Page 74 of War and his Queen

“Vaden in the front!” I fling the back door open and slide in.

River glares at me from the other side of the car, hesitating whether she wants to sit near me. Don’t blame her. I’m not the greatest person to be around when I’m pissed. “Get in the back, River.”

She nods, jumping through the side to get to theveryback. Stella doesn’t argue, following her.

Halen finally saddles in beside me, shutting the door and blanketing us all in darkness, except for the lights on the LED dash.

“Where the fuck are we going?” I turn to her, ignoring the impulse to wrap my fingers around her delicate neck.

Vaden turns in his chair to get her attention.

My knee continues to bounce as I rest my head back against the chair, squeezing my eyes closed.

“Where?” A simple word from someone like Vaden and she spills her guts.

“Highway 88.”

My head snaps to her. “What the fuck! Why the fuck were you on Highway 88?” For whatever reason, we thought they were in the back streets of Riverside. Fuck. I gotta GPS this bitch ASAP.

She ignores me.

Priest turns the music on.

“Hale, you need to saysomething.”I don’t miss the perplexity in Stella’s tone when she sayssomething.

“Well, shit, someone better say fucking something!”

Vaden’s taps on his phone, finding the cleaner.

Leaning over, I unbuckle Halen’s belt and drag her over to the middle seat. It’d be my lap, but hand… throat… rage.

“War…” She quivers and just like that, all the wrath I’d felt build up over the past week diminishes.A little.

She blinks up at me from below and a tear slips from the corner of her eye. “I can’t—”

“Something,” Stella urges quietly.

“You’re not so slick with the undertones, Stella.” I catch Halen’s chin with my thumb. “What is it?” When a tear falls on the top of my thumb, I slide my arm around her waist and pull her in closer.

She takes a deep breath. “You’re going to be mad. All of you. This is bad—it’s so much.”

“Yeah, well, I’m pretty fucking mad at you right now, so I doubt it can get worse.”

She huffs.

Stella clears her throat.

River moans a little.

My fucking stomach drops because, what the fuck could she have possibly done?

She swipes her tears and shakes off her sadness. “I did something.”

Silence.

I catch Priest’s eyes in the rearview mirror, and he holds my stare for a second before going back to the road.

“Do you remember that one winter when everyone got snowed in, in Perdita so the jet couldn’t run? The mothers were in Milan.”

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