Rewired (The Progress Series) by Amy Queau Read Free Book Online Page B

momentum it needed to snap forward, punting the unconscious man on the ground twice. Jess snatched the man up by his shirt and brought his dangling head closer. It wasn’t until Jess felt a stinging sensation on his lip that he realized someone had finally intervened.
    It wasn’t a bouncer, the bartender, or the tiny waitress. It was another customer, coming to the innocent man’s rescue. “What the fuck are you doing?” the customer yelled, crouching down beside the wasted man on the floor. Looking back up toward the bartender, he shouted, “Joe! Call the police!”
    Wiping the blood from his lip, Jesse’s head twisted back, meeting the glare of the bartender, who already had a cell phone to his ear.
    Fuck.
    Sobering from his natural high, Jesse ran out the door and quickly got into his car. He was driving down the street before he realized that he had even put the key in the ignition.
    When he had left his apartment an hour earlier, a carnival had been delighting his senses: The loud music had been horseplay and fed his ears like cotton candy—sweet, uninvited, and boisterous. Constant movement had danced around him as colors and lights pierced his delicate and oversensitive eyes. But just an hour later, on his drive back to the apartment, he felt like a hangover had already begun. His head ached and his stomach turned.
    Watching for the police on the freeway, six miles away from his apartment, Jesse caught a glimpse of his swollen lip in the rearview mirror. He wiped his teeth and licked his lip with his tongue, tasting the metallic bitterness of his own blood as he felt the waning rush of adrenaline pace itself.
    Distracted by the mirror’s reflection and the thoughts of Charlie creeping back into his head, he didn’t notice as the line in the center of the road disappeared. He was now driving on the shoulder of the highway. Jerking the wheel too far to the left to find his lane, he found himself spinning backward, then forward, at sixty miles per hour.
    When his vehicle finally came to a stop, it was in the weedy and overgrown median, facing the opposite direction, deep inside the ditch. There was no way he’d get it back onto the freeway.
    He let out another exaggerated sigh with his neck against the headrest. Scratching his forehead, he unbuckled his seatbelt, fished out the receipt from his pocket, and dialed Charlie’s number.

Chapter Five
     
     
    After slamming the front door, Charlie stood, lightly shaking her keys in her hand. With her frustration at its peak, she seethed, unable to control the twitch from the corner of her mouth.
    Silence.
     
    Don’t do it, Charlie. Not tonight. I’m in no mood for a lecture.
     
    “You’re a FUCKING coward!” she shouted.
     
    Shit.
     
    She threw her purse across the room, its contents splashing against the wall and bouncing to the floor. Jesse remained with his hands in his pockets and his body motionless, with the exception of a small eye twitch.
    Her tone fierce, she continued, “You fight. You fuck. You run. And you’re gonna fucking drown! Welcome to rock-fucking-bottom, Jess.”
    “Oh wake up, Charlie! Take a good fucking look!” he shouted, pointing to his face. “This has always been and will always be rock bottom. It doesn’t get much more desperate than this.”
    “Then why don’t you do something about it! Be a man for once in your life, and take responsibility for who you are and who you’ll become. What the hell are you waiting for? You think this is going to get any easier?” she continued screaming, emptying her lungs. She took a deep breath before continuing, “Goddamn it! You’re infuriat—”
    Grabbing her arm and jerking her forward, he stopped her just as she was about to crash into his chest. His mouth, now devouring hers, removed the fury, the tension, and the rampage. Their lips were engaged in a fiery entanglement and Jesse began tasting the blood from the cut on his lip again. But it wasn’t enough to stop him.
    Nothing