Tainted Gold (Providence Gold 3)

One

Lily

“I said I was sorry, sweetie,” Chris said through the speakers in the car, using the tone that he used to use to get me to do what he wanted.

It didn’t work then, it definitely wasn’t going to work now.

The big cheating shit stain! Not that I actually cared, you had to want to be in the other person’s life to do that. Me? I’d only been trying to be nice to him, but a girl had to have some pride and self-respect.

“I already told you, I’m not interested,” I repeated for the millionth time, the boredom of saying it over and over clear in my voice. “You cheated, I caught you, we’re done. It’s as easy as that.”

“But it was only the tip,” he persisted.

The vibrations of my tires hitting the little reflective bump things separating the lanes of the road had me jerking the wheel back quickly. Lesson learned, don’t roll your eyes while driving.

“And it was only because she looked like you.”

That made it better? Seriously, did guys actually use that excuse thinking it would work?

Plus, I had blonde hair, the chick had black. I had light blue eyes, the chick clearly had dark brown eyes when she’d looked at me when I’d walked in. I was curvy, a size ten, she was a size four at most. She’d also looked taller than me even though she was lying down, well from what I’d seen of her apart from her tits. We were complete opposites!

“Was her name Lily too?” I snarked, my patience shot to shit. “Because, not that I saw as much of her as you did, but the stuff I did see doesn’t help me understand why you’d think she looked like me at all. Not that I really give a shit,” I added on at the end, keeping my eyes on the road ahead of me now, and seeing nothing but the same emptiness for a good distance.

“Well, you were busy that night, and I was lonely…”

Hitting the button to disconnect the call, I yanked my wheel so that the car left the road and went into a field with tall dry grass in it.

To hell with it.

I was anal about following the rules, I never broke them ever. I was the only kid in my school who’d never been grounded or even given a detention. I followed everything to the letter and never detoured once.

Today was going to be different. Just once in my life I wanted to live on the wild side, even if it was just driving through a field to get to the road that led me to my family’s bar in town. If I’d stayed on the road I’d been on, like I did every day, I’d have had to drive for another fifteen minutes and then come back on myself to get to town. I wanted to live outside the lines just for once.

I was also done with being that Lily. The Lily who was nice to everyone, who got herself caught up with an asshole because she didn’t want to look like a bitch for saying no when he asked her out. The Lilith James who followed every rule to the letter.

Only seconds later, I was rethinking my mental rebirth. I hadn’t counted on the ground being so bumpy under my Charger and winced as I went over something hard, hearing a metallic thud as it hit the bottom of my car.

Cars were almost indestructible nowadays though, they even survived floods without dying – well, sometimes.

Shaking it off, I patted the dash of my girl. She’d be okay and get me there safely.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. I’d finally gotten onto the road I’d been aiming for, and had only been driving on it for five minutes, when the car died and I had to drift over to the side.

“Fuck it!” I yelled, banging my hands on the wheel.

Flinging the door open and getting out, I looked at my baby and tried to figure out what was wrong. I’d filled her up with gas yesterday, never once going into the red field on the fuel gauge because, ya know, rules and all. So, it couldn’t be that. She was only five months old too, so it couldn’t be anything major. Wouldn’t there be bits dangling down to the ground or trailing along behind it?

I smelled it before I saw the pool of liquid running from underneath it, travelling down toward the dip at the side of the road.

Please let it be water!

I was just about to get onto my hands and knees to take a look when a truck pulled up behind me and a tall guy with a beard got out. I’d heard about things like this happening, so I immediately stiffened and moved my keys so I could stab him with them if he got close. Well, that’s what I’d been told I should do. In all honesty, if he did anything to me, I’d probably run down the road screaming and find a place to hide – but because I’d been told to do it, I held my keys like a weapon.