Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 57888 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 289(@200wpm)___ 232(@250wpm)___ 193(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57888 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 289(@200wpm)___ 232(@250wpm)___ 193(@300wpm)
I snort a laugh. We’re both joking now… I think.
Chapter Eleven
BAM
She looks thrilled at the idea of burning down my school, and I fucking love it. Not that I’m an arsonist, but it’s awesome how she’s down for everything. If I could have crafted a girl to suit me, I couldn’t have come up with someone as perfect as Josie. Hot, funny, smart, adventurous? Before her, I wouldn’t have dreamed that all those traits could be in one person.
But that was my problem. My dreams have never been very big. I enjoyed being by myself. Or maybe I learned to enjoy it. As an orphan, you don’t have much choice. But when Niki and I got paired up with the Riders, I basically adopted myself into his family.
They always seemed to need another set of hands around to keep company with Niki’s baby sister. She was kidnapped when she was three. That’s how Niki came to be part of the Riders. He needed to find her, and the Riders had connections. To save his sister, he became a Rider. To save my own life, I joined too because a kid on the streets alone was prey, and that kind of existence wasn’t for me.
The Riders always sent out two or more because what we did was sometimes dangerous, and you needed a person to watch your back. I guess they learned early on that if you had too many lone wolves, eventually your pack would be eliminated.
That’s how Niki and I came to be a team. And I’ve been satisfied being on the team, being a Rider. I’ve even put money away since the pay is actually decent and I don’t have anyone to support except myself. I didn’t think about the future much because tomorrow was going to happen no matter what I did.
Now, though, in face of this smart as hell girl, I wonder if I’ve made a mistake. A vague sense of panic settles over me. What do I need to do or be to get this sexy girl to throw her oars in my boat?
A sharp poke in my side catches my attention. Josie is staring at me. “You’re deep in thought.”
“What makes you say that?”
“I called your name three times, and you didn’t answer.”
“I was just spacing out.” Not exactly a lie.
She wrinkles her nose. “I don’t believe you.”
I run my tongue over my bottom teeth while I contemplate what I should say, and then I decide, fuck it. Why not be truthful with Josie at all times? That’s what I’d want from her. “I was thinking about how I have kind of been fucking around in school and I don’t really have much of any job prospects. These”—I raise my hands—“are about the only tools I have. They’ve been good to me so far, but maybe other people wouldn’t agree.”
“Screw them, then.”
I arch my eyebrows. This isn’t the response I thought I’d be getting from Miss Investigative Journalist. “You’re going to college, I bet.”
“Sure, because newspapers won’t hire someone without a degree, but that doesn’t mean having a degree makes me a better reporter. And you not going to college, if that’s the path you choose, doesn’t make you not a great person.”
“Or a great assistant,” I add because to be honest, the only future I see for myself is one by Josie’s side. Really all I want to be is her assistant. How do I make that happen? Right. Solve this case. Make myself indispensable. I glance around and find the biggest crowd of students.
“Where are you going?” Josie calls, hurrying to catch up with me as I make my way toward her classmates.
“To do my job as your assistant.” I reach the crowd and make my way to the center where five girls are clustered together. Two of them have shiny blond hair caught up in bows. In my school, blondes with bows always were in the know. The correlation doesn’t make sense to me, but it’s the truth. “Who pulled the fire alarm?” I ask bluntly.
The pink-bowed girl whips around, her ponytail nearly smacking Josie across the face. I step in front of Josie and bat the hair down.
“Who are you?” the girl asks.
Josie peeks out from my side. “He’s a friend of mine, Candace.”
The girl gives me a long once-over to the point that I wonder if she has X-ray vision or some such thing. I back up.
“You’re scaring him,” Josie chides.
“Me?” The girl points at herself. “I’ve barely started. You’re a hottie, stranger. What’s your name?”
Josie’s right. This girl is scaring me. “The fire alarm. Who pulled it?”
“Why would I know?” the girl pouts.
“You look like you know everything that goes on in this school, even the stuff no one wants to have found out.”
“That’s actually what they say about Josie.” The girl leans around to get a glimpse of the body I’m shielding.