Total pages in book: 169
Estimated words: 167671 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 838(@200wpm)___ 671(@250wpm)___ 559(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 167671 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 838(@200wpm)___ 671(@250wpm)___ 559(@300wpm)
She turns the handle to speed up, and the wheels skid in the grass, spraying mud everywhere.
Silas bolts out the door, yelling, “Do you even know how to drive?”
“You don’t understand what you’ve done!” she yells back, racing off.
“Oh fuck no.” I fall to my knees. “No, my beautiful bike. What if she crashes it?”
Heath runs out the door too, growling, “Where is she?”
“Gone,” I lament.
Heath throws the bat to the ground, incensed. “Fuck!”
“Where’s she gonna go?” I mutter. “Everyone will see her covered in blood.”
Silas fishes a cigarette from his pocket and lights it up. “Cora.”
Heath’s eyes flash. “You don’t think she’s gonna …”
“She’s gonna run,” I mutter as I stumble to my feet. “Oh God, we gotta stop her.”
“We can’t,” Silas says.
“We have to,” I say, grabbing Silas by the shirt so he knows I’m serious. “If anyone sees her like that, they’re gonna ask questions, and she’ll definitely implicate us.”
“Never mind that,” Heath says. “What are we gonna do with those bodies up there? Penelope’s men will definitely snitch. She’ll kill you for real this time.”
“I don’t fucking care. It was worth it.” Silas fishes his phone from his pocket. “I’ll make one last phone call to my mom’s men… and then we chase her.”
Ivy
I race up the mountain as fast as I can.
C’mon, c’mon, c’mon, you stupid bike, go faster!
I pull the handle harder, trying to zigzag past each rock on the street, just like Max did, but he made it look so effortless while it’s so damn hard that I nearly lose control of the bike. With the sun quickly setting, it’s becoming harder and harder to see. But I have to keep it together. I have to get to her before Stefano does.
Ivan was the anonymous phone number demanding money from me.
I knew it from the start because he’s the one who caught me when I took Cora.
Ivan … Stefano’s most trusted personal guard.
The same fucking Ivan Heath bought those damn pills from.
Shit!
I should’ve known he would rat me out.
I should never have trusted those devils from the Skull and Serpent Society.
Now it’s going to cost me my life.
And Cora.
Fuck no. I’m not going to let them take her. Over my dead fucking body.
I race up the mountains and through the gate, all the way back to the Skull and Serpent Society, where I jump off and rush inside. There are a ton of guys now, all chatting about their day-to-day life, but they ignore me as I head up the stairs. Someone must’ve told them Cora and I were here and to act normal.
But it’s not safe to stay here anymore.
I rush to Cora’s room and quickly wipe down my face with my shirt before I open the door.
She’s playing with a giant dollhouse that’s filled to the brim with furniture and dolls. “Ivy!” She runs into my arms and hugs me tight, but then looks up at me in horror. “What’s that … on your face?”
I wipe away some more. “Paint.” I look at the dollhouse, confused as hell. “That wasn’t here before,” I mutter.
“Heath gave it to me,” she says.
I frown. “When?”
“This morning. He said it was a gift and that I could play with it as long as I’d like. Can I keep it, please?”
My heart aches for her.
“Oh, sweetie …” I go to my knees. “I’m sorry.”
“Can we stay here, please?”
Her begging will be my undoing.
“We can’t, I’m sorry,” I say.
She pouts. “But I like it here.”
“I know you do,” I say, hugging her again. “But this is a school. It’s not a house.”
“But plenty of other people live here. Everyone has their own room. That’s a house, isn’t it?”
She’s got a point there.
“Yes, and no. Look, this was only supposed to be a temporary solution.”
“But where are we going to go?” she asks, grabbing her little red flower lying on her bed and clutching it tightly.
Every answer I have to give her breaks my heart a little bit more.
“I don’t know, sweetie …” I blow out a deep breath. “We’ll figure it out. I promise.” I rub her little cheeks before I tuck her little red flower into her small pocket. “C’mon. Grab your things. It’s time to leave.”
I grab a bag from the closet and stuff it with clothes and shoes, then grab all of our belongings and her little hand and bolt off into the next room, Silas’s room, to search for that same little box of money that I found the first night I came into this godforsaken house. I rip open all of his drawers until I find it hidden underneath his desk.
Gotcha.
I stuff it in the bag too. I’ll worry about how to open it later. Even if only a couple of bills are inside, anything is better than nothing.
I rush through the Skull and Serpent Society house and haul everything downstairs.