. “He literally sicced his worst enemy onto you, onto Felix, onto the entire society, just so he could easily get rid of everyone and escape any sort of blame.”