Untamed (Untamed #1) (17 page)

If Dare had taught me anything it was that there could be another way for me.

Maybe...

Archer, my parent-approved date for the gala, was standing with a small group of people, one of whom was my mother. Fan-
fucking
-tastic. He laughed loudly and clapped some guy on the back. When he spotted me, his eyes lit up and he waved me over. His bright grin blinded me, aggravating the pounding in my head, but I plastered a smile on my face and went.

The sooner I got this evening over with, the better.

The guy Archer and my mother were talking to had his back to me, but something about him seemed familiar. Too familiar. God, I hoped it wasn’t someone I’d slept with. I just wasn’t up for that tonight. His blond hair was a shade darker than Archer’s and he stood a full head taller.

My mother nodded as I approached. “Reagan. Good.” She reached out to grasp my arm. Tightly.

What the fuck was her problem? I was here. I was smiling. I was playing the part of the perfect daughter even if my maroon dress didn’t match her and Quinn’s bright red ones. Even if inside I was filled with nothing but the ashes of a once-living phoenix.

“Mother,” I said, gritting my teeth, “you’re hurting my arm.”

“Reagan! Baby girl,” Archer’s voice was too loud, too cheerful. “Where’ve you been? Look who I found wandering around. You remember Jackson Fitzgerald, right? From Crestridge?” He looked over at Jack. “You must have been what? Three years ahead of Reagan?”

The name had been enough to send chills down my spine and make me lose feeling in my entire body. But when the guy turned and smiled at me—fucking
smiled
—my heart stopped and all air fled my lungs.

I took a step back, blood draining from my face, bile rising in my throat. My skin crawled. I was going to be sick and I was going to do it in the middle of the gala if my mother didn’t let go of my arm.

I tried to pry her fingers off as I took another step back.

“Reagan?” Archer said, concern clouding his face. “You okay?”

“She’s fine.” My mother laughed a fake, high-pitched tinkling laugh she always pulled out special for these occasions. “She’s just…I don’t think she’s had anything to eat yet. I’m going to take her over to get some food. Carry on, everyone! We’re fine!”

Her smile stretched so wide across her face I thought it might crack. As soon as we were out of earshot, she lowered her voice and hissed at me through clenched teeth.

“Jackson is the governor’s son,” she said. “And you will not get hysterical around him, Reagan Allison McKinley.”

“He’s—”

“I know very well who he is, and that’s all in the past. We took care of it. It’s over. This is no time for grudges.”

Grudge? She was actually calling this a fucking
grudge
?

“We must all move on and start anew,” she said. “We will be seeing a lot of Jackson and his family during the campaign season, and then after your father becomes mayor. And I expect you to behave yourself.”

My pulse pounded in my head and my stomach churned. How could she possibly expect me to even be in the same room with him? Just the thought—

Oh, god. I was going to be sick.

“Here.” She slapped something into my hand and closed my fist around it. “Go to the ladies room, calm yourself down, and then come back out to mingle. We still have a couple of hours to go and I expect you to act like a McKinley.”

I stumbled into the bathroom, flew into the first stall, and threw up. I stood there, panting, my hands gripping the toilet seat as I desperately tried to figure out how I was going to survive this.

Jack. My family. No Dare.

I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and then stared at it. Slowly I turned it over and opened my fingers.

Valium.

Of course. Mother’s cure-all.

I walked out of the stall and stared at myself in the mirror.

I was gone. There was nothing left.

Nothing but pills.

I smiled bitterly. My only friends. Without thinking, I placed the bottle against my lips, tipped my head back, and let it rain. Then I poured water into my hands and washed all the capsules down. At the sensation of swallowing them, calm washed over me.

Everything was okay.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out the bottle Quinn had given me.

More friends. Why not? The more the merrier, right?

I emptied that one too.

When they were all gone, I smiled at my reflection one last time.

And then I went outside.

The cold air accosted me as I pushed through the doors and stepped out into the night. It felt good, even as it made me shiver, and I took a deep breath.

And then my eyes connected with a familiar pair of warm, brown ones. Oh, god. He’d come. He was here.

My heart broke. Right in half.

He sat on his motorcycle at the bottom of the steps, helmet in his hands, sporting a black leather jacket and black jeans. Just like the night we met.

I wanted to cry.

But McKinleys didn’t cry, right?

Fuck the McKinleys. Every single one of them.

I walked toward Dare, my head starting to swim and a lovely floating feeling taking over my limbs.

Maybe I’d fly to him instead.

“Ree?” he said.

I smiled. My name sounded like heaven on his lips. I could soak in that sound forever.

He got off his bike, put his helmet on the seat, and looked up at me. I’d made it partway down the steps and then stumbled. A frown creased his forehead and he ran up to catch me. The world was spinning so fast.

“Are you okay?” he said, placing his hands on my waist to steady me.

I nodded. I
was
okay. He was here.

He was here? Shit!

