"When I caught up to him again, my fingers closed around the soft, loose leather of his jacket’s sleeve. At theslightest tug, Liam turned, his blue eyes lit up in surprise. I took a step back and pulled my hand back to my side,shocked at myself. It had felt natural to do it—I hadn’t been thinking at all, only feeling a very sharp, real needto be close to him."

"Hey Boo, I'm in this now, too, & I got a lot of experience playing assholes like they're fucking harps. You need backup, I got you. Stop trying to convince yourself that you're in this alone."

"Jude: But I thought Fancy was the Slip Kid?Olivia: Fancy?Ruby: He nicknamed Clancy.Olivia: Fancy sort of suits him."

"Black ia the color that is no color at all.Black is the color of a child’s still, empty bedroom. The heaviest hour of night—the one that traps you in your bunk, suffocating in another nightmare. It is a uniform stretched over the broad shoulders of an angry young man. Black is the mud, the lidless eye watching your every breath, the low vibrations of the fence that stretches up to tear at the sky."

"He came back in a body bag."

"Did you know...you make me so happy that sometimes I actually forget to breath? I'll be looking at you, and my chest will get so tight...and it's like, the only thought in my head is how much I want to reach over and kiss you."

"My, my." A feral grin spread across Cole's face. "Little brother must be a good kisser."

"You mean this research?"

"Mornin’, sunshine!"

"At one point, his eyes flashed toward mine in the rearview mirror. It was just for an instant, but I felt the smalltwinge in my stomach as sharply as I would have if he had taken a soft finger and run it down the length of myopen palm."