Chapter Six

Ryder

"Sleep we-" Jem cuts himself off. The unfinished sentence grates on my nerves and I whirl toward him about to smack him over the head with my spatula when I see the look on his face. His expression is frozen somewhere between rage and shock. The usually smiling and cheerful Jem gone. Which doesn't happen often. It freaks people out when Jem smiles as he beats them up, because it makes him look a bit crazed, but his mood is simply always bright, but it's when his smile falls away you should be scared.

Following his line of sight, my eyes fall on Alex's face. My blood turns to ice the spatula freezing in the air. A dark blue and purple bruise surrounds her left eye. That side of her face slightly swollen. She must have hidden it beneath makeup yesterday. My gaze trails down to her neck where a bruise that looks a hell of a lot like a big handprint sits as a necklace on the fair skin.

Jem whirls and slams his hands down on the counter the muscles in his back bunching with contained