Page 3 of Ruined

Chapter Two

Adelaide

My head was throbbing, and the taste of stale vomit lingered on my tongue, not to mention it felt like I’d chewed on fucking cotton balls all night.

Fuck, I had partied way too hard.

I slowly ripped my eyes open and cursed softly as I quickly took in my surroundings.

This certainly wasn’t the fucking clubhouse.

Normally, I woke up with Joey’s arm thrown over my waist as he snored next to me, even if we were on the outs because he didn’t like leaving me alone when I was wasted. But Joey wasn’t anywhere to be found.

Heneverleft me alone after a night of partying.

So, where the fuck was I?

The bedroom door opened as I began to push myself up into a sitting position, my head spinning at the movement, nausearising fast in my throat. I swallowed it back down, a master at keeping myself from getting sick after so many nights of losing myself at the bottom of a liquor bottle.

Tristan strode into the room, a disgruntled scowl settled on his features. Rage rose hot and fast in my veins. Why the fuck was Ihere? Hell, why the fuck washehere?

Fucking hell, I hadn’t seen him in three years, not since he had ripped my heart out and stomped all over it in his steel-toed, black boots on my eighteenth birthdayat my birthday partythathehad organized for me.

I hadn’t even seen him at my best friend’s funeral—histwin’sfuneral.

“Morning, Addy,” he roughly greeted, shooting a devilish smirk my way that still had my stomach twisting into knots. Fury laced through my veins at myself.

Christ, he couldn’t really still be able to affect me like this, could he? It was unfair. Life was fucking unfair. And half the time, I felt like it was laughing at me right in my face.

I didn’t want to feel anything for Tristan but anger and hatred. Why did he still have the power to affect me so deeply?

“Why am I here?” I demanded to know, wincing when the sound of my voice just made my head hurt so much worse than it already did.

Tristan silently strode over to me and grabbed a bottle of medicine off the nightstand and a bottle of water. Different emotions swirled in my gut—fear, hatred, wariness.

Confusion.

He had thought about how I would feel when I woke up, enough to set medicine and water near me so I would have quick access to it when I was finally awake.

I hated that it made me long for more of that care. Tristan had never been this attentive when we were together. He just took care of me, but I had been hopelessly in love with him back then. So in love that I overlooked how bad of a boyfriend he was.

“Here,” Tristan gruffly spoke up, holding out two pills and the now opened bottle of water.

Silently, I took the medicine because my head was hurting too bad to refuse him, keeping my eyes steady with his. I didn’t care how he made me feel. I was herebecauseof him. That much was clear. I wanted to know why the fuck I wasn’t with the Sons of Hell. With Joey. “Well?” I demanded.

He shrugged. “I found out that for the last three years, you’ve been with Joey’s crew,” he informed me, anger twisting his handsome features into a snarl, but he didn’t intimidate me. Instead, I only grew angrier at the fact thathethought he hadanyright to be pissed about what I’d been doing with my life whenhewas the one that brutally ripped my heart and soul apart and left me fuckingstranded.

“I brought you back here where you belong.” I opened my mouth to snap at him, but he kept going, not giving me a chance. “Why the fuck were you with Joey’s club?” he snarled down at me.

“Because three years ago on my fucking birthday, Tristan, you fucking ripped my goddamn heart out,” I bitterly reminded him. His face paled slightly at my words, and his Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. “I wanted you to hurt as much as you’ve hurt me,” I admitted angrily. “So, I fucking betrayed youby joining the one fucking crew you can’tstand,” I lied. In all reality, Joey had offered me a night of fun, and I’d taken it with both hands, just wanting to forget about my heartbreak.

But later that night, when he had gotten ready to drop me off at home and saw where I lived, he just shook his head and drove back off, not even letting me attempt to get out of his vehicle.

“I’m not letting you stay in a fucking trap house. Not when you’re of legal age now,”Joey had told me. “You’re coming home with me.”

“What the hell?!” I shouted at him as he drove off so fast, my back slammed against the seat. “Joey, turn back around! I’m not going home with you!”

He turned those dark eyes on me, settling the unease in my gut. I didn’t know how he did it, but those dark eyes had been soothing me all night. “Pretty girl, you’re eighteen now. Any man in that house could now take you, and you’d probably lose the rape case because men get away with that shit all of the time. I won’t let you be a victim.”

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