Page 63 of No Mistakes
We don’t have to, not when everything was already screamed into the sheets.
CHAPTER 26
MANDY
The sky stretches wideand dark above me, still clinging to the last shreds of night as if it’s refusing to surrender to the morning. The air bites at my cheeks, crisp and cold, but not enough to make me shiver. Instead, it feels like a jolt of electricity, waking my body up.
It’s 6:40 a.m. on the 16th of December.
Five days before the buyer’s meeting, and I feel like the Grim Reaper who has sucked a thousand souls of disgusting men, but not in a tragic, shadowy, death-wish kind of way. No. This morning, I’m strutting out of the motel like I’ve spent the night doing the Lord’s work.
My boots crunch over the gravel, each step a reminder that I’m not the same girl who walked into that room last night. Something about me is different. Lighter. Sharper. Glowing from somewhere deep inside.
I know sex is meant to bring you good feelings and reduce stress, but fuck, the way I felt last night was something even better, and I never want it to end.
I spot Gunnar, Carter, and Flynn gathered in a loose huddle next to the cars. Carter’s talking with his hands like he’s reliving some outrageous story, and Gunnar’s shaking his head withthat half-smirk of his, amused but unimpressed. Flynn leans against the bonnet, arms crossed, like the world’s calmest chaos manager. Just the sight of them, so normal, sothem, grounds me a little, but not in a bad way.
I pull my jacket tighter around me, not because I’m cold, but because I can’t stop smiling. My cheeks ache from it. There’s this… buzz under my skin, like static, like a secret the world doesn’t know yet.
Last night is still wrapped around me like silk.
The weight of his hands. The scrape of his voice against my skin. The way he looked at me was like I washis.
Ant didn’t just touch me. He fucking ruined me in the best kind of way. The kind that lingers long after the bruises fade and that makes you believe you were made for them.
He left my room just after we woke, mumbling something about needing a shower before we left. I wanted to stop him, to tell him he’s showering with me, but I knew if we did that, we wouldn’t be leaving the room for averylong time.
I exhale slowly, watching my breath curl into the cold air, drifting and vanishing like smoke.
My body feels tired, but my soul? My soul feels alive. Like I’ve just rewritten something that was always meant to be mine.
Flynn notices me first and lifts a hand in greeting, already holding out a takeout coffee cup like he knew I’d need it.
“Morning, Mandy,” he says, his voice warm with that effortless calm that only Flynn ever manages to have.
I take the cup from him with a grin, the warmth seeping into my fingers as he grabs my bags without hesitation and tosses them into the back of the car.
“Morning,” I say, trying to sound casual, but there’s a brightness in my tone that I can’t quite hide.
Carter glances over and squints at me like he’s trying to figure something out, eyes narrowing behind the steam of hiscoffee. I see the moment he figures it out. A smirk tugs at the corner of his mouth, and he lifts his cup in a slow, knowing salute. His eyes flick up just once, a wordlessyep, I’ve been there.
I shake my head, biting back a grin as I open the back door of the car. But before I have the chance to slide in, a voice cuts through the morning air beside me.
“No backseat for you today, darling.” Gunnar’s tone is light, teasing, but there’s something amused in the way he says it. “Ant’s requested you up front.”
I pause, turning towards him. “What about Eva?”
Gunnar shrugs, a faint smirk playing on his lips. “She’s with Axel.”
Just like that, the buzz in my chest shifts in a way that sends tiny jolts of curiosity through my body.
With Axel?
I don’t ask. Not yet. This is something I need to talk to Eva about. I figured she would be with him when I returned to my room last night, but now… I want to knowexactlywhat happened. I spot Eva leaving the motel, sprinting across the parking lot towards the car like the building’s on fire behind her. Her hair’s a mess, wild and rough as if she hasn’t had time to brush it, and she’s still in yesterday’s clothes, a strap falling off her shoulder.
The boys all turn to look, their conversation dying mid-sentence, but she doesn’t even glance their way. She yanks open the back door, diving inside, and slams it shut like she’s sealing herself into a vault.
“Mandy.”
