Anarchy (The Stone Legacy Series Book 4) Read Free Page B

shirt to wipe the steering wheel and doors clean of any fingerprints.
    “Ready?” Hawa tapped her foot on the pavement.
    “If you helped, this would go faster,” he mumbled before locking the door and slamming it shut. “I don’t want to attract any unwanted attention with fingerprints.”
    “Says the walking dead guy.” Hawa strutted down the sidewalk and vanished around the corner.
    Jayden exhaled. She was such a pain in the ass. He followed her around the corner of a brick building. She stood on the sidewalk beside a four-lane street, waiting for the signal on the crosswalk to change. Apparently, she knew her way around. Good thing, because he had no clue. He jogged to catch up. She jabbed the crosswalk button again, as if that would make the light change any faster.
    “I know a hotel we can stay at.”
    “Oh, good.” Especially since she’d said we, which meant he wasn’t sentenced to a night out in the cold. Jayden peered up at the morning sun. “But it’s kinda early to check in, isn’t it?”
    “If we don’t secure a spot to crash, we may both end up staying in an alley. Plus, we can’t afford anything fancy, so the place I have in mind will have to do.” The signal changed and she walked toward the other side of the street.
    He followed closely, observing her confident stride. “I guess you know your way around here pretty well.”
    They reached the other side of the street right as the signal changed back to a blinking red hand. She pointed down the road, where even higher buildings towered in the distance. Cars zoomed down the busy street, spewing the bitter scent of exhaust into the air. “I used to stay with some friends downtown, before I moved in with Renato.”
    He stared deep into downtown. “Oh. So you lived here?”
    She glanced at him and then took off walking again, her clunky leather boots pounding against the ground with every step. “Kinda. I went to Renato like a year ago. Before that I just visited, mostly after my parents…” She blinked and cleared her throat. “After my parents died in this shitty war our kind has been fighting for the last umpteen million years.” She picked her pace up again. “He asked me to stay so many times, but I didn’t really trust him.” She tucked her hair behind her ear. A thick silver ring glinted from around her middle finger. “But when you’re sixteen and don’t have a ton of options, a huge mansion and an uncle willing to let me stay as long as I wanted seemed pretty damn good.” She exhaled. “It was cool while it lasted, but I missed the place I grew up. I missed the kids, mostly. They’re what really made it feel like home.”
    Kids? Home? Who is this chick?
    “So you were…” He paused, but didn’t really know how else to say it. “You were a wanderer or something?” Ditched by your parents was more accurate, but he was really working on the whole not being such an asshole thing.
    “Not by their own choice.” She analyzed his reaction—or lack there off—and then rolled her eyes. “Never mind. You wouldn’t understand.” Her stride quickened and she pushed ahead.
    “What makes you think I wouldn’t understand?” He jogged a few steps to catch up to her and fell into pace.
    “Forget it.”
    He waited for her to cave, but she never did. Women were so damn confusing. They said one thing and meant another, or said something with the expectation he’d say something back, but every time he did, it just pissed them off even more. He slouched his shoulders.
    It seemed like they’d been walking forever before Hawa paused to examine the streets. She silently made a left, and then another quick right into a narrow side street that was dark and smelled like piss. Jayden pushed down the urge to gag. “Where are you going?”
    “To the hotel.”
    He peered up between two huge buildings. Graffiti tagged the crumbling walls below clotheslines strung over rusted balconies, hinting they were in the projects. “The hotel