Thorn: Carter Kids #2 Read Online Free Page A

forgive a lot of things, and maybe I had my priorities all wrong, but I couldn’t forgive this.
    I could never forgive this.
    Noah didn’t respond.
    But she did.
    Twisting her head to one side Reese glanced at me with a smirk. “Bye now,” she sneered before lowering her mouth and claiming Noah’s.
    “Bastard!” I screamed, beating my fist against the mattress. My throat felt like it was closing in on me. “You ruined everything,” I roared into the duvet, gasping for air. “You ruined me …”
    I heard the door creak open and quickly close, but I didn’t look up. I didn’t care who was there. I felt the mattress dip beside me, and then warm hands pulling me onto a lap.
    Liam’s lap, I realized when I heard him whisper words of comfort in my ear – telling me that I would be okay again.
    Except I wasn’t comforted, and I wasn’t okay.
    Truthfully, I didn’t think I would ever be okay again.

 

     
    YESTERDAY HAD BEEN ONE of the lower points in my life.
    Having Kyle Carter tear strips out of me, and hashing up my personal life in front of a roomful of people was something I didn’t care to experience ever again.
    Even though a small part of me understood where he had been coming from, I was still feeling hurt and hugely resentful.
    When I woke up this morning with a stuffy nose and puffy eyelids, I had decided I needed to take control of my life. It was because of the emotions that had poured out of me last night that I found myself lying on my stomach, as a tattoo artist drew on my body with needles.
    I welcomed it the throbbing burn as the needle penetrated my flesh. This tattoo was a symbol of my freedom, and a warning of how close I had come to destruction.
    Noah Messina was bad for me – he was treacherous.
    I needed to remember that, and this tattoo would be the perfect reminder.
    I wouldn’t cry over him again.
    It was pathetic and I was not .
    Not another damn tear would I shed.
     

     
    WHEN I ARRIVED BACK to the Harte’s home later that evening, I spent a good twenty minutes standing in front of the bathroom mirror, ogling my back.
    Getting a tattoo was so unlike me.
    It felt sort of surreal.
    “What the hell have you done to your body?” Hope’s yelp of outrage quickly turned into a squeal of excitement when she rushed into the bathroom for a closer examination. “Oh my god, Teegs, it’s huge.” She trailed her fingers over the black lettering that trailed in a vertical line down the entire length of my back.
    “Ouch, Hope, don’t freaking touch it,” I groaned, flinching from Hope’s touch.
    “Why did you do that, Teegs?” Hope asked me in a voice full of concern.
    Letting my loose t-shirt drop back down and cover my back, I spun around and faced my friend. “I needed a reminder,” was all I replied and it was the truth.
    “Of Noah,” she said quietly.
    “Yeah,” I croaked out, forcing down the turbulence of emotions threatening to spill out. “Of Noah.”

 

     
    I WASN’T SURPRISED when the judge passed my sentence.
    I didn’t bat an eyelid.
    I just stood slowly, with my hands in chains, and let the officers lead me away.
    I purposefully ignored every damn person in the courtroom.
    I didn’t care anymore.
    To the outside world, I was emotionless.
    Inside, I was dead.
    My one consolation lay in the knowledge that George Dennis was gone.
    Fucker had a stroke three days ago and never pulled through.
    That piece of news was the only good thing that had come out of his daughter’s mouth during her visit the other day. I had thought Ellie wanted to visit to gloat, or pass on a message from her father. When she cried over her dead daddy and apologized and then cried some more, I felt something break free inside of me. It was like the shackles that had held me down for so many years had been torn off.
    George’s son and right-hand man JD was still out there somewhere. He’d managed to escape arrest that night, but with father dead, and his gang either in prison or in