Total pages in book: 153
Estimated words: 154595 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 773(@200wpm)___ 618(@250wpm)___ 515(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154595 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 773(@200wpm)___ 618(@250wpm)___ 515(@300wpm)
“Oh, he’ll talk to me.” Gray would make certain of that.
“There’s some other stuff I found out. She ever talk to you about her stepdad?”
“No.” He didn’t want to admit that they hadn’t talked about anything much. “Does it have anything to do with her disappearance?”
“I don’t know. Her stepdad was a cop. Decorated and respected until he had some sort of psychotic episode and disappeared.”
It was weird. But he didn’t see how it had anything to do with what was going on right now . . . unless . . .
“Was the stepdad the one that hurt her? Is he who she’s running from?”
“Who knows? But he hasn’t been seen since. So what are you going to do?”
“I’m going to go make Jenner Knight tell me everything he knows. Can you find me his address?”
“Yep. Just give me an hour. Might be a bit of a challenge.”
The voices wouldn’t shut up.
Didn’t they know she was sleeping? Was it her mom? Who was she talking to? Why didn’t they ever get to sleep in at the camp? Didn’t these people know that teenagers needed a lot of sleep?
“I’m not getting up, Mom. I don’t care what chores need doing.”
The voices immediately quieted.
She sighed. That was better. She rolled over.
“Maeve?” a quiet feminine voice said.
She frowned. That wasn’t her mom. In fact, that sounded like . . .
“Immy? What’cha doing in my room? Please tell me the Deity doesn’t want to see me.” She was not up for that.
“Oh my God! Does she have amnesia?” Immy cried. “Does she think she’s back at the camp?”
“Immy, calm down,” Sampson barked. “She’s probably dreaming.”
“Sampson? Oh no, the Deity doesn’t want us to have sex again, does he?”
The silence had her opening her eyes. It was then that she realized she wasn’t sleeping on her old mattress on the floor of the shack she and her mom had lived in.
Nope, she was lying on a really comfortable mattress in a room filled with her friends.
She stared around at them all. Immy was sitting on an armchair next to the bed. Isaiah was sitting on the other side, his laptop on his knees. Jenner was standing by the door with Abe, while Sampson stood at the end of the bed with his arms crossed over his chest.
Everyone was glaring at Sampson. Why? What did he do?
Sampson sighed, running his hand over his face. He looked tired. Poor guy.
“You look tired, Sampson,” she said. “You want to lie down for a while?”
“Not with you, he won’t,” Jenner snapped. He looked as gorgeous as ever. It was sickening how one person could be that good looking.
Beside him, Abe studied her. He was attractive, even if he kind of slipped into the background when standing next to Jenner’s glow.
“You had sex with Maeve while we were at the camp?” Immy snapped.
Huh?
She tried to make her tired brain work. She felt so sluggish and exhausted.
Oh. Wait.
Everything rushed back at her. Being attacked. The bus. Getting here only for that asshole at the gate to turn her away.
And then nothing. Until she woke up just now. Where she’d said . . .
She tried to sit up. Immy turned to her, red hair flying out behind her. Immy had never been able to tame her hair properly.
“What are you doing?” Immy asked, clearly in mother hen mode. “Lie down.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine,” Jenner said, pacing back and forth. “You’ve got a bruised face and from the way you’re moving there are probably other bruises under your clothes. You were so exhausted when you got here that you collapsed and you’ve been sleeping for hours. You’re not fine.”
Whoa.
Everyone turned to stare at Jenner now. It wasn’t like him to have an outburst like that.
“Okay, let’s just all calm down a bit,” Isaiah said calmly. “None of this is helping Maeve.”
Everyone sent her guilty looks.
“I’m all right, guys. I promise.” She sat up slowly, trying not to wince. She thought she’d feel better after some sleep. She’d barely slept on the bus, she’d been too scared to fall asleep surrounded by strangers.
But if anything, she almost felt worse.
“First of all, Sampson didn’t do anything to me when we were younger. The Deity ordered him to and we just pretended.”
Sampson grunted. “Fucking bastard, thinking he could order me to fuck her. She was only fifteen.”
None of them were shocked by the Deity at this point. They knew how sick and depraved he had been.
She leaned back against the headboard, feeling like shit. She wanted to sleep for about a hundred days.
What a mess.
Something suddenly occurred to her.
“Have any of you told Cat what happened?” she asked frantically.
Please tell her that they hadn’t.
“I tried calling her,” Immy whispered. “I left a message.”
Great. Just great.
“She’s going to insist on coming here.” Not that she didn’t want to see her friend. But that was just going to create more issues.