The Line That Binds Read Online Free PDF

help steer her away from the well and anything she might find regarding it. Just in case.”
    I growled and gritted my teeth, hard. The pressure shot waves of pain from my jaw down to my neck and up into my skull, each nerve surging with crippling current. I shouldn’t have put that much force into it. My appointment for wire removal was scheduled for Monday and I’d hate to screw that up, but in this case I had to make an exception. I needed to feel that pain to cope with what Pop was asking me to do. When I told him I’d help, I thought I’d be digging through more of Janine’s stuff, not hanging out with Ms. Uptight Skinnyass. This was not how I’d planned to start senior year. I didn’t mingle with the preppy kids. No, that’s not exactly true. I no longer mingled with the preppy kids while at school . I mingled with one preppy kid who worked at the event house. Though, I wouldn’t call Emily Crimson a kid. She had the body to prove she wasn’t, and I’d enjoyed her body enough times to know.
    What Pop was asking me to do was definitely foreign territory. If he wanted me to hang out with LJ, I’d have to find another way because once she got into the popular group at school there was no chance I’d speak to her.
    “I guess I could try,” I mumbled, shrugging as I walked into the kitchen.
    “Good,” he mumbled back from the dining room, acting as nonchalant as me, though I heard him release a low sigh and the chair squeaked again in response to his relief. “Since the water is back on, you should head up to the house just to make sure everything is working correctly.”
    I took a swig from a water bottle, letting the water flow between my clamped teeth before swishing it around my mouth. I eyed the beer bottles in the fridge, already predicting how I’d soon spend my nights. This ordeal was bound to give me headaches aspirin couldn’t handle. If so, I’d have to raid the event house’s refrigerator for any refreshments left behind by careless wedding parties. It was an activity that started fairly innocent. Years ago, Harper would ride her bike over to hang out and we’d steal a few beers to get buzzed out in the barn. Now, it was my last resort to combat stress, but I also indulged when I couldn’t get Harper off my mind. It’d been a while since I was pained with either, and that should be a good thing, except it also meant I was thinking of Harper less often.
    “The water is already back on so why would I have to go check the main house?”
    “Any opportunity we get, remember?”
    I pressed my eyes shut and capped the water bottle. “Right,” I replied, passing back through the dining room and grabbing the tool belt from the table. “I guess I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to mow by the gazebo.”
    He flicked the toothpick between his teeth, its tip rolling beneath his mustache slow and steady. “Simone has a wedding booked tomorrow so it’ll have to wait until Monday.”
    Great. I shut the door behind me without another word. I wasn’t sure what he expected me to find inside that house without him. He was Janine’s friend. He had a better chance at finding her secrets. He was with her until the end, even if she didn’t remember him. I ran my hand over my head, thinking about the pain he’d experienced in her final years. I felt bad for him and understood his loss. I’d lost Harper three years ago, though her death was entirely different than Janine’s. Harper’s was quick, painless for her alone, leaving the pain to torture her family and me instead. Janine’s was long and torturous for both her and Pop. In either scenario, the pain never really disappeared. It continued on, reappearing with every profound memory, every realistic dream.
    I was always willing to help him. I owed him a lot for my life. But he was asking me to get involved, to become some secret agent. Infiltrate the family and search the house. This wasn’t me. I’m cumbersome and blunt, not crafty and