Tamed by Stacey Kennedy Read Free Book Online

She refused to let that pain control her future. Firmly believing she had everything under wraps, she opened her eyes and ran her fingertips over the spine of a book, reminding herself why she couldn’t get too close to Porter.
    Kenzie skipped behind the group of four older kids in excitement that her sister had let her hang out with the older crowd. She ran her hands over the long grass, feeling it tickle across her palms. Summer camp was always fun, but now that Kenzie was ten years old, it had become even better. She wasn’t the little sister anymore. And her sister, Joslyn, included her more with her friends.
    Once she’d caught up to the two girls and the two very cute boys that reminded her of some of the boys on her posters at home, she noticed they’d arrived at a river that went through the town. She took in the tall railway bridge to her right, and then noticed a cement dam farther down the river.
    Everyone began taking off their clothes, wearing bathing suits underneath. Her sister laughed in her easy way. “Come on, Kenzie, don’t be such a chicken. Jump in.”
    Her sister’s blond hair waved in the air, and her brown eyes were twinkling with mischief. Joslyn was fourteen years old, and Kenzie hoped to be just like Joslyn when she grew up.
    Her sister was beautiful.
    At Kenzie’s hesitation, Joslyn shoved her arm, and Kenzie focused on the water and noticed the dam again. There were signs everywhere that said not to go in, but sweat slid over Kenzie’s skin, the sun beaming across her body. The water would feel good. Yet something made her pause. Danger, her senses told her.
    She shook her head at her sister. “I don’t want to.”
    “Fine,” Joslyn said, dropping her shorts, then stepping out of her flip-flops. “I’ll show you how the big girls do it. I’ll go first and you’ll see it’s fine.”
    Brave and fearless, that was Joslyn. Kenzie loved that about her. Still, cold worry cut through her. “The signs—”
    Joslyn slapped a hand over Kenzie’s mouth. “Stop worrying. They just don’t want this area being used as a beach.”
    Kenzie studied the dam, the coldness in her veins only increasing. She focused on her sister as Joslyn approached the edge of the water and grinned. “Count to three and I’ll jump.”
    Kenzie looked down into the water and couldn’t see the bottom. So black. So deep. “I don’t—”
    “You need to be more adventurous, Kenz,” Joslyn exclaimed.
    Not wanting to disappoint her sister, she glimpsed at the group of all the older kids, now watching Kenzie with challenging smirks. She didn’t want to be the baby. She wanted to be cool like everyone else. Not to embarrass herself, she called, “One…Two…Three.”
    Joslyn screamed as she jumped into the water. Everyone cheered, and with that, Kenzie relaxed and cheered, too. A few seconds passed and the cheering continued. Though soon it began to grow quiet.
    Hands stopped clapping.
    Mouths closed.
    Kenzie stepped toward the water’s edge where Joslyn had jumped. She searched for Joslyn in the water, waiting for the water to ripple or a bubble to form.
    Nothing.
    “Joslyn,” she called.
    Still nothing.
    Panic sent Kenzie’s heart racing, and she snapped her head toward Joslyn’s friends. “Where is she?”
    The boys rushed forward to the edge of the water. Seconds passed that felt like a lifetime. Kenzie held her breath…and counted…but by the time she ran out of breath and had to gasp for air, tears rolled down her cheeks.
    Joslyn never surfaced.
    All of her so-called friends ran.
    Kenzie screamed, “Joslyn!”
    A chiming of the bell at the door had Kenzie gasping out of the memory. Her sister died that day. The current from the dam had pulled her right into it. She stepped out from the bookshelves, her heart hammering in her chest. That’s why she couldn’t love—whenever she did, bad things happened. She approached the man entering the store and regarded him, as something seemed
off
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