Page 46 of Ace of All Hearts

The guy with Lucian nudges her. “Keep walking. We’re taking you to the station. You can make a call there.”

She ignores them, still talking to me. “Lik, seriously?!” she snaps.

I shrug, but this time I don’t hide my smile. “Don’t worry, princess. I’ll make sure to tell Sam to come get you.”

“Fuck you!” she shouts as she is forced to exit the house.

I would give anything to be a fly in the police car. Just to see how she reacts during the drive.

I don’t need to call Sam. I told him what I was going to do before even calling Lucian. No, he’s waiting patiently at home with Rachel. I can barely hold back a laugh of excitement. I need to hurry the fuck up and drive there too.

Rose is in for a great night.

10

ROSE

Need To Change- Landon Tewers

As soon as the car door closes, my head hits the window. Fucking asshole called the cops on his own party just to spite me.

While the younger cop starts the car, the other one turns around, looking at me through the metal grid.

“What’s a pretty thing like you doing at a party on the North Shore?” the old one asks. “You’re not from around here.”

I avoid his gaze, making a point to look outside while I ignore him. That’s how I realize we’re not driving back to the station. The police station in Silver Falls is on the south side of the river. We’ve just passed the bridge that would take us there.

“Where are we going?” I try to make my voice sound tough. It’s hard enough to achieve with a raspy voice like mine. It’s even harder now that my heart is beating in my stomach.

“Hey,” I insist since they both decided to ignore me. “Why are we not going to the station?”

After another half-minute of silence, I kick the passenger seat. The back of the seat is reinforced with steel plating—to avoid being stabbed through it, I’m assuming—and I have to stifle a squeal of pain. “I’m talking to you!” I bark at them. “Where the fuck are you taking me?”

The old one turns around. “I’ve beaten up kids your age for less than that, girl. I’d suggest you sit back and stay silent for the rest of the ride.”

My pride forces me to have my back hit my own seat instead of calmly settling against it. I hate fuckers telling me what to do.

Fear gripping my chest, I stay quiet until they turn onto a dirt road that leads deep into the forest—a road I recognize all too well despite having only taken it once.

“The fucker,” I chuckle to myself.

When they park in front of Sam’s cabin, I’m ready to absolutely annihilate Lik and Sam. I’m still feeling the overconfidence from the coke I took earlier, and I don’t think even the cuffs can hold me back.

That old cop isn’t gentle when he takes me out of the car and walks me to the front door without his younger partner.

Last time I was here, Sam and Lik were holding Rachel against her will. They were threatening her life to get me to help them find Volkov.

Tonight, when I step in, hands cuffed behind my back and a cop’s hand on my shoulder, the three of them are sitting on a brown leather sofa in the open living room. A fire is burning in the fireplace, and a comfortable rug is at their feet. My jaw tightens at seeing how close they have become. Jealousy darkens the blood in my veins, even though I don’t say anything.

Rachel is sitting in between the two men. She’s not wearing her engagement dress anymore, having replaced it with a tight black leather skirt and a Rolling Stones t-shirt. A style different from the housewife clothes she wears in Stoneview. Her bleached blonde hair that doesn’t quite reach her shoulders makes me want to run my hands through it, to bury my nose against it, and forget about everything else.

Lik gets up, a smug smile on his face, showing his perfectly straight teeth, and that tells me he got precisely what he wanted tonight. He exchanges a few words with the cop, but I can barely hear them, because Sam’s gaze is burning a hole through my body.

Still wearing the same suit as earlier, he is relaxing on the sofa, his arms splayed across the back. His left arm is behind Rachel and his hand is coming down right where her shoulder is. Something bubbles in my chest when I notice his finger tracing circles against her skin. Jealousy is boiling my blood so hot I can barely breathe.

The door slams, the cop has gone, and something takes me out of my hate daze.

“Wait! The cuffs!” I startle.

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