Savage Love (Ash and Innocence 2)

Whenever I felt my conviction start to slow, all I needed to do was visualize it. To see the shape of my dad who had been so strong. To see him curled up on himself with flames dancing above him, almost like they were taunting me.

See what strength gets you? See what happens to good people?

There was a universal truth in that. Either you could be the one doing the burning, or you could be the idiot who wound up burnt.20CharliThe chilly night air streamed through our hair. My hands gripped the truck bed like my life depended on it—probably because in a lot of ways, it did. Clint was driving us along a switchback road that led to some fancy house in Calvary county. I’d let Zoe convince me to come, and I was starting to feel glad I had.

She smiled at me from the other end of the truck bed. Four guys from the swim team were all jammed up front with Clint, and when I looked his way, he caught me and flashed a wink.

I smiled but looked away. I still needed to find a way to break things off with him. All my instincts wanted me to just do it plain and simple. I could explain Cassian’s threat and tell Clint I really did like him, even if I’d been more and more sure that he wasn’t really “the one” material. He was still a nice guy and I’d enjoyed our little fling.

Except I couldn’t do that. Clint would probably feel compelled to defend his honor, or something. He’d confront Cassian and wind up getting hurt again. I had a sinking feeling Cassian had already puzzled all of that out, too.

The only way I could spare Clint was to convince him it was my choice. That Cassian wasn’t a factor at all.

Zoe and I laid down flat, bracing our hands and feet against the walls of the truck bed to keep from slamming into each other or anything else. We watched the trees whip past and the stars overhead.

Despite all the chaos, it felt good. Here and there, I was stealing snatches of memories I could cherish. Cassian probably thought he’d made my life miserable, but I guess the part he didn’t get was that I was no stranger to misery. I’d learned to find the good moments where I could a long time ago, and there had been plenty. Including tonight.

We all piled out of the truck once we got to the party. Clint tried to walk with me, but I made an excuse about needing to take a girl trip to the bathroom with Zoe. Like a coward, I planned to simply avoid going to look for him afterwards.

I was going to have a hard conversation with him, but I didn’t feel like ruining his mood right before the party was ideal timing.

Zoe and I threaded our way through the people mulling around outside the house. It was a huge, luxury style log cabin that was more like a log mansion. I was starting to recognize a lot of faces from Parker High, but it seemed like half of Calvary High was mixed in here, as well.

We went inside and asked a few people until someone pointed us to a bathroom. Inside, we were surprisingly alone.

Zoe locked the door, then gave me a curious look. “Why are you avoiding Clint?”

“Because Cassian might literally kill him if I don’t find a way to cut him loose.”

Zoe pursed her lips. “That’s a good reason.”

I was relieved she didn’t try to argue the point. I guess she knew Cassian well enough to know I hadn’t been exaggerating. “Later, though. I didn’t want to have that conversation right now.”

“Fair enough. But you’ll tell him soon, right? Clint is my friend, too. I don’t want—”

“I will. I promise. And once enough time has gone by that he moved on, it’d probably be safe to tell him the real truth, too.”

Zoe and I rejoined the party and found ourselves in a conversation with two tall, athletic looking blonds from Calvary. They were brothers, we learned. The broader of the two was Hugh, and the leaner one with wolfish eyes was Marcus.

Marcus had apparently seen Zoe run at a track meet a few weeks back and had been hoping he’d run into her again. And Hugh seemed interested in handing me as many drinks as I’d take.

I politely sidestepped his first offer and poured myself a drink, promising myself it’d only be the one.

Nearly an hour passed while Hugh practically cornered me into a conversation that wasn’t entirely unpleasant, except for his tendency to turn everything back to himself. I liked animals? Yeah, he’d once volunteered at the zoo over the summer. Oh, I was doing track at Parker? He was doing football, wrestling, and baseball. And he’d be happy to list off all his stats and accomplishments in each.