Total pages in book: 63
Estimated words: 59739 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 299(@200wpm)___ 239(@250wpm)___ 199(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59739 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 299(@200wpm)___ 239(@250wpm)___ 199(@300wpm)
Tonight is one of those brutal, biting nights where the air stings my skin the second I leave the shelter. Damp sand and more rain. Even the moon doesn’t have the decency to come out; it’s just a deeper slate of grey above me. I walk the familiar path to our bathroom area, seeing just enough to not trip and fall.
Turns out, for me, that isn’t always the case.
Halfway there, my foot catches on something, and I stumble, slamming chest-first into a solid wall that is very much not a tree. I flinch, launching back and letting out a small yelp. A hand curls around my wrist, steadying me, and the very second I catch his scent, I know who it is.
Ace.
I try to yank free. He doesn’t let go.
“Sorry,” he murmurs. His voice is low, splintered. “Didn’t mean to scare you.”
I can only see the outline of him, almost like a lone stranger in the dark. I finally manage to get my wrist free, and take two steps back, wrapping my arms around myself. My heart is doing silly flip-flops in my chest, because it clearly hasn’t gotten the memo that we don’t like him anymore.
Who am I kidding, it knows damn well we do.
“What do you want?” I mutter, keeping my voice low so the others won’t hear.
He lets his hand drop. “You keep avoiding me. How long are you going to do that for?”
I cross my arms tighter. “Yeah, imagine not talking to the man who lied to you from the second you met him. Crazy.”
He stands there, not moving, shadows cutting his face at strange angles. “You going to hate me forever, or are you going to give me a chance to fucking explain?”
There’s a pause, the kind where your brain goes haywire with all the responses it wants to spit out, and none of them make sense, so you just stand there, breathing in the same rain-dampened air, as the man you wanted to trust turns all his focus on you.
“Explain what, exactly? That you were just following orders? That you’re the good guy in all of this? Fuck off, Ace.”
“I never wanted—”
I cut him off. “Did you, or did you not, take money to make sure we ended up somewhere nobody would ever find us? Did you work with my father to fucking sell his own daughter, and ensure she got delivered in one piece?”
He lets out a long, ragged breath. “It ain’t that fuckin’ simple.”
I want to laugh, but I’m too tired. “That’s what they always say.” My voice is low, but it doesn’t shake. “It’s always not what you think, I had no choice. You can save your sob story, all right?”
I try to push past him again because it’s starting to drizzle and I’m not about to have this conversation while my bladder is actively rebelling. He lets me go this time. As I brush by, he calls after me. “You can hate me all you want, but you don’t know what your father is capable of and if you want the truth, I’m willing to give it.”
I freeze, my foot stepping into a muddy puddle that makes all the rage inside me bubble up.
“Don’t pretend like you care,” I snap.
His voice, now just above a whisper, is so damned painful it almost splits me open. “I do. That’s the fucking problem.”
I don’t turn back. I don’t ask the question that wants to crawl out of my throat. Instead, I storm off into the trees, shoes sinking in wet mud, and do what I came out here to do.
When I crawl back into the shelter, Aggie is waiting, and even though I can’t see her, I know she is going to ask the same question she always asks. “You good?”
I tug the blanket over my legs because my feet are freezing from the water I just had to use to wash the damn mud off. “Yeah,” I say, but the word tastes sour. “Everything’s just fucking perfect.”
Aggie laughs, but it’s so bitter, a therapist would probably be concerned. “Yeah, isn’t it always.”
I close my eyes and try not to think about Ace. Or my father. Or the horror story that is real life. I dream of going home, but not to the place I grew up. No, to a place nobody can find me, where I can live my life just as I want, without a single ounce of betrayal from those I love.
What a fucking fantasy that is.
“THE SUN! IT’S OUT!”
I wake, once again, to the sound of Adrian screeching. Only this time, it’s a positive sound, so there’s that. I blink, and the moment my eyes open, I instantly squeeze them shut because the sunlight blasting into our camp is so bright, it hurts.
I sit up, a sudden rush of pure joy filling my chest as I stare out at the perfect blue sky.