Cameron Casey and Annabeth Taylor are about to find out just how deep a burn can hurt you. Together, they're being trained to take over the family business. Neither of them want the lives their fathers have planned out and they realize that sometim...
Hi! In case you haven't seen already (I imagine most of you have), you can get the edited version of REBEL ONE on Amazon! You can order the paperback, ebook (readable on your phones if you download the kindle app), or kindle unlimited. Right now, more people have purchased SPARKED than REBEL ONE. Where are all the Melkin residents/readers? ;)
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Annabeth. 16 years old.
Maybe I should have hesitated before agreeing to kill my uncle. Maybe I would have if I had been a better person, had a better life, possessed better morals. The only thing I had was an ache in my chest and no way to fix it.
Maybe if I had been a better daughter, I wouldn't have asked, "What about my dad?"
Cam studied me as I stood up and dusted my hands off.
"What about my dad?" I repeated.
"Let's just focus on one obstacle at a time," he suggested carefully and with enough calculation that I knew he wasn't sure which way I was leaning about my dad.
He took a half of a step back as if I was going to attack him at the slightest idea of harm to come to my dad. My dad. My dad who taught me how to clean my own cuts and scratches off as a kid, who taught me how to throw my first punch, how to dislocate a shoulder, a knee. My dad, who taught me how to stitch up a wound with dental floss, how to shoot a gun, how to pick someone's pocket. Who taught me how to escape zip ties, ropes, and handcuffs. Who taught me how to be better than the best. My dad, who timed my runs and didn't give me dinner if I wasn't fast enough, who broke two of my fingers to teach me to withstand pain, who tortured the one person I wanted to call mine, who burned me. Twice.
I wasn't a better daughter. I wasn't as strong as my dad hoped I would be and I didn't want to be.
"After Callum," I said. "We handle Scully."
Cam relaxed at that and a bit of pride overcame his features.
"And Lucky," I added because if Lucky hadn't started stirring up trouble to begin with, the situation with the Dacostas might not have been so intense to begin with and Alex might still be alive.
"I wouldn't call them lucky," Finn said.
Cam and I stared at each other like 'who's going to tell him?' because even though Finn had been in the room with Lucky multiple times, he still didn't comprehend the fact that Lucky was his name.
"Do you really think this is the best place for this conversation?" I asked instead of clarifying anything for Finn. We were out in the open in the Dacosta territory.
"Yes." Cam looked up and down the small back alley we were in. "We'll hear or see anyone who's nearby. No Casey is going to be wandering around here for fun. If a Dacosta comes around, I don't think they'll have anything against what we're planning to do."