“What are you doing?” I asked, my words slurring slightly. I waved my hand at the gala going on behind me as the sidewalk began to tilt. I smiled sadly at him. “You don’t belong here, Dare.”

“Neither do you, Ree,” he said, and then pulled me into his arms. “You belong
here
.” He enveloped me, his smell and warmth taking over my senses until he filled my entire world. He pressed my hands to his heart. “Right here. Two parts. One whole.”

I wrapped my arms around his strong body and he pulled me closer, held on like he would never let me go.

“Come with me.” He spoke into my hair. “You and me. My family. We’ll all disappear and neither your father nor mine will be able to find us.”

I leaned back to look at his beautiful face, cupped my hand to his cheek. I liked this plan.

“Choose me, not them. Choose us, Ree.”

I tilted my head and smiled.

“Ree?”

I tried to say
yes. Yes, please. Let’s hop on your bike and go right now
, but it must not have come out right because he looked confused.

So I tried again.

But then the world was falling, Dare was yelling in alarm, and all the twinkling lights of the city went out.

twenty-one

T
he smell was the first thing that filtered into my awareness. Sterile, antiseptic, colorless. And then the beeping. Constant. Annoying.

I opened my eyes.

White walls and fluorescent lights surrounded me. Someone was slumped asleep in the chair next to me, his blond hair uncharacteristically askew.

“Archer?” My throat was dry, my lips cracked, and my voice sounded scratchy and hoarse. My body felt weak and foreign, like it didn’t belong to me anymore. I’d felt this way one other time, but I pushed that memory away. As always.

Archer startled, his eyes flying open at the sound of my voice.

“Holy fuck,” he said, reaching for my hand. “You’re awake, baby girl. You scared the shit out of us.”

I stared at him for a few minutes, trying to remember what had happened. Archer pulled out his phone, tapped the screen a few times, then tucked it away.

The last thing I remembered was being at the gala…

Suddenly everything came flooding back, my jumbled thoughts putting together a terrifying picture.

“Reagan? You okay? You just got really pale. Are you going to be sick?” Archer reached for the nurse call button.

I shook my head. “How long was I out?”

“Three days,” he said, his brow furrowed. “They had to pump your stomach and put you under because you had such a bad reaction. Your body basically had to restart.”

The door opened and my family was ushered in by a nurse. My mother with her tear-filled eyes—eye drops, if I had to guess. I’d never seen her shed real tears. My father with his cold, stern silence. My brother and sister with their, “What in the world happened to you, Reagan?”

I looked to see if there was a photographer or reporter coming in too, because their performance as the epitome of a loving family was truly Oscar-worthy and screamed photo op.

As soon as the nurse left, my mother shook her head and sighed. “Now that she’s obviously going to recover from the overdose, we need to focus on recovering from the media scandal.”

Bingo.

I laughed out loud. I couldn’t help it. It was so fucking wrong and so fucking McKinley that if I didn’t laugh I’d definitely cry.

“What is so funny?” Quinn gaped at me. “Have you lost your mind?”

And that just made me laugh harder.

Archer smiled at me, shaking his head. He got it. He knew. “She’s just happy, Quincy,” he said. “What’s the crime in being happy to be alive?”

“There’s a crime in taking drugs,” she shot back, narrowing her eyes at him.

I was laughing too hard to thank her for giving them to me. Though, that bit of withheld information could become leverage for future use. I’d get it out when I needed it. Always keep your blackmailing arsenal well stocked. It was a McKinley tradition.

“Is she awake?” The shout came from out in the hall.

My eyes flew to the door. Dare!

“I’m sorry, sir, but you can’t go in there! Family only! Please—”

“I have to see her!”

My heart sped up, kicking wildly in my chest as he burst through the door, a young nurse following close behind.

“Ree!” His eyes were red, as if he hadn’t slept for three days, his clothes rumpled, and his hair a mess. And he was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.

“I’m so sorry!” The nurse looked around the room, completely frazzled. “He just—he ran and then he was here, pushing inside. I couldn’t stop him.”

“It’s okay,” I said without thinking. “It’s okay.” I smiled at Dare. Not just with my lips. My whole freaking heart smiled at him. Seeing him was like coming home.

“Do you know him?” the nurse asked, looking from my smiling face to my family’s perplexed ones. “Is it okay for him to stay?”

My father moved into my line of sight, and the hard look on his face stopped my heart. Our deal. I’d made a deal with him to stop seeing Dare. All of his very real threats came flooding back and I shuddered.

He pulled out his phone as his jaw hardened in warning. “Do you know this man, Reagan?” Each word was laced with menace.

Dare looked from my father to the fear on my face. He nodded as if to say
Tell them. We’ll be okay.

I swallowed hard.

“Do you know him?” My father pressed.

“I…I…” My gaze ping-ponged between Dare and my father. The one who could make me smile and the monster who would destroy him if he tried.