Page 83 of Owen

He catches up with me and grabs the top of my arm with a punishing grip.

Uncurling his hand from around my biceps, I blow out. “Get your fucking hands off me.” My words are raw and angry, and I square up to him, meeting him fierce eye to fierce eye and broad chest to broad chest as I find the strength. “Let the business go. It’s a toxic, deadly poison. It has destroyed our bloodline and ruined not only your life but hers, too.” I jut my head in my mother’s direction. “Do you remember who you were before her? Or did you have the same shitty upbringing I did? Huh? Was it her that turned you into a heartless, spineless cunt, or were you already one?”

Something I can’t quite put my finger on flashes behind his eyes. “You get used to it after a while,” he replies, his tone changing as if he’s completely deflated.

Maybe he was capable of love once, but somehow he lost himself along the way. Then I remember the words Jade’s loving mother, Mari, spoke to me.Don’t play the game. Change it.“I’m not playing your games anymore. This is my life now and I don’twant you orherin it. Fuck the business and fuck you.” I shove his chest, pushing him away from me.

I glance at my mother for a second to discover she’s wiping tears off her usually stony face.

Shit, things must be bad.

“You won’t get a second chance with me, son,” he snarls.

“I don’t care.”

Crazily furious for allowing them to ruin my beautiful afternoon with my girls, I walk away as his spiteful voice follows me until it’s just noise in the distance.

And before I know what’s happening, my feet are running.

Away from my past and into my future.

To Jade.

To Poppy.

To the only people that make sense.

24

JADE

We leave tomorrow morning.

It’s been an eventful month.

And an even more eventful week.

It’s not been a terrible week; however, it hasn’t been a pleasant week either.

Everything between Owen and me is good; no, great, although between his parents showing up, the Cobra debacle, and the pressure to perform the premier of our display earlier today, I’m exhausted and feel like I could sleep for a month.

The team smashed it today, and I smiled so wide I thought I might split my face with glee when we landed and I kissed my lucky poppy stone so hard. It can only mean one thing: the rest of the year is going to be a success.

Contentment rests easily in my bones, and I let out a blissful sigh.

With a white towel wrapped around his waist, Owen ambles through into the bedroom, and I watch as he rubs his longer sun-bleached hair with a towel to dry it.

“You’ll damage your hair drying it like that and make it frizzy.”

He smiles leisurely. “Oh yeah, how should I dry it?”

“Blot and squeeze it, don’t rub it, or you’ll get split ends.” I love his long hair.

“I was thinking of going short again.” He runs his fingers through his locks. “I only grew it because of, you know,she who shall not be named.” His goosebumped flesh makes him shiver, and he pulls a grimacing face, making me laugh.

He really doesn’t like that girl, Evangeline. And she was a girl, not a woman. She was far too young to get married at twenty-one.

I rub the back of my head against the pillow, shaking it in disapproval. “Keep it. I like it long.”

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