Page 59 of Ly to Me (Devils of Alliston Springs #1)

I pushed off the truck and lunged for him, kicking him right in the balls. He fell to the ground, caught between a fit of laughter and grunts of pain. “You’ll back me if you know what’s good for ya!”

My shaky palms balled at my sides as I stomped over to Car’s truck and got in. The keys in my purse fell from my hands as I pulled them out, making them clatter to the ground.

“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” I pounded on the steering wheel, gripping the faded leather like it could reverse time.

But nothing could do that.

I’d tried, imagined, dreamed—done it all.

Nothing fixed the past.

TEN YEARS AGO

The duffle bag at my feet was quickly filling. Every second that passed, the excitement in my stomach tightened, making nerves jump to the tips of my fingers, shooting all the way down to my sneaker-covered toes.

Tonight was the night I’d finally make it out of here. I’d no longer come back to this shithole. Never have to live under the same roof as the monster that slept a room over from me. Never have to smell his rum and coke breath as he taunted me, or hell, even breathe the same damn air as him, again.

The small clock beside my bed let me know that in thirty minutes, it would all be different.

My life would change, for the better. I’d planned to leave before meeting Carver Roland.

I’d planned to leave Alliston and start fresh, somewhere far-the-fuck away from these deteriorating walls.

But, now that he was coming with me, my future seemed brighter.

Better.

I fell hard for him. So hard that staying in Alliston Springs had crossed my mind more than once. But when he said he’d come, a whole new image for my future opened up.

It became our future. Our lives. The one we’d share—together.

A noise that sounded like an engine roaring snapped me from my dreams that were about to become reality. A smile touched my lips as I dropped the balls of clothes from my hands and ran through the front door, expecting to find Carver’s dad’s truck he was supposed to be borrowing.

But the truck rolling up to my house wasn’t Car’s.

I pressed my flattened hand to my forehead, blocking the hazy sunset glistening from the dark blue paint of the truck, yet I still couldn’t see whoever was inside. I dropped my arms, waiting for the truck to roll to a stop.

The boots that hit the ground sent me back a few steps.

“Well, well.” Shutting his truck door, Noah made his way toward me at a leisurely pace, hands digging into his pockets and a smirk twisting his mouth. “Heard you’re leavin’ town?”

“What’s it to you?”

“Leaving with Carver.” It wasn’t a question. His eyes bored into mine, sending me back another step.

“Again—why the hell do you care?”

Noah tsked. “I don’t. Not really.” He stopped a few feet from me, digging his boots into the dirt. His scrutiny moved over my house before falling back on me—too much of me.

I wanted to stab those wandering eyes of his right from their sockets.

“You have no right to come here. When Carver hears—”

“Hears…what? You screamin’ for me?”

I swallowed, my heels bumping into the bottom step of the dinghy front porch.

“Get out of here. He’s going to be here any minute now. Last time you tried to fight him, you lost. So, go on, before he beats the hell out of you again.”

Noah chuckled. “He’s not comin’. You really thought he’d go somewhere, leave his family behind, for the likes of you?”

My neck burned hot, anger boiling up inside, trying to fight the panic those ideas sent my heart into. “You’re lying.”

“I’m not. How do you think I found out where you lived?”

Anyone could have told him I lived in this hellhole. It wasn't exactly a secret.

“Carver wouldn’t send you here. He’d tell me himself if that were true. Which it isn’t.”

“You were nothing but a bet, Lyra. The girl he chased after to win a grand from me.”

A bet? No. Couldn’t be.

“He wouldn’t need your money. He has his own.”

Noah laughed. “Yeah, okay. Tell him that.”

My arms shook as I pointed to the end of the dirt road. “Quit lyin’. Leave. Now. Go on.”

His arms shot up beside his head. “Not lying. Why don’t you ask him if he ends up comin’? Ask him how he showed us all your blood-stained panties just to prove that he followed through and fucked you before prom like he was supposed to.”

Tears stung my eyes without reason. Noah was a liar. There was no way—

“He showed everyone. Told everyone how tight you were. How loud you were in his truck that night after the party. Even told us when we could start trying to have our turn with you—right after graduation.”

Fear crept into my bones as my back met the wall. “I don’t believe you!” I shouted, my hand searching for the front doorknob.

He shrugged. “Well, so be it. Don’t believe me.

Go on and leave with him and see how quickly he leaves you to come right on back.

” Noah spit in my yard before turning on his heels.

As he entered his truck and started the engine up again, his window rolled down, revealing a grinning, lying man.

That's all he could be—right? “I’ll be back when you realize he ain’t comin’ for you.

Maybe you’d like to take a ride on the wild side.

” He winked, then fishtailed his truck from my drive, the sand creating a storm around me that made it difficult to breathe.

I ran back to my room and dug through my drawers, searching for proof that Noah’s claims were all lies. But those panties were long gone, just like my virginity went—right before prom. In the truck Noah mentioned, on that same night he knew about, too.

My knees hit the floor with a soft thud as my shoulders curved inward.

And I let it all out.

Tears rolled down my cheeks, dripping onto the wood in a steady rhythm as my heart shattered to pieces.

How could I have been so stupid to think Carver would actually…that he could—

“No one will ever love you, pretty girl.”

I startled, falling back to the floor as the voice seeped under my skin. Whimpering, I inched back, using the heels of my feet and palms to push me.

“Where do you think you’re goin’?” Chet eyed my duffle, his drunken stupor making his movements slow but my body was too paralyzed by heartbreak to act. To use that to my advantage. To run.

“I said, ‘where the fuck do you think you’re going?’”

No words formed past my trembling lips as my head hit the base of my bed.

Chet’s feet thudded closer as my eyes shot to the doorknob. Every time Chet came stumbling back from his benders, he always went for the same door.

My door.

The door I’d forgotten to lock behind me after Noah ripped my heart from my chest and stomped on it.

Chet crouched down, resting uneasily on the balls of his feet. His knuckle grazed the side of my breast, dragging my top with it, and I froze.

“Pretty, pretty girl. I missed your birthday yesterday.”

My eyes widened as panic clogged my throat. Chet was a drunkard, but he knew touching a minor would land him in jail. Touching a woman of age, though? It would be hearsay—and Alliston Springs had never been kind to me in that regard.

His laugh curdled my stomach as his hand reached for his belt. “I think it’s time I wished you a happy birthday. What do ya say?”

I pinched my eyes closed and squeezed my legs shut as my hands worked me back another inch, maybe two, at best. It was no use.

I was trapped.

The sounds of his buckle hitting the floor forced bile up, and as I turned to heave, Chet yanked my legs, sending me flat to my back. My head turned just before I could choke on whatever I’d eaten that day.

Perhaps that was the moment that I wished I could go back to.

I should’ve just choked and been done with it all.