Page 55 of Pretty Broken Promises

I look up at Ford, last time fear made me jump at such a threat, but this time I'm putting my faith in him, trusting that he knows what needs to be done to get us out of whatever situation my father cooks up for us. I'm also putting some faith in myself, because losing him hurt way more than letting go of a secret.

I lean closer and whisper a threat of my own. “I wonder how that reputation of yours would hold up if your society friends knew the real reason you ran my mother out of town when I was thirteen. I've been through worse than you now, and you don't scare me anymore. You come for me, and I'll make you disappear.”

He turns his face to mine, and I see that he does not for a moment believe that I am a threat. “Don't make claims you can't back up, little girl,” he warns me.

I smile and let him see that I fit in with the rest of the pretty monsters, as Sin sometimes calls us. “It's not a threat or a claim, those things are just words. I have seen things old man, done things you can't even imagine.”

I lower my voice, so only he can hear me. “Once you were the thing I was scared of in the dark, you try and do anything to Ford or to split us up, and I will send you a nightmare in the dark. There’s a ghost I know who likes to play with sick fucks like you. I might just send him anyway. It's your turn to go to bed every night in fear.”

I keep it together as we walk out of the restaurant, and as soon as we get out of the front doors, I rush over to the bushes and lose everything I ate at dinner.

Ford comes and rubs my back. “What can I do?”

“Get me out of here,” I beg him.

“Yeah, I'll take you home,” he agrees.

I shake my head. “Not back to Raven's house. Take me to Seattle.”

“I'm sure we could take our finals early. We could be out of here in a couple of days,” he promises.

I nod. “Thank you.” It's not enough. I know he wants an explanation, and I'll give him one, but not right now. And the great thing about him, he's finally figuring out when to just sit with me.

This time I welcome the silence on the ride up the hill. And as he holds my hand, all I feel is comfort and love.

ChapterTwenty-Three

FORD

“I can’t believeyou convinced your instructors to let you take your tests early. You know the group is going to bitch when they find out you two snuck out in the middle of the night,” Raven says and leans against my truck as I load the last of Tessa’s boxes in the back.

We are pretty much sneaking out. Yeah, we used the excuse that we wanted to get an early start, but we also didn’t tell anyone besides Raven and Sin that we were leaving this morning.

“Well, have fun with that. We both know it won’t be the whole group though. Ted never really cares about anything that doesn’t directly involve him. Your brother is hardly going to care. No, the only one who is going to be upset is Shane, and right now I don’t give a shit what he thinks.”

Raven pushes off my truck. “He’s your best friend. I know you’re mad at him now. I get it, he was a dick to Tessa, but she doesn’t want you to cut him out of your life. Don’t put that on her.”

“I thought you were my best friend,” I tease her.

“You would joke right now,” she says and rolls her eyes. “I’m being serious though. Tessa beats herself up enough, she doesn’t need extra ammo.”

I look her directly in her freaky blue eyes and say, “It’s my job to protect her. He doesn’t get to treat her like shit and still call himself my best friend. I can’t blame him for how I treated her, that’s all on me. What I am upset about is that she called him for help. He answered her, and hung up.”

My throat grows thick when I think about how everything Tessa suffered through could have been prevented. That she reached out for help and I wasn’t there for her kills me, but knowing that she actually got him on the phone and he cut her off is like dying twice. The fact that he doesn’t even realize why he needs to apologize to her blows my mind. He’s just not the guy I thought I was friends with, and it has nothing to do with Tessa. Yeah, it’s about how he’s treating her, but nothing that she’s done.

The fact is, I always knew Shane could be a bit of an ass, but I always thought he had my back. For me, that means taking care of the people who are important to me. The way he dismisses her importance in my life shows me he doesn’t understand me anymore. How can he claim to be my best friend if he isn’t even aware of what matters most to me?

Tessa and Sin come out of the house. She’s carrying an overnight bag, and he has a cooler packed with food for the road. He puts it in the back seat of my truck, and shakes his head at Raven and I. “Why is it every time I turn around, I find you huddled up in conversation with my wife?” Sin teases us.

“Every time I look, you’re conspiring with my girlfriend, so I guess that makes us even,” I reply.

Sin nudges Tessa with his elbow. “Do you hear that? We’re conspirators.”

“I’m pretty sure we were granted immunity,” Tessa teases back.

“Boring,” Sin sighs. “We’re going to have to shake things up soon. I need a target every once in a while. I’m at risk of losing my edge.”

Raven moves over to him and cuddles up under his arm. “I don’t think we need to look for reasons for you to go into assassin mode.”

---