Nightmare (Joker Night #1) by Bethany Winters

Author:Bethany Winters [Winters, Bethany]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-10-12T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 8

VIOLET

“What was it like in there?”

“Prison?” he asks, shrugging when I nod. “It sucked, Vi.”

I pinch my lips to the side and avert my eyes. I’m leaning back between his legs with my letters in my lap, putting them back in the order they came in. He’s got one arm around my middle with his chin resting on my shoulder, holding his lighter up for me so I can see what I'm doing.

“Because of me?”

“A little bit, yeah,” he says, and it punches me right in the gut. “I mean, it would have been a hell of a lot easier if I hadn’t lost my mind worrying about you and if you’d been around for me to talk to. But prison’s still prison. It would have sucked either way.”

I think about that a moment while I run my thumb over the scratchy ink on the pages, catching a few glimpses of his words as I go.

You’re gonna pay for this, you little bitch.

You can’t hide from me forever.

Baby, you’re killing me.

I’m coming for you.

“Do you feel guilty?” he asks, probably seeing the same things I’m seeing.

“Sometimes,” I admit. “Do you? For what you did to Jared?”

“No,” he says honestly, because of course he doesn’t. “I told him to stay the fuck away and he didn’t listen. He deserved what he got.”

“Atty, you almost killed him.”

“And I would have done it for real if you hadn’t stopped him from kissing you.”

“You know about that?”

“Baby, I know everything when it comes to you,” he teases, pressing his face to mine to kiss my cheek, watching me read a minute before he speaks again. “Are we really not gonna talk about it?”

“Talk about what?” I feign indifference, my heart racing with nerves.

“Someone paid for my lawyers, Vi,” he says slowly, turning my chin when I refuse to look at him. “They paid off the judge too. I know it was you.”

“I—”

“Don’t lie to me.”

Fuck.

“I didn’t get you out,” I whisper. “I just got you a little less time.”

“Five to ten years less is a lot more than a little.”

“Yeah, well…” I clear my throat, pulling my face out of his grip. “You might be fucking crazy, but I wasn’t gonna leave you in there for years.”

He chuckles and drops his chin back on my shoulder. “Thank you,” he says, and I say nothing. “Did you use all the money your grandmother left you?”

“Only most of it. I’ve got enough left to finish college and pay the bills.”

“What about the creepy house you wanted at the top of the hill?”

“I’ll get there,” I say quietly. “Eventually.”

He goes quiet then, and I swallow the anxiety creeping up my throat as our thoughts align as one. I said I’ll get there, not we, like it used to be.

“What about you?” I ask in a lame-ass attempt to change the subject. “Are you coming back to college now you’re out?”

“I burned down one of their dorm rooms,” he reminds me. “I think I’m expelled.”

A laugh bubbles out of me, and I nod.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.