Disturbed sneak peek!
Hey there,
Right now I’m working on the final book in the Hawthorn trilogy rewrites, Disturbed.
This sneak peek of the first chapter is unedited and subject to change. Also, it’s a huge spoiler for the end of Disease, so don’t read on if you’ve not yet read Disorder or Disease.
I’m very excited to finally be wrapping up the trilogy once more, and I have some more exciting news coming in the next month or so regarding a collection!
Sneak peek - spoilers ahead!
Chapter One - Skylar
Griff’s face looked the same, if a little bruised, and I smiled, thrilled to be in his presence, even if we were in the hospital.
‘How are you feeling today?’ I asked. The first time I visited him, he looked so small in the bed—the bright white sheets had swallowed him as he lay sleeping—and even though a week had passed since he was shot, I still wanted to shield him from the world. ‘You look better!’
‘Cheers, Clouds. You don’t look so bad yourself.’
‘I look like shit, Griff. No need to butter me up,’ I replied with a small smile. Being around him made me happy. Yes, he was my family, but he was also one of my best friends.
‘Nah,’ he dragged out. ‘You just look a tad tired, tis all.’
The aftermath of New Year’s was a blur and I still hadn’t come to terms with any of it. The one thing I remembered vividly was the gunshot that had rung out throughout the hall. Then the second gunshot that came after the first.
The one that shattered everything.
The first shot had hit Griff. The second, Clover.
‘I am tired,’ I replied, rubbing my face. ‘I’m not sleeping well.’
‘I bet,’ he said, nodding. ‘Not much better in this place. There’s someone on the ward who constantly shouts about not wanting to be attacked by the soldiers, poor guy. I’m just hoping I get to leave soon.’
The paramedics had rushed Griff to hospital, the bullet having grazed his shoulder, and he had made a pretty speedy recovery. In typical Griff fashion, he was a cheeky patient with every nurse assigned to look after him, and flirted his way to extra pudding every evening.
‘I doubt they’ll keep you here much longer.’ My words were hollow—I had no clue how long they planned to keep him there—but Griff appreciated them regardless.
Clo hadn’t been as lucky.
They were both staying in the hospital I’d stayed in after my stabbing. A hospital I’d since found out was private and cost a fuck ton of money to stay in. Goes to show how little attention I paid while in residence, as I’d stayed three weeks and hadn’t realised somebody was paying for my stay there—in a private room no less. Nobody had owned up to it.
Well… I hadn’t asked yet. I was waiting for things to die down before weeding out who I owed a lot of gratitude and money to.
‘Have you heard the latest from Ollie?’ Griff asked and I shook my head. Things were weird between all of us and since the gala, even though he’d barely left my side, Ollie was in his own spiral of hurt, trying to figure out how his family could have lied to him for his entire life. And just exactly who had lied to him, and about what they’d lied about.
It would be some time until he got to the bottom of where the deceit started. How long the family had let it fester.
‘I’ve not spoken to him today,’ I said. ‘What’s going on?’
Ollie was staying with his father at the house on the Hawthorn grounds, and I was staying in my dorm at Hawthorn alone. Leo was staying in his suite in the staff quarters—yes, the same Leo who had told me not so long ago he was falling for me who could no longer look me in the eye for longer than a second.
I needed to get him alone, needed to corner him somehow and find out just what he knew, because after everything Orlando said at the gala, it was apparent Leo knew a lot more than the rest of us.
Then there was the issue of Orlando.
‘...out on bail.’ Griff’s lips turned down and I shook my head to clear the cobwebs.
‘Sorry?’
He took a deep breath and repeated himself. ‘Orlando’s out on bail.’
Until next time,
