Total pages in book: 168
Estimated words: 164910 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 825(@200wpm)___ 660(@250wpm)___ 550(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 164910 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 825(@200wpm)___ 660(@250wpm)___ 550(@300wpm)
“Okay! Okay!” Milo pleads. “Okay…”
Army lets Milo fall to the ground, and he grabs his bloody cheek as Clay moves over to me.
I sit there, only feeling Dallas looming behind me, though.
For this one moment, maybe the last ever, I have his full attention.
“That was hot,” I tell Clay.
Clay steps in front of me, still holding the knife.
“You really want to do this?” I ask her. “Make all the threats you want. Promise to sink me in the swamps for the gators. You and I both know that what you can do, so can I.”
Liv drops her eyes to her phone, slowly moving her thumb over the screen.
“You didn’t learn, did you?” I ask her. “That’s why you always pick on the weak, Clay. You can’t beat me if the playing field is even.”
That’s why it’s not fun to play with our own.
But just then, Liv taps her phone.
“Did you know,” my voice drifts through her cell, “that a structure can be deemed a historical landmark and cannot be destroyed after it reaches one hundred years old?”
Everyone turns to look at Liv, taking in the recording coming through. I narrow my eyes.
“And while fucking for me will get you Mercutio, fucking me will get you a meeting with Raymond FitzHugh to push through your petition to protect the lighthouse? And, in effect, your land?”
A cold sweat breaks out over my body. She recorded our conversation several days ago. We’d been alone, and she really wanted my part in the school play. If she went the extra mile tonight, I’d give her a business contact, as well.
It was the only way I knew how to hurt Dallas’s pride.
“Fucking me good guarantees it, in fact,” I told her.
She pauses the recording, stepping up to Clay’s side. “The playing field is”—she shakes her head at me—“not even, Callum.”
She was one step ahead the entire time.
Her brothers close in around me, and I close my eyes.
“Not here,” she whispers to them.
Another time. Another day. Somewhere not with cameras everywhere.
I tip my chin back up. “Get out of here,” I tell them.
Clay stands there, and slowly, Liv takes her hand, both of them backing away.
But her brothers stay, Dallas coming around my chair and stepping up to me as Macon, Iron, and Trace flank him.
“Dallas, no,” Liv warns.
But no one looks at her as Macon speaks. “Army, get the girls home. We’ll be there soon.”
“Macon…”
“Now!” Macon yells, ignoring her.
I laugh, shaking my head as her brothers approach me. “Four against one. That’s no fair.”
“It’s just you,” Dallas assures me, cracking his knuckles. “And me. Now get inside.”
“And if I say no?”
Dallas explodes, whipping the back of his hand across my cheek, and my chair tumbles over with the force, sending me to the ground.
Blood flies out of my mouth, Dallas grabbing my face as I glare up at him.
“Now, that’s a word I’ve never heard from you,” Dallas taunts. “Try it out. See what happens next.”
And I’m so fucking pathetic, I know I’ll take whatever he gives me, because anything is better than goodbye.
I want ten more minutes. One more minute.
“Now get inside,” Dallas tells me again.
I smile as I rise. I can’t help it. I haven’t been alone with him in nine months. Turning, I head toward the field house.
“Watch the doors,” Dallas says to his brothers.
Once inside, he slams the door, and I blink long and hard, waiting for it.
He shoves me, and I leap down the steps, falling through the door. I crash on all fours, turning so I can see him coming. He grabs the collar of my hoodie.
He hits me, and I squeeze my eyes shut, gripping his wrists as he holds me. Last summer, we were almost in the same position that first time.
Out in the glades. On the ground.
He yanks my hands away, his fist slamming into my jaw again and again. Blood seeps into my mouth, the inside of my cheek bleeding, and I feel a ball rise in my throat. I fight to hold back the tears.
It doesn’t even hurt.
Nothing hurts except in my chest.
I can’t even open my eyes to look at him, because then he’ll see. Dallas Jaeger won’t tolerate a crier. He’ll think I’m even more pathetic.
He throws me down. “Fight back,” he growls.
I roll over, shaking. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
His foot lands in my gut, the kick stabbing my stomach, and bile climbs my throat. I cough.
“What did you think you were doing to my sister!” he bellows.
“You don’t care about your sister.” I inch backward, putting a little distance between us. “You don’t care about anyone. It’s just your pride.”
He doesn’t give a shit about Liv.
He stalks me. “You don’t know me.”
“I do.”
Grabbing me, he pulls me up and slams me into the wall. “You never knew me!”
I can’t help the tear that spills over. “I did.”