Tade and Landon peel Aiden off until he stumbles to a stand.
Forcefully, he shoves his boys off him and comes at me, gathering me up in his arms, then plants his liquored lips against mine like a battle with our mouths. Teeth gnawing. Biting. Fingers groping, tangling in my hair. My hands can’t even push him away. I’m dizzy from lack of oxygen by the time he pulls back and holds me out for everyone in the bar to see.
The crowd is silent, waiting for his announcement, with Talon wallowing on the floor.
“Let it be known. Ashlyn Donovan ismine. She’s property of Aiden Cardell. No one is to touch her or even fuckinglookat her.Do you all understand?Spread the word.”
With every ounce of mustered ire, I let my palm fly across his face and slap the shit out of him. He glares at me.
His eyes flash, hand snapping toward me?—
But I’m already gone, the crowd parting as I vanish out into the street.
The cold night air cuts across my cheeks as I march toward theOmegaHouse parking lot. My pulse is still hammering from the slap, from the way his mouth crushed mine like he could brand me with it.
I dig my keys out with shaking fingers, slide behind the wheel, and slam the door hard enough to make the glass rattle.
Engine on. Headlights slicing through the dark.
I don’t look back toward the bar. Not because I don’t want to, but because if I see him standing there, I might turn around.
The roads out of town are half-empty, blacktop unfurling toward Gnarled Pine Hollow. My dad’s already texted twice to make sure I’ll be safe and arrivetonightinstead of showing up for Thanksgiving tomorrow, probably imagining Talon riding shotgun like the perfect son-in-law he wants him to be.
Talon Moretti.
Caliphylla divine, my father would toast him in front of the whole table just for the Moretti name. Mafia ties are a dinner conversation where I come from. Mainly for some favor he owes his uncle. Or cousin. Some type of casino thing I don’t understand. Nor do I want to…
Because my mind’s not on Talon.
No. As the highway lights blur past in a whirr, the lights of opening night at Crest return to me.
Second summer back at Crest…
Two more to go.
We’ve been circling each other all night, teasing from opposite ends of the campfire crowd while fireworks cracked over the lake. Until a hand slips into mine and tugs me into the woods.
We run, giggling, panting, and hiding behind broad oak trunks. Our spot grows closer with every sprinted step. The creak of the cedar dock aches with familiar groans as my boat shoes glide over it. Fishy smells of lake water and the dust of gunpowder thicken the air. Water waves like a black sheet spread before us, the ripples dancing under bursts of colorful lights high above us in the starlit sky.
My heart pounds against my ribs, and not from the run around Lake Crest. I didn’t know how I would greet Aiden once we were alone. Not after slyly messaging him online for a year and sneakily video calling him whenever my parents were asleep.
I’m already spoken for. Future mapped out, neat and ugly.I’m to be traded to a mafia heir’s son, not tangled up with a billionaire’s pretty boy from the city. And from what I know, Aiden’s parents would never approve of a girl from Gnarled Pine Hollow with an expunged record and too many sharp edges.
I’m not a match. I’m a risk.
“Hi,” I whisper when he pulls me in front of him.
His steel gaze stares me down as if he thinks I’m going to disappear.
“You finally grew some tits.”
I gasp, shove his chest as he laughs and pulls me closer.
“Not big ones, but you’re still a baby.”
“I’m not a baby,” I say through a laugh.
“No, I guess you’re not. All fourteen now. Big girl.” His smile fades into seriousness.“Bet you have a boyfriend...”