Hardcore: Volume 1 Read Online Free PDF Page B

separate trip.”
    He stood fast enough to knock the chair back a foot. “What the hell, Cory?” he yelled, his brow low and eyes cold.
    I threw my hands up, not about to take shit from Jace. “Christ, what do you assholes expect out of me? How the fuck would I have known? Jade was the one who got the tip and knew about the alarms. I did my fucking job and overrode the main system. You and Jade can suck my dick.”
    The door opened behind me, and the girls trickled in, Jade last.
    “You incompetent fucking bitch,” Jade hissed and threw the door closed with a bang. “That was your fault.”
    “Jesus, Jade,” Erin huffed as she pulled off her buff and slapped it onto the table. “Get over it. We got our shit and we got out. Everyone’s fine.”
    Jade stepped to Erin and arched over her, steaming. “We got lucky. If Cory had done her fucking job, we wouldn’t have had to bail.”
    Cher propped her hands on her hips. “Wasn’t it your job to case the alarm system?”
    Jade pointed at Cher with a sneer. “Fuck you too, you little bitch. She should know to check.”
    Rage crawled under my skin, and my fists shook by my side, itching to bury themselves in Jade’s face. “It’s over.”
    She directed every bit of her attention at me, and the tension crackled between us as she took a step in my direction. “I should dock you for the trouble.”
    Morgan dropped her brow and stepped between us. “Fuck that, Jade. That case had a totally separate system. That never happens. How would Cory have known to look? In fact, you were the one who had us ignore everything to clean out the camera case.”
    “Yeah,” I added, “and you should have seen that light when you were down there picking the lock. I’m not getting fucked over for this, especially when we didn’t even get busted.”
    “I’ll do whatever the fuck I want,” Jade spat and looked around the room. “You’d all be smart to listen up, because I can end this any time. Without me, you’re all nothing.”
    “And without us, so are you,” Morgan said as she threw her pack on the table and left the room. We all did the same, and Jade and I locked eyes for a long moment before I followed everyone out, leaving the hell-twins in the kitchen alone.

    My damp hair laid on the pillow around my face as I stared at the exposed piping above my bed. The loft was quiet and still, and I wondered absently what time it was, not caring enough to reach for my phone. We’d all gone separate ways after getting back, which was good because I wasn’t up for anything other than solitude. The shower had been scalding, though not hot enough to wash away my thoughts, and my bed was soft and familiar, but not enough that I could find sleep.
    It sucked that we almost got caught, and I really did feel partly responsible, even though no one blamed me except Jade. But Jade could give a shit that we didn’t get caught. Any excuse to pin some bullshit on me would be taken with a smile. I worried about the other girls and how they felt about everything, but not Jade. Her spot on my list of people I gave a fuck about was somewhere near my parents and drunk Santa Clauses.
    She was all bark, and she couldn’t do any of it without me. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t sick of her shit, and I wondered if I was the only one. For a fleeting moment, I saw us all stacked up like a house of cards. A light breeze could be all it took to pull the whole thing down.
    But I couldn’t stop yet.
    Jill crossed my mind again, and guilt followed for not trying harder to really be there for her. I wanted to give her more, I just didn’t know how. She was the only thing I really cared about, the closest anyone could get, besides Erin. But even Erin I kept just far enough away.  
    Relationships are scary. They’re work. They require you to give something of yourself, open a window for someone to climb in. I just couldn’t help but feel like that intrusion would be closer to a robbery than a