Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 94980 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 475(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94980 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 475(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
I eased back onto my bed. “That’s nice of my dad.”
I expected him to say something in return, maybe something funny, or even just a “babe.” He didn’t. My alarm began to spike for a third time in that conversation.
He was quiet again, just a split second. “How about your friends fly back tomorrow night but you stay? I’ll come to you, and mention it to Peter, so it could be a family trip, too.”
Now my heart really was pumping.
My hands even got sweaty. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
I was seriously missing him. “I wish you were here.”
“Me too, Bailey. Me too.”
I whispered one last time, “I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
He hung up, and I ached.
FORTY-ONE
Knock!
Knock!
Those were more like Pound! Pound!
I rolled over, grabbed my pillow on the way, and let it loose. The door was opening just as my pillow was in the air, and smack! Right in Matt’s face.
I grinned, my head on the other pillow, and one eye opened at him. “Score.” That came out as a croak.
I was tired.
I didn’t want to look in the mirror. I was sure the bags under my eyes would be down to my mouth line.
He rolled his eyes, bent, and grabbed the pillow. Tossing it back on my bed, he crossed his arms over his chest. “Got a call last night. Got an update on new plans, too. Aspen was supposed to be my getaway, and you were supposed to come along for the ride.”
I tossed back my blankets.
Matt quickly averted his head, throwing up a hand. “Oh, God. Warn a brother next time. I don’t need to see you in your pajamas.”
“Relax. I slept in sweatpants and a shirt.”
I walked past him for the bathroom.
I could feel his glare on my back. “With no bra. That’s not an image I need to see of my sister.”
I paused. He was right. But I’d been cold in the middle of the night and had pulled on a sweatshirt. I yelled that, too. “I’m in a sweatshirt, moron.”
“Oh. Whatever. Listen, um…”
I used the toilet. Flushed. Washed my hands. I was waiting during all that time. I could hear his voice through the door, but he’d stopped talking. My alarms started going off, and while drying my hands I pulled the door open and stepped into the doorway. He was there, his head tipped back, one hand on his jaw as if he had no clue what to say next.
“Matt.”
He looked at me. Yep. I’d been right. His eyes were tortured.
I sighed. “Kash is right.”
The torture slid away to concern. “Kash is right about what?”
“I have baggage from being kidnapped by Quinn. Bad enough where it’s hard for me to go to the house to see my siblings. There’s the constant undercurrent of war going on between Kash and his grandfather, a war that Kash keeps me out of, but he hasn’t in a lot of ways. But both those things are going on right now, added to whatever happened last night—”
“What happened last night?”
“Plus, Quinn is out of jail, and she’s connected to a certain blogger who hates us, and I’m sharing all of this to express how much my plate is full. You’re standing in my room, hesitating, and I can’t handle anything more, so spill. Whatever it is, we’ll deal with it now, because I cannot carry any more, and I cannot stress how serious I’m being about that fact.”
“Right.” His hand fell away from his jaw. He faced me squarely, rolling his shoulders back. “I was with Fleur and Cedar last night when Fleur’s phone lit up. She didn’t answer. Cedar’s phone blew up right after, and she answered.” His eyes went hollow, for just a second, then hardened. “Victoria was on the phone. She’d been with Kash. In Greece. They went together.”
Hit.
Hit.
Hit.
Three hits, all right after another.
I drew in a ragged breath. “Oh.”
“Kash called me, said he’d talked to you, but he didn’t say anything about Victoria.” He hesitated again and was wary. “Did he say anything about her to you?”
What?
Victoria?
Suddenly, I felt my insides squeezing. Hard.
“No.” That word scraped over my throat to get out.
“Right. Well, she’s coming here, and she’s mad.”
“What?”
He shook his head. “Fleur, Vic, and Cedar have been around us and the guys all our lives. I know you don’t like ’em. I know you have reason not to like ’em. And I know they’re stuck-up bitches, and the only reason they’re stuck-up is because all of their families are old-money wealthy. That’s a different circle, if you get my drift. You. Me. Our dad. We’re not in that circle, but those girls are. Chester is. Tony and Guy, they aren’t.”
I was waiting.
“And Kash is most definitely in that circle. I’m sharing all this to help you understand why we put up with the girls. Some of it is power and connections. Some of it is because their families know our families. Some of it is because, when you hang with someone for so many years in a row, since you were all in first grade and on—those are friendship roots that don’t get cut so easily.”