Page 535 of Rage

Liam shifts, his leg twitching and smacking my head. “From what I remember, I’m twice your size, Rodriguez. You don’t stand a chance.”

“Size isn’t everything,” she says.

I try not to say anything. I really do. But I’ve got a fucking hard on while stuffed in a trunk. I can’t let that go. “Size ain’t a problem for me, sweet thing,” I mock whisper.

Liam’s elbow gets me on the hip, but I can’t stop laughing at my joke. And after a second, Cece joins me. “You’re absurd,” she says.

“But plenty big, if you want to give it a go.”

“Damn it, stop hitting on Eddie’s baby sister, Xander,” Liam barks as the car bounces and bobbles over something that is not a paved road.

“We’ve got to pass the time somehow,” I say. “Might as well enjoy ourselves.” And I give another little kiss to the side of her other boob, once again enjoying the way her breath hitches.

“My brother warned me about you, Xander,” she says, her breath a little reedy. She’s definitely into what I have to offer.

“Warnings are just intriguing advertisements,” I say.

This startles a laugh out of her, and before I can see how willing she is to play, the car comes to a halt. Well, that sucks. Hopefully, we’re not one step closer to death.

One never knows about these things.

At least I know I can take down a few of these assholes on my way out.

Liam shifts behind me. “Game face, Liu.”

“Don’t need to tell me twice, O’Connell.”

And we wait.

Chapter Three

Cece

I’m starting to get the hype around Xander Liu. The combination of charm and consideration, matched with a giant dose of humor and soft lips that make my heart stutter, well, I’m already half sold. I’d assumed it was his devil may care attitude and Hollywood good looks that gave him his fan club. I may have underestimated his appeal.

Then again, I was team Liam O’Connell for more years than I care to admit. It’s a damn shame he’s grown into an antisocial asshole. I don’t need that kind of attitude while I’m jammed in a trunk and heading toward a kidnapper who has somehow figured out my family’s closest guarded secret: me.

So, he’d better get his act together soon. One good deed shouldn’t gift him an eternity of my lenience.

But still.

As we wait for the kidnappers to do whatever they plan to do next, the car blessedly silent after hours of Pink on repeat, I can’t help but remember the moment he earned my childish devotion.

Me, so lost after my brother Oz left, then Mama leaving, too. Not that she had a choice. That cancer ate her up from the inside out before anybody even realized she was sick. Eleven years oldand I’d lost the two people I’d loved the most. It would make anybody act crazy. It’s the only thing that makes sense.

Late one night, my skin tight and my mind a mess, I snuck out to the pool, diving in wearing my pink and neon green tie-dye pajamas I’d made at summer camp. I left the pool lights off, not wanting to draw attention to myself, and I sank to the bottom, needing the weight of the water against my skin.

Wanting a hug from my mom so badly that I was seeking it from the deep end of the swimming pool. I stayed down there long enough that my chest ached. When arms wrapped around me from behind, I panicked, my imagination conjuring electric eels instead of help.

I fought against them until the heat of a body at my back registered. It took longer than it would have if I’d just rocketed myself up, and by the time we broke the surface, I was dizzy from holding my breath for so long.

Liam, seventeen, lanky and long-haired, swam us to the edge and tossed me onto the concrete like I weighed nothing.

“What the hell were you doing?” he hissed, hauling himself out beside me, his submerged tennis shoes wobbly blobs of white under the waves in the faint light from the landscaping lamps.

“Swimming.”

He gazed down at me, his eyes covered in shadows. “Bullshit, Rodriguez.”

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