Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 89074 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89074 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
I snuck into his room and read a page of his journal, once. It was well-worn and completely full of written words on every page. But when I flipped it open, the one page I landed on was enough. I didn’t want to see more.
On that blank page, he’d written one sentence.
The same sentence, three times.
“I will always be alone.
I will always be alone.
I will always be alone.”
The final one had a streak of rusty red across it, and lied to myself when I thought it must be acrylic paint, not blood.
Who writes that, at age sixteen? Who thinks something like that at all?
When I heard a sound in the hall I dropped the journal like it was a murder weapon. I snuck away from his room like a criminal fleeing a scene, my heart pounding in my chest.
When I walk into the Double Daggers party, it’s the first time Weston chooses to speak to me since that night.
He arrived before I did, and he’s standing near their pool table downstairs, while some girl I’ve never met squeezes his bicep.
“They’ve got a full bar,” he says to me, nodding toward the kitchen. “I think they’re trying to outdo us after our last party.”
“Daggers guys always try their best,” I say, giving the girl a polite smile when she smiles at me.
Hunter comes in a few moments after me.
He moves close to my side, and Weston immediately stands a little taller.
“You follow him around like a dog, now, Hunter?”
Hunter’s expression is like stone.
He hasn’t been in a good mood all day, and I know he wants to hit his brother for saying that.
“We walked over together,” Hunter says simply. “I just had to put my coat in the front closet.”
I feel Hunter’s hand slide over my lower back, and my body doesn’t know what to do with the sensation.
It turns me the fuck on, because every time Hunter puts his hand on me I respond like an addict to his touch.
But I can also feel Weston’s eyes burning into me.
He’d just said the first friendly thing to me in days, and now he’s glaring daggers at both of us.
“Let’s go grab a drink,” I tell Hunter.
“No,” Hunter protests. “It seems like my brother still has something he wants to say to us.”
“Oh, this is your brother?” the girl on Weston’s arm says.
Wes nods. “Caroline, this is Hunter. Hunter, Caroline.”
“Pleasure,” Hunter says, reaching out to shake her hand. Hunter smiles for the first time all night, and Weston seems to retaliate, drawing Caroline closer to him.
“We were just saying it might be nice to go on a hiking date tomorrow,” Wes says. “After the snow melts away.”
“It’s going to be so beautiful,” she says with a nod.
“Weston loves hiking. Always used to be his favorite part when our father would take us camping.”
I know that’s a lie.
On the one camping trip where their father let me come along, Weston refused to ever go on hikes. He preferred swimming in the river with me.
And Hunter, as always, was off on his own. He chopped firewood for hours, wielding the axe with precision, then, at night, he went out with a flashlight in the woods, trying to find a bear.
“Caroline!” another girl shouts from the front door, and they run toward another.
The moment Caroline’s gone, all of the false pretenses between Weston and Hunter drop away in an instant.
“Stay the fuck away from me,” Wes says.
“If I end up needing to save your life, that isn’t what you’ll be saying.”
The way Weston looks at Hunter makes me pause.
I’ve never realized how strong Wes actually has gotten, over the past few years. None of us are weaklings, but there’s no doubt that if Hunter didn’t have a knife, Weston could probably take him in a fight.
He postures like he knows how strong he is, too. He takes a step forward, nearly getting in Hunter’s face.
“Dad called me earlier, by the way,” Wes continues. “He says you have to actually show up this year for Christmas.”
“Dad can call me and tell me that himself.”
“Hunter, come on. Let’s go grab that drink,” I say, feeling like I’m stuck between a viper and a bear. “I’m sorry, Wes.”
He shakes his head. “Don’t need your apology. Just know that my brother is manipulating you, Royal. I’ll be here to pick up the pieces when he hurts you.”
Hearing Wes talk like that is almost worse than if he was still mad at me.
I grab Hunter’s hand and tug him toward the kitchen, and finally, he relents and comes along after me.
The party is more crowded in the hall and in the Double Daggers house kitchen. I’ve always liked Onyx House better, but the Daggers guys renovated their kitchen a couple of years ago and it looks good, at least, with gleaming marble countertops and a fancy stainless steel stove.