Hate Me: A Dark Crime Syndicate Romance

Hate Me The Fox Family Crime Syndicate Book 2 Summer O'Toole Contents . Chapter Author’s note Playlist Prologue 1. Arrivals 2. Chance 3. All is Fair 4. In Love and War 5. Run Your Mouth 6. Pet 7. Girls' Night 8. The Wild Stallion 9. Plates, Picture Frames, and Paintings. 10. Only Yourself to Blame 11. What Happens Next 12. The Decision 13. Lucky 14. Flowers and Gold 15. Married Man 16. Rocky Balboa 17. Shuttle-Dicks 18. Actions and Consequences 19. Amongst the Stars 20. Juicy Tracksuits and Star Wars DVDs 21. Transgressions and Penance 22. Née Luciano 23. Run 24. Can't Hide 25. Water Lilies 26. Euphemia Fox Epilogue Dear reader, Acknowledgments Also by Summer O'Toole Copyright You can't run from Fate, especially if your Fate likes the chase. Author’s noteThis book is a dark romance. There are many scenes of graphic violence and sexual content. The hero of this book is not a good man. There are several scenes involving non/dub-con (for a complete list of content included, please visit SummerOtoole.com/content).This book will not be for everyone, and please for the love of God, if you know me in real life, don’t read. But if you do, remember this is a work of fiction.Dark romance is an incredible, beautiful, gritty way of storytelling that people enjoy for many different reasons. Reading and writing about something does not mean you condone it in real life. If that were true, Stephen King should have been locked up long ago.Please also note that this is not meant to accurately represent safe sex or kink. PlaylistKeep an eye out for footnotes to pair specific scenes to the songs that inspired them. I’d recommend playing the suggested song on repeat until the end of the chapter or ornamental break. If reading on a Kindle, you can tap the numbered superscript and it will show you the footnotes without losing your page. You can listen to the full playlist at SummerOtoole.com/PlaylistsSpeakers - Acoustic Mixtape—Sam HuntFed Up—GhostmanePull That Trigger—Tommee Profitt, FleurieRun My Mouth—Ella MaiALPHA—LaytoBottom of the River—Delta RaeSomething to Someone—Dermot KennedyHoundin—LaytoLost It All—Jill Andrewsyou broke me first—Tate McRaeFine—Kyle HumeTears of Gold—FaouziaSomething in the Orange—Zach BryanDarkest Hour—Andrea RussettHurts So Good—Astrid SLove Is a Bitch—Two FeetInsane—Post MaloneVillain—Julia WolfHurt Me—LåpsleyPray for Me—The Weeknd, Kendrick Lamari feel everything—Amelia MooreNext—ShakerI Chose Violence—iamjakehillMount Everest—LabrinthE-GIRLS ARE RUINING MY LIFE—CORPSE, Savage Ga$pChills – Dark Version—Mickey Valen, Joey MyronDandelions – slowed + reverb—Ruth B., slateryou should see me in a crown—Billie Eilish PrologueFinnTen years ago My stomach flips seeing her dark brown hair whip around her face in the wind. I turn up the volume on the staticky radio playing old school country to cover the sound of the open window. And my beating heart.My fingers tap on the worn leather of the old steering wheel fighting the urge to reach out and touch hers. The cab of the truck is dark, the headlights lighting up the country road ahead of us. Ranch fence lines zoom past in the sideview, the occasional yellow sign warning of deer crossings.Effie rolls down her window, and the fresh smell of pine rushes in.1It jumps like a skipping stone in my chest. Sharp, staccato hops that leave you anxious and waiting for the drop.Effie and I had known each other for years. We’re only a couple years apart, and our fathers run in the same circles. Those circles being the rich and dirty criminal underworld. But it wasn’t until we graduated high school a few years ago that we really started spending time together as more than two crime bosses’ kids. I had my brothers of course, but there was something freeing about spending time with another person who knew what it was like to wake up in the middle of the night to gunshots and eat breakfast to the smell of bleach the next morning.She understood that I didn’t break the cashier’s nose because I wanted to, but because he disrespected me, and as a Fox, I can’t let that happen without consequences. I glance down at my bruised knuckles wrapped around the wheel now and can almost feel the sting of the ice she held on them after as she cursed our fathers and their damn egos.As if reading my mind she turns to me from the passenger seat, “How’s your hand feeling?”I flex my swollen fingers and take my eyes off the two lane road just long enough to meet hers. We’re passing one of the few streetlights and the rusty glow makes her mahogany eyes shimmer like amber. My throat tightens. “Fine.”I may be imagining it, but I think I see her frown slightly at my short answer. It’s not fine. My knuckles feel like they were run over by a steam roller. But it’s not like I’m gonna say that out loud.I spot a sign for Bartlett Farms. “We’re almost there.”Bartlett Farms is a small, family-run berry farm. They have fields of strawberries and long hedges of blueberries and some other stuff I can’t remember. The large, white farm house that we see as we pull into the dirt drive has a wraparound porch faintly glowing with old-fashioned gas lamps. The couple who lives here now is in their seventies and the white paint is chipping and curling off the wood siding, but the porch steps are always swept clean, and the flower baskets neatly pruned.The Bartletts are proud and honest people, which is probably why my father chose them. They don’t know I’m coming tonight—no one does—so when the truck crawls past the house to the back, a light flicks on upstairs. They must recognize my truck, and the light turns off within a few seconds.“This looks more like a place you’d take a girl to murder her, not on a date,” Effie muses as she looks up at the dilapidated barn we’ve parked in front of. I think she says something else, but I can’t hear over the blood thumping in my ears.A date? Fuck.I mean, I’m not complaining. I’ve had