Quiver (Revenge Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

up.
    Coco faltered. “Yeah….”
    “Todd Lockwood is your brother? The blond white guy?” The asshole, the pervert, the rapist? The man who’ll soon be breathing his last breath at my hand? Veda managed to bite her tongue before the real questions left her lips.
    “Well, Todd’s my half-brother on my dad’s side. It’s hard to tell because I have dark skin, but my dad is white. And I have another half-brother, on my mom ’ s side, Dante. Dante owns the bar where Todd’s having the party tonight. Long story short, my parents really got around back in the day. God only knows how many half-siblings I have scattered all over the country.”
    “What’s the name of the bar?”
    Coco’s smile widened and she shifted in her seat. “It’s called Dante’s. It’s at the bottom of the hill, right on the edge of the water. So, you’re coming?”
    “Todd Lockwood is having a party on the hill ?” It had been over ten years since she’d been back to Shadow Rock, but Veda knew the sprawling hill nestled into the farthest corner of the island was still drenched in poverty and degradation. Having grown up there herself, the colorful shacks stacked on the hill had always reminded her of the slums in Rio de Janeiro. So many treacherous dips and curves, dark corners and back alleys, hazards lurking around every bend. Most of the children born on the hill never grew old enough or smart enough to leave it. Veda had been one of the lucky few who’d escaped.
    “Oh right, you haven’t been back here in a while. Yeah, it’s gentrifying like crazy,” Coco said. “Most of the poor people have been pushed farther up the hill. Everything on the water, except Dante’s bar, belongs to the Blackwaters now. They even bought the marina and built a country club. You need a membership just to fish there now.”
    “Because the Blackwaters don’t have enough fish of their own? They have to siphon the fish that feed the poor kids too?”
    “Totally. But don’t say that too loudly in here.” Coco motioned to the ceilings of the hospital room. “Swear to God, Gage has cameras in the walls. Plus, he’s here today, doing rounds with the attending physician, and he has ears like a bat.”
    “Gage?” Veda asked, her heart falling to her feet as she thought of the spit-shined man from the party the other night. The spit-shined man who’d caught her red-handed telling the bold-faced lie that had forced her to leave the party much earlier than she’d anticipated.
    “Blackwater.” Coco nodded. When Veda just gaped at her, she continued. “The CEO of this hospital? The son of the man who owns this hospital, as well as the cruise line that’s single-handedly keeping this entire island afloat?”
    “No, I know who Gage Blackwater is.” Veda jumped up from her chair. “I just had no idea that he was going to be here today.”
    “He’s not usually. Every couple months he likes to drop in to spy on us….” Coco’s words trailed away when Veda turned and hurried for the door. “Okay, bye! Don’t worry about the patient.” She raised the Popsicle in her hand and waved it. “I got it! So I’ll see you at the party tonight?”
    But Veda had already turned the corner and left the room, disappearing out of sight.
     
    —
     
    Veda had no idea why she felt so on edge, so off-kilter, so terrified at the idea of Gage being in that hospital. It was her first day of residency, after all; surely she had better things to worry about than that spit-shined rich boy.
    Regardless, she couldn’t shake the butterflies in her stomach, the wobble in her knees, and her rapidly drying lips, which she wet with her tongue. Zooming through the hospital’s bright corridors, she tried to stop thinking of his brown eyes the night before, gleaming with amusement as she lied right to his face. She tried to stop thinking of the thick hair that belonged in a shampoo commercial, the jawline that could cut glass, the smile that had thawed parts of her that