Prologue
Going for a ride
knew this was going to happen. From the second I thought of the plan, this was the ending. There was no rewriting it. There was no calling back on fate to try again. This wasn’t some cheap board game to play during a power outage in a storm on the beach by candlelight,.
It was all predetermined.
And for me…
The door slowly opens.
I shut my eyes and roll over.
“She’s still sleeping,” Noah says.
“Wake her ass up,” Easton growls.
“Nah, let her sleep,” Xavier says.
“Why?” Easton asks.
“Xavier is right,” Noah says. “Let her wake up on her own. She’ll have that sense of comfort for a second and then… boom.”
They all laugh.
Boom? What does boom mean?
Boom can mean a lot of things.
Mostly bad, of course.
In this case it has to be bad.
There is no good boom with Noah, Easton, and Xavier.
They’re going to…
The door shuts.
I roll back over and open my eyes.
I stare at the door.
Slowly, I start to sit up.
I tell myself there’s got to be a way out of the room but I know that won’t work.
Worse part is I don’t even know where I am.
I forget where I am.
How ironic is that, right?
The girl who did all she could to fake losing her memory now doesn’t know where she is.
“Well played,” I whisper.
Who am I talking to?
I don’t know.
Maybe myself. Maybe the universe.
Maybe I would be better off just showing them I was awake and I wasn’t afraid.
Eventually someone has to come looking for me, right?
I think about the list of people who care about me…
It’s a short list.
I can only blame myself for that.
There’s Gia.
She has to come looking for me.
Last she knew I was going with the guys to the ‘look how rich I am’ ball. I wonder how long it would take her to get scared. How many calls? How many texts? How many days would have to go by? And even then… I’m not sure who she’d tell.
I would need my mother to do something. She would have to be the one to get involved big time.
Does she even care about me?
“This is bad,” I whisper.
After my mother, there’s my father.
But we know he’s far away right now.
He’s still under the impression I have no memory too. That means he would end up just convincing himself that I was confused and lost. He would look, sure, but he wouldn’t look in the right spot.
I was screwed.
Big time screwed.
I climb out of the big bed in the big room and walk to the big door.
I’m going to take them on.
All of them.
All three.
They were the ones who attacked first.
They were the ones who messed with Tank and tried to kill me.
It’s not breaking news that I want revenge.
So I faked losing my memory to get close to them and hurt them.
Big deal.
It wasn’t like I did… much…
I’m standing in the middle of the floor when the door opens again.
Xavier steps into the room.
He’s alone.
“Winter,” he says.
“Xavier,” I say.
He looks back and slowly shuts the door.
When he walks closer to me, I don’t make a move.
His hands reach for my face.
He touches my face and to my shock… he kisses me.
His lips against mine.
Filling me with warmth.
I don’t want to like the warmth, but I secretly do.
I want to pull away, but can’t.
Xavier finally does.
He then puts his lips to my ear.
I shut my eyes.
I have no idea what’s going through my body.
He takes a deep breath.
“It’s all over,” he whispers.
“What is?” I whisper back.
Xavier laughs. “Your life.”
Chapter 1
The new place
I felt a hand touch my shoulder.
I gasped and jumped up in the bed.
My head slammed against the ceiling and I fell back down.
“Oh, fuck, darling,” Talon’s voice said.
I let out a whimper and touched my forehead.
I waited for a second for the golf-ball sized bruise to pop out of my forehead.
“Talon?” I asked.
The room was really dark.
“I’m right here,” he said.
“Turn on a light,” I said.
I listened to him jump from the bunkbed to the wooden floor.
The light made a click sound and half the bedroom was lit up.
I looked around the room and groaned.
The sight and smell hit me again.
A stark reminder of where I was and why I was there.
Talon jumped at the bunk bed and pulled himself up with ease.
He climbed into the bed with me.
I pulled the covers to my chin and kicked my feet at him.
“Other side of the bed,” I said.
“I know,” he said. “Calm your panties. If I wanted to make a move, I would have in the dark. Especially tonight.”
“What time is it?”
“It’s like two,” he said.
“Why are you awake?”
“Two is early for me,” he said. “I’m like a vampire. Want to see my fangs?”
He opened his mouth and laughed.
I swallowed hard. “I’m not in the mood for laughing.”
“I’m just trying to help. You were making a lot of noise.”
“What kind of noise?” I asked.
“Groans. Moans. You were rolling around too. Then you whimpered.”
“You heard that?”
“All of it,” Talon said. “I was just coming in to check on you. Like I said I would. I kept my promise.”
“You’re earning your paycheck,” I said.
“Speaking of which…”
Talon rubbed his thumb to his middle and pointer fingers on right hand.
“Yeah, I know,” I said. “I will pay you when I get back to the beach house.”
“Which is when?” he asked.
“I don’t know yet,” I said. “Got it?”
Talon inched forward. “Don’t think this is me being nice. There’s a time limit to my work before the getting paid thing.”
I looked around the room. “I mean, you’ve treated me so nice. What room is this?”
Talon laughed. “Sorry it’s not a mansion. This is the Troc version of a guest bedroom.”
“Bunkbeds?” I asked. “And ones these tall with the ceiling so low?”
“Better than sleeping on the street,” he said. “How’s your head?”
“Fine,” I said. “Just a bump.”
“You are a Bump,” he said.
“Oh. Good one.”
“What were you dreaming about?”
“None of your business,” I said.
“Two predictions.”
“I don’t care,” I said.