Total pages in book: 192
Estimated words: 182641 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 913(@200wpm)___ 731(@250wpm)___ 609(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 182641 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 913(@200wpm)___ 731(@250wpm)___ 609(@300wpm)
Then she shakes her head at me as if she’s disappointed in my actions. As if she can’t believe what she’s seeing. As if she fucking knows me, and then she starts to speak.
“He took a risk coming here.” She states the obvious. “For you.”
My mouth opens, but when she shakes her head, it closes without permission.
“He had a hard life.”
“I know all about his life,” I spit out, annoyed that she knows anything about it. She can’t possibly know more than me.
“Did you know he had no idea how to dance?”
When my brows crash, she nods.
“I mean, he can dance like anyone else. To the beat of the music, to whatever feels right in the moment. But this?” She hooks her thumb over her shoulder and my eyes flick into the ballroom, swiftly raking over the couples in the center, midwaltz. “He didn’t know how to do that.”
She watches me, and for a long moment, I’m stuck staring until I catch exactly what she said.
Didn’t.
He didn’t know how to do that.
Icy despair fills my veins, battling for dominance over the heat of jealousy burning through my blood.
“Shame, really.” She tips her head, wrapping her shawl tighter around her glitter-covered shoulders. “He never even got the dance he practiced so hard for.” She leaves me with that and walks away.
My lips begin to tremble before I can stop them, eyelids fluttering as I will myself not to be weak. Not to be sucked in by this … I don’t know what it is.
I growl, shouting into the night around me before bending at the knee and burying my face in my hands. Then, something I forgot the feeling of happens.
I start to cry.
I fall back onto my ass, elbows on my knees, and it only gets worse.
My palms are soaked, my cheeks warm and sticky, and then two slender hands wrap around my middle, and my sister’s soft scent makes its way into my system.
She presses my head into her shoulder, and I lean into her.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers. “That was rough. I know you … more than like him.”
I do.
“I can tell,” she continues.
She can?
I sniffle, hating the sound, and look away.
“He learned how to dance for me, and I just …” I groan, angrily swiping at my tears as I pull the item from my dress’s hidden pocket.
Trailing my fingers over the switchblade, I flick it open and trace the tip. On a normal day, he would grin when he got home, dig into his pocket and realize it was missing. I don’t think he’ll find it so entertaining that I took even more from him tonight. “He’s pissed.”
“He’ll get over it.”
I scoff, looking out into the night, but it’s no use. He’s gone. “I don’t know.”
“Well, if he doesn’t, he’ll at least come back for that, won’t he? I mean, if he’s broke, he’s going to need his handy little knife.”
I chuckle despite myself, smiling sadly at the blade. “Yeah, maybe. He did come back for his phone and his wallet when I took those.”
My sister starts laughing then, and I join in, allowing her to pull me to my feet and lead me through the double doors, where our father awaits, angry as ever.
Maybe she’s right.
Maybe I didn’t ruin everything.
Maybe I’m being dramatic, and tomorrow, everything will be fine.
But then again, maybe it won’t be …
Chapter 24
Bastian
“Wait.”
I jolt, digging into the back of my slacks and coming up with the gun the girl who did her best to gut me gave me.
Doesn’t she know all she did was piss me off?
When he comes round the dark corner, I don’t lower the weapon but put one in the fucking chamber. I was drowning in my fucking anger so much I didn’t hear him coming up on me.
He could have put a bullet in my head like Rocklin made sure to mention, and I would have never seen it coming.
Rocklin would be left to the wolves.
“Don’t come closer. I will fucking shoot you.”
He lifts his hands. “I want to help.”
“Help what?”
“Protect her … from him.”
I press forward, jamming the muzzle into his chest. “From who?”
He eyes me a long moment, and then he says, “From my father.”
My eyes narrow, mind spinning when suddenly, it all makes sense.
Well, I’ll be fucking damned.
I put the gun away.
Chapter 25
Rocklin
My dad’s a fucking liar and my sister’s optimism can suck a dick.
It’s been two weeks since the gala and things have gone to shit.
My dad pretended he was unfazed for the remainder of the party, but the minute we got back into his car, he laid into me, demanding to know every little thing about the boy in black, as he called him. I didn’t give him much outside of his chosen name, keeping his real, full one to myself as he intended it.