Free Reckless Karma (Sinners & Saints #2) by Chelsea Ballinger Page B

down.”
               
    HUGO
    “August,”
I say his name again. Whatever is going on in that mind of his has him in deep.
“August!” I yell and he finally looks at me.
                I
walk up to him and see the chalk practically breaking in his hand. I look at
the lines of his maze. They are more erratic than usual. More hard looking and
just everywhere on the chalk board. It makes me worried because when the maze
is discouraged, so is my brother’s mind.
                “What’s
wrong?” He sets the chalk down and wipes his hands, rubbing them hard and
staring at his feet. He pulls his bottom lip between his lips. “Hey, stop
that.” I snap my fingers. “You know you bite your lip too hard.” We had to
learn to stop him because he bites his lip until he bleeds. “What’s worrying
you? Is it me? I’m okay now.”
                “You’re
not going anywhere?” His question comes out shaky.
                “No.”
I grip his shoulders and force him to face me. “I’m all clear for now. Karlie
took care of it yesterday at the meeting with the lawyers.” He pinches the
bridge of his nose. “Speaking of Karlie, August, how come you never mentioned
her? You met her, right?”
                He
nods twice.
                “So
how come you never told me about her?”
                He
scratches the back of his head and gets nervous. “Gabriel told me to forget
about her.”
                “Why?
If he loved her so much, why would he say that?”
                “It’s
because he loved her. Karlie got hurt and Gabriel blamed himself… got mad
whenever I said her name. STOP SAYING HER NAME!” August’s voice roars through
me. There is so much anger that it even scares me. “Th-that’s what he said. He
said to never say her name. The monsters ruined her… and she was no longer
Karlie.”
                “Scarlett,
Chad, and Noel,” I say to myself.
                “She
can’t be trusted.”
                “She’s
not bad, August.”
                “But
she’s not Karlie anymore.”
               
    SCARLETT
    “You
did what ?! ” The shouts coming from the living room of
Patrick and I’s condo are surprisingly unfamiliar. Patrick sounds inhuman
almost. I don’t know what his mother just told him, but I am ecstatic that it
is her on the other end of his rage and not me.
                “What’s
going on?” I ask once I get in the dining room. Patrick is holding on to the
chair, leaning down on it to stop himself from throwing it across the room.
                “This
is none of your concern,” Jane snaps at me, and I just look at her innocently.
                “My
mother had a meeting with Hugo Mandrake’s lawyer yesterday,” Patrick informs
me. “She is forcing Rebecca to drop the charges.”
                “She’s
not forcing me, Patrick,” Rebecca says between sniffs and cries.
                “There
is no case and Rebecca herself has said she does not remember,” Jane quickly
says.
                “Because
he drugged her!” Patrick lifts and slams the chair down.
                “Maybe
it wasn’t Hugo! Maybe the drugs were planted on him,” Rebecca assumes.
                “Jesus
Christ! I can’t believe this bullshit!”
                “Patrick.
Just calm down,” Jane says.
                “I’ll
calm down when Mandrake is either in jail or dead.”
                I
find angry Patrick a turn on.
                “It’s
over now. All we can do is move on. I am Rebecca’s mother and I have her best
interest at heart. If she says she does not want to push this and that she is
not sure, then I will do what is best for her.”
                “You
mean best for you. Best for your god damn