Page 43 of Anathema Codex

If my tormentor doesn’t answer the phone, it’ll put me in a really bad fucking mood and that’ll sour the rest of the trip for me.

I begin to chew the inside of my mouth as I pull up the navigation app and screenshot the information I located with the bogus address, then go to my messages. I tap on the phone number, attach the picture, and send it along with a little love note.

If you don’t give me the right fucking address, I’ll come looking for you instead of Lakyn. Think you can take me?

Closing my eyes, I lean my head back against the building and wait. I don’t always get a response as soon as I send a heartwarming message, but whoever this is has to know how close I am right now.

Or maybe they think I’m fucking around and am still sitting in Tribeca somewhere—who the fuck knows?

Ding!

I almost drop my phone when the notification goes off.

I glance down and swipe the message open, my eyes narrowing at a new address.

Catch me if you can.

I’m going to kill whoever the fuck this is. Maybe that’ll be a good way to impress my old man, maybe it won’t be, but this son of a bitch is playing games with the wrong guy.

I run my finger over the address, drop it into my navigation app and wait while it spins for a moment, and then I see it.

A house I don’t know in a street I’m unfamiliar with.

And inside?

The man that gave me life and hasn’t thought about me since.

I get to my feet and walk back to the truck only to find Wills standing by the open driver’s side door.

“I’m driving,” I tell her, giving her a rough shove to the side.

I’m not in the mood for a game of whose dick is bigger than whose. I have my fucking destination now after God knows how many hours stuck in a truck with a bitch that hates me and another one that doesn’t even seem to know what fucking planet she’s on—now it’s my turn to finally get something good in my life and I’m not giving up driving so she can take her sweet ass time and make this longer than it needs to be.

Willa narrows her eyes at me, runs a finger along her neck to let me know that she’s still got her mind set to kill and I roll my eyes.

If she wants to fucking scuffle, I’ll engage her.

Afterwe’ve left Arizona.

* * *

Over four hours due west and we cross into New Mexico somewhere between quiet sobs and raging thoughts.

While I know that the third wheel in the back seat is probably asleep again, I can’t help but wonder how far she thinks I’m going to take her.

There’s no way in hell I want her to meet my father—Hell, it wasn’t even any of her business why we were taking this long, miserable road trip to begin with.

But you just had to open your mouth and flap those gums,I think testily as I steal a glance at Willa.

She’s pressed against the window again, and I can’t help but wish the goddamn door would give way and she’d go tumbling out onto the gravel.

Normally, we’d be able to talk shit out, but I know that our friendship can’t be saved now, and to be quite honest, I’m not entirely sure I care anymore.

Now she knows how I really feel about her and she’ll either deal with it or fuck off out of my life.

I run a hand irritably over my face before I rest my elbow on the window frame. Even so, I wish things could be different between us.

We make a hell of a team when we’re on the same side, but it’s rare that we see eye to eye on shit these days.

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