Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 80471 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 402(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80471 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 402(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
Distracting him.
So I could scoot closer, my arm stretching out little by little even as I felt cool air on the top of my ass.
His fingers scraped across my butt as he pulled my pants down further.
Now or never.
I reached out, my fingers closing around the cold glass.
Then, with every bit of strength left in me, I flung myself over onto my back, striking out with the sharp edge of the bottle.
The roar of pain let me know I struck… true enough.
I didn’t have time to wait and see.
I mustered what was left of my survival instinct, peeled myself off the ground, and ran.
Each step was agony, the pain ratcheting up my whole body as I rushed out of one door, down a hallway, then, there it was.
The front door.
Outside, the soft sounds of traffic.
Safety.
Gritting my teeth, I rushed forward, flinging open the door, and moving out onto the sidewalk of a side street.
I was disoriented, having come in a different entrance. But I kept moving, refusing to stand still on an abandoned street. When any one, or all three, of my attackers, might be right behind me.
I made my way to the corner, looking for a cab, but having no luck.
Glancing up, I looked at the cross-section signs.
It couldn’t be.
I was that close?
To backup?
To someone who could have helped me avoid the worst of the damage raking across every inch of my body?
Swallowing back the lump in my throat at even needing help, I turned and kept walking, my pace just shy of an old-school zombie trudge, but it was forward motion.
It was the best I could do.
No one ran out behind me as I closed in on it.
A simple apartment building emerging, modern and sterile-looking.
Limping up the steps, promising myself it was just a few hundred more feet, that it was almost over, I slammed the side of my fist into the buttons for the apartments, running it down all of them.
Chances were, someone was waiting on someone. A booty call. A plug. Take out.
Something dangerously close to a sob escaped me as the door clicked.
I grabbed it like the lifeline it was, moving inside and closing the door, knowing I was safe.
Safe.
The idea had my eyes stinging and I blinked back the water as I pulled myself into the elevator, and hit the button for the door.
Almost there.
Then it could be over.
I could stop being so strong.
Stop enduring.
Give into the urge that was begging me to let go, to slip toward unconsciousness. If only to escape the pain.
The chime of the car as it hit the floor felt like it was attached to a megaphone, making my shoulders pull up to my ears as the sound sliced through my skull.
Almost there.
Twenty more steps.
That was the door right there.
Number forty-four.
My favorite number.
Though I would never have told him that.
It suddenly felt even more lucky as I closed in on it.
It took actual effort to raise my arm high enough to stab my finger into the doorbell.
“Keep your panties on,” a voice called from inside. Then, “Unless you’re a gorgeous woman. In which case, feel free to slip right out of th—“
His easy-going, upbeat voice broke off as he slid the chain, then pulled open the door to see me.
There he was.
Dav.
Possibly the only man in the world I could trust with this secret.
“Cinna,” his voice hissed out of him as horror filled his stupidly handsome face as he took me in.
I had no idea what I looked like.
But if my agony was anything to go by, it was not good.
“What—“ he started, his arms reaching out toward me.
I thought, at first, it was simply because he was one of those kinds of people. The touchy-feely ones. Who were always brushing your arm, touching your lower back, picking lint off of your shirt.
I didn’t realize, until I felt myself falling into him, that he saw me teetering and was trying to catch me before I fell.
And as I collided with his frame, it happened.
A deep, soul-crushing sob escaped me.
As if this night hadn’t been humiliating enough.
CHAPTER TWO
Dav
I was just climbing out of the shower, woefully alone for once, when I heard the intercom buzz in the living room.
Reaching out toward the vanity, I flipped my phone over, noting the time.
Two in the morning.
Prime time for an old hookup to decide to drop over and take another tour of my sheets.
Maybe this night wasn’t so depressing after all.
I made quick work of toweling off, then grabbed the pair of black sleep pants, yanking them up my legs where they sat suggestively low on my hips.
I didn’t plan on having them on long anyway.
I was expecting another buzz as I walked out into the common area of the apartment.
Instead, I got a long chime of my own doorbell.
Someone was anxious to see me.