AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I hung up and made the next call quickly before I ran out of balls to do so to a family I’d never been able to tell the truth to, always craving approval. It was time to make some big amends and beg for that scholarship for real.
Lance wasn’t half the threat he thought he was.
A deep voice I hadn't heard in far too long picked up the other end, relief seeping into me as I made my choice.
“Daddy? I have a confession to make.”
***
My divorce passed throughcourts that afternoon. It’s amazing what a few million dollars, and a lawsuit for bribery–tongue in cheek in every way–could do for speed. The millions of dollars Lance threw at the nice judge who had a penchant for minors, it seemed. He passed the few papers through that I needed signed with his name, and a few hours later his arrest filled the radio.
I didn’t have time for bullshit, bribery or bastards who thought they could get away with everything. And I wasn’t sitting back and not taking a hand in my own fate any longer.
Now the only thing missing was the boy whose heart I broke. I just didn’t know where to start looking for him.
Fortunately, my father came through there too with the written testimony of a little old lady who wasn’t backward in coming forward to defend me.
Beverly got a fresh tray of cookies too.
And I took a tray to the Kingsman house, arriving in time to find a small crowd dispersing across the enormous lawn around the house, away from the forest that bordered its other side.
Beau Bennett stood in the doorway, his arms folded across his chest and a muscle ticking in his jaw. “Batgirl. How are you?” he asked cordially, though his tone was at odds with the dark look in his eyes. Eyes that looked like murder.
Rippton’s dark horse.
And I brought the boy treats.
My lack of survival skills amazed even me.
I held out the box of cookies hesitantly. “I was looking for Xoan.” I nearly tripped over his name. “I thought I might find him here.”
He huffed at me. “See those media horses, batgirl? Go follow them. Your boyfriend ripped up Rippton’s lawn for no good reason.”
“He wanted quiet. Silence,” I murmured, tripping over myself a second time. Beau Bennett was imposing as fuck. “That’s why he went that way.”
“And because he has no fucking respect,” Beau huffed. “You wanna come up and wait for him? I’m sure he’ll be back in a while.”
I shook my head and my mouth opened but someone else answered.
“No, he won’t.”
I swallowed the same words as a scruffy looking dude wearing no shirt and bearing lean muscle as ripped as Xoan’s appeared beside Beau.
“You’re right,” I said softly. I offered the cookies again.
Beau stared at me as I placed the tray in his hand. “What the hell am I going to do with these?”
I shrugged. “For the lawn.” I started off in the direction Xoan headed, wondering how many steps it would take me to catch up, and if he’d still be wherever he headed by the time I got there.
The guy behind Beau laughed. “Go home, goth girl,” he muttered.
“Fuck you,” I called back brightly, flipping him off behind my head.
The same laugh filled my exit path again. “Gohome, goth girl,” he yelled. “That’s where I fucking sent him.”
Oops.
I sent a more friendly wave over my head and started to run, heels and boots be damned. By the time I got back to my dorm that felt like it was ten miles from the frat house, my heels ached, and my heart pounded.
