Page 7 of Soulless Saint

Spoiler alert: I was pretty fucking sure he was.

Scorpio, a tiny, scared voice whispered in my mind. Definitely a Scorpio.

He revved the Bronco engine, eyes fixed to me through the windshield, and I stumbled back as he floored it, foolishly afraid he was going to hop the sidewalk and run me down.

My purse rang loudly, and I cursed as he sped past, digging into the abyss to find it. Ava Jade’s ringtone, the live version of one of her duets with Primal Ethos blared into the morning air, slicing through all the angst of a minute before.

As soon as I lifted it from my bag, it slipped from my fingers onto the sidewalk and I yelped as someone walking by stepped on it.

“Shit. Shit, I’m so sorry,” the guy said, bending at the same time as me to pick it up. I snatched it from his fingers with a growl on my lips.

“Watch where you’re walking,” I barked, making him reel back with a snide remark on his lips as he walked away and I answered the call just before it could go to voicemail.

“Aves?”

Something sharp bit into my finger as her voice came through and I suppressed a cry of pain, pulling my phone back from my ear to see the screen was good and smashed.

“Hey, Becks!”

I clenched my teeth.

“Becks?”

I lifted the phone back to my ear more carefully, hating how my eyes instantly watered with frustrated tears. “Hey, girl, how’s the tour?”

“It’s a tour,” she said. “Being stuck in a tiny ass bus with this fucker isn’t exactly the glamourous rock star life you’re picturing.”

“You fucking love it,” I heard Corvus grumble somewhere near her and, I could practically feel the sexual tension coming through the phone line.

“Mmhmmm,” I joked, agreeing with Corvus, though I knew she probably missed her other guys. While she was off on tour with Corvus, Rook and Grey were helping Diesel take care of shit back in Thorn Valley. Making sure no other gang would ever so much as lay a toe in their territory again.

“Whatever,” Ava Jade said with a laugh on her lips and I could see her eye roll as though she was right here with me. Fuck if I didn’t wish she was. “Enough about the tour. How’s SoCal? When do you start classes again?”

“Tomorrow.”

“How’s that Airbnb you found?”

I cringed at the lie. Aves knew my dad cut me off, but I made it sound a lot less desperate of a situation than it really was. Just because she inherited a buttload of money from her aunt didn’t mean I was going to let her pay my way, no matter how many times she insisted.

“Uh, I wound up at a motel,” I said with a swallow. “The Airbnb fell through.”

It wasn’t entirely a lie. I had been looking into an Airbnb the last time we talked, but they wanted over a grand for the week. The motel cost me fifteen bucks a night.

“A motel?” Her tone changed.

“It’s really not that bad,” I lied again, trying to make it true. “It’s in a nicer area and the bed’s cozy. There are locks on the door.”

I was sure she’d slept in far worse places and didn’t complain at all.

Though she also knew how to incapacitate a man a hundred different ways. I didn’t, but it was something I’d decided to become committed to learning if it meant being able to sleep through the night again after what happened.

“That’s it, I’m cash apping you.”

“No,” I all but snapped, inhaling deep through my nose to regain control, a caffeine deprivation migraine forming behind my eyes. “Sorry,” I muttered. “I just… I feel like I need to do this myself, you know?”

A long silence filled the other end of the line, punctuated by a soft sigh. “Yeah. I know. Just promise me that if you get stuck or you need help, you’ll call?”

“Promise.”

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