Page 46 of I Was Born Ruined (Death by Daybreak MC 1)
“He’s throwing a party,” Dena continues, oblivious to her own clichéd nature. She tosses her hair over one shoulder and looks at me in challenge. “Starts at eight. Can you get us some rock candy to play with?” She bats her lashes at me, and I narrow my eyes.
“Rock candy?” I ask, but I already know what she wants: drugs. It’s pretty fucking obvious. “You mean, like those colored sugar sticks kids make in science class?”
“I mean coke,” Dena says, popping out a hip and looking at me triumphantly. “And I don’t mean soda.”
“Nobody calls coke rock candy,” I reply in a low, sultry tone, flicking my cigarette into the bushes. One of the administrators pauses near the entrance to the courtyard and looks suspiciously in my direction, but I just smile politely at her and she walks on. Even the teachers know who my father is. “And no, I won’t be going to the party.”
“You can still get us some though, can’t you?” Dena asks, but I’m already walking away. I don’t know where I’m going exactly, but I feel the sudden need to move far, far away from this spot. Maybe I’ll cut class early and head over to the vet clinic to check on Fem? He’s doing okay, as okay as a dog who got his leg shot off can be. He’ll forever be a three-legged dog, but at least he’s alive and that’s what matters.
Unconditional love, on tap.
I walk a little faster, but Dena keeps pace with me, Chardou and Amiya trailing along behind her.
“Come on, Gidget,” she says, her voice getting this edge to it that says she rarely, if ever, hears the word no—from anyone. “We just want a little, just enough to get messed up for the night. It’s senior year, for fuck’s sake.”
I head across the hall and out the front entrance to see Grainger waiting on his bike.
Jesus.
My head swims, and I feel dizzy all of a sudden. But I’ll be damned if I let him know that. Ignoring Dena, I march right up to him and meet those gorgeous eyes of his, waiting for him to push his shades up into his ruddy hair so he can stare at me.
He was going to let me die; he stood there and watched as Cat pulled the trigger.
The heat in my heart and the lust in my loins, those fruits wither on the damn branch.
“Take me to the vet clinic to check on my dog,” I command, my voice full of quiet menace. Grainger doesn’t say anything, just looks past me to the three girls standing on the brick sidewalk in front of the high school. They’re staring at him like one might examine a brightly colored caterpillar with red stripes, or a tree frog covered in purple spots. Exotic, pretty, fascinating … deadly. Do not touch. Except for me. Except for stupid, stupid me.
“Ruination,” I grumble under my breath. Grainger hears me, I think, but he can’t possibly guess where the train of my thoughts is coming from or where it’s headed. He waits for me to climb up behind him and wrap my arms around his heat-soaked leather vest.
“Catch ya later, Gidge!” Dena calls out, and Grainger snorts.
“Really? Those are the sort of girls you hang around with?” he asks, and I get the strongest urge to throw him from his bike, so I can take off on it by myself. I wouldn’t get very far though, no. I’d be hunted down like a fox racing from a pack of coonhounds.
“Well,” I tell him as I climb on and he kickstarts the engine, the rumble of the metal beast between my thighs making my blood sing. Fuck. As much as I hate to admit, I’m a daughter of the club, and no matter how far or how fast I run, it’ll always be there, tainting my soul a filthy black. “The thing is, if Cat or the Grey Wolfe Mafia decide to kill them, I won’t exactly be heartbroken.”
Grainger snorts, and takes off from the curb in a peel of rubber.
The wind tangles my hair as I keep my cheek pressed to the patch on the back of Grainger’s leather vest, drinking in the rare and brief visit from the hot, hot sun, tasting a storm on the wind. It’ll come soon and wipe away all this sunshine.
For a while, I keep my eyes closed, enjoying the swerve of the bike beneath me, the way it hugs the road and kisses the curves. But when I open them, I realize we are in no way headed for the veterinary clinic. No, we’re heading for the clubhouse.
Panic overtakes me, like a bird fluttering frightened wings inside my chest.
“What are we doing here?” I ask as Grainger pulls up to the front gate, slows, and waits for whoever’s on duty to let us in. They know who the fuck he is, so we’re waved through pretty quickly, heading up the winding driveway into the trees.
