Page 5 of Cold Hard Truth

These past couple of years the Michaels sisters have become a permanent fixture at the Twisted Kings compound. Just like me and Reed.

Growing up where no kids should be raised.

Not that Kane seems to notice when he doesn’t deal with it. Why would he?

He has me corral the three of them, and I do my best to make sure they stay off his radar. Because even if I have nothing to do with the trouble they cause, if they’re caught, I’m inevitably the one who ends up taking the fall for it.

At least they’re all almost eighteen. Reed has three weeks left, while Ellie and Lyla’s birthdays are next week. Then maybe they’ll finally leave this place, and I’ll be free of acting as their permanent babysitter. They want more than they’ll find here, as evidenced by the fact that I’m catching Lyla getting into trouble once again.

This place is boring when you’re not allowed to participate in what happens on this land.

Lyla glares up at me and I release my grip, taking a step back and straightening my cut.

“Sage.”

The way she says my name makes me want to hurt her feelings because she shouldn’t be looking at me like she does half the time. With eyes that stare a little too close, and lips that pout a little too much. She’s seventeen and I’m twenty. And even if she’ll be eighteen next week, and I’ve hated myself for having that mental countdown ticking in the back of my mind, she’s not quite there yet.

She teases her lower lip with her teeth before pouting it out, and it has my irritation steaming to the surface.

Lyla wants to act older than she is. She’s spent too much time around the Twisted Kings for her own good. Just because she’s seen more shit than a girl her age should, doesn’t make her an adult. She’s got her whole life ahead of her.

She’s innocent—young. Even if lately, she’s been looking older and nothing like the little kid who was dropped off here years ago. And it drives me fucking mad because I’m not the only one who notices.

Every time Lyla walks through the clubhouse, stares shoot in her direction. The guys might be discreet about it, knowing if Kane catches them, they’ll get their eyeballs scooped from their sockets. But it happens and she knows it.

She wants it.

Trouble.

One week until she’s eighteen and then she’ll leave.

I think?

I hope?

I don’t fucking know anymore.

“Answer the question.” I cross my arms over my chest. “What are you doing out here?”

“Why are you always such a buzzkill?” Lyla sticks out her bottom lip and actually has the nerve to pout at me. “Come on, Sage. Just pretend you didn’t see me.”

“You’re not going to the party.”

Music shakes through the clubhouse. The bass has the siding rattling. There are so many people, youcan’t walk inside without grinding against half of them. And the scene, once you do push through, is absolute madness. A new group of prospects is being initiated tonight—myself included.

Whenever there’s an initiation or patching-in ceremony, other chapters roll into town and the party goes on for days.

There’s booze. Drugs. Women.

Half the people in the clubhouse are already losing their clothes, and it’s turning into an orgy in the den. I could barely think between the music and the moaning, which is why I stepped outside to smoke and clear my head.

Instead, what I found was Lyla, trying to sneak in.

“I’ll be good,” she promises, when I know better than to believe her.

Because I know her.

Worse—I know the guys inside.

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