Up in Smoke (King, #8)

by T.M. Frazier

I’m Hell on Earth. Brimstone and fire. Embers and ashes. I am motherfucking Smoke.

Morgan is dead. So is our unborn child. And it’s all my fucking fault.

The contents of the refrigerator are…well, there aren’t any contents. Unless Google can show me how to make a meal from a half jar of pickles, two slices of cheese, and a six-pack of beer.

I might be a liar, but what I told Duke earlier is the truth. I don’t like high school all that much. Not now, and not when I graduated the first time. Four years ago.

“You’re right,” I whisper. “I am a monster.” Roughly, I grab her chin, forcing her to look me in the eye. “I’m your monster.”

“Because you belong to me. Your fear, your anger, your fury, your fucking defiance. It all belongs to me. And nobody fucks with what’s mine but ME.”

And just now, I’ve chosen to trust someone who named his daughters after fucking pop stars and whose son is the youngest on record to be on the FBI watch list.

She’s cocaine with legs, and I’m a fucking addict before I’ve even had a taste.

“Shit, Rage was right. You really did name the bacon.”

“While Smoke was passed out, I bathed him and washed his clothes but they were so flimsy they fell apart in the wash, so I mended some of Barney’s things, altering them on the fly so they’d fit him. I placed some food by the bedside. When he came to, he disappeared again. The food was gone off the nightstand, but the clothes were still on the foot of the bed. “Where did you find him?” I ask. On some level, I’m beginning to identify with the kid she’s describing, and it’s sitting like a rock in my gut. Zelda sighs, knitting her brows together, still disturbed with whatever it was she was recalling. “He was under the porch in the crawlspace. Naked. Eating the beef stew and biscuits with his hand like a wild animal. He was shoving it into his mouth so quickly he was choking.” “How did you get him to come out?” I ask, my heart squeezing for a young Smoke. “He came out on his own, after a while. He let me dress him, but he didn’t speak, just watched me like I was an alien.

“It’s only fair that I break you,” Smoke groans, seating himself fully inside me. He looks me in the eyes. “Since you’ve already broken me.”

“You wanted me to choose you, Hellion. Well, this is me...choosing you.”

“Some people say that a good woman can tame a man. Train him. Make him less violent,” King says. He chuckles. “It ain’t true. It makes you more violent. It makes you more everything.”

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