Total pages in book: 168
Estimated words: 164910 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 825(@200wpm)___ 660(@250wpm)___ 550(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 164910 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 825(@200wpm)___ 660(@250wpm)___ 550(@300wpm)
That’s what the great philosophers would do. We can only control our reactions to things, blah, blah, blah.
But I’m fucking pissed.
“So Anna-Katherine helps you in the classroom?” Liv asks, kicking the beach balls back into the pool.
“Yeah, she’s a volunteer there.” I take a sip. “But she loves my room for some reason.”
“She likes you.” My sister grins at me. “Probably the first woman ever.”
“You don’t like me?”
“I love you,” she clarifies. “There’s a difference. Would I have your back? Absolutely. Would I trust you to plan my funeral? No, you’d dump me in the ocean.”
Iron lets out a quiet laugh. I simply shrug. “Our ancestors were pirates. It’s fitting.”
What’s wrong with a burial at sea? It’s better than that fucking cemetery, some commemoration to our descendants who might not be all that proud we’re still fighting for our lives.
I reach for the bottle, but Liv pulls her hand away. “What are you doing?” she scolds.
“Liv, I don’t need a mother.” I hood my eyes. “Give it to me.”
I launch for it, but she rears back again. “You’re in the rest of the night?” she asks me.
“Give it to me!”
But she doesn’t, and I set the glass down on the table, hauling my ass off the chair.
I charge her.
“Where is he?” she growls.
“Who?” I spit out.
“Do you want to know where he is?” She holds the bottle away. “Because I can tell you.”
“I don’t give a fuck.”
I don’t want to know where he is, because he’s a piece of shit who’s surrendering to a life of decadence and indulging shitty people, and he’s trying to hurt those around me and I hate him.
And the liquor will make me forget that I love the way he pants on my lips when I’m inside of him.
“You haven’t touched anyone else in two weeks,” Liv points out, “and on the nights you didn’t come home, we knew who you were with.”
Iron still sits on the chair behind me, but I know his eyes are on me.
I wasn’t really trying to hide anything.
And it’s not affecting my judgment.
I stand up straight. “None of this is any of your business.”
“So you don’t want to know that Damaris is staying with Anna-Katherine tonight,” she taunts. “All night.”
So he went on his date and plans on getting dicked up till dawn. What the fuck do I care?
“Callum ‘will be close,’ he told her,” Liv goes on. “Rip and Tyson reported seeing a deckhand preparing Ames High.”
The Ameses’ power yacht?
Which is docked in the marina three miles away.
“Food, fresh sheets,” she tells me. “I wonder if he’s taking it out. Or just fucking someone there.”
Hot air huffs in and out of my nose as my eyes narrow on my sister.
“Why is he having fun?” she bites out at me. “If what he did all those years ago wasn’t enough, the curfew he’s put us under is.”
A lump forms in my throat, and I swallow, the guilt descending on my shoulders. What I need to keep in mind.
The curfew, Callum’s hand around our throats, his attack on her four years ago…It’s all my fault. Everyone is in jeopardy because of me.
Her brown eyes, like our mother’s, grow strained with anger. “He shouldn’t be able to sleep without one eye open.”
I drop my gaze to the ground. I know.
Somehow I keep letting myself get distracted with all the things that don’t matter about him and forgetting the one thing that does—he’s attacking my family.
Liv shouldn’t have to avenge herself, especially when it’s my fault she ever came into harm’s way after I fucked with him in the first place. A lot can be said about me, but I do clean up my own messes.
And now I have a reason to ruin his night, after all.
I lift my eyes. “Your orders, little sister?”
She offers me a small smile and hands me the bottle. I cap it and set it down.
“They dragged me out of a car,” she says. “Let’s drag him off that boat.”
* * *
—
We make it to the marina, which is mostly empty, many of the yachts and schooners traveling the seas for the summer months. Our father’s old trawler sits docked off to the right, among a handful of smaller speed and cabin boats belonging mostly to locals and recreation companies.
The Ameses’ vessel, a beautiful fifty-eight-meter power yacht, floats at the far end. Walking with purpose down the long dock, I glance up at security cameras on each light post, hoping Rip got them turned off.
Tyson informed us that there’s no crew tonight. Callum wants the boat to himself.
I cock my eyebrow. Fuck him. Liv’s right, and I’m grateful she reminded me. If we suffer, so does he. We’ll be back in plenty of time for curfew.
Liv, Iron, and I leap onto the bow, keeping our eyes peeled as we climb the short stairwell up onto the main deck. Slipping inside quickly, I lead them through the living room to a beautiful kitchen. Wooden floors shine; a marble island sits to the right, lights hanging overhead.