Free Evanescent by Addison Moore Page B

in
different place, but circumstances have changed. People change.
You’ll never win her back.”
    My blood courses through my veins, heavy and
toxic as concrete. It takes everything in me not to strangle
him.
    “I’m bringing her to the woods,” I assert.
He can shove it up his ass if he doesn’t like it.
    “You’re a fool. There’s another girl for
you, Wesley—it’s not Laken. I promise you this. Things will not end
well if you refuse to heed my warning.” His eyes squint out a false
smile. He’s reveling in my misery—tossing Flanders in my face so
subtly he thinks I haven’t noticed.
    I lunge at him and grab onto his ears with
both hands. I thrash his head over the edge of the pool with the
zeal of a cage fighter. Blood trickles down his temple as a smooth
line of crimson escapes his nose. Demetri rumbles out a dull laugh
before disintegrating right between my fingers.
    He never dies.
    He always wins.
    Worst of all, he’s always right.
    I dip down under the water.
    He won’t be right this time. Laken and I
will be together in the end even if I have to deal with Flanders
myself.
     

     
    As if the day weren’t running on crap fumes
already, I see Jones’s ugly mug staring back at me from my
phone.
    Shit. The last person I want to speak to is
Laken’s overprotective uncle.
    I pick up as I head into Henderson. All I
really want is to get in the shower and hit the sheets—forget about
the nightmare that happened earlier at the pool.
    “Yo,” I say, less than enthused to be
chatting it up with Jones. Way to end this mindfuck of a day. Maybe
I should call Laken after and see if she wants to hang out. She can
kiss all of my emotional boo-boos and make me feel better. Just
being with Laken—thinking of Laken, makes me feel better.
    “Rumor has it the Spectators are joining
forces.” He quips into my ear while over annunciating his P’s and
C’s. “Rival clans are banding together. We could have a real
problem if you don’t act. Do you have your boy on it?”
    “Not yet.” I don’t fill him in on the fact
I’m not too fond of my boy at the moment—that he might be
trying to steal my girl . “I might take this one up on my
own.”
    “You don’t say?” He chuckles into the
phone.
    I shake my head as I hit the door to my
room.
    “Well, it was nice knowing you, kid.” He
breathes heavily into the receiver. “Look, what do I have to do to
knock some sense into you?”
    I flick the lights on to find a very naked,
and amply endowed, Kresley Fisher on my bed with a red velvet bow
tied snug around her waist.
    “Shit,” I hiss into the phone. “Look, I
gotta run. I’ve got a girl in my bed I’ve got to deal with.”
    “Laken?”
    “No.”
    “Good. Keep it that way.” The line goes dead
as I toss my phone on my desk.
    “Aren’t you going to shut the door?” She
purrs, stretching out her long, tanned legs. Kresley pushes her
hips from side to side, slipping her thighs open just enough to let
me see the promise land.
    “No need. You’re leaving.” I pull off my
coat and shoes, plucking a fresh pair of boxers from my dresser
before turning on the shower. “I said, leave .” It charges
from me a little harsher than intended. A few guys poke their heads
into the room and break out into a fit of laughter before heading
down the hall.
    “You bastard.” Kres hustles her sweater back
on. She jumps into her jeans with that stupid bow still hanging
from her belly like some unwanted Christmas present. “What’s got
your balls all twisted up in knots? Did you find out Laken did the
walk of shame last night? And, let me guess—you weren’t the one
unlucky enough to degrade her body all night long.” She gets in my
face with her dark mane, wild and knotted up as if she were waiting
for hours. “I bet it hurt like hell to have your heart ripped out
while it was still beating. I should know—you did it to me.” She
hawks a fresh one into my eye before bolting out of the room.
    Shit.
    I pull