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I swing the bat repeatedly, beating the car I once loved to bits. With each one, I picture my dad and how pissed he’ll be when he sees it. The look I know will be on his face only fuels my fire. I do it for me. I do it for Delaney. I do it to remind him that he’s not the one in charge here—not anymore.
“Oh my God! I can’t watch this.” Colby covers his eyes like a big baby.
By the time I’m done, there isn’t a single inch of the beauty undamaged. I toss the bat to the ground and pull the tube of red lipstick out of my pocket. Uncapping it, I apply the color to my lips and then write my message on the dented hood.
Here’s your car. Go fuck yourself.
I bend down to kiss the hood, leaving my signature in a lipstick kiss.
21
ASHER
“I’m sorry, you let her do what?” I shout into the phone.
Colby sighs. “Well, I didn’t let her do it, per se. I didn’t know what she was planning on doing until she did it.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose, taking a deep breath. Leave it to my best friend to call me like it’s no big deal and tell me that Tessa just took a baseball bat to her $400,000 car. I can hear her in the background, chuckling in the same way she did when watched her uncle’s house go up in flames.
“Why didn’t you try to stop her?”
He snorts. “Have you met her? If I had tried to get in her way, she probably would have beat me too.”
I groan, knowing he’s right. “Okay, well, get her back to my place and don’t let her leave.”
“He’s so bossy,” Tessa murmurs, and I find relief in the fact that at least she’s still talking.
Colby assures me that there will be no more destruction for the day and we get off the phone. I toss the device onto my desk and rubs my hands over my face. To say I’m worried about her would be a massive understatement. It’s like she’s completely unraveling right in front of me and there’s nothing I can do about it.
Well, that’s a lie. There is something I can do, something I plan on doing. I just hope it helps.
TESSA SITS IN THE back of the Range Rover, trying to squeeze information out of Colby for the millionth time since we got in the car. She has no idea where we’re going, or what we’re going to be doing there, and I like it that way. It’s a Saturday afternoon, and being as there’s no school on Monday, I figured this weekend would be the perfect time.
“Oh, come on. Can’t you just give me a clue?” she whines. “Wait, are you two turning me in? I can’t go to jail, Asher. I’m strong, but I’m not prison strong. I’d become someone’s bitch for a Snickers.”
Colby laughs in the passenger seat, unable to contain himself. “A Snickers? Really? That’s all it takes?”
She leans back and crosses her arms over her chest. “You’d be amazed what I’d be willing to do for the finer things in life.”
He looks over at me. “Is that what you did? Gave her candy?”
I arch a brow at him with a scowl on my face that only amuses him even more.
“What? It’s fitting, being as you keep saying she’s too young for you.”
“Fuck you,” I grumble.
Tessa giggles in the back seat, and my eyes meet hers through the rearview mirror. She smirks in a way that tells me I’m not going to like what comes out of her mouth next. Just before I can tell her not to, she opens her mouth anyway.
“Asher hates when I have candy,” she tells Colby. “Ask him what I can do with a lollipop.”
A strangled sound leaves my mouth, and Colby straightens in his seat excitedly.
“Oh, I want to know!”
I reach up and pull my sunglasses over my eyes, then I raise the volume on the music. “We’re not talking about it.”
“You’re such a buzzkill!” They both whine in unison, making me groan.
