Total pages in book: 177
Estimated words: 173392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 867(@200wpm)___ 694(@250wpm)___ 578(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 173392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 867(@200wpm)___ 694(@250wpm)___ 578(@300wpm)
Everyone laughs. When was the last time they played this?
Macon had to have at least once. Maybe a long time ago?
A drop lands on my hand. I tilt my eyes up, seeing a flash of lightning cut through the sky.
“Are you ready?” Army calls out.
The whole crowd howls. “Whoo!”
The wind picks up, and a distant roll of thunder follows.
“I think it’s about to rain,” I say.
But Dallas just smirks. “It’s a water sport, princess. You’re gonna get wet.”
Snorts go off around me. God, I hate him.
“Where the River Flows” starts over the speakers, lightning flashes, and Iron rubs his red thumb across the rest of his dripping fingers.
“Run!” someone shouts.
My heart leaps into my throat, and I can’t help my smile, nearly choking on my laugh as I race off.
I barrel for the garage across the street, every step taking me closer to the bright lights inside, and the nineties black sedan sitting up on cinder blocks in the center.
Commotion fills the small street, feet pound the wet dirt, and bodies fall to the ground.
Iron’s naked chest appears out of the corner of my eye.
But a guy crashes into my shoulder, making me whip around, and I suck in a breath as I plummet to the ground. My palms hit hard, breaking my fall. “Ow!”
Shit.
I look around, searching for Iron. Fuck. Where is he?
“There you are,” I hear instead.
My heart stops, and I jerk my eyes to the left, seeing Aracely walk slowly toward me while everyone runs around like the world is ending.
Oh no.
She dives down, reaching for me, and I yelp, quickly rolling away as fast as I can.
Scrambling to my feet, I catch sight of Trace leaving a red handprint on someone’s back, while Dallas grabs a girl by the back of the neck and pulls her in for a kiss, smearing paint all over her skin like her throat’s been cut.
Iron stands beyond, slowly stalking as he watches. Amusement laces his stare, but something else, too.
Why isn’t he chasing me? He’s not chasing anyone else.
Running, I cross the threshold into the opposite garage, the music stops, and I halt, everyone laughing as they discard clothes, one woman going for it and taking off her entire one-piece catsuit. Another pulls down the top of her maid dress to sit at her waist, her red lacy bra covering her breasts. I lock eyes with her, both of us starting to laugh.
Rain kicks up dirt as I look across to the Jaeger garage, seeing all the boys coat their hands in paint again, and then come to stand back in the middle of the road.
Turin Wilcott slides a leg over Macon’s, straddling him and bowing her forehead to his. She takes his hands and places them on her hips for him, like he can’t make his own damn decisions.
I shout out to his brothers. “So how do I win this game?”
Army whips his hand around, throwing off the excess paint. “Oh, she’s confident, isn’t she?”
He smiles, and I wink.
“I have a judge in my back pocket. What do you have in yours?”
His smile falls, Dallas shakes his head, and Trace leans down, planting his hands on his knees and getting paint all over his jeans as he pants and zones in on me.
“She just fucking asked for it, didn’t she?” he says.
Oh, yes, I did.
Iron stalks back and forth, the music starts, and we all dash into the rain.
“Ah!” someone shouts next to me, followed by a woman squealing.
The rain falls harder, dousing my hair, and people slosh through puddles, whipping to and fro as they’re grabbed by red right hands.
Aracely comes for me, and I’m not sure why she’s bent on getting me naked, but it’s probably to humiliate me.
I grab the back of a guy’s shirt, whirl him around, and block her advance, pushing him at her. She tags his shirt, and I run, hearing her yell, “Bitch!”
Followed by him. “Brat!”
I laugh and see Iron as I pass, but I keep running as screams fill the air.
I leap into the garage across the street—the firehouse next door to the Jaegers—and check myself for any marks.
Others forfeit more items of clothing, taking shots off the makeshift bars set up in every shop, and Iron stands in the rain tipping his chin at me. “You’re fast.”
I dig in the ball of my foot, getting ready again.
“Round three!” Army shouts. “Ready?”
“Whooooooo!”
The music starts, everyone runs, but I step out, one slow step after another. Iron matches me, walking for the other side, through the throngs of people, his eyes only on me.
Army goes after Chon, Dallas after that girl again, and Trace plants his hand on the naked back of a young woman over and over again as she laughs hysterically, losing every item of clothing.
My heart races. The chaos whirls around us. Iron and I move clockwise in a circle. He could pounce any second.