Reese (Pack of Misfits #2) - Raven Kennedy Page 0,79
enemies. Misfits stick together, right?”
She snorts but smiles a little. “Right. But don’t expect me to invite you over for a girls’ night or anything.”
That’s probably for the best, because my rat will definitely steal from her again. “Noted,” I say, and I notice Luca visibly relax.
Clapping hands make all three of us look over. “Good job with not being a bitch, Boozy Susie,” Zoey says before she reaches over and snags a beer out of the cooler and hands it to her. Susie rolls her eyes but then takes the bottle and chugs.
Luca nudges me and gives me a pointed look. I wave him off. He nudges me again. I play dumb. He pinches my ass and cocks an eyebrow when I glare at him. Damn meddling vulture.
Sighing, I dig into my pocket and then hold out her necklace. “Here,” I say a little glumly.
Susie pulls the beer from her lips and lifts a brow. “Your rat took my necklace?”
I shrug. “She was mad at you.”
Susie takes it with a little smirk. “I’m actually impressed. Your rat had to have gone through three zippers, a clasp, and a button to get to this.”
“She’s very determined.”
“I can see that.”
Susie glances at Luca. “Sorry, Luca. I’ll stop being a bitch.”
Luca clears his throat uncomfortably. “Uhh...I don’t know how to answer that, so I’m gonna go get a beer.”
Freya rolls her eyes and sits next to Susie. “Boys. Damn fools. All of them.”
Zoey clinks their glasses together. “I’ll drink to that.”
25
Reese
On our last night at the beach, I mostly watch the others play light up bocce ball. Every time Addie chucks one of the green balls, she accidentally quacks. Penn laughs his ass off every time.
They play near the shore, where the sand is flat, but aside from trying to get their ball closest to the jack ball, they also have to contend with the waves.
Stinger’s red ball does a nice flare as it arcs up in the air and then lands with a thud right next to the jack. Unfortunately for him though, the next wave comes up and drags it further away. He curses up a storm after that, while everyone else snickers at his bad luck.
I play a round with Luca, Mitzy, and Zoey on my team. We lose really badly against Addie and her mates, but I haven’t laughed so hard in...I can’t even remember how long.
Afterwards, when everyone retreats to their tents, I stay on the beach with Luca, next to the dwindling bonfire. I’m stuck in my head as I stare at the orange embers and the charred remains of the driftwood when Luca holds a coin up in front of my face. “Penny for your thoughts?”
I grin and pluck it from his fingers. “This is a nickel.”
He shrugs a shoulder. “You like the color silver better.”
He’s right, I do.
“I was just thinking about Karina,” I admit to him.
He thinks for a moment until his memory jogs to catch up. “The young female mongoose that Sid sold off?”
“Yeah. I know it’s been five years, but I don’t go a single day without thinking about her. I wish I could’ve done something more than just holler and get myself kidnapped. I wish I could’ve at least freed her first. Helped her get away.”
I continue to look at the orange crackling coals as I twist the nickel in my fingers. “That’s what’s tormented me the most. Not that I was kidnapped or trapped in my rat form. Or even that I was kept by Rick Dick in terrible living conditions. But that I went through all of that without even saving her. It just feels like it was all for nothing.”
I’ve never admitted that out loud, but it’s weighed on me for years. Sometimes, the memory of her being drugged and droopy and shoved into the car with that male gives me nightmares.
I raise my hand to dash away the stray tear that managed to leak out of my eye. “I hate Sid,” I say in a voice barely above a whisper and through clenched teeth. “I hate him so much. He stole five years of my life, Luca. But who knows what he stole from her?”
Luca lifts his arm and tucks me under it, pulling me close to his side. I rest my head against his shoulder, listening to the snaps of the log and the waves lick up onto the sand.
“It’s not your fault that you couldn’t stop her from being taken.”