Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 51038 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 255(@200wpm)___ 204(@250wpm)___ 170(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51038 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 255(@200wpm)___ 204(@250wpm)___ 170(@300wpm)
Except, like mine, his words are all wrong.
“Take a step—one, two, three. Down the trail, you’ll find my beast!” Then he beams at me. Like he’s Mozart or something.
“For fuck’s sake,” the other guy says, pushing the first one out of the way. This guy couldn’t be more different from Happy Trail. He’s tall too, but he’s not sporting a ripped body—at the very least, he’s not showing it off with a ripped shirt. Because he’s wearing a black suit. I’m talking tie, coat, button-down, and shiny black shoes. The whole shebang.
His hair is short and dark and so is the perfectly groomed stubble on his square, clenched jaw. But the darkest thing about him are the sunglasses over his eyes. They’re the kind of dark sunglasses only blind people wear, but even though I’ve only been looking at him for a few moments, he’s definitely not blind. It’s very clear that he can see.
“Star,” he says, his voice low and commanding. “I’m so sorry you’re here. But don’t worry. It’ll all be over as soon as…” His eyes shift left and right and he lowers his voice. “Just as soon as you and I have a little chat. Don’t listen to this guy’s lies.”
Who the hell wears sunglasses that dark inside?
A spark goes off in my brain and suddenly, I have a sputter of creativity and words fall into my head, fitting with the melody of the earworm tune. “Da, da, dahhh, da, da, da, lies. Yes! Lies! Yeeeeees!”
But that’s just the first clue. Because as soon as that comes out of my mouth, part of the other line also pops into place. “Something… something… something… eyes! Lies and eyes! Yes! YES!”
“What the hell is she talking about? And why is she looking at us like that?”
I blink and find myself still staring at Sunglasses.
Happy Trail shuffles his way in front of him. “Because it’s part of the song, you idiot.” Then he looks at me. “You remember then? We were working on the song. So we could get the hell out of here?” He side-eyes Sunglasses, then growls, “Just the two of us.”
I point to myself. “I was working on the song with you?” Then I scoff. “I don’t even know you. I would never tell a stranger about my song.”
He kinda grits his teeth here, then spits some low, whispered words through them. “That’s because we’re not strangers, Star. I came here to get you and you agreed to come with me because we were making progress.”
“I can hear you, ya know.” Sunglasses straightens his sunglasses and then lets out a breath and looks directly back at me. His words all very calm and rational. “Star, you’re not going anywhere with him. You’re coming with me. We had an agreement.”
“How do I have an agreement with both of you? And can someone please tell me why I’m in jail!”
Happy Trail points to my left. “Ask him.”
Sunglasses agrees. “Yeah. Ask him. He’s the reason we’re all in jail.”
My eyes slide over to the left where Happy Trail is pointing, but I have to get up and press my face against the bars of the cell to actually see anything because he’s pointing to the cell to the left of mine.
And what I see when I do that is… well… a very, very scary looking criminal. Another man, but this one looks nothing like either of the other two. He’s leaning against the cinderblock wall with his arms crossed. And even though he’s wearing a leather jacket with patches all over it, I can tell that he’s very muscular. Under the jacket is a black concert t-shirt that looks like it’s four decades old with a cracked and faded logo. And when my eyes travel down to where his happy trail would be, I find a thick leather belt and faded denim jeans. His head is shaved, and there’s a cut across the side of his skull with dried blood all over it. His beard is dark and full, but neatly trimmed, and his piercing green eyes are looking at me like I’m naked.
My entire body shivers with desire as a feeling of absolute lust nearly knocks me over. And if there weren’t steel bars blocking me, I would attack this man and start ripping his clothes off right here and now. I would grab him and tease him until he couldn’t stand it anymore and had his way with me and—
I take a breath, actually startled at the salacious thoughts running through my head.
What the hell happened to me last night?
2 - ARIC
Declan—that sneaky, ass-kissing, good-for-nothing Daddy’s boy—points his finger at me from across the corridor while Quaid, Mr. Nobody himself, crosses his arms in satisfaction. Like they’re a couple of children who just ‘told’ on me.
I’m leaning against the wall of my cell with my arms crossed, biding my time as these two cluelessly fumble their way through their first conversation with Star since she passed out last night.