Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 57143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 286(@200wpm)___ 229(@250wpm)___ 190(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 286(@200wpm)___ 229(@250wpm)___ 190(@300wpm)
Ouch. That was so brutal. And immature as hell for high school. That was the kind of shit that you would expect from middle school kids.
Ray blinked.
“Yes, I broke up with him!” Tia threw her hands in the air. “Happy now? Is that what you wanted to know?”
“Like I said, I already knew you broke up with him. I figured that out. Emelline posted this pic on Friday. It took you till next morning to see the fallout. On Saturday Phillip locked himself in his room. When the housekeeper came to get him for dinner, he screamed at her to leave him alone and slammed the door in her face. Phillip is a gift. Anyway, the housekeeper didn’t hear any raised voices, which tells me that you dumped him by text and refused to take his calls.”
Tia stared at me.
“Phillip is reading alpha male books, which tell him that alpha males don’t get dumped. He must’ve spent the whole night blowing up your phone and worn you down. You agreed to meet him, because both of you left your houses a little before noon on Sunday. I know that Phillip drove west on I-10. His phone died en route, probably because he spent the whole night texting and didn’t charge it.”
She didn’t interrupt.
“You already broke up with him, so you should be cooling off, but you’re still breathing fire. He did something when you met. Probably something violent and stupid. You came home. He didn’t. His car was found on a small rural road north of the highway. It’s Monday morning now, you didn’t go to school today, and nobody has seen Phillip.”
“Tia, what did you do?” Ray asked.
She raised her hand, and he shut up.
“Poor Phillip,” she ground out. “His family must’ve pulled all the strings, because they’ve got a Prime looking for him. Because he is such a good kid from a respected family.”
She must’ve looked me up at some point.
“Actually, I don’t care too much about Phillip,” I told her. “It’s my job to find him. I care about what happens to you and your family when his family finds out. House warfare is an ugly thing.”
“His family isn’t a House.”
“His aunt married into House Seaton. They’re large, wealthy, and powerful. If I don’t find Phillip soon, they will drag the cops into it, or, worse, they will accuse you directly of hurting him.”
“Because I’m a Madero. Because we solve all of our problems with our fists.”
“Yes.”
She glared at me.
“Tia, when my evil grandmother needed someone to kidnap my older sister, she went to your House. There is a reason for that. Your House built their reputation punch by punch. When your father finds out that you’re being accused of kidnapping or murder, he will explode like a nuclear warhead. He will attack House Seaton and start a feud.”
And it would be a really bad feud.
“Look, I’m not trying to lecture you. I’m just telling you like it is: this will blow up and get really nasty. Phillip has already done enough damage. Why let him ruin your family’s life? He isn’t worth it. Besides, I don’t believe for a second that you want something truly bad to happen to him. He is a shithead, but you are not.”
Her face frosted over.
Shit. I fucked up. I’d had her for a little while, and now I lost her.
“You’re exactly the kind of girl I hate,” she said.
Here we go. “What kind of girl do you think I am?”
“The kind of girl Phillip would simp over.”
Right for the jugular. “Is that so?”
“I bet you’re rich and popular. You’ve never been picked on in your life. You were probably the queen of Heritage when you went there. I don’t know what your magic is, but I’m sure it’s something elegant and pretty.”
Don’t laugh, don’t laugh…
“You come here wearing designer clothes with your little manicure, playing at some kind of detective, and you talk to me like you know me. You don’t know shit. You have no idea what it’s like when people think you’re a violent freak. When they watch you non-stop because they expect you to explode and ruin everything. So don’t talk to me like you fucking know anything about me.”
Inside me, the Beast uncurled, a phantom woven of multicolored strands, each thread a different aspect of my power. There was only so much screaming I could take.
“Done?” I asked.
“Yeah. We are done here. Feel free to fuck off.”
“I didn’t go to Heritage. I went to Donovan, and now I have to take Path to College courses, because my grades are shit.”
She blinked.
“I had to beg my mother to let me go to Donovan. They’d homeschooled me for a long time because my mother worried I would snap and level the school.”
Tia frowned.
“I’ll tell you what,” I said. “Let’s make a bet. You and I spar, and if I win, you’ll tell me what you’ve done with Phillip. If I lose, I’ll leave.”