Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 111676 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 558(@200wpm)___ 447(@250wpm)___ 372(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 111676 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 558(@200wpm)___ 447(@250wpm)___ 372(@300wpm)
There it was. The stone-cold reality of what it meant if Brent was the one who’d fucked with my phone. That the “friend” who had supported me through my heartbreak had actually partially caused it. That the person I thought I’d developed feelings for had sabotaged his way into dating me. “Yeah.”
“Look, I don’t like Wolf. I think he was too wrapped up in himself to notice how bad you were struggling back then.” That wasn’t entirely fair. “And he broke your heart when he fucked that curly haired bitch.” More fair. “But I would never, ever do that. And if Brent did… I’ll happily hold him down while you cut off his balls.”
I snorted. “I’m good.”
“Cut his brakes?” She closed the loft hatch. “Set his house on fire?”
Car, yes. House… “You worry me.” I started toward the top of the stairs. “Oh, if you really want to freak out Rogue, don’t feed the rats. They’ll come into the house looking for food.
“Just when I think you’re such a nice person, you make me so proud.”
“Thanks?” I stopped at the top of the steps and glanced at her. “You know Rogue will kill you if he finds out.”
“He already thinks he’s auctioning me like his best breeding cow, Jade.” Thinks…“Which means, this is war. Besides, how much worse can it get?”
With Rogue, I had the feeling it could definitely get worse. My plan had been to leverage our way out of here before that auction and make sure she never had to go through with it. But the situation had changed with Wolf, now… I thought of the penguin I’d stolen from the closet over the weekend. The drug-stuffed penguin that was currently in the backpack hanging off my shoulder. I’d figured keeping it on my person was safest. I’d had every intention of going to the police station today—seeing as I’d been working late yesterday. Now, though, Wolf had filed a fake police report for me and held me while I cried. The thought of screwing him over made me feel like the world’s worst person.
“Cass, can you give me a ride to class this morning?”
Her brow furrowed. “Why? Where’s your car?”
I couldn’t bring myself to admit where it was, how much I’d screwed up, or the fact that I’d tried to rob the very house she’d informed me would be empty. “I got a flat last night. Had to leave it on the side of the road.”
“Jesus, you have bad luck with that car.” She wasn’t kidding. She started down the hall. “I’m leaving in ten.”
I didn’t need to be in that early, but I’d take it.
I descended the stairs onto the suspiciously quiet ground floor. After I’d dropped my backpack on the table, I put on a pot of coffee and went about tidying the kitchen. Thankfully, Rogue hadn’t asked us to cook breakfast since shit-gate.
Seconds after I’d poured myself a coffee, the front door creaked opened, and Squishy shot into the kitchen. The fact that Wolf walked the dog, because he refused to pee in the yard, had me fighting a smile. Big, bad criminal wrapped around the claw of a little fox-dog.
He leaned against the kitchen door frame. I didn’t know how I was supposed to feel after last night. Awkward? Grateful?
“Rogue let you guys off breakfast duty again?” A small smile pulled at his lips, and the sight of it had a knot of guilt tightening in my gut. “I can’t understand why…”
My gaze strayed to my backpack on the table. That penguin felt like a hand grenade about to explode at any second. I wasn’t using it, though, just keeping it in case I needed to. After all, Wolf was still blackmailing me last I’d checked.
I forced my focus back to him. Food… breakfast…
“Maybe I did you a favor poisoning you that one time,” I said. “It was survival training.”
He moved around me and grabbed the box of Cocoa Puffs from the counter. “I had E.coli, Jade.” When he said it like that, I sounded like a dick for joking about it.
“Yeah… Sorry about that.”
He turned the box up, but nothing came out. “Dammit, Rogue.” He tossed the empty cardboard to the counter. “Want to go to Waffle Hut before class?”
“Uh…” That meant riding with him. I thought about us pulling up together in the school parking lot. It was on the tip of my tongue to turn him down and get a lift with Cassie, to keep a safe distance. But I recognized the flicker of hope in his eyes. The same hope I’d been denying myself since I’d opened my eyes that morning. Maybe I wasn’t the only one at risk. “Sure.”
The bell over the door of Waffle Hut tinkled when we stepped inside. A thick cloud of bacon-scented smoke welcomed us, along with the god-awful music on the jukebox. It looked exactly like the Waffle Hut in Dayton, and a wave of déjà-vu washed through me when Wolf headed to the booth that mimicked the one we’d always sat in back home.