Page 1 of When Wrecked Meets Ruined
PART1
CHAPTERONE
Evie
I didn’t wantto do it. I wasn’t a thief. But my mother had left me no choice.
Five minutes ago, I’d watched her taillights disappear down the road. Typical Veronica Bellamy move, sending her sixteen-year-old daughter in to do the dirty work and leaving me in the dust.
We needed four hundred dollars, or they’d shut off our electricity. That’s the only reason I was at Wade’s garage this late. We always needed money. Most months, we were barely scraping by.
But tonight, I thought it would be easy. All I had to do was pick the lock to Wade’s office, grab the cash, and make a clean getaway. Piece of cake.
Wade wasn’t supposed to be here.Nobodywas supposed to be here.
I froze, my hand in mid-air when footsteps stopped outside the door. I held my breath and listened, straining to hear their low voices over the pounding of my heart.
“I don’t need no trouble from the cops.”
“It ain’t the cops. Stay in the back. I’ll take care of this.”
A burst of fear seized my limbs and rooted me to the spot. Was it really worth risking my neck? Wren’s face flashed before my eyes. My sweet, precious Wren. Everything I did was for her. Sucking in a deep breath, I pushed my fears aside and snatched up the money.
Technically, I wasn’t stealing. Wade owed us.
I shoved the cash in my pocket and bolted for the door as heavy footsteps echoed off the concrete behind me. They sounded close. Too close. I wrapped my hand around the doorknob and twisted it.
“Get back here!” A hand grabbed the back of my hoodie and yanked hard, ripping me away from the door.
“Let me go.” I struggled to break free but he fisted the fabric tighter around my neck and dragged me across the garage by the hood of my sweatshirt. The zipper cut into my skin and crushed my windpipe, choking the air out of my lungs.
I clawed at his hands and tried to spin out of his grasp.
“You ain’t going nowhere,” Wade rasped.
He spun me around and slammed me against a tow truck with so much force my teeth rattled, and my jaw snapped shut.
“The fuck you think you’re doing?” His left eye kept twitching. Wade had crazy eyes.
He was tweaking. Which was not unusual. Wade was a meth head. The biggest scumbag in town. So, of course, my mother had chosen him to father a child.
I tried to shove him away. He pinned me to the metal and wedged his knee between my thighs.
“Let me go,” I gritted out.
He stabbed a finger at me. “You think you can steal from me and get away with it?”
I lifted my chin and met the scumbag’s twitchy eyes. “Where’s all that child support you owe—”
“Shut the fuck up,” he roared. His nose smashed into my cheekbone, and my head snapped back, hitting the metal with a thunk.
Goddammit.That hurt.
My vision blurred and stars floated in front of my eyes. Gritting my teeth, I tasted the metallic tang of blood coating my tongue and took a few deep breaths to fight off the dizziness.
“You’re nothin’ but a lying, thieving whore just like your momma.”
I wasnothinglike my mother and never would be.
