I Love You More Than I'm Afraid (Our Forevers #2) by Rebel Hart (the first e reader .txt) 📕

a little miffed, storming away from me, but I didn’t care.

Ceradi was a different story. “What the hell, Hannah?”

“What?” I said, emptying my cup into my mouth by full-fledged tipping the cup upside down over my face and banging the bottom of it.

“Shane just told me you totally blew him off. Come on, I’ve got my whole reputation on the line you know. Live a little and give him some,” she goaded.

“I don’t want to give him some,” I said honestly.

She let out a little growl. “You’re being such a freak right now. Don’t tell me that monstrosity and her little friend actually got to you.”

I stabbed a finger into Ceradi’s face. “Do not bring her up. I swear to god.”

That gave Ceradi a vicious smile. “Ohhhh, I see. You’re still pissed off about Aria and Tristan. I did promise you we’d get her back somehow. I owe you revenge. Let’s make a deal. If I help you shove it to that heifer, then you have to let Shane get a taste. It’s for your own good. You have to move on. This will help you get closure.”

For obvious reasons, at least to me, the latter half of that deal didn’t sound good to me, but it didn’t matter because the beginning half was so enticing. “You’ll help me get her back?”

“Yeah, but I want to hurt her beyond just embarrassing her. We have to prove to her why she should never have messed with us.” She pressed an acrylic-tipped finger to her cheek. “Hmmm. What would be a good way?”

“Like get her in trouble you mean?” I said. “I think I know a way.”

Ceradi clapped her hands. “Oh do tell!”

“I know how to get her to go to a twenty-one plus club,” I said. “Then we just call the cops.”

Ceradi’s jaw dropped. “Ooh, that’s so sinister! I have an even better idea, but the beginning is the same. How will you get her there?”

“I’ll be right back,” I slurred.

Shoving my empty cup at Ceradi, I tripped off to an abandoned corner of the house and called Aria. Her number had been forced on me by Tristan right after we all became “friends” and for a similar reason to why I never got rid of Arden’s location, I just couldn’t bring myself to delete it. If she ever became my only lifeline to Tristan or Arden, I wanted to have the option.

Now I was glad I never got rid of it.

“Hannah?” Aria said.

“Yeah. Hi.”

“Uh, hi.” Then I heard some rustling behind her. “I don’t know, hang on—Hannah?”

“Yeah, I’m here.”

“What’s going on?” she said. “Is everything okay?”

“No,” I responded. “Arden is at The Undersound.”

“What?!” she screeched. “No. She’s having dinner with some friends.”

“Don’t you have her location?” I barked back. “Check it.”

The phone crackled as she pulled it away from her ear, and then I could hear the taps against her phone as she no doubt went to check her own location app. I stood in irritation, hating that she even had the ability to check herself, but it didn’t matter, because it made it easier to convince her.

“Oh my god,” Aria growled in the distance. “After she swore she wasn’t going there.” There was more rustling before Aria’s voice came back clearer. “Hannah? Thanks for telling me. I’ll go get her right now.”

“Great,” I said flatly. “Bye.”

“Wait, Hannah!”

“Yeah?”

“I know… I know I’m not your favorite person in the world, but I want you to know that it means a lot to me that you’re looking out for Arden still and keeping me in the loop. You’re a good friend.” It made a guilty rumble gurgle through my stomach, but I ignored it. “I’ll let you know when I have Arden.”

“Great. Thanks.”

The line went dead and I sat there staring at the phone. Part of me wanted to back out of the plan, but then I felt an arm around my shoulder. Ceradi had snuck up on me and had a wicked grin on her face. “Using the cow’s bestie to get her to a club? I’m not sure how you knew she’d believe you, but that’s goooooood. Hannah, I’m so proud of you. Looks like I taught you right after all.”

I winced—didn’t love the idea of being compared to Ceradi. “Thanks.”

“The Undersound, you said the place is called?”

“Uh…”

She clicked through her phone and had the address up in no time. “Ooh, it’s not too far away. Come on, we’ll make Milton drive.”

She pulled me towards the door with a wild expression on her face. I’d never seen Ceradi look so malicious before and even in my buzz I was already beginning to think that it had been a mistake to let her follow through on revenge. It seemed like it was less about me and more about her.

“Let’s go wreak some havoc.”

18

Hannah

In all of the time that Arden had been going to The Undersound, I had never been there myself. Not just because I wasn’t the appropriate age to attend and didn’t have a fake ID, but because I never wanted to see the place that Arden was going to in order to hurt herself. It looked every bit as grungy and dank as I’d pictured in my mind, but that didn’t make me feel any better about the situation.

This was one of the few times I didn’t want to be right.

Milton circled the block a few times, giving us a good view of the place and then parked his car about two blocks away. There were closer places to park, but when I inquired about why we didn’t want to take one of those, Ceradi hit us with a very pensive, “We’ll be able to get away easier if we’re a little further away.”

I wasn’t entirely sure what we were going to have to try and run from, but I didn’t want to think about it. I was already too far into this plan to back out, though as my buzz wore off, so too did