Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 110549 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 553(@200wpm)___ 442(@250wpm)___ 368(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110549 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 553(@200wpm)___ 442(@250wpm)___ 368(@300wpm)
I stepped back from him. “Stay the fuck away from me, Jay,” I snarled at him.
A smirk twisted his lips that had my stomach churning with fear, but I didn’t let it show. “We’re far from over, sweetheart,” he warned me in a silky voice.
I let my own heartless smirk twist my lips, letting that familiar darkness envelop me as ice slid over my heart. His smirk dropped out of shock when he saw the cruel, twisted look on my face. “We were over the moment I caught you on top of my mother with her legs wrapped around your waist, and even more so when you called the fucking police on me because you couldn’t get me to stop bashing her fucking face in,” I snarled. “We were over the moment you chose her over me. I won’t let you fuck my life up anymore, Jay.”
“West—” he started, but I cut him off.
“Fuck off, Jay.” I turned on my heel and stormed away from him. I knew Jay wasn’t going to let it go, but I knew he would at least let me walk away for the night.
It was the game he liked to play.
I leaned on the porch railing with a cigarette between my fingers as I waited on Jessie to get his ass outside so he could take me to school. I didn’t care much about going, but since part of the terms of my probation was that I had to graduate high school, I had to go or risk getting my ass locked back up.
“Sounded like you had a rough night,” Jessie commented as he stepped out of the front door, locking it behind him as he spoke.
I shrugged. “Every night is bad these days,” I carelessly commented, not giving him the answer that I knew he was looking for.
Jessie wanted me to open up to him, but when it came to Jay and the shit surrounding me and him, I couldn’t do it. It was too touchy of a subject.
Jessie studied me for a moment, but I kept my face carefully blank. With a sigh and a shrug, he walked down the porch steps, knowing that I wouldn’t open up to him until I was damn good and ready to.
I put out my cigarette and followed behind him silently.
Day two of hell, here I come.
Lincoln
I nodded at Jessie in greeting as he stepped into the garage. “Something happened last night,” Jessie spoke up randomly as he moved toward one of the toolboxes.
I arched an eyebrow at my best friend. “The fuck are you talking about?” I asked him. “Nobody was here after we closed shop last night,” I told him. I had checked everything when I came in like we always did. Everything was fine—untouched.
Jessie shook his head at me. “Not the shop.” I arched a brow at him, waiting on him to clarify. “Something happened with West. I knew I shouldn’t have let her go to the fucking store by herself.”
I set my rag down, crossing my arms over my chest as I studied Jessie. He obviously cared about what happened to West. I didn’t understand it, but then again, when he met her, I was overseas in Afghanistan.
“Tell me about what happened while I was gone,” I demanded. “Because I’m not understanding your protectiveness over her,” I bluntly told him. And I didn’t—wouldn’t even begin to pretend to—and he knew that. West was a mouthy young woman. If you asked me, anything that happened to her, she probably brought on herself.
“It’s her story, so I won’t tell you everything.” He sat in a chair and grabbed a Corona out of the fridge, not giving a damn that it was barely eight in the morning. I snorted, but he only shrugged. “I’ll tell you the basics though. When I met West, she was barely fifteen. I found her down at the tracks with a fucking twenty-year-old guy—kid’s name is Jay. She was fixing cars, adding little touches to other cars to get wins for the other guys—shit that was illegal.”
“He was fucking twenty?” I demanded, that knowledge tasting bitter on my tongue. I hated men that preyed on girls like that—girls that didn’t really know any better.
I mean, I knew I had the hots for West, but at least she was older—legally an adult now. She was just a fucking kid back then.
Jessie nodded. “Guy rubbed me wrong the moment I set my eyes on him. I took West under my wing, and I set her up here at the garage to earn clean money. I didn’t know it at the time—didn’t know it until I showed up for her trial to support her in the only way I could—but Jay had her doing illegal shit on the side once she left here at night. She got in trouble with the law a few times, but they kept letting her slide, trying to give her a chance to turn herself around.”