Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 89535 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 448(@200wpm)___ 358(@250wpm)___ 298(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89535 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 448(@200wpm)___ 358(@250wpm)___ 298(@300wpm)
Fucking Christ on a cracker, Rhys can’t be gone. We can’t have screwed this up already.
I spin in a circle and grip my hair. Real fear shoots through me.
This can’t be happening. This can’t be happening.
Pressure grows in my chest, and I rub my sternum to try to dull the ache.
“Hey.” The voice behind me is familiar, but not the one I’m hoping for.
I turn to find Kole, and I blink at the coincidence. “Are you following me?”
“Yes, I’m stalking you.” He lowers his voice and mutters, “Fucking hockey players and their egos.”
“Sorry. I’m not thinking clearly.”
“Are you okay?” he asks.
I glance at him and then his … what I’m assuming he calls a dog. It looks like a hellhound of some sort.
“Asher?”
I shake it off. “Uh, my brother. He …” I can’t push the words past my lips.
“Coach Dalton?”
“No. My younger brother. He’s thirteen. He went out while we were at practice, and—”
A loud laugh sounds behind us, coming from the kids’ playground. I’d know it immediately.
“Rhys?” I yell.
Then I hear, “Shit, it’s my brother,” in a loud hiss.
I charge over to the climbing tower and find two pairs of legs sticking out. Relief and anger surge through me in equal measures. I’m fully prepared to yell at Rhys for being stupid for meeting some rando, when the girl’s face comes into focus.
“Wait, I know you. You go to Rhys’s school.” I look at Rhys. “Hazel said you were with someone you met online.”
Rhys scoffs. “You really think I’m that dumb? I ain’t telling Hazel shit. She’ll tell everyone at school.”
“Go home before I call your parents,” I say to the girl, and then I eye my brother. “You need to get your ass home before West kills you. And then kills me for the fun of it.”
They both scramble away, and even though I know he’s safe, adrenaline is still kicking through me.
Taking a deep breath, I try to compose myself before I head back home. My hands tremble, and my chest burns. Ouch, no, it aches every time I suck in air.
Oh, shit, is this what a panic attack feels like?
I can’t let anything happen to my younger siblings. The thought of losing another person …
I swallow hard and wince. Everything. Fucking. Hurts.
A calming hand lands on my shoulder. “Breathe. He’s okay. It’s okay.”
I want to pull away and put my usual walls up—be the asshole I’m known to be. But I’m tired. So damn tired.
I blame it on utter exhaustion that I let Kole see me like this.
Kole sniggers, and at first I think it’s at me. My hand fists at my side, and I grit my teeth, raring for a fight, but when I lift my head, Kole’s focus is on something else. “Shit, I think you lit your brother’s ass on fire. I swear he’s leaving cartoon steam as he runs home.”
I huff and follow his gaze to where my brother is indeed running faster than I could probably skate. I take out my phone, my hands still shaking as I try to come down from the adrenaline, and message West that Rhys is on his way back.
“Your parents should sign him up for track,” Kole says.
“Mm, maybe.” I pocket my phone, and just like in the locker room earlier, my gaze rakes over Kole’s soft features.
His dirty-blond hair looks more brown in this light, but his hazel eyes are brighter.
A growling mutt nuzzles his way between us, and I jump back a bit.
“Hades, stop being such a whore,” Kole says.
I almost choke. “Uh, what?”
“He growls whenever people are paying attention to anything but him. He’s an attention whore.”
“He looks like he’d bite my hand off if I tried to pet him.”
“That’s why he wants the attention.” Kole kneels and pats his dog, who pants happily at the affection. The sight is so … pure and … the opposite of what I am.
“Strangers don’t give it to him because he looks so fierce. Who’s a fierce boy?” Kole’s baby voice is kind of adorable.
No, not adorable.
What the hell is wrong with you, Asher? Get your head together.
I need to get out of here. “I should, uh, get back home. Make sure West doesn’t kill Rhys, that the twins aren’t killing each other, and that Zoe’s calmed down from her panic attack.” My eyes widen. “Oh, wow, I just realized that’s a whole lot to dump on someone. Let’s rewind that. I’m … going home.”
Kole tilts his head. “Why do you have to do all that and not your parents?”
This is the perfect opening for me to play the woe is me card. My parents are dead. My siblings and I are orphans. If the word “orphan” doesn’t make someone uncomfortable, my blasé attitude when I say it usually does the trick, but tonight, my mouth doesn’t cooperate. I couldn’t stand to see the usual pity on Kole’s face after what just happened with Rhys.