Wanted: A Bad Boy Romance by Maya Hawk Read Free Book Online

detecting the
tiniest sliver of hope in her façade. Her lips are straight, but features have
softened.
    “Sometimes I forget you lost a
brother. I don’t want you to feel like you’ve lost your mother too.” Mom leans
in to hug me, squeezing me tight. “I say it’s time we start moving forward.”
    “I agree.”
    “Little by little, we can get
there.”
    “We will.”
    She rises up, as if she’s just
had some sort of epiphany, and ambles to her bathroom. The sink runs, and I
watch from the edge of her bed as she splashes cold water on her face and dries
it with a hand towel.
    “Tell Titan he can drive the car
for now. We’ll worry about everything else later.” She offers a bittersweet
smile, her hand running the length of the doorframe.
    I nod and leave to find him.
    “You in there?” I rap on his door
a moment later.
    No response.
    “Titan.”
    No response.
    I twist the doorknob, take a deep
breath, and show myself in.
    His room is empty. An indentation
is carved out in the center of his bed. A loud rumble pulls my attention
outside his window, where I’m barely able to catch a peek of him hopping inside
someone’s pickup truck and pulling away.
    He better not be getting into any
trouble.
    As much as I find him utterly
obnoxious and impossible to be around, and as much as I detest him for the
crudeness of his comments last night, I don’t want him to become another
statistic.
    Not on my watch.
    I sigh, recalling how my old
corrections professor used to tell us that seventy-eight percent of all violent
offenders re-offend within five years, most of them within the first ninety
days of being released.
    My arms fold and I stare around
at his empty room.
    I should go find him.
    Then again, he’s not my problem.
    But he kind of is.
    I throw myself down in the center
of his bed, digging my fingers into my scalp and groaning as my thoughts tangle
and brawl.
    Titan Blackstone is insufferable
in every sense of the word. He’s been nothing but rude to me since the day we
met. I’m not entirely sure he deserves my kindness or sympathy.
    And then I think of all the
reasons offenders reoffend, and often times, it’s due to socioeconomic
conditions.
    Lewis won’t help his son out. He
needs a car. He needs a better job.
    Someone needs to throw him a
bone.
    Pulling myself up, I trudge back
to my room to grab the spare keys to the Mustang I’d been keeping in my jewelry
box for the last three years. I tiptoe back to his room and place them on his
dresser before calling it a night.

 
    ***

 
    My fingers tremble as they hover
over the mouse of Kent’s computer the following morning. I point the cursor at
the NCIC icon on his desktop, peer outside the doorway to make sure the coast
is clear, and then double click.
    I know the gist of what happened.
    I know he beat up the drunk
driver who killed his mother and sister.
    But I want to know more.
    I want to read his psych eval.
See what makes him tick. Know him on a deeper level.
    Titan’s
nothing but a closed book. He’s standoffish and
rude. Maybe if I could understand him better, I could get through to him.
    I glance outside the door one
more time before typing his name into the search bar. I could get into so much
trouble for this if I were to get caught.
    A list of his charges populates
in the left field along with dates and a photo of his mug shot. Below that is a
link to his initial intake form and another link to his psychological
evaluation.
    I feel as if I’ve just found the
pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.
    This is exactly what I need.
    I double click and a Word
document opens across Kent’s screen. My heart leaps into my chest as I minimize
it. No need to draw even more attention to the fact that I’m snooping and
violating all kinds of policies.

 
    NAME:
Titan Lewis Blackstone
    AGE:
21 years, 2 months, 7 days
    MARITAL
STATUS: Single
    EDUCATION
STATUS: In progress. Junior at Grace State University
    EXAMINER:
Dr. Redmond Snyder, Psy D