Page 6 of Heart Sick Hate

I already know Crew won’t tell him anything.

We’ll continue this dance like we always do until he finally throws me off a building and puts me out of my misery.

“You okay?” Maren follows me into the hallway. “I didn’t realize Sage was being literal when he said try not to kill each other.”

“I’m fine.” I pull out my phone. “Just need a second.”

She nods, her dark curls doing a shimmy as she does. I only met her a few months ago, but she’s quickly becoming one of my closest friends.

Guess that’s not difficult when I don’t have any.

Maren leans against the wall and pulls out her phone while she waits for me to make my call. It’s one of thethings I appreciate most about her. She won’t ask what happened unless I offer it up.

The phone rings only once before Rhett picks up.

“I broke your brother’s nose,” I say before he gets a chance to even say hello.

“Crew?”

“Obviously.”

Adam is too busy running the Kingsley empire and spending time with his girlfriend, Lakeyn.

There’s a long pause on the other end of the line, broken with a giant laugh that finally bursts out of him. “You’re serious?”

“He deserved it.”

“Oh, I have no doubt about that.” Rhett can barely speak through his choked laughing. “I can’t wait to hear that story. But I gotta go, so catch me up later, okay?”

Of course he has to go. He always has to go. I might be his girlfriend, but it doesn’t mean I rank on his scale of importance. Especially when it’s all for show.

“Just thought you should know.” I hang up, annoyed.

I’ve made my fair share of bad decisions in my life, but involving myself with the Kingsley family is the dumbest of them all. Saints and villains raised in their dark, haunted house. Minds as twisted as their morals.

If I thought I escaped the hands of the devil when Dad found me, the Kingsley family proved me wrong.

Demons never let you truly disappear from their sight.

I spin the ring that sits on my left hand around my finger, wishing it could ground me. It’s all the purity I haveleft, and soon it won’t matter. I’m not sure it even matters now that my fate is already sealed. But a girl can hope.

“Ready?” Maren stops at my side when I tuck my phone into my purse.

No.

But I roll my shoulders back and nod. Today isn’t about my uncertainty, or Crew being a jerk, or the avalanche of promises caving in on themselves. It’s about our friend, and that’s all that matters.

Maren knocks on the door across the hall from Crew’s apartment and Jude answers. He and Maren share their usual snide comments before he lets us in and disappears to go find the guys. I should probably care that it suddenly feels like time is skipping, but my hearing is fuzzy, and my mind is scrambled.

Something about what Crew said sits like lead inside me. It forces me to pay attention to things I’d rather ignore.

Choices.

I pop a piece of gum in my mouth and try to bury the thought, bouncing a step as I follow Maren into Fel’s apartment. There’s no going back. I may not like the path straight ahead, but I know better than to veer off course.

“You look like a fairytale princess.” Maren’s voice snaps me back to reality just as I almost run into her.

She’s stopped in the doorway to Fel’s bedroom as Fel spins around.

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