Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 130221 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 651(@200wpm)___ 521(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130221 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 651(@200wpm)___ 521(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)
I let loose. “We need to be able to trust each other or this doesn’t work!”
“Oh, back to your condescending bullshit, I see,” she taunts. “I’m not a child. I come and go as I please.”
Yeah. Of course. Without regard to anyone else.
I’m not even entirely mad at her. She’s back and appears to be safe. And from what I can tell, she didn’t cause any trouble or get seen.
I just want to yell. I’m mad.
She approaches me. “What happens after we get evidence on Reeves?”
“We go back to our lives.”
“Wrong,” she fires back. “You go to college and a string of friends and girlfriends born under lucky stars just like you, where you don’t need to be reminded that people like me are one town away. I go back to nothing. Not a damn thing changes for me.”
What does that mean? I take a step, closing the distance. “What did you do?”
“I don’t have to explain anything.”
“What did you do?” I yell.
She gets in my face, growling, “I looked out for me.”
Goddammit. She has her own agenda, and we were never a team. I should’ve known. Another mistake.
“I’m not letting you drag me down with you.” I glare at her. “I’m sick of your shit!”
Mischief hits her eyes, and I swear I see a smile. She leaves, stalking down the hallway, and I almost go after her, but I’m not entirely sure what I want to do. Kick her out? No. This argument is my fault. I’m taking my anger out on her, and I already know I’ll have to apologize.
I take in the popcorn all over the floor. I shouldn’t have gone to see Schuyler. My sex life is the last thing I should be worried about right now.
Aro walks back into the room, and I turn, facing her. She carries a black duffle bag, and it’s like the one I threw over the cliff.
She opens it, showing me stacks of cash, and I dart my eyes up to her.
“Really?” I ask. Now I am a little pissed.
That’s where she was when Kade and I got to the park. She was off stashing this.
“You’re so careless,” I laugh, but I’m not amused. “Money comes and money goes. You can’t hide this from them! Stop thinking about tomorrow and think about what happens in five years! This isn’t the most important thing!”
“Spoken like someone who’s never had to worry about not having it!” she shouts back. “That cash will feed my family for the next five years, asshole.”
I rear back, about to lose my mind with her. “Like they’re not going to figure out that they’re the ones paying for your shopping sprees and pizza deliveries!”
Is she really that dumb? She’s not old enough to get her brother and sister away from her mom, and her mom will fucking talk when she sees Aro bringing over groceries every week. When she sees her paying for toys and clothes and settling the electricity bill. They’re going to figure it out.
I open the bag and look inside at the stacks of hundreds, gauging it’s probably no more than fifty thousand. Five years? She’ll blow through this in six months.
“You brought this shit in here?” I ask, but it’s an accusation. “What happens if I get caught with this? What happens if they come in here and see this and assume we were both in on this? How much fucking trouble are we already in, Aro, and you go and do this? Don’t you get it?”
“Oh, don’t worry, Pirate.” She taunts me. “I’ll take the rap for everything. This is all my fault anyway, right? I don’t have a future anyway, right?”
She steels her defiant chin, but I see the tears she tries to hold back.
I didn’t say that.
Did I?
I didn’t mean it if I did. And it hits me how much I want her to have a future. Everything she does—good or bad—is never for herself. I see that. She has good intentions.
“It was always over for me.” Her voice drops to a whisper. “Since the moment they were born. All I can do is what I can do.” She turns, sliding down the island until she’s sitting against it on the floor. “For as long as possible.”
A tear spills, but she’s trying so hard not to crack.
“What happens after we get the evidence?” she drones on. “What happens if you get caught with the money? What happens, what happens…” She laughs to herself, shaking her head. “It all happens.” And she looks up at me. “Don’t you get it? I don’t care what happens next week. They need to eat today.”
She drops her gaze again, resting her arms on her bent-up knees, and I grind my teeth together, feeling the sting in my own eyes. My throat grows tight, like needles are poking me, and I thought I understood, but I don’t.