Tear You Apart Read Online Free PDF Page B

again, and the high she’d gotten, the sense of righteousness she’d felt, was fading. Her steps got awkward and she walked faster, hoping her body would even itself out. She let herself back into the clubhouse, back to the titter of polite laughter, the strong scent of liquor, and Serge Gainsbourg singing “Couleur Café.” The Basils’ enchanted cat was standing on one of the refreshment tables, licking livery mousse off the tops of a whole tray of canapés.
    The Queen Bee prince and princess were wrapped in each other’s arms. Dusty and Max were dancing. They looked happy—like being together was fun. Like they were a team, and nothing could drive a wedge between them.
    Viv missed feeling like that. Dusty had said that being part of the same curse gave you a special bond. And lots of people had tried to reassure Viv that she’d have her happy endingone day. But there were different kinds of Prince Charmings. Dusty’s prince was a hot rich guy who’d danced with her at a ball, found her lost shoe, tracked her down, and changed her life. Viv’s Prince Charming was a guy no one had ever met, who was going to show up when she was already in her glass coffin, see her pretty face and her limp body, and decide to take her home. And even that would only happen if the Huntsman spared her.
    So the words
someday my prince will come
had never set Viv’s heart aflutter. When she thought of her future prince, she thought of the older Snow White prince who already lived in Beau Rivage: a man who was married to a Snow White princess, and who drugged his wife so heavily she might as well have been a zombie. Rumor had it he’d roofied her on their wedding night because he could only get excited by an unresponsive bride.
    Miserably ever after? Was that what she had to look forward to?
    The Snow White princess curse had so much status … Viv could understand why her mother had wished for it. She was instantly recognizable in Beau Rivage—right up there with Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. But the way Viv saw it, everyone in her curse wanted her dead. Her stepmother wanted her dead, her prince preferred her dead, and Henley … he probably wanted to kill her half the time.
    Viv wanted to believe that she could be happy, that her curse would end in something magical—but she couldn’t. Happily ever after happened to some people. Viv wasn’t one of them.
    She wandered through the party, but didn’t see Henley orRegina. Their absence made her nervous. Where were they? Had they left together?
    Viv headed out to the parking lot. Regina was there, a lit cigarette between her fingers, chatting with one of the valets. Regina didn’t normally smoke; she was too concerned about her looks. But there was red lipstick on the filter, and the cigarette had the same odor as the brand Henley smoked. Viv could picture Regina asking for one, leaning close as Henley lit it for her, and asking him how to do it, the way she’d asked Viv’s dad how to swing a golf club when she’d first come to Seven Oaks.
    “You’re just in time,” Regina said. A stream of smoke spiraled up from her fingers. “It’s about to get good.”
    “What is?”
    “Wait for it …”
    Regina was posed, chest up, like she was holding her breath. And then somewhere in the parking lot there was a shattering crunch. Followed by the shriek of a car alarm. Viv followed the sound and her eyes found Henley, lit by the flashing headlights of an orange BMW until he smashed them with a shovel. Danny drove an orange BMW. He even had plates that said 3MIRZA; there was no mistaking his car. The alarm wailed on and on over the sound of Henley bashing in the windows, denting the body, busting it up like it was the bonus round of the old
Street Fighter II
arcade machine in the clubhouse. Viv flinched with every thud, crack, crunch—like the damage was reverberating throughout her body.
    “All those tools he keeps in his truck,” Regina said. “They’re useful for things