The Effects of Falling (The Weight of Rain Duet Book 2) Read Online Free Page A

seat, he pops each of his knuckles with the satisfaction of his plan.
    “If you start a war with Tommy, I do not want to be involved,” Kash states.
    King shakes his head, but laughs in agreement.
    “He’s not that tough,” Parker rebuts, bringing a chorus of snickers from the guys.
    “No, but he is relentless,” Kash murmurs, his attention focused on the view outside.
    “Who’s Tommy again?” Poor Lo has been making a valiant effort to remember everyone’s names, even going as far as looking up their profiles on social media so she has a general idea of who they are as we feed her stories about the ones we’re close with and general facts about the ones we aren’t.
    “Tommy is the other rider doing the promotion for the event in March. He’s been on the scene for a while, but got injured when he first came out. It took a few years of rehab to get him back on and another couple to get any kind of following,” Parker explains. “The dude doesn’t feel pain. It will freak you out. He’ll crash and have bacon all the way down his face, and won’t even flinch. That’s partly why it took him so long to get back into the circuit. They were afraid that he’d hurt himself even worse because his pain tolerance is so high. You could hit the guy in the face with a two-by-four, and he’d keep going.”
    Lo’s gaze travels to mine, seeking confirmation.
    I smirk at the bewilderment that was in Parker’s tone. “He feels things. He definitely doesn’t have the same kind of reaction a normal person does, though.”
    Her eyebrows rise, and silence fills the small space.
    “It doesn’t matter. He’s crazy,” I explain. “Come on. We need to get a picture of the limo, so I can send it to Mercedes. I promised I’d send her picture updates.”
    I crowd closer to Lo and King, and pull up the camera app on my phone. We rarely get limos for transportation, and while this seems particularly unnecessary for this excursion into the frozen tundra, I won’t complain. It came stocked with four bottles of champagne, a bottle of Patrón, and a case of Pelican Pub beer because it’s Kash’s favorite.
    The limo stops in front of a large cabin that has me peering out the windows with curiosity. “This isn’t the place, is it?”
    “Nah. They said there were enough cabins that everyone would have their own place.” Parker drops his head so he can see more clearly.
    Car doors close from the limo behind us, directing my attention to Kash for clarification.
    His brow furrows, and then he shrugs before shaking his head. “Maybe they couldn’t get the place?”
    The door of our limousine opens, exposing our suited driver and endless piles of white that have been cleared from the driveway. “Welcome to Toevluchtsoord,” he says, waving a hand toward the cabin that is so close in resemblance to the Knight residence with the wide log siding and green roof.
    Being closest to the door, I slide out first. A cold wind has me pulling my shoulders forward and neck down as I peer at the open sky in front of me.
    “Shit!” My exclamation is lost in the howl of the wind, but that’s fine. I’m lost, watching the flakes endlessly fall around me. It’s mesmerizing. It also makes my equilibrium off-balance when I drop my chin from looking up to see who is calling my name.
    “Summer, what’s going on?” Bright eyes and a growing smile greet me, making my lips tug up into a reciprocated grin.
    “Hey, Tommy. How have you been, stranger?”
    His gaze shifts between me and the road which is collecting a fresh layer of powder as he moves closer to me, his strides wide and confident across the icy ground though he moved to California several years ago. His arms wrap around me, and his hug is familiar and comfortable, as if we do this regularly.
    “What’s up, Tommy?”
    Pulling back to shake Kash’s hand, Tommy keeps an arm loosely draped around my shoulders, and I note Kash’s glance focus on it for a moment as they grasp hands.