Twisted Magic (Book 2 of the Ink Series)

Left field

Karsen untied her bathing suit top throwing it to the side and buried her head in her hands. She let out a glorious sigh happy to be basking in the sun getting a tan.

"Must you always take your top off?" I asked. I looked around paranoid we would be thrown off the beach for indecent exposure. She turned her head to shoot me a useless glare.

"My tatas are hidden, Hope. And you know I do not like tan lines."

I sighed fiddling with my own bathing suit to make sure it was still in place.

"Since when are you such a sister Nancy?"

I stared at her confused. What was a sister Nancy?

"A sister Nancy," I smirked.

Karsen lifted her head higher to give it to me now. "It's the name of a nun."

I laughed, shaking the bottle of sunscreen. The sunscreen Karsen refused to apply to her or me. I did my best to reach every body part on my own. I feared the sun, while Karsen welcomed it and all its toxic beams her way. I knew which one of us was going to be haggard and wrinkled by the time we hit forty.

I dropped down on the towel, shifting until I got a better position. I threw my arms behind my head and shut my eyes. A day to relax was what I needed after the other night. I hadn't spoken to Slade since, sure it was only one night, but I hoped he understood the depth of my anger.

As if she sensed what was on my mind Karsen put her two cents in. "He was upset you left. But, like the good friend I am, I told him to stay away from you and let you have your space."

I sighed. Did I really want to hear all the gory details? "He was flirting with Audrey."

"She's something else that's for sure. Even so, I promise you when you left he stayed far away from her. Actually, he left ten minutes after you did," Karsen assured me. "I would have decked her if she tried anything with Slade, Hope."

And I knew she would have. She was that kind of friend. Karsen would take a punch for me or give one.

"It was all disturbing. They act like they have no sense. I don't get it." I shook my head.

"You mean the log rolling toward those guys on the beach?" Karsen asked. "Kidd told me about Audrey, she's a witch, a really big bitch apparently also."

"So does that mean it's okay for her to torture every living thing she sees fit?" I turned over resting on my side. "She's crazy. And she wants Slade." This I was sure of. I knew lust when I saw it. Audrey wanted Slade, it was written all over her face every time she looked at him.

Karsen pressed her cheek against her arm. She studied my worried expression. "That doesn't mean he wants her. He's a hot guy. I'm sure a lot of girls want him. We all know he wants you. Kidd says so all the time."

It was reassuring to hear. However, the dark cloud swooped back into my thoughts raining on my sense of security. The vision of Slade's lip ring, the way he replied to her comment, I couldn't get rid of the bad feeling. I drug a hand through my hair.

"Why was he mad I left?" I asked, Karsen. "He was enjoying torturing those guys along with the two of them. I wasn't going to sit there and be in on it." I wasn't some sadistic girl who got off on other's people's pain—I think that was called a sadist, and that I was not.

"It might have been the tall dashing male following you off the beach. The one that got up close and personal with those lips Slade loves to kiss all the time." Karsen offered, she laughed at her stupid joke.