Bitter Thorns (The Entwined Book 1)

  Contents

  Warning

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Epilogue

  Afterword

  Note from the Author

  About the Author

  Also by Chrissy Jaye

  Copyright © 2019 Chrissy Jaye

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, business, events and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Cover Artist: EVE Graphic design

  Content Editor: ADYTUM

  Proofing: TBR Editing & Design

  Format: Gina Writes Words: Author Services

  Created with Vellum

  This book is dedicated to my Lehnu - the destined souls who have changed my life for the better.

  Warning

  This book uses adult themes in life-like situations. If you are sensitive to emotional flashbacks, physical violence, and/or sexual abuse, you may want to abstain from reading. With that in mind, most of the events happen before the book starts and are referenced events that the main character struggles through.

  Chapter 1

  “Where are we going?” I asked Emma for the third or fourth time. She didn’t answer as she threw a dark Henley tee-shirt in my direction.

  “We’re leaving early,” my foster sister finally muttered, throwing the contents of our shared dresser onto the end of my bed.

  I snagged a pair of black leggings from the pile and I rolled my eyes. I wasn’t sure what the weather was like outside. August in the Pacific Northwest held no guarantees; it could be chilly, humid, foggy, or outright hot at any given moment. Mother Nature seemed to like giving us a taste of every season at least once a day.

  I sat on the faded lemon-yellow bedspread and dragged the leggings on. “You said that already and totally avoided my question. Where are we going and why in the middle of the damn night?”

  I glanced at the clock next to my twin bed. It was just after two in the morning. I’d barely been asleep before she’d rolled me out of bed. Literally rolled me. Apparently refusing her more gentle nudging had been unacceptable, no matter the time.

  She tossed my sneakers at my feet with a dismissive grunt.

  “Really? We’re grunting now? Need I remind your grumpy butt that it was you who woke me,” I quipped, hoping a bit of humor would lighten her up.

  “Your brother and a friend are waiting in the car outside. I told you that,” she snapped with a bit more irritation in her voice than I was used too.

  She was being frustrating, but I couldn’t see the point in arguing with her any further. She wanted to leave early? Fine, we’d leave early. I snatched up my bag, glaring down at her blonde head. I moved to our beat-up dresser with attached mirror and grabbed the few things I couldn’t leave without. My Mother's silver bracelet was a must take and several pictures of me, Emma, and Payton as well.

  “You know we can’t leave without saying goodbye to her,” I said, shoving one of them under her nose and pointing to Payton. It was one of my favorites from last summer. We’d gone to a party to celebrate becoming seniors. Our smiles stretched from ear to ear, arms locked around each other, running on a high after a night filled with laughter, feeling as though we didn’t have a care in the world.

  “We can call her when we get there,” Emma said, pushing it away.

  I huffed at her dismissal. Annoyance was morphing into anger really quick. She was acting ridiculous. I took a steadying breath before I said something I would regret later. “We can’t just leave. We have people who will miss us. Our foster parents for one,” I pointed out, trying another tactic. True, I wasn’t overly fond of our foster parents, or adults in general, but I really didn’t like this sudden change in our plans.

  Emma sat up after zipping up her bag and pierced me with her blue eyes. “We’ll call her. She knew we were leaving.”

  “Yeah, but—”

  “For once in your stubborn life, just do as I ask. Your bullshit causes enough problems,” Emma snapped.

  Ouch. My mouth opened and closed as I tried thinking about what to say. We rarely, if ever, fought. I turned away from her, hoping to hide the hurt I was sure was plastered all over my face. Had I caused a few problems for us over the years? Yeah, but Emma had never called me out like that before. What hurt the most was how right she was.

  A shuddering breath escaped my lips as I took a last look around the small bedroom for the last time, using it to distract myself from the tears that wanted to fall. As far as foster homes went, this was a pretty good one. Though it wasn’t much of a room, it had been the safest space I’d had in a long time. I never went to sleep on my single bed and had to worry whether someone would drag me from it in the middle of the night. But if I did, Emma was only a few feet away in a matching bed, separated by a single nightstand.

  More often than not, we ended up squished together on either bed to ride out my nightmares. No one had ever run screaming into the room demanding to search our dresser, which sat across the room, just because they thought we were doing drugs. And while the cream carpet and beige walls were old and worn in places, they’d always been clean. I’d never been forced onto my hands and knees with a scrub brush, trying to get my own blood to come out of it.

  “Liv—” she started, but I waved her off. It was already forgotten. Replaced with the reality that we were leaving.

