Page 12 of Cruel Devotion

In a lurch, the antique car shot forward, no longer in park or neutral. It was in drive, stunning me so quickly that time passed in a blur.

“Fuck!” the guy held on to the dash.

I slammed my foot on the brake, but it was too late to make the car stop. The tree off the side of the driveway did. With a deafening crunch and then a stomach-twisting push into the windshield, the car stopped.

I’d smashed it straight into a tree.

“What the fuck?” the guy shouted, slamming his hands to the dashboard to prevent himself from smacking his head into it.

I clutched the steering wheel as I held my breath and waited to fall back against the seat at the sudden stop of momentum.

Staring through the webbed display of the windshield, I let out a shaky exhale and willed my heart to stop thrashing against my ribcage this fast.

What the fuck did I just do?

5

HALEY

Icame downstairs and found Aunt Cindy grimacing at the TV.

“One.”

I plopped onto the couch next to her and smiled, seeing what show she had on. The host of the show described the three options of properties, and despite just walking into the room, I argued and said, “No, three.”

She smirked, hugging a pillow. “Not enough room for the diva. You should’ve listened to her. She claims she wants something cozy and full of character butoohed andahhed over the huge minimalistic place.”

It almost seemed funny to come down here and watchHouse Huntersright after listening to my sister talk about my move to the city. But I wouldn’t be picky. I didn’t have anymust haveslike the woman on this show. I wanted a safe place with running water and a bed. Simple as that.

“Aha!” Aunt Cindy pointed at the screen when the woman chose the first option. She turned the volume down and rubbed her brow. “What brings you down here? No homework?”

I shook my head. My aunt stepped in as my guardian when my mom abandoned me and Natasha. We were only ten when our mother took off to be with her “soulmate”. My dad was already long gone by then, living with a woman in another country. According to the sporadic calls from my mom—which stopped six years ago—she was looking for a purpose in her life. Aunt Cindy claimed her sister’s purpose was to sample as many men as she could meet. I didn’t bother making a guess. She’d left, and that was the fact that mattered.

Aunt Cindy had always been here for me, giving me a place to stay and putting up with two teenage nieces, but she’d never harped on me about homework or chores. She knew I worked hard at school, and in the spare time I had in the summer, I worked overtime at the county fair for extra cash.

“No. Just… antsy.” I hugged a pillow to my chest, mimicking her pose.

“I heard you talking to Nat when I walked past your door,” she commented.

I nodded. “I wanted to check in with her.”

“How’s Grayson doing with that lisp?” she asked, indicating that she didn’t hear me greeting him.

“Better.”

She sighed, then smiled. “It’ll take time. I sure wish she’d come visit.”

I snorted. “Come back to Marsten? Yeah, right.”

“I know. I know.” She sighed again, this one heavier than the last. “I can’t blame her for staying away. I’ll never forget the day Theresa West said her baby would be a bastard idiot.” She narrowed her eyes at the TV, still holding on to a grudge with Preston’s mother over what she said when Nat announced that she was pregnant.

“And I’ll never forget the day my badass aunt told the town’s resident prima donna to?—”

“Oh…” Aunt Cindy laughed, swatting at me. “Hush. I’m not proud of that.”

I laughed too, trying to recall every colorful curse my aunt had slung at that woman in defense of my sister.

“I’ve never blamed Nat for raising him somewhere else. This town has never been kind to us. But I sure wish I could see him more often.”

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