Kiss Me Gone Read Free

the control on my side to lower the window.
    She must have had the child safety settings on. Intent on escape, I didn't realize Tom McPherson had left his house until I went to slide across the seat and try the other door. His meaty hand reached for the exterior handle. Hearing the click, I scurried back for my door just as Tom opened his side and Anna immediately re-engaged the lock.
    "I said I would drop you at home." Her hard gaze found my reflection in the rear view mirror. "I'm not gonna get my ass chewed because your mother calls mine angry that I let you out to walk a mile home in the dark."
    "Your mom wouldn't give a shit if you left me a hundred miles from..." My protest died on my lips as Tom's thigh brushed against mine. I inched closer to my door. He moved with me despite the Malibu's wide back seat.
    "Eden uses heroin," Molly announced from the front passenger seat.
    My head jerked in her direction. The girl was fucking mental. There was no other conclusion. She also clearly hated me even though I had never done anything to deserve it. Then again, I had been catching a world of shit I didn't deserve ever since Michael died. My mom had canceled my phone and didn't seem to care if I had enough to eat. She also didn't care what happened to me if I was caught outside after curfew -- a point I had argued with her as she shoved me onto the front porch earlier that evening and told me to get lost until midnight.
    Remembering how I had to beg just to get Helen to pass my wallet through the door, I snorted. The petty blond in the front seat lying about me because Tom wouldn't give her the time of day was the least of my worries -- and that was a very sad fact.
    Tom leaned in close. The ceiling light hadn't shut off, so I saw the lift of his brows and the spark of interest in his pale green gaze. "Really?"
    "No." Trying to ignore how Tom was close enough for me to smell what he had eaten for dinner, I stared at Molly and imagined her face melting. " Someone has apparently been spreading rumors."
    I placed special emphasis on my use of "someone" while staring at the culprit.
    Molly didn't bat an eye at the accusation. A smug grin tugged at the edges of her glossy mouth as she ever-so-sweetly informed me. "It's only a rumor if you prove it's not true."
    Before I could explain just how flawed her logic was, Tom seized my wrist and pushed my sleeve up.
    "No tracks," he observed. "But I've heard that junkies hide their injections, like between their toes or the back of their knees, even on the bend of their thighs."
    His hand darted toward the last potential injection site he had listed. Pushing at his forearm, I blocked his attempt to touch me between my legs.
    "Don't," I snapped then caught Anna watching me in the mirror. "Let me out or take me home now."
    "Curfew's not over for another hour," Tom answered for his cousin. "And I have to pick something up first. We'll drop you off after."
    Pulling a jewel case from inside his denim jacket, he handed it to Molly. "Pop this in, babe."
    Her eyes lighting up at the endearment, Molly eagerly opened the case and loaded the CD into the stereo's slot. Garbage rewarded her efforts. The scratchy, screeching voice rapping obscenities over the speakers made me want to stab sharp instruments into my ears so I would never risk hearing the music again.
    Next to me, Tom started to sing along, screaming something about bitches and riches, snitches and ditches. I was just starting to piece together the similarity in the voice blaring over the speakers and that of the boy sitting next to me when Tom put his mouth against my ear and yelled a question at me.
    "You don't like my song?"
    "I love it," Molly piped up before I could think of some tactful way to tell Tom that his singing made Vanilla Ice sound like a rap god.
    "Is this the turn?" Anna asked, casting a quick look over her shoulder.
    "Yeah," Tom answered, his breath filling my ear in a way that brought bile rushing up my throat. "Right