The Runaway Viper (Viper #2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

football and basketball going on, and it’s all so normal. I was good at joining them in that, but it didn’t last long. Inside I’m in pieces. I need to know about the club, the people I left behind, the world I changed when I willingly let Jace take me. It doesn’t help that I’m nervous for tonight, nervous to start yet another chapter in my life - ready to start a new life, ready to be someone’s wife.
    Here I am, sitting in this sunshine haven, heat wrapping around us, company that I’ve only been able to dream of, and I’m all pensive and withdrawn because I worry my past is waiting to snarl to life and claim me captive like it did before.
    “I’d wipe that expression off your face,” Jace speaks as he leans in toward me. My head swings around to stare at him, and he just gives me a crooked smirk. “You need to go and get yourself dolled up.”
    “Is it time?” I ask aghast, and I hear them all laugh. They don’t understand how hard I am finding it to compute that by sundown I will be married. This was a distant dream; to have it thrust upon me has now caused a total catastrophic effect on me.
    “Well there’s still a little over an hour, but we thought it’d be perfect to go and get showered and such. Eli and I have to make sure his and Josh’s hotel reservations are set and that everything’s ready.”
    “You’re leaving?” I ask, looking to Eli and Josh in horror.
    “We won’t be staying here tonight,” Eli speaks and looks to Josh who just sniggers. “Wedding night sex is not something I want to be privy to.”
    “Hell no,” Josh agrees and looks right at me.
    All I can do is smile. Tonight will be unforgettable.
     
    ***
     
    “He said you’d need a dress,” Josh calls out to me.
    I spin around on the spot and stare at him. I can feel the emotions in turmoil, spiraling to compel me into a wreck. The dress I have here is very much like the one I wore when Dylan took me to a summer ball just before we all got ready for college.
    “You were a vision in white that night.” He enters the room from his lingering spot in the doorway. “I thought your parents would appreciate photos of your wedding so I wanted to give them something that would remind them you’re not at all different.”
    “But I am,” I refute his claim and look to the dress solemnly. When I look back, I lay upon him the greatest and hardest truth.  “I don’t want them to see this.”
    I see his face shadow, horror clouding his prior serene expression. “Why not?”
    “Because I don’t want to seem like I’m making a life without them. I’m not by choice, but I am settling down,” I admit weakly and feel the emotions come unbidden entirely. “I don’t want them to think I’m moving on from the life I had with them.”
    “They won’t think that,” he murmurs. It’s a light sentiment, and it hits me square upon my heart.
    “They will,” I disagree. How can they think anything else if they see me in love and married? They will wonder why they weren’t included. “I haven’t called home in over seven months for fear of it leading Clara to me, Josh. At some point, they will realize I am not worth it. Even now that bitch is ruling my life and she forever will.”
    “You’ve been replaced,” he tells me, and the hit of the comment is suffocating. I knew it would happen, I just didn’t expect to be hurt quite so much by it. “I know we weren’t going to discuss it, but she’s moved on.”
    “Has she?” I ask him rhetorically. “I don’t believe that for a moment, Josh. I know how she works, have seen the workings of her mind, seen the evil things she can do to us. Do you really think I’m going to believe she’s moved on when her head girl ran away?”
    “I knew it wouldn’t be easy to convince you,” he speaks with a mirthless laughter to his voice. “I’ve been going to the club, sporadically, keeping an eye on things. She’s running the club like a well-oiled machine, and she’s