Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 111359 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 557(@200wpm)___ 445(@250wpm)___ 371(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 111359 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 557(@200wpm)___ 445(@250wpm)___ 371(@300wpm)
He didn’t know if he was strong enough for this. But he had to be. If she was strong enough to tell him, he had to be strong enough to hear it. To be here for her.
“I managed to get up and move to the bathroom, where I could already see the bruising around my throat. I was shaking like a leaf and I just wanted to get out of there. My stuff was already packed up, so I threw it in my car and I drove until I was several hours away. By then, I was losing it. I was shaking and crying. I could barely see.”
“You didn’t go to the cops?”
“No. I didn’t even call them. I couldn’t risk them figuring out what had happened. I just wanted to get out of there and get to the one place where I felt safe.”
“Fuck, baby. What did you do? Did you get another motel?”
“I didn’t want to use the rest of my cash on a motel when I needed it for gas and food. Not that I felt like eating. So I . . . I slept in my car.”
Slowly, he rocked her back and forth. Shit. He hated that. How unsafe she’d been.
“You should have called your friends, Jake. Any of us would have come for you.”
“And then you would have wanted to know who hurt me. I couldn’t risk it. Even if I didn’t call Jake, someone would have told him. I was safe as long as I didn’t tell the police what happened. And to do that, I figured I was better not to tell anyone what happened.”
Fuck. Did she really think she was safe from that maniac?
“Baby girl,” he said carefully. “You told me you were safe.”
“I am. I’m home in Haven. And I haven’t told the police. I did what he said.”
“I’m glad you feel safe in Haven, but this guy conned you and strangled you until you passed out. Just because you didn’t talk to the police doesn’t mean you’re safe.”
All these weeks, and she hadn’t told anyone because she thought that would keep her safe?
Fuck. Shit.
What did he do? He didn’t want her to be scared, but he needed her to know that she couldn’t trust what this asshole said.
“Hannah, you’re a threat to him. At any time, he could come here and find you. You need to report him.”
“No, that’s just it. He can’t come back and get me.”
“Hannah . . . he can. I don’t know why he let you go free. But at any moment, he can come for you. It would be easy for him to find out where you live. To come here and grab you.”
Fuck. He’d let her go to work on her own today. And then there was all that time she’d spent here in her apartment alone.
She was a sitting duck!
That was all going to have to change. From now on, he was on her like glue. No one was going to hurt his girl.
“No, he can’t. Because he’s in jail.”
“What?”
“I saw it on the news the other day at the clinic. Right before I . . . before I fainted. That a con man in Alabama had been arrested. The news said that he’d found his target using a dating website. It has to be him!”
Fuck. Could it be him? Or someone else?
“Luckily, his latest target must have been smarter than me. It didn’t give the details about how she figured things out, but the guy’s name was Michael Atwater.”
“Does that mean something to you?” he asked, confused.
“Michael was Steven’s middle name. It has to be him. The circumstances were too similar. I tried to see if there was any description of what he looked like. But I couldn’t find any more information. I thought about calling the police . . . but I just know that it’s him. So, you see, I am safe.”
Yeah, he didn’t quite share her belief.
“And that was before you fainted?”
“Yeah, I think I stood up too suddenly, all excited, and then the next thing I knew, I woke up on the floor.”
He ran his hand up and down her back. His thoughts were a jumbled mess. Perhaps he should be relieved that this guy had likely been arrested. But he needed to make sure it actually was the same person.
And he was rethinking some of his actions with her, cursing himself for doing things like pressing her up against the wall earlier. For being so fucking pushy.
It was a wonder she wanted anything to do with him.
“You still need to report this.”
She tensed in his arms. “Why?”
“Because what if this con man that was arrested isn’t Steven? We need to find out.”
“But he has to be.” Her voice broke. “He has to be!”
He tightened his hold on her as she started shaking.