“Are you excited to see your sister?”
“Ecstatic.” Solid sarcasm.
“You know, it’s not weak to admit you’re not okay.”
“Is that so?”
“I’m just trying to be nice.”
Nandi snorts a bitter laugh. “Sure.”
I’ve had about as much as I can take. I tried to be kind to her. Repeatedly. Now I’m all out of olive branches. “What is your problem?” I hug myself against the chill in the air, my freshly showered skin sensitive to the change in temperature despite the warmth of Fang’s sweater. “We just want to help you, Nandi, but you act as though you can’t stand us all. Like it’s our fault you got caught up in all of this.” The realization smacks me in the face. “As though you’re mad at us that youleft.”
“Why don’t you shut the fuck up, Jenna,” she shouts, finally facing me.
An awkward hush falls over the yard.
“You want to know what my problem is? It’s you, thinking you fucking know it all. Walking around here like you’re better than us. Like you need special treatment.”
“I’m not?—“
“I’m not finished,” she snaps, stiff finger directed toward my face. “Youknowwhat happened to Mary-Beth. You were right fucking next to her that night. And you aren’t talking, which makes me think you’re more involved than you admit.”
My heart pounds, palms clammy. I notice Fang in my periphery, watching as Nandi skates dangerously close to the truth.
“So why the fuck would I want to talk to you?” she asks, not expecting an answer. “Of all the fucking women here, you’d be the last one I said a goddamn thing to about how I really feel. I’d even talk to The Kid before I said a word to you.”
“That’s enough,” Darla says, stepping in.
“I’m fucking done anyway.” Nandi fends off her touch and spins for the van.
I cast my eye over the shocked and concerned stares of the other women, and shrink when my gaze hits the men. I feel exposed. Hunted. They smell blood in the water, and I’m the only one with an open wound in this moment.
Chaos turns his back to me, leaning close to Fang to murmur something in his ear. My keeper fixes his gaze on me and nods to his president.
This is it. This is where they turn.
My emergency exit strategy just became priority one.
“I’m sorry,” I mutter, breaking for the house. I need to leave. To get the fuck out of here. I need to vanish off the face of the earth for a while, and I need…nothing from the clubhouse.I have no possessions. No items to gather.
Not even a phone.
My feet make a noticeable crunch in the gravel when I come to an abrupt halt.
Right in the fucking middle of everyone.Shit.
“Got a minute, Freckles?” Fang closes in from my left.
The door on the van slides shut with a loud scrape of metal, Mila and Nandi tucked away, ready to escape this hell.
“You and me need to talk some more.” He crowds my shoulder, using his body to intimidate and control.
The women return indoors, one by one.
I have no friends.
“I never wanted to do it,” I confess, chin quivering.
