be to simply knock them both the fuck out. I could walk out with the stuff I want and not care, but I want to be better than that. Better than these two knuckleheads.
However, I won’t because that’s exactly what they want. And one wrong move will lead me back to the one place I just escaped from.
And I do not want to go back.
Stepping back, I turn and march out. As soon as I step out the door, my stomach growls. I ordered takeout last night, and I am fucking starving now, but I can’t keep wasting my money on takeout. At least not until I find a job.
“Here.” I turn to see a dark-haired beauty standing in front of me, sunglasses covering her face as she holds a paper bag out to me. “Take it, August. Before my hand falls off.”
I take the bag and check inside. It’s full of everything I was trying to buy. As I look back up, Rylee is staring at me through her glasses. Then she turns and strolls away. I watch as she hotfoots it to her expensive car. And just before she gets in, I call out to her, “Rich girl.”
She turns back. “Yes?” Her nose is scrunched up at my choice of name for her.
“I’m not your fucking charity case,” I spit out.
Rylee shakes her head before she slides in her car and drives off. A part of me wants to throw the shit at her car, but I know better. I need food. And despite her being a rich girl, she is fucking hot and generous, even though I don’t want to admit that right now.
“You’ve done heaps,” Noah says the next day as he steps inside. He checks around, his hands by his sides, exuding so much confidence it’s almost enough to make me physically ill.
“Yep,” Is all I reply.
Noah walks to the back door and views the yard, which I have torn to pieces and flattened. Not even a bush is standing where it used to be.
“How are you going with getting supplies?” he asks. “I heard about the supermarket.”
“Of course you did. She can’t keep her mouth shut.”
“Who?” Noah asks.
“Rylee.”
“What does Rylee have to do with the supermarket?” he asks with an appearance of confusion crossing his face.
“She was there. It wasn’t her that told you?”
“No, one of my clients saw it all and let me know.”
Well, fuck. Rich girl kept her mouth shut. I’ll be damned.
“What do you plan to do for work? Your grandmother left you some money, but there’s not a lot.”
“I haven’t gotten that far. Though, I guess, it’s something I should look into.” Except for the fact that I’ve never worked a real job in my life.
“Do you want me to get you some work?”
I scrub my hand down my face and sit at the dining room table as he turns and stares.
“No.”
“August, this will only work if you go back to living a normal life.”
I chuckle.
What is a normal life? Even before prison, my life was anything but normal. My mother was the town whore, doing whatever she could for her next drink, even my damn friends. Disgusting.
Normal life? Yeah, I don’t know what that is.
“You can be whoever you want to be, August. If you look at it that way, I’ll do whatever I can to assist you.”
My knuckles rap on the table. “Why?” I ask. He’s done everything for free, and he’s one of the best lawyers in the city. His reputation as the next big thing is renowned, and yet, here he is, helping me.
“I don’t know if I told you this, but I was married before.”
I shake my head because I had no idea. Though we don’t share many personal things.
“She was a great woman. She told me I shouldn’t do everything for the greedy, that I should remember where I came from. Remember my roots.” He stares at me. “I remember, August. And believe it or not, we have a very similar backstory. My mother was someone you wouldn’t wish on your worst nightmare, and my father was never in the picture.”
“And look at you now,” I say to him, surprised by his words.
“And look at you. You’re free. Now, make the most of it,” he says before he heads out the same way he came in, leaving me to ponder his words of wisdom.
Chapter 5
Rylee
“Rylee.”
Fuck.
Fuck.
I didn’t see his car out the front. How did I miss that?
“We need to talk.”
Ha, no stinking way.
“Rylee, dear,