AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He scoffs. “And you going to meet up with a murderer is?”
I don’t answer that, because he has a point, but all this leads back to me. I’m not going to let Hayes ruin himself because of it. I’ve done enough damage. All I want now is to make it better. And if this gives me any chance of getting my life back, the onewithhim, I’m going to do it.
I’ll do anything for it, and that includes risking my life.
Cam throws his head back. “The worst part is, I know if I don’t go along with it, you two are going to do it anyway.”
Mali smiles at that. “Arrogant but attentive.”
He narrows his eyes at her. “Don’t look at me like that. You’re on her side in this. You’re both assholes as far as I’m concerned.”
“But you’re in?” I ask hopefully.
His hands grip the counter, and his knuckles turn white. He absolutely hates this, but so do the rest of us. “Yeah, I’m in.”
Thank you, sweet baby Jesus.
I pick my phone up off the counter and initiate the plan I’ve been considering since the first night I caught Hayes wide awake in the middle of the night.
Okay, I can’t do it anymore. You win. Tell me where to meet you and I’ll give you anything you want.
Haveyou ever felt like you’re tightroping the line between stable and epic breakdown? You know that one wrong move will send you plummeting into the abyss, but you also know that if you stop moving, you’re fucked then, too. So, you keep taking steps, convincing yourself and everyone around you that you’re okay, and hoping like hell that you make it through alive.
That’s what my life is like at all times.
There isn’t a moment when everything calms down. There isn’t a time when I get to catch my breath. I’m forced to learn how to function in the chaos. It’s the only option I have.
I lean against the bar, pretending to listen to Finn as he talks about the perfect swells he found the other day. I really don’t have the patience for him today, especially when he asks where all thehot babesare at tonight, but he buys beer and Cam said that kicking him out is bad for business.
Sometimes, it’s good to have him as a voice of reason. Other times, I wish I could tell him to fuck off and do what I want.
“You should’ve seen it, bruh,” Finn goes on. “The tube was killer!”
He turns his phone around to show me a picture that his friend took, and I’m so worn out that I don’t even think to stop myself before I laugh.
“Dude, that shit closed before you even went into it. It’s no wonder you wiped out.”
Finn rolls his eyes, clicking off the phone and putting it down on the bar. “Whatever. The waves here are shit anyway.”
Nowthatis the first true thing that he’s said all night. “You should head over to Cali. It’s much better surfing there.”
“Nah, can’t,” he says. “I used to live there, and I’ve got a few outstanding warrants out that way. If I go back, I get locked up.”
My mouth goes dry. “Uh, what?”
He shrugs like it’s no big deal. “Just some bullshit charges. Nothing massive.”
The way he talks about it makes me want to believe him, but if I’ve learned anything lately it’s that you believe nothing and question everything. I take out my phone and send a text to our group chat.
Look into Finn. Apparently, he has “a few warrants” on the west coast. Might be nothing, but it’s worth looking into.
As I put down my phone, I pick my head back up and see him watching me. It’s a little creepy, but then again, he’s not the most normal of guys. Cam thinks he’s just bored and has no friends, and maybe he’s right. Or maybe he’ssobored that he needs something to entertain him.
My phone dings, and I’m expecting it to be an answer to the message I sent, but it’s not. Instead, it’s from the one person I don’t want to hear from right now. It also rules out Finn for the most part because he’s right in front of me, with his phone face down on the bar.
It’s 10 p.m. Do you know where your wife is?
I feel my stomach twist as a picture comes in. It’s of Laiken, standing in the middle of a cemetery, and she’s all alone.