  “Vi’s outside?” I asked quickly as I returned to packing. Mentally, I pleaded with her to let it go. I wasn’t good at being vulnerable. Even if she was my best friend. At least I’d have a good excuse when we called Payton tomorrow morning. She’d understand that my brother had come to get us. I hoped she would at least. Him being here was the only reason I wasn’t tucking myself back into bed. I wanted to peek out the window to get a glimpse of him, just to alleviate my guilt, but our bedroom was at the back of the house.

  “Yeah. He’s been driving all day just to get here but we wanted it to be a surprise for you,” Emma said with false cheer that made me snort.

  “What about our fosters? You’re not eighteen until next week,” I said as I zipped up my small bag and heaved it onto the bed.

  “I left a note. It should do,” she replied vaguely. “Got everything you want?”

  “Yeah,” I said softly, taking in the room one last time. Was it sad that the thing I liked best about this room was that no one had ever broken down the door to beat me in the middle of the night? What a shitty thing to be grateful for.

  We crept downstairs on silent feet, skipping the bottom step because it creaked like an old hag. I half expected Cl
aire, our foster mother, to know we were sneaking out in the middle of the night, but the downstairs was dark and deserted. We tiptoed to the front door and eased it open. Guilt gnawed at me for a moment, but as soon as I stepped out, the sight of Vian leaning against the door of a shiny silver SUV stopped that feeling in its tracks.

  Bag in tow, I tore across the front lawn and launched myself at him. He caught me as my arms wrapped around his neck and surprised even myself as my legs clenched around his waist. I knew in the back of my mind somewhere that we had an audience, but I didn’t care. Let them think whatever they wanted. Nothing and no one was going to get between me and the best hug I’d had in months. There was nothing sexual about our reunion. Just the bitter memories of a bitch who thought to sexualize two young kids and ruin what was left of their childhood.

  “Hey Olive,” he said into my hair. I took in a deep breath of his spicy cologne that I absolutely loathed and relaxed into his arms.

  “You’re taller again,” I muttered hugging him tighter, making him chuckle.

  “I know. It’s a product of eating. You should try it sometime,” he quipped.

  I leaned back and swatted at his chest, somewhat startled to realize he had bulked up some muscle in the last eight months. We talked all the time on a shitty cell-plan that he paid for, but this was the first time I’d seen him since just after Christmas.

  He looked tired, but good. His shock of auburn hair was longer than I’d ever seen it. It fell in waves across his forehead and around to his ears. Green eyes, exactly like mine, twinkled at me as I noted the changes to his face. His jaw was sharper, there was less fat in his cheeks. He’d turned into a man and I’d missed it. I wondered if he saw the same thing when he looked at me.

  “Speaking of eating? Are you like Popeye now?” The tension in my shoulders eased as we took stock of one another. There was so much happiness in his eyes that I was able to forget that Emma had ruined a perfectly good night of sleep. Seeing my twin, being able to hug him, to talk to him, made it all worth it.

  Home. That was Octavian for me. We might not look like twins anymore, but he was my forever person. The one who would always be there for me.

  “It would be really awkward if I was since you’re Olive,” he joked.

  Eww. Yeah, no more Popeye references. A horrified expression filled my features as I frowned at his humor.

  “Hate to break up the reunion, but we should go,” a honeyed male voice said softly.

  I let my gaze drift from my brother to a guy standing a few feet away from us. I hadn’t really noticed him until now. I’d been solely focused on my twin. The guy was tall with broad shoulders, but I couldn’t tell what color his hair or eyes were with the dim lighting. The closest streetlamp was halfway down the block, and the moonlight tended to wash people’s features out.

  Sweat beaded down my forehead and I realized it was incredibly humid out. I patted Vian’s arm to get him to put me down, self-conscious about our affectionate display. Neither of us really cared, but other people tended to. We’d learned that before. Once on my feet, I pulled a disgusted face, realizing I only came up to my twin’s bicep. Barely. Why did he have to be so tall when I barely topped five feet?

  I turned to face my brother’s friend, promising myself that I’d try to be nice. Maybe. “Hi, I’m Livvy,” I said, trying to keep my tone friendly and failing. My voice shook with nerves and sounded a bit hostile. Well, there went that goal. But it wasn’t my fault. Strangers always put me on edge. Yes, I knew that my brother had roommates but the reality of meeting any of them sooner rather than later was settling in and all my mental barriers were up.

  “This is Liam,” Emma called from the back of the vehicle. She shut the back of the SUV and stepped around it, coming to his side. They linked hands briefly and smiled warmly at each other. “He’s a friend. And he’s also right. We should go.”

  “How is it you know him already?” I asked, eyeing the two of them with suspicion.

  “Later,” Vian whispered in my ear.

