Total pages in book: 144
Estimated words: 133531 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 668(@200wpm)___ 534(@250wpm)___ 445(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 133531 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 668(@200wpm)___ 534(@250wpm)___ 445(@300wpm)
She didn’t reply. There wasn’t much she could say, not when she had to admit she was just a little nervous going into the building. They walked the rest of the way in silence. Javier opened doors and rode the elevator in silence to the second floor. Lydia’s apartment was quiet, and he went in first, signaling her to wait. When he returned, he just nodded and sauntered away. She felt oddly grateful that he didn’t prolong his goodbyes. She didn’t want to continue the argument. There was nothing more to say.
Rory found herself taking another shower, trying to scrub Gideon’s touch from her skin and lips. She wished she could scrub his memory from her mind and forget him the way she had her parents. She found herself sobbing. She had never broken down completely like this. She cried like a baby, weeping with abandon until it hurt.
He had done this to her. Gideon. No, she had done this to herself. She had always believed in taking responsibility for her own actions, and she had let herself trust him. All along, there had been warning flags. She saw them. Felt them. She’d even talked to herself about them. Still, she’d chosen to ignore them.
She should have known better. She should have left when everything had begun to go south. So many warning signs along the way. She liked her friends too much. Her job. And him. Gideon. Why had she connected so fast with him? Fallen so hard? She was so lonely. That was the only reason. She had unbelievable chemistry with him. Chemistry could happen with any number of men. She just hadn’t been open to it. When she moved, she would have to explore that possibility. Not a relationship. Just sex. Just fun. Just someone to share a little time with so she wasn’t quite so lonely and wouldn’t fall into any more traps.
Rory took her time drying off. Her skin hurt. Her muscles. Her heart hurt. She couldn’t remember aching inside and out like this. She’d packed most of her clothes and recovered ninety percent of her things from her apartment. Once she put in her notice and met her obligations, she could leave. It would be wrenching to leave the friends she’d made at the apartment building, but it would be so much better for her to know she would never have to run into Gideon or any of his friends. And it would kill her to see Gideon with another woman. She wouldn’t be able to face that. She was crying all over again. An endless faucet. At least no one was awake to witness her foolish breakdown.
There was no way to fall asleep. She just stared at the ceiling. Most of the time, she couldn’t see it because she was still crying. All that did was give her a headache. In the end, she dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, wrote a note to Lydia, grabbed her car keys and jacket, and headed to Golden Gate Park. She needed to walk somewhere quiet away from the wharf with no chance of running into Gideon’s friends.
Golden Gate Park was a getaway she’d found almost immediately when she’d first arrived in San Francisco. She needed wide open spaces, and the park had over a thousand acres of lakes and meadows to explore. She liked to walk and often chose to investigate the various trails, taking photos of the shrubs, flowers and wildlife, particularly the birds she came across.
The park was open twenty-four hours and free to the public. There were popular attractions that cost admission, but Rory avoided people for the most part. She wanted to be out in nature, and the park had never-ending trails for her to take to the lakes.
On the drive to Golden Gate Park, Rory did her best to stop crying, but it wasn’t easy. Once she’d started, she couldn’t seem to turn the faucet off. She didn’t want to get into an accident because she had finally cried and now couldn’t stop.
She might have eventually gotten to a place where she would have been able to allow Gideon to talk to his friends about her past in order to know why she couldn’t remember. He could be right, and she had been bought from an orphanage. Every time that man’s name was mentioned, she got that terrible sensation above her left eye. That had to mean something.
Rory parked her car in her normal spot. Dawn was breaking. There were runners and people walking their dogs, so she wasn’t alone, but she wasn’t taking chances. She took weapons with her. She knew she could look like someone easy enough to assault. That wasn’t the case. A time or two, it had been tried, and no one had been successful. She wasn’t in a very good mood, so she hoped no one was foolish enough to try.