Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 130512 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 653(@200wpm)___ 522(@250wpm)___ 435(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130512 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 653(@200wpm)___ 522(@250wpm)___ 435(@300wpm)
It was beautiful. I ran my fingers through it.
She settled more of her weight into me.
“What happened, Nolan?” I whispered.
She stilled before sniffing again. “Grandpa killed himself.”
“How do you know that? Did Aunt Taylor say something?”
She only shook her head, and I met Nash’s eyes over her head. He was giving me the look, the one that I should know how she knew. Her gift.
But Grandpa… There was no way. Right? No. Just, no.
Nolan sniffled again. Nash scooted even closer on her other side, his fingers laced with hers. She lowered her head, whispering something I almost missed. “Something bad is coming too.”
More bad stuff? Something else?
No. No. No! I couldn’t.
This couldn’t be happening.
I texted Max: I need you.
4
MASON
Channing paled when I said the fucker’s name. That made everything worse.
His normally tanned skin, covered in tattoos, looked washed out. He seemed staggered, his hand grabbing at his dark blond hair before it moved to grab the back of his neck for a short moment.
He blinked a few times, shaking it off before scanning around us. “We can’t talk about him here.”
He really wasn’t making me feel better. I wanted to find this asshole. I wanted to find out why my father was so torn up about this guy, and then I was going to rip his head off. That was my plan for dealing with him. Simple murder.
Channing had connections. He’d help cover it up.
And I wanted to keep Logan out of it, so if anything happened, he could defend me to the best of his ability. His conscience would be clear.
Everything inside me raged right now. Murder might not have been the best answer. In a few days, rational thought would come back to me, and I’d think about Sam. I’d think about my kids. I couldn’t put any of them at risk of losing me, but fuck. If someone found this Bennett guy, brought him to me, and handed me a gun? I’d take that gun and pull the trigger so fast. I’d kill him. I’d do it without thinking, with no hesitation.
“Where?” I demanded, scowling. A few people were looking over. I heard someone say my last name, and I didn’t know if this was typical scene-of-the-crime attention or if it was because of my football celebrity status.
Goddammit. I hated everything about this. The grief, losing my dad… Later when I was with Sam in the privacy of our room, I’d feel it. Until then, I needed to scramble to find my footing. James laid a pile of shit at our feet and told us to clean it up. I needed to sort the pile of shit before I could even think of how to clean it up.
Frustration jammed my throat.
First fucking thing first. “Where, Channing?” I asked again. “Where can we talk?”
He sighed, looking around again. “I don’t want to do this in my office, just in case. Let’s go to where we used to have the bonfire for Fallen Crest. You remember where that is?”
The old stomping grounds, where we’d had more than a few Fallen Crest parties during the District Weekend, a tradition among Fallen Crest, Roussou, and Frisco. Each town had an event. “I remember.”
“You can follow me if you forgot the way.”
I raised my middle finger, to which he barked out a laugh. Each of us broke away to our separate vehicles.
We hadn’t gone far before my dashboard started lighting up. My phone had automatically connected, so all the texts were coming through—some from Sam, from Channing. There was a pause, and then some from Nate came through. The last few were from Matteo. And still more from numbers I didn’t know. I frowned, hitting ignore so they’d stop. I’d need to read through them on my phone, but later. Everything was later.
When we arrived, Channing swung in among the trees, parking.
I slid in next to him, and by the time I got out and rounded the back end of my Escalade, he had a beer waiting for me. I shook my head. “I’ll need something stronger when I start doing that.”
He nodded but had no other reaction.
I sighed, leaning against the bumper. “I need to know everything.”
“Yeah.” He didn’t sound happy about it.
We looked around us for a moment. We were in the middle of the woods, in a valley before a bunch of hills. Sam used to run around here. Jesus. That was so long ago. She’d go for hours, running from all her demons. Everything had been so different, but in a way, we were back there all over again. If someone told me today that I needed to pick up my little brother before we headed to high school, I wouldn’t have argued. It felt natural.
Time was a funny bitch. I hated her.
“I gotta know something first.” Channing focused on the ground. “Where’d you hear that name?” He lifted his head, his gaze eerily sharp. “It’s not a name someone like you would know, and trust me, brother, you don’t want to know that name.”