Total pages in book: 180
Estimated words: 176012 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 880(@200wpm)___ 704(@250wpm)___ 587(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 176012 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 880(@200wpm)___ 704(@250wpm)___ 587(@300wpm)
I bow my head, leaning into the wall again. A tear spills over. They’re all having this conversation about me without me. It’s like this secret life they all lived and didn’t include me. Why?
Fucking pairs.
“It was following her the other night,” Aro goes on. “Who’s in possession of it?”
“I have no idea,” Hunter tells her. “I haven’t seen it in a year. I’ll ask Farrow.”
“Discreetly.”
“We should’ve told her ages ago,” Dylan chides. “She’s there a lot and alone. It was never one hundred percent safe.”
“We weren’t sure they were sneaking into the tower,” Hawke argues.
But Kade barks. “Bullshit!”
My mind races with all this new information. Two men they seem to know, but are scared of, sneak into the hideout and leave clues for them, for what? That story they’re puzzling together on the wall inside? How could they be so stupid? To put themselves in danger and me, unknowingly. It’s like I’m… Like I’m their fathers, whom they didn’t trust to not react.
Damn right, I would’ve. And I did. They’re never getting back in there.
Hawke lowers his voice. “It’s the Night Ride.”
“What?” Aro asks.
“Aro said she asked about the black Dodge,” he points out. “Carnival Tower, Rivalry Week, and The Night Ride. The next chapter.”
What does that mean?
I stand there, listening for more, but I don’t hear anything. I peek out the window, and they’re gone.
I stumble into another bounce house, wandering and lost in thought. How long has all of this been going on? Hawke talked me out of removing the mirror years ago, before I went away to college. I can’t even begin to list all the reasons I’m pissed. And who are Manas and Deacon? I’ll go back into the Tower later, see if I can make sense out of the mystery they have strung together on the wall.
Two strangers concerns me, but if my own family didn’t warn me… And who is Winslet? The girl in the photo rises to the front of my mind.
You make me wanna die.
She was pretty. Where is she now?
There’s a mystery in the tower and strangers coming and going, and my nieces and nephews don’t think I know anything.
I stand there, swaying with the bouncing, and…
They don’t think I know anything.
I smile a little.
What should I do?
Minutes pass, A.J. and James fly through, and we bounce. Maybe I’ll pull a prank of my own on Hawke and the rest. I leap high and race Noah over the rock wall and follow Farrow, both of us somersaulting through a tunnel with a water sprinkler. Maybe I’ll figure out the next chapter he talked about.
I laugh and sweat and let it go, the promise of new nights in my new house ahead of me, and for a second, I let myself stop counting the minutes.
I collapse in an orange tunnel, hair in my face, Noah’s T-shirt sticking to my skin.
The pizza. Shit.
But for some reason, I don’t vault up and out of the bounce house. Dreamy images of my—hopefully—new bedroom with the leaky roof and the raw, unvarnished floor consume my thoughts.
You make me wanna die. His whisper hits my lips.
Yes.
That’s where I would take him. To my new bedroom floor.
“Quinn?”
And I open my eyes.
Lucas? His voice rings in my head like a dream I’m not sure was real.
But then he calls again, just behind me. “Quinn?”
Lucas
I stand there, on the grass at the opening of the inflatable tunnel, waiting for her to reply.
She lies there, in the dim light. Is she asleep?
“Quinn?” I call out again.
“I’m here.”
Déjà vu floods me, remembering Camp Blackhawk years ago. The last time she was hiding. I’d listened to everyone calling out for her that day, knowing the whole time where she was. I didn’t even hear her up there. I just knew how her mind worked. Quinn only plays when she knows she can win. Which is why she rarely plays.
I’d forgotten about that day. How her eyes caught sight of my tattoo, and how I rushed to cover it up. I remember resenting her quietness in that moment. It made her a better listener. A better observer. I knew then that she rarely missed anything, and I panicked that she might tell someone about it, but I didn’t feel right asking her to keep secrets.
She never told anyone, though. Not to my knowledge. Madoc has never inquired about it.
When she doesn’t move, I ask, “Can you come out?”
“Come in.”
I breathe out a laugh and climb inside. As I move toward her, she sits up and leans back against the wall of the tunnel.
“I took out the pizza,” I tell her, “but Jared and Madoc are already eating it.”
She chuckles. “Thanks.”
I wasn’t able to get another piece, unfortunately. I’m tempted to smuggle a jar of her sauce into my luggage.
“I wanted to give you something before I leave.” I sit across from her, my heart pumping in my ears. What time is it?