I swallow the rest of my tea, feeling a surge of warmth low in my stomach. I try to push it away, arching my back and stretching my arms above my head when the slam of the back door thuds behind us.
In a quick snap, I glance over my shoulder to see Chase and Harlen striding into the large room. Their ripped jeans hug their legs, Chase’s dark, Harlen’s light. The T-shirt hanging from Chase, bigger and more over-sized than Harlen’s.
I catch Chase’s eyes the moment they darken. He drills them into me, and I look away, toward Harlen, who jerks his chin at me in greeting and starts in my direction.
I look back and forth between the two, swallowing again.
The boys in front of me have always seen me as their sister, but I only ever sawoneas my brother.
I turn away and return my elbows to the bar, jutting my ass out.
A hand pushes to the top of my back, right between my shoulder blades, and Harlen is curling around my shoulders, squeezing me into a hug.
I raise one hand and clench my fingers around his forearm that sits just below my chin. He untangles himself and falls onto the stool at my side.
Kali is already around the bar, popping a beer and placing it down in front of him.
“You know the way to my heart, Kal.” Harlen winks at her, and I almost want to snort because it is so grossly Harlen.
Rusty steps out of his office and is beside his son, Kali placing a beer in his hand.
“Did you take care of it?” Rusty whispers his question to Harlen low beneath his breath, and I know I’m not supposed to hear it, and yet my ears zero in.
I watch Harlen’s face turn serious and he nods. “Already all over it, but yeah, I said what I needed to.” He pushes the beer bottle to his lips, leaving it at that.
“You want one, too?” I don’t have to look to know that Kali's question is for Chase, and he must decline because Kali slips back around the counter, returning to the stool she had taken residence in beside me, bringing a third chocolate chip cookie to her mouth.
“Laiken,” Chase’s voice slices down the knobs of my spine. I lift my chin over my shoulder the moment he says, “Let’s go.”
Licking my dry lips, my heart leaps to my throat. “Where—” But Chase is already out the door, and my question is clipped with the slam of steel behind him.
The pallid glow piercing from Chase’s truck lights up the lilac purple of my trailer.
Night had fallen fast, the moon’s iridescence shining on the dark, fluffy clouds filled with the promise of rain.
The swarm of reporters and news anchors were long gone, at least for the night. But I had no doubt that they’d be out again tomorrow, and the day after that too, waiting for their moment to strike.
My bones tighten; my stomach aches.
Small towns had a way of sucking the life out of you. They also had a way of portraying you as someone you weren’t.
A survivor.
The girl that got away.
I was neither.
What I went through three years ago wasn’t survival, wasn’t a fight. My best friend was the only one that had fought that night.
I had been spared.
Why? I wasn’t too sure.
For how long? Onlyheknew.
“Our time is coming, Laiken.”
His words stick to the back of my throat, coated in foreboding, they curdle my stomach.
