Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 116875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 584(@200wpm)___ 468(@250wpm)___ 390(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 584(@200wpm)___ 468(@250wpm)___ 390(@300wpm)
I resist the urge to look up at the man watching me, acting aloof like a boss! I crouch and press my fingers to the soil to see how much more water the nightshade might need.
Plants are so freaking durable, and yet they’re fragile. This subshrub will bow before a hurricane and survive, but get the equation of water/sunlight/nutrients wrong, and it will wither and die.
Kind of like humans. In some ways, humans are also so resilient. But if you possess the dark knowledge of poisons, it’s laughably easy to kill them.
I smile to myself, thinking of the man watching me. It wouldn’t take much nightshade to kill him.
“What else do you need, baby?” I murmur to the dark purple blooms. “More nitrogen? A bit more sunlight? You can tell me.”
I’m startled by the creak of the iron gate at the garden entrance. I look around for the mystery masked man but don’t see him. He must have left when I got distracted by the nightshade. I try not to feel disappointed.
A guy wearing a UU Lacrosse jersey walks through the gate, looks around, and then heads my way. It’s Radley, captain of the lacrosse team. King of the tools.
“You.” His eyes narrow at me. “I know what you did.”
I rise, brushing dirt from my fingertips. “You’ll have to be more specific. I’ve done a lot of things.”
“You’re the one who poisoned my team.”
5
Bella
* * *
I cock my head and blink at the angry sports god. “Poison? Me?”
“I know it was you. Sailor recognized you.”
Damn. I thought my disguise was good enough. The skirt was short, and I wore a push-up bra to show off my girls. I don’t have epic cleavage like Honey, but it was enough to distract a bunch of horny guys.
But apparently not Sailor. She must have emerged from Radley’s room long enough to spot me.
“You’re the one who handed out those bullshit care packages,” Radley says. “Admit it. I don’t know how you did it, but you made them all sick.”
I admit nothing. He has no proof. If he tested the contents of the gifts, he’d know the culprit was the electrolyte drink I bottled up specially for the team. I made a UU label for the bottle and everything. The drink contained a signature blend of herbs, including senna and a strain of bacteria cultured in my father’s lab. It’s like E. coli but faster.
The care package also contained extra salty snacks that would make them thirsty. I told them each item was carefully selected by their athletic advisor to provide the best possible nutrition need the night before the summer championship.
I lied.
“Oh no, that sounds terrible,” I coo and make sympathetic noises, but he’s not buying it, so I give up. “Did anyone die?” The dose wasn’t deadly, but you never know when calculating these effects on different-sized guys.
A muscle clenches in his jaw. “Penn’s in the hospital.”
I might have put a little extra culture in Penn’s bottle.
“Probably because he was already inebriated on Friday night. He really drinks too much. He should stop doing that or his liver will give out before he’s thirty.” Especially if he pisses me off anymore. And if he ever bothers Honey again, I won’t hold back on the dosage. “You know, there are some herbs that might help him. I have some organic dandelion root—”
“Shut the fuck up.” Radley’s losing it. Red streaks his cheeks as he grinds his teeth. “You cost us the championship.”
“Oh?” I twirl a lock of white-blonde hair around my finger. “Was that today?”
“Yesterday. No one from our team was well enough to play. I had to forfeit.”
Poor Radley. He and Sailor were holed up in their room when I dropped the gift basket off. I had hoped he might miss it and be the only one on the field to accept defeat. I can imagine it now: the team captain up, bright and early, arriving on the green, waiting while one by one, his team texts him to say that they’re too sick to show up, and Sailor coming to console him before he trudges to the opposing team captain to forfeit.
I told Honey that I don’t get scared, I get angry. And when I get angry, I get even.
No one messes with my new best friend.
I smile at him, showing all my teeth. “Maybe you and your team should be nicer to people. For example, it’s not nice to invite people to parties and then drug them. Karma is a real bitch.”
“You’re a bitch.” Radley sets his shoulders and starts for me.
A giggle escapes me as I dart back out of reach. If he tries to grab me, I have several layers of defenses, but I’d rather not reveal them so soon.
Maybe I can lure him closer to the poison ivy and push him in.