Page 160 of Filthy Liar

I didn’t feel like getting my life together then crashing the damn car. It would be just my fucking luck.

We would never live in the Heights again, I knew that as we drove into Ashburn Valley and headed towards our temporary home, but everyone knew that saying.

You could take the girl out of the Heights, but you could never take the Heights out of the girl.

I hoped the world was ready for that.

EPILOGUE

RAVEN

Nine Months Later

My brain hurt. The words on the page were blurring, and I jerked as someone nudged me.

“Babe, go home. You’ve been at that for hours,” Cynthia Windsor grinned, reaching out to take my textbook and closing it. “Besides, didn’t you have a painting class to teach at three?”

“Yeah,” I mumbled, glancing at my phone to see it was two thirty. “Shit, thanks.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” she chuckled as I stood and grabbed my things, shoving them into my bag.

It was Monday of my third week since starting at Kingslake University. I’d crammed way too much information into my head between classes and studying, but so far, I wasn’t feeling too stupid.

Sounded like success to me.

Rory had been a bit of a tyrant about my tutoring ever since I’d chosen which college to attend, but I was grateful for her pushing.

I hurried out of the library and towards the parking lot, waving to a few of the girls by the administration building as I went.

I’d surprisingly made a lot of friends here in the past few weeks. None that I’d die for, but smoke break buddies were always good.

I slowed when I saw Ander’s Supra parked beside my Nissan Skyline GTR R33, him and Zavier leaning against the cars having a conversation. I loved my car, probably more than I should. It was a dark blue color that I’d stumbled across while buying spray paint a few months ago, and Ander had managed to match it.

We’d spent months bringing it to life, it really had been a piece of shit when Ander had proudly dragged me to the wrecking yard to show me. I was skeptical that it would even run, but Ander put a lot of time, love, and most likely money into the damn thing.

I’d actually enjoyed learning about cars from him and could tell it really was his passion. I hadn’t been much use in building it, but he’d tried to include me in it as much as possible.

He’d been working at the wrecking yard a lot lately, and I was pretty sure he was enjoying the slow pace of day-to-day things without worrying about his father. He still did some things here for Dante, but he’d made it obvious that he wasn’t going to be pulled in full-time.

After that day in the slaughterhouse, Dante and Ander had worked hard to track down the missing women and children as promised. They’d found Elio’s wife in some asshole’s basement twelve hours away. I hadn’t seen her, but Ander said it was bad.

Unfortunately, they’d found out Fabio’s sister had been killed by her buyer, but at least he had closure.

I assumed closure meant they’d gone after the guy so Fabio could get his revenge, but I sure as fuck wasn’t asking questions.

Dante was trying so hard to make me like him, but I just wasn’t there yet.

“Hey,” I said slowly as I approached, dropping my bag off my shoulder. “What are you guys doing here?”

“Just here to piss on you so everyone knows you’re not available,” Ander smirked, and I rolled my eyes as he took my hand to tug me closer, dropping a kiss on my lips.

“I’m the luckiest girl in the world,” I deadpanned, letting him manhandle me as he turned me around to pull my back flush with his front so that I was facing Zavier. “Weren’t you busy until dinner time?”

“Boss let me go. Noah got arrested and he had to go deal with it since half the crew are busy. Figured since I was there at six this morning before anyone else that I deserved to go home, so Ander swung by the Shed to grab me,” he shrugged, reaching out to take my bag. “How was your day?”

“Noah got arrested again? What for?”

“Evading the cops on his bike.”

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