Rush (Roam Series, Book Four) Read Free

She’s so scared.” I glanced in the rearview mirror of the Volkswagen van, scratching at the hair on my jaw. Gerard Butler… Jesus, I’m at least thirty.
    “She sounded terrified. She’s about to have that baby… naturally. No painkillers. I’d be out of my mind freaked out.” Violet edged into the back seat, tucking her white-blonde curls behind her ears. “Did you hear that? I think he’s breathing.”
    “West broke his neck an hour ago. He’s dead.” Her brows snapped together. I exhaled slowly, rolling my eyes. “Fine, I’ll check.”
    “Thanks.”
    The blanket over Troy definitely rose and fell beneath his breaths; I moved the cover and stared down at the face that I saw almost every night when I slept.
    The tripped-out hallucinations had me waking, drenched in a pool of sweat, sometimes still feeling Roam’s body beneath my fingers. I kicked him in the side, taking satisfaction in the vivid contact that my foot had with his ribs. When I would gather the will to punch him in my nightmares, I felt like I was dragging my fist through mud.
    He’d laugh … always, that goddamn intimidating laugh.
    “Can you break his neck?”
    “Just look away.” I gathered his face in my hands and tilted his neck. She ignored me, watching intently. I shrugged, jerking my arms as West had shown me, listening for the fracture. “Tough girl, huh? Taking the ‘my daddy deserted me so I hate the world’ role pretty seriously. No tattoos, no piercings, though. Unusual.”
    She refused to give me the benefit of a scowl, merely deadpanning. “I don’t put holes in my body because they heal- quickly. Now I know why.” She turned slightly and tugged at the waist of her jeans, and my eyes instantly found the small flower- a violet- on the juncture of her hip and stomach. “And I do have a tattoo. If you wanted to see it, you just had to ask.”
    The contrast of her creamy skin and the purple ink pumped all the blood in my body below the waist of my jeans.
    Damn .
    “Okay, keep your clothes on,” I started back down the aisle between the seats, doing my best to not drag my eyes back to her pelvis. “So, you had no idea you were … immortal.”
    “I knew there was something wrong with me. I’d fall and skin my knee, and I’d heal within hours- sometimes minutes. But my mom never said a word… I thought I had some kind of wonderful disease, you know? Something that made me resistant to injury. I guess I never thought as far as my… death.”
    I climb ed back into the driver’s seat, settling behind the wheel. The sound separating the main land from Emerald Isle rutted against the shore in choppy waves, and sea gulls dipped, eager for a meal.
    I remembered the point that I knew, with absolute certainty, that Violet was going to die as I gripped her throat in West’s basement. Her eyes had pleaded with me as she clawed at my wrist. Heart pummeling, I continued to squeeze until she went limp and crumbled to the floor like a ragdoll.
    The way West had bellowed at me, raging against his restraints, sent me into panicked confusion. Is he acting? He told me that he suspected she was immortal. Gain Troy’s trust; get out of here alive.
    Show my allegiance.
    “How long do you think this is going to take?” She leaned back in her seat, picking at her thumbnail absently.
    “What, having a kid? How am I supposed to know.” I drilled my fing ers into the bridge of my nose.
    “ Roam was pregnant, in 2012. Where do you think their other baby is? You think she’ll have twins?”
    I pulled my hand away from my face, staring at her. “Are you being serious?”
    Defensive, she shot me a look and turned to the window. “I just hate not knowing what’s going to happen.”
    The desperation in her voice, something I’d never heard until now, nudged my conscience. I gentled my tone. “No, I don’t think she’ll have twins. Her neck and throat were seriously damaged in 2012, and she didn’t carry any of her injuries