Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 76381 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76381 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Still, I took care with cleaning it out, not wanting to risk any sort of infection.
“I need to talk to you about something,” I said, glance cutting up to hers, finding her already watching me.
“Okay,” she said, sounding tense.
“It’s about the next steps.”
CHAPTER SIX
Vienna
I would never, ever take a hot shower for granted again. Hell, I wouldn’t take running water for granted again. Soap. Toothpaste. A hairbrush. All the things that made you feel human.
I knew I was hogging all the hot water, but I couldn’t seem to bring myself to care as I scrubbed and scrubbed at my skin with the woodsy-smelling soap Riff had lent me.
The dirt was all off of me after the second or third scrub, but I kept scraping at my skin. Four, five, six, seven times, wishing I could get the feel of him off of me.
Eventually, I had to fight back those thoughts just to be able to stop scrubbing before I made myself raw.
Then I brushed and brushed and brushed my teeth and hair before slathering on lotion and lip balm that immediately burned, thanks to how chapped they were.
And, finally, I got into new, warm, soft clothes that completely swallowed me up.
That still didn’t feel like enough, though. So when I found more layers in the bags Raff provided, I slipped those on too. And the blanket. Before, finally, I felt a little more, I don’t know, safe.
I knew Riff was going to need to talk to me eventually. When he’d left me to go make his phone call, it had been all I could think about.
What was he going to do with me now?
Would he just drive me to the next town, drop me off, and wish me well?
My heart twisted at that thought.
Being left.
Being alone.
Being unprotected again.
“Okay,” I said as he carefully dabbed ointment around my ankle with a cotton swab.
“You don’t have to talk about it with me,” he started, reaching for a roll of gauze, then carefully pressing it over the ointment. “But I know… things happened to you. And that you might want to talk to the police about that, get a report filed, get them—“
My head was already shaking the second he mentioned cops, but he finally seemed to notice the motion and glanced up.
“No?” he asked.
“No. No, I don’t… no.”
I knew what that involved. I’d had a friend in high school who’d been assaulted by two boys at a party when she’d been only seventeen.
The police had asked horrible questions about what she’d been wearing, how much she’d been drinking, what she may have said to the boys to lead them on.
As if any of it was her fault.
Then they’d said things about how she really had to think about what she was saying, because her words could completely ruin those boys’ futures. And that she better be really sure all of this happened, because they would take it to court, and she would have to go on the stand, and tell the whole courtroom every little thing that happened to her.
I couldn’t do that.
I could barely even think about it, let alone say it aloud. I definitely couldn’t repeat it over and over for the police. For a lawyer. For the court. With him sitting right there in the courtroom with me.
I just… couldn’t.
Maybe that made me weak, but I didn’t care. I’d been strong enough already.
“Okay,” Riff said, nodding. “It’s your decision. I just want to make sure you’ve given it some thought before—“
“I’ve had nothing to do but think about it,” I cut him off, tone sharper than I’d intended, and I saw it in the way his brows shot up, but he was quick to school his features into indifference.
“Okay. That’s fine. I’m not trying to persuade you in any direction. I just wanted to give you the options.”
“What are the others? Options?” I clarified as he taped off the gauze, then carefully slipped my sock back over my foot.
“I could take you anywhere you want to go. Back to your hometown—“
“No,” I said, tone frantic, mind racing with images of being stolen right from that town. Nothing about it would ever feel safe again.
“Okay,” he agreed, like some part of him knew I would say that. “I can also bring you back to California with me,” he offered. “I know we just met—“
“Yes,” I cut him off, tone borderline frantic.
“Yes?”
“Yes. That’s the option I want,” I said, holding his gaze.
He was holding his own thoughts back, I could see it in the way his dark eyes brightened, but he nodded. “Okay. Then you can come back with us. Fair warning, it’s a bit of a road trip still. We try not to drive for more than ten or so hours a day. So it could be two, two and a half days before we get there.”