  I shook my head and rolled my eyes at Emma but took Vian’s hand as I climbed into the backseat. To my annoyance, Liam climbed in after me. The overhead light gave me a chance to glimpse his more defining features and decide that he was a heartbreaker if I ever saw one. Perfectly tanned skin, with honey colored hair and brown eyes. I shot my brother a look of betrayal. The corners of Vian’s mouth quirked up into a small grin before he shut the door.

  Within seconds, both he and Emma climbed into the front and we were leaving. I want to say that I didn’t look back, that I easily brushed off leaving the only haven I’d known for the last couple of years like it was nothing. That I didn’t tear up just a bit as we turned onto another misty street. But if I did, that would make me a liar.

  Chapter 2

  Emma and my brother chatted easily in hushed tones in the front seat. However, in the backseat there was a less friendly atmosphere. Most of the problem was probably me. Every time I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye, Liam was openly staring at me with an expression I couldn’t read. It started to drive me up a wall—or window in this case. I thought about pretending to sleep. Maybe the rocking of the vehicle would actually put me out, but knowing me, I’d be unable to keep my eyes closed with a stranger so close to me.

  “So, where are we going? Am I allowed to know now?” I tried to be flippant, like it didn’t matter, but if I was being honest, it did.

  Vian glanced at me over his shoulder before focusing back on the road. “Yeah, we’re go—”

  “Once it’s safe,” Liam said smoothly. He threw me an apologetic look across the backseat that only pissed me off no matter how ‘sorry’ he tried to be. Seriously? Who did he think he was?

  I reached for the calm place inside. “What does that mean?” I asked, completely ignoring the things his voice did to my insides. No, I wasn’t going to admit how sexy it was. If anyone asked, he sounded like a frog, and fuck them for asking in the first place. He was good looking, and his voice made me want to lick syrup off the abs I was sure he was hiding under his shirt. You’d have to kill me to get me to say it out loud though.

  “Liv,” Emma said calmly from the front. “Please don’t start.”

  What the fuck? I was getting tired of her attitude. First with the way she kept dismissing my concerns, especially considering she knew my history. All my history and hang ups. And second because she’d been blowing me off all week after a fight with Payton. I was beginning to think this abrupt change in our plans had something to do with that, but without knowing what it was, I wasn’t ready call her on it.

  Suddenly, all the muscles in my body went tense as a feeling of unease swept through me. My fingers flexed as it hit me and I sank back into my seat, eyes darting around to each window, trying to see where the danger would come from.

  “Stop the car,” I choked out.

  Vian immediately let off the gas before bringing us to a slow stop, he turned in his seat to face me. “What is it?”

  “Something’s going to happen,” I whispered, darting a look toward Liam to see how he would react. As a rule, I never told people about my knack for knowing when bad things were about to happen. Only Vian and Emma knew because I trusted them implicitly. I was already a bit of a freak as it was and had seen more shrinks than I had fingers to count on. And there was always that one thought that nagged at me in the back of my mind. That people would think I caused these things to happen.

  I expected Liam to stare at me like I was crazy, but he didn’t. If anything, he looked more alert and his eyes, that had been so unreadable moments ago, now held a glimpse of concern. His head swiveled around, looking for danger.

  “Look,” Emma muttered. I couldn’t see her since I sat in the seat behind her, but both my brother and Liam looked out the front window. Craning my neck, I leaned around to the center console to look out the front and I sucked in a sharp breath as two people stood several feet in front of the SUV. My intuition screamed at me to run,
my hand already reaching toward the door handle before I forced myself to hold still.

  “I recognize Payton. Who’s that with her?” Vian asked.

  “Evan,” Emma gritted out.

  “Stay in the car,” Liam barked at me, making me jump. He popped open his door and slid out before giving me a serious look that made me shiver. I found myself memorizing his features as he stared at me. I didn’t know why it was important, but it somehow made me feel better to take a mental image. Like, if he died, I’d have his face committed to memory. The feeling was like a weed, wrapping itself around me until I couldn’t breathe.

  “Keep her in the car, Em,” my brother said. He reached over the console and gripped her hand. My eyes tracked the motion, filing it away to ask about later. I followed the guys’ progress through the windows before leaning forward so my head was next to Emma’s.

  “What’s happening?” I asked, happy that my voice didn’t sound as strained as I felt.

  “A problem that needs to be dealt with,” she answered in a clipped tone.

  “Maybe now isn’t the time, but I’m going to need answers sooner or later. Like about why we’re leaving in the middle of the night without saying goodbye to anyone.” I pointed toward Payton through the windshield. “And that’s our best friend out there.”

  “Just because she’s a friend, doesn’t mean she wants what’s best for you, or done a great job of protecting you. She’s out there in the middle of the road right now, stopping us from leaving with a guy—” She cut off just seconds from saying something important. I could tell by the strain in her voice.