Damaged Love - Jaxson Kidman Page 0,17

sent the text and checked my mirrors.

I let out a yell when I saw a large dark colored vehicle following me.

Going about the same speed as me.

Right on my back bumper.

I clutched the wheel tight and kept driving.

My phone beeped and buzzed next to me but I didn’t take my eyes off the road - or the mirror.

The vehicle followed me until I decided to make a last second right turn.

When I did, I had a flashback of the accident.

My eyes filled with tears.

My teeth chattered.

The vehicle that was following… stopped following.

The vehicle kept going straight and didn’t stop.

So it wasn’t following me.

I was paranoid.

Broken and paranoid.

I pulled to the side of the road.

I grabbed my phone.

There were texts from Talon waiting.

What the fuck are you talking about?

Hello?

Winter?

Who knows what?

My phone stated to ring.

Talon.

“Talon,” I said.

“What the fuck is going on?”

“What did you do?”

“Nothing,” he said.

“Talon…”

“Why the fuck would I lie to you?” Talon snapped.

“You didn’t do anything today?” I asked.

“No,” Talon said.

I thought about the knives sticking out of the tires.

“You know what, Talon? I want a refund.”

“Excuse me?” Talon asked with a laugh.

“You heard me. I want a refund. Someone is stepping up and you’re slacking.”

I hung up the call and started to drive again.

I couldn’t believe I just said that to Talon.

That might end up pissing him off and making him do something crazy like tell Noah, Easton, and Xavier the truth about me.

But you know what?

He was a Troc.

I was a Bump.

I was better than him all around. Financially. Socially. Everything.

He could tell anyone he wanted.

It was up to me to keep the lie going.

That should have made me feel better, but it didn’t.

I still kept checking my mirrors the entire time as I drove way too fast back to my mother’s beach house.

When I got there, Gia was waiting for me.

Sitting in her bright yellow car, music blasting. Her left hand stuck out of the window, waving to the rhythm of the song.

I parked Tank Two and ran toward her car, waving my hands.

She turned off her music and got out of her car.

She smiled ear to ear.

“Why are you smiling?” I yelled.

“Just having a good day,” she said. “What’s up?”

“Someone went after them,” I said.

“Who?”

“Noah, Easton, and Xavier,” I said. “And it wasn’t Talon. I asked him. He said no.”

“Walk with me, Winter,” she said. “Just for a second.”

Gia hooked her arm into mine.

I looked at Gia.

She was way too happy.

She was… sex happy.

Like she got some.

Which if she did, good for her.

But I was thinking about some more serious stuff at the moment.

“I want you to see something,” she said.

“Gia, this is important,” I said. “Someone stabbed a tire on each of their rides. They left the knives in the tires. Each knife matched. Like it came out of a… set…”

Gia smiled bigger.

She walked me to the kitchen of my mother’s beach house.

She snapped her fingers and pointed to the counter.

The knife block on the counter…

… it was missing three knives.

I grabbed the knife block and picked it up.

I shook it.

“No,” I said.

“Told you we could do this together,” she said.

I looked back at her. “You did this?”

“Yeah,” she said. “Nobody would suspect me either.”

“How? They have cameras…”

“I know how to cover myself,” she said. “And look how tiny I am. I can sneak around easily. What are you worried about?”

I had to plenty to be worried about.

But I didn’t need to list all the reasons.

I looked around the kitchen and quickly took the knife block to the trash.

I dropped the whole thing into the trash can and then took the bag outside to the side of the house and put it in the bigger can that would be put out on garbage night.

As I rushed around, I felt myself unable to catch my breath.

When I came running back up the deck steps, Gia blocked my way.

“Winter…”

“What?” I asked.

“Are you okay?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“This is fucking crazy, Gia. I didn’t ask you to be in this. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“I don’t care,” she said. “I want what you want. To see them all suffer.”

I shook my head. “Gia, no. They’re smart. They think they know who it is. What if they know my mother had those knives?”

“Do you think your mother is the only person with that knife set?”

“Okay, fine, that makes sense,” I said. “But…”

“No buts,” she said. “I wanted to do this.”

I let out a long breath. “Well… thank you. I guess. I mean… why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because you’re