Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 63842 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 319(@200wpm)___ 255(@250wpm)___ 213(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63842 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 319(@200wpm)___ 255(@250wpm)___ 213(@300wpm)
“After the fire?”
“Yes. It’s usually a nightmare, but sometimes, if the wind gusts too warm or hard, I feel like I’m suffocating. I always have to lie down after.”
“Maybe I will.” I smiled at her.
I stood and made my way back to my room. As I passed the security office, Rip turned his head to look at me. For a moment we stared at each other. This man had seen me at my most vulnerable and hadn’t ridiculed me. He’d supported me. I looked away first, unable to hold that steady gaze any longer.
“Thank you,” I whispered, though I wasn’t sure he could hear me from this distance.
He nodded once, a slight dip of his chin, then turned back to the monitors.
I continued down the hallway to my small room, shut the door behind me, and leaned against it. My legs finally gave out, and I slid to the floor, wrapping my arms around my knees as the delayed reaction hit me full force. The tears came silently.
Rip’s face floated in my mind -- the intensity of his gaze and promise of protection. And Mia’s unexpected kindness, the possibility that she might someday forgive me. All of it was more than I deserved.
I pulled myself up from the floor and crawled onto the narrow bed. As I curled onto my side, I realized that for the first time in years, I felt something close to hope. Not the desperate, clinging hope that had sustained me through the worst of Eric’s abuse, but something steadier. Something that whispered that maybe, just maybe, I could find my footing and have a new and better life.
Chapter Three
Jade
I couldn’t breathe. I curled my fingers around the edge of my metal folding chair I’d chosen in the corner of the common room, where Ada had called a meeting of the few adult women currently living in Haven. Ada’s voice filtered through the roaring in my ears. A stranger had been watching Haven from a distance. I didn’t need to hear any more. It was him. I knew it like I knew my own name. Eric had found me. At least, I hoped he hunted me and not Mia. I deserved to be punished because I hadn’t kept him away from Mia. Mia didn’t deserve anything bad.
“We’ve had three separate incidents in the past week,” Ada continued, her voice steady despite the tension rippling through the room. “A man in a dark sedan who parks across from our east entrance. Never stays long enough for our cameras to get a clear image.”
The room around me blurred at the edges. Two of the three other women in the room shifted in their seats, exchanging worried glances with each other. The other woman stared straight ahead, her expression carefully blank. Kind of like I looked now.
“Knight is enhancing our security,” Ada said. “No one gets within fifty feet of the outer edge of our property without being identified.”
My lungs seized. I pressed my hand to my throat, feeling the wild staccato of my pulse beneath my palm.
“Jade?” Someone touched my shoulder. “Are you OK?”
I wasn’t OK. I wasn’t OK by a long shot. My vision tunneled, the room disappearing into darkness at the edges. I stood abruptly, the metal legs catching and tipping backward with a thud against the large area rug.
“I need --” The words died in my throat. What did I need? Air. Space. To run.
I hurried from the room, nausea bubbling in my throat. I pushed past the few people in the area, mumbling apologies. The door felt miles away, but somehow, I reached it, shoving it open with both hands.
The long hallway separating the inside of Haven from our apartments, another security station, then finally the outside, seemed to stretch forever. I stumbled forward, needing fresh air and to get away from the walls that seemed to close in around me.
When I finally reached the exit, I half ran, half stumbled out the door into muted daylight. Haven’s garden courtyard was small but meticulously maintained. A tall, two-story support column stood in the very center inside the fountain to provide support for the camo netting that gave us privacy from above.
I staggered toward the stone fountain at the center. My legs gave out. I collapsed onto the grass, clutching the fine blades of soft grass in my fists. I gasped for breath.
Eric’s face flashed through my mind. Not the charming smile he showed the world, but the cold eyes that appeared when we were alone. The slight curl of his lip just before his hand would connect with my face or body. The way he’d stroke my hair afterward, his gentle touch more terrifying than the violence that had preceded it.
You think you can hide from me? His voice was so real I jerked my head up, expecting to find him standing over me. But there was only sky and the gentle splash of water from the fountain.