“Hurry...I needs you.”
“I need you, too,” I whispered.
I’d never been playing games.
But now I was playing for keeps.
Rynna – Seventeen Years Old
“You bitch,” Janel whispered her hatred from behind me, and I jerked to look over my shoulder. Janel stood in the doorway, seething mad with tears in her eyes. Janel’s momma had just rushed out, pressing a hand over her mouth, as if she were either trying to accept what I had just told her or was wanting to reject it.
“I’m sorry, Janel. But I...I can’t continue keeping these secrets for you. Lying for you. You need help.”
“I need help? You don’t know anything.”
“I know you’ve been stealing from my gramma, I know you stole from the dance fund at the school, and I know I’ve been covering for you, and I’m not willing to do it anymore. Your momma needed to know.”
Janel scoffed out a hard laugh. “You just want to make yourself look good, same way as you always do.” Her voice sing-songed with bitterness. “Rynna Dayne, angel of Gingham Lakes. Holier than thou when she’s nothing but a self-righteous bitch.” She sank back, shaking her head. “You’re gonna pay for this, Rynna Dayne.”
28
Rex
Dusk hovered in the atmosphere, and the sky had dimmed from pink to gray. I sat on my front porch on the rocker watching this clusterfuck of a day slip away. Bugs droned from the stilled trees, the air calm while my heart still banged around, lashing with unstable beats.
I looked up when the front door slowly creaked open. Rynna’s footsteps were quiet as she stepped outside into the encroaching night. “I just checked in on Frankie. She’s asleep.”
I nodded at her, and she stepped all the way out, Milo trotting out beside her. She drew the door closed, all but an inch so we could hear if Frankie needed us.
She’d been fine. Of course, she was fine. My freak out uncalled for, which was something Kale had been all too eager to tease me about. I’d demanded he check her for any unseen injuries that we could have missed just by looking at her. He’d shot off some statistic on the average number of falls a kid Frankie’s age had a day, pointing out that it wasn’t like she’d taken a tumble over the cliff.
I didn’t care. When it came to Frankie, I didn’t take chances.
Rynna handed me a fresh beer. “Thought you could use this.”
My laughter was soft. Incredulous. Disbelief that this girl could come battering into my life and the only thing it took for her to knock down my walls was all that kindness and faith. “Thanks,” I muttered.
After twisting off the cap, I took a long pull.
Ice-cold amber glided down my throat.
Rynna eased out onto the porch and sat on the steps. Her back was to me, her arms wrapped around her knees as she stared out at the peace that hummed around us.
Lost in thought.
Contemplation.
The girl was so damned gorgeous I was having a hard time differentiating the emotions that thrummed and danced and glowed. It was a war against the ones that screamed and warned and howled. The chaos in my heart and mind made me want to rip the hair from my head.
Crazy how everything I’d lived my life on suddenly felt like a lie.
With Rynna, I knew it was all or nothing. I couldn’t keep shutting her down and shutting her out. Couldn’t keep giving her these warnings without giving her a reason.
It was time I gave her all of me.
I needed to fess up the bullshit that haunted my life. Tell her everything. I just didn’t fucking know how to drag it all out into the open. If she would run. Hate me like I deserved for her to.
Agony cinched down on my chest, and my mouth flopped open and closed. The words too thick on my tongue. Finally, I forced them out into the stilled, deepening night. “Warned you that you don’t want my mess.” It came out hoarse. Choked.
