Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 86240 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86240 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
“Your nephew’s good. Babbling a lot. But tell me how you are. For real this time.”
If there was anyone I could unburden myself with, it was her. Yet it wouldn’t be fair. “I’m good, for real,” I lied.
“I’m going to let it go for now. But you know you can tell me anything, right?”
I nodded, even though she couldn’t see me. “I know.”
And for the next few minutes, she regaled me with everything that had happened to her over the last few months.
“Mom is asking about you.”
It wasn’t as if I was surprised by the admission. The subject of our parents came up in almost every conversation we had. And because I hadn’t shared all the details behind my reasons for keeping my distance from them.
“What did you say?” I asked.
“The usual. You were fine and not much else.”
I hadn’t expected my sister to betray my trust. But me being locked up for so long was something different. Then again, Lizzy knew Mom couldn’t contact me. As much as I had my reasons for keeping them out of my life, I also didn’t want to bring harm to them.
“Is Connor around?”
“Yeah, let me grab him,” she said.
There was a rustling of fabric as she moved. “Babe,” I heard her say softly as if she had the phone at her side.
A second later, there was a muffled conversation before Connor took the phone.
“Matt.”
Though Lizzy called me Matty, hearing Connor call me Matt came as a shock. Not because he’d ever called me anything else. It just was different not being called Shawn. I’d known Lizzy all my life. It would have been a shock if she called me anything but Matty. I hadn’t known her husband that long. Hearing him call me by my birth name was a reminder