The General's Daughter (Snow and Ash #1) Read Online Free

I find the handle, but of course the knob doesn’t turn.
    I am locked in a closet-sized room with nothing but a bucket and a peanut-butter-covered doorknob. Out there is the guy who’s hated me for years.
    The reality of my situation punches me in the gut, and I collapse against the wall.

    I lie on the floor for hours, ignoring the food, ignoring the muffled voices in the out there . How did I let this happen? Talon Heinseman, of all people.
    I close my eyes and let the memories squeeze through the cracks.
    He’d been several years ahead of me in school. I really didn’t know him that well, although apparently he’d known all about me. His family was trash. His mom was a waitress at the local diner, and his dad had been a coal miner until this big cave-in a few years back. After that his dad started cooking meth, and not very well if you judged by the fact that he still lived in a trailer.
    Talon was never handsome in the traditional sense. He’d always worn this bitter, tough look, though, that made everyone a little afraid of him. I used to go tingly and confused at the sight of him. He’d graduated that past spring and was already helping his dad in the family business.
    I knew his sister better. Misty was a grade behind me, a pretty enough girl but poorly dressed and always so shy. She was continually trying to kiss up to me, to join everything I joined, duplicate the clothes I wore. Creepy, I’d thought then. So freaking annoying, and a real threat to my social standing if anyone got it into their heads that we were friends. Right at the beginning of ninth grade, my friends and I came up with an idea of how to get rid of her for good. We pretended we were having a party and invited her. She was so excited. I cringe now, remembering the tragic shine in her eyes. At the time all I’d felt was an ego-feeding thrill of nastiness. When she’d showed up, we’d lured her to the basement, pelted her with eggs and mustard, and locked her there for the night. She’d cried. She’d begged. She hadn’t stopped until we’d shoved pillows in front of the door and turned the music up high.
    The next morning, we’d told her to get lost and never bother us again. It was a Sunday.
    Shit.
    I knock my head back against the paneling.
    Shit. Shit.
    Just as school let out the following day, my friends and I were hanging outside by the flagpole waiting for our rides to show when Talon pulled up in a bright red Mustang. He killed the motor, slammed the car door, and stalked over, his stare glued on me. The look in his eyes. God.
    That was my last day of high school.
    I squeeze my eyes shut now and pull my knees to my chest. I want to sleep. Anything to drive the memories away.

    I wake to an insistent pressure in my bladder. It takes a moment for me to remember that I am in a strange place with only a bucket to pee in. I don’t want the room to smell of piss—especially mine. Will someone come to carry it away, and if so, who? The thought humiliates me, so I turn to my side and try to will away the need.
    The next time the door opens, Talon takes a look at the uneaten food and raises an eyebrow. “Not good enough for you?”
    I sit up. “I need to go to the bathroom.”
    He grins. “See that bucket over there?”
    I flick it a glance, frown, and look away.
    “You’re not daddy’s little princess anymore.”
    I cross my arms over my chest. I haven’t been daddy’s little princess in years. At least, not his willing princess. Our gazes lock, and the longer I stare, the more I see the anger, the determination, the power of him. I’m the first to look away.
    Talon sets an old plastic bottle onto the floor and retrieves the plate.
    The pressure on my bladder increases, and I wonder then if I’ve gone at all while I was unconscious, and if so, if I did it in my pants, or if someone… “Please, Talon. I need to pee.”
    I wish I didn’t sound so pathetic.
    His eyes flare, and I swear he’s enjoying this. He looks me up