Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 105231 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 526(@200wpm)___ 421(@250wpm)___ 351(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105231 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 526(@200wpm)___ 421(@250wpm)___ 351(@300wpm)
Except when it got in the way of her narrative, that was.
“I’m sorry.” She winced. Why did she say that? Showing this woman any care was pointless. And could make things worse.
“You’re sorry! You’re sorry?” Her mother turned with a screech and grabbed her arm. She was surprisingly strong as she twisted Caren’s forearm, making her cry out.
Shit! That hurt!
She yanked her arm free, and was cradling it when something struck her in the side of her head, making her stumble and fall.
“Get out of here! Go! Go! You stupid girl, go!”
Oh God. What was going on? She blinked. Had she lost consciousness?
“Go! Get out of here! You should never have been born! Oh how often did I wish that you would die!”
Why had she come here? This had been a terrible idea.
She’d made a classic mistake. Never ever take your eyes off the monster in the room. She’d learned that from a young age. Seemed that twenty years away had erased that knowledge.
“Oh no! Caren, you are all right?” Brenna appeared before her.
“I’m fine. Just see to my . . . to Martha, please?”
She stumbled to her feet and made her way out of the room. An alarm went off as the screeching continued. Shoot. She hoped Brenna was all right.
But as guilty as she felt at leaving her, she also knew that sticking around would only make her mother worse.
Reaching up to where her head throbbed, she felt something wet touch her fingers. Bloody bollocks. She was bleeding.
That . . . that bitch.
Caren made her way out of the unit, ignoring the woman at the front desk who tried to get her attention.
The security guard gave her a look of alarm. “Ma’am? Are you all right? Can I call someone for you?”
“There’s no one to call, but thank you.” She closed her eyes for a moment. “Actually, I don’t think I can manage my phone. Could you call me an Uber?”
“Sure, sure. You might need something to stop the bleeding, though. Blood can be hell to get out of upholstery. Um, you don’t want to know how I know that.”
She gave him a tight smile and leaned against a wall while opening her hand bag to pull out tissues.
“It’s on its way. Sure you don’t need an ambulance or something? I can call it for you.”
She was seeing double and feeling nauseous so maybe she should take him up on his offer.
But, no, she didn’t want to deal with anyone right now. She just wanted to get back to her hotel and pretend that none of this had happened.
Sometime later she stumbled into her hotel room and turned to lock it before moving to the bed and collapsing on top of it.
The world was spinning as she turned onto her back so she didn’t get any blood on the bed cover. Although that might be too late.
Breathing slowly, she willed the spinning to stop.
God.
Nausea bubbled in her stomach and she sat up. Suddenly, the world went dark.
9
Why wasn’t she answering his messages?
He’d sent seven. Which might be overkill since he’d sent them all in the last two hours.
Actually, no, that didn’t seem like overkill. She should be answering his messages. After all, it was after nine-thirty! She said she wasn’t going out at night this week. So why wasn’t she replying to him?
This wasn’t acceptable.
Travis paced up and down the living room of his apartment.
That’s it. He was going to call her.
His frustration grew along with his worry as the phone rang and rang and no one answered.
There was only one thing left to do.
Go to her apartment and check on her. That was completely reasonable, and even if it wasn’t, he was still doing it.
Caren woke up confused. Where was she? What was she doing here? And what was that noise?
The noise stopped, thankfully. Her head was throbbing incessantly.
Something tugged at her consciousness but she couldn’t quite grasp hold of the thought. Getting up, she held her head as she gingerly made her way around the room.
It wasn’t her bedroom. It had to be a hotel room. Why was she in a hotel room? And why was she so confused?
Finding the bathroom, she walked into it and stared at herself in the mirror. Her face was so white she looked ill. There were dark marks under her eyes. And a large gash by her hair line above her right eye.
Holy heck.
How had she gotten that? Not only had the skin opened, but there was a big lump there already.
“No wonder my head hurts.”
Did she even have any painkillers with her? Should she take them? Had she blacked out or just fallen asleep?
What time was it? She stared down at herself. She was still in her clothes.
There was that noise again. Oh, it was her phone. She moved back into the bedroom and glanced around. Where was it?