Series: Webs We Weave Series by Krista Ritchie
Total pages in book: 167
Estimated words: 162520 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 813(@200wpm)___ 650(@250wpm)___ 542(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 162520 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 813(@200wpm)___ 650(@250wpm)___ 542(@300wpm)
We’d have to leave.
I’m a Wolfe, but I’m also a Tinrock. I’ve made peace with needing to say goodbye to Victoria to protect my family that’s still alive.
Jake takes a short swig of his beer, his eyes flitting back to Hailey. There’s now a much greater chance we won’t pull this off.
We’ll become a figment to Jake Waterford, some twisted dream—one year of his life when six con artists strode in and unsettled his foundation, leaving him in our destructive wake underneath the debris.
We’ll find a new town.
New city.
We always do.
Six spiders. Seven, if he decides to come with us…
Yeah, why the fuck would I want him to? I put my beer to my lips, trying not to internally stake myself with a glare. I don’t lie to myself.
Of course I know the truth. I like Jake. I would trust Jake with my life and their lives. I don’t want to leave him behind. He might even be the father of my sister’s baby. Yeah…complicated.
“So you need someone in my brother’s ear?” Jake asks, keeping his voice hushed as a family (not influential) parks their wagon of beach gear less than twenty feet away. “And that can’t be Oliver because…?”
“Because it’d be an uphill battle, for one. Also, Trent probably knows Oliver is here with me,” I explain, “and not nurturing his broken ego like a loyal best friend would.”
“I suggested the beach day,” Hailey says more to her book. “I wanted Oliver to be seen out with us. I don’t think he’s right to be Trent’s best friend. He goes too far.”
She’s trying to protect Oliver from going the extra mile to finish the job. The same way she protected Phoebe. It’s nothing our parents ever did. Nothing they tried to do. They pushed and pushed and pushed us past our limits. Stretched the boundaries and barriers until there were none.
Because “you have to do whatever it takes,” because “you could be caught if you don’t,” because “don’t you want to live lavishly?,” because “we’re a family.”
I’m proud of my sister for not following in Addison’s footsteps when it’s all she’s been conditioned to do.
“So you’re…benching him?” Jake asks Hailey.
“No,” she says. “You can’t take Oliver off the board. He’s like two bishops and two rooks at once. Four pieces.”
Jake glances at me. “What does that make you?”
I open my mouth, but Hailey says, “The queen.”
I flash Jake a tight smile before taking a rough swig of beer.
Jake sighs. “So, the queen is off the board?”
“Yep.” I nod. Sun beats down on our bare glistening chests, and I rub sweat off my jaw, hating the heat.
He wipes condensation from his beer on his navy-blue swim trunks. “How far would Oliver go?” He’s still considering him as a viable solution out of this giant fucking pickle. “He won’t do drugs around Hailey.”
“He’ll hurt himself.” Hailey sounds panicked. “No.” She shuts her book.
Oliver has punched himself in the face before to escape a jam. So her fears aren’t unwarranted.
I don’t bring up how there’s also the problem of Trent being obsessed with the idea of Hailey having some dumb crush on Oliver. It’s been ridiculous how often I’ve had to actively get Trent to stop suggesting the idea of watching Oliver fuck Hailey.
Yes, I have had to shoot that idea down. Five times.
Five.
It’s not a miracle he never asked Hailey, “Would you fuck Oliver in front of me?” It was me working my ass off getting him to quit thinking with his cock every fifteen minutes.
Hailey doesn’t know this. No one does because not everything needs to be aired when it’s understood what Trent is capable of. But this is exactly why I’m more nervous that I’m not a devil breathing down his fucking neck anymore.
Jake shakes condensation off his fingers. “Then give him parameters of what not to do,” he suggests.
I arch my brows at him. “You really want to see Oliver be queen fucking bee, huh?”
He side-eyes me as if to say, It’s not like that. Oh, it is like that. He likes Oliver like that. I am too good at what I do not to notice. (Unfortunately.)
Jake says, “I just think he deserves to make the choice himself.”
“What role?” Trevor suddenly appears, snatching a nautical striped towel off the stack by Hailey’s feet. Sidney is halfway down the beach with a group of college girls. Out of earshot and almost eyesight.
“Be Trent Waterford’s best friend,” Hailey explains. “Rocky’s old position.”
“I’ll do it,” Trevor volunteers.
I glare. “No, you won’t, shithead.”
He dries water from his pale legs. “I think I deserve to make that choice myself.” He echoes what Jake just said.
I lift my brows at the Koning heir. “Do me a favor next time and shut the fuck up.”
Jake exhales, then looks at Trevor. “If your brother and sister think it’s not a good idea, then it probably isn’t.”