Page 31 of The Lies We Steal

“I needed a breather, went for a drive. You know what Ponderosa Springs does to me. Why are you so keen on knowing?”

There is a silence, before he speaks again, “So we are keeping secrets from each other now? That’s what we are doing?”

“No.” I breathe in the smoke, “If you needed to know, I’d tell you.” Running a hand through my hair because I know he’s about to catch an attitude with me.

I can practically hear his teeth grinding. I’m not even sure why he cares what I do, it’s not like he’s capable of actually caring about someone.

Everything inside of Thatcher is dead.

All emotion. Feeling. Remorse. Everything.

“Sure thing, friend.” He mutters coldly.

“I’ll meet you guys tomorrow.” I say, but he doesn’t hear it because I’m welcomed with the dial tone in my ear before I even finish off my sentence.

“Fucking dickhead.”

I stare down at my phone, seeing a missed text from Silas from earlier. I open it up, seeing a link and his text below it.

The stuff you wanted.

Tapping my thumb on the link it takes me to a document folder that I’m assuming Silas put together. A smirk slowly forms on my face, like when you’ve been hunting something for months and you just start to sink your teeth into it.

On my screen is everything Silas was able to dig up about Briar Tatum Lowell.

Other than knowing she had a smartass mouth and Easton Sinclair had a hard-on for her, I knew jack shit and I hated that.

Unknowns weren’t something I liked.

Her attitude towards me made it clear she wasn’t a local and while I liked a girl who could give it just as hard as she could take it, I was joking when I said she was toeing a line.

In order to get under her skin the way I wanted to, I needed to know everything about my opponent. The one so brave and bold, so sure she wasn’t afraid of me while her thighs quaked beneath my touch.

At first I was going to let it go, but even after that class she was gnawing at me. Bugging me with her multicolored eyes. A mixture of gold, brown and green swirled into one spiral. So I checked Facebook before I messaged Silas. I hadn’t been on Facebook in fucking years. I had to create a fake ass account to even look her up. Turns out she isn’t into social media either.

According to her high school transcript, she never missed a day of school, had a 4.0 GPA, and was on the swim team all four years. There was even an adorable picture from her freshman year when she had braces.

In all her school photos there wasn’t a single photo of her with a friend, it appeared my smartass was a loner. At her swim team senior night, she stood next to her parents, barely smiling looking like she’d do anything to disappear into the crowd. Trying to make her body look smaller as to not take up much space. I would admit, the double braids she wore in the pool were making my cock twitch.

I continued thumbing through the files, curious how she was able to afford a school like Hollow Heights due to her parents’ background. They barely had two coins to rub together. But I quickly caught up, finding out her uncle was a professor, Thomas Reid.

My eyebrows furrowed when a criminal record appeared, not just one but three. My tongue running across my top lip. I knew there was something in her that craved me realizing it wasn’t me, but the chaos that came with me.

She liked the shadows too. Liked to lurk there. Stay there.

One count assault and battery, which is not only impressive on its own, but it was also on a guy who’d tried to attack her mother. Another charge of vandalism which just looked to be a prank of some kind. And one count of petty larceny.

So she’s a fighter and a thief. How interesting.

I wonder how many strings Thomas really had to pull in order to get a criminal into this school. In order for your application to even be glanced at here, you had to have thirteen fucking clubs and an insane GPA matched with stellar test scores.

And yet, she was here.

Here in Ponderosa Springs where she did not belong.

Running her pink mouth thinking I’d just sit and watch. Thinking Easton Sinclair will help her while she’s being hunted by me. It’s going to fill me with such testosterone when she sees he’s no help against me, that I might combust. That little shit hasn’t been able to do anything to me since kindergarten, there are some things daddy’s money can’t hide and that’s pussy bitches.

I flick the butt of the cigarette onto the ground, embers dancing in the air as I do. I stand up to my full height and turn around to face the window of the shop.

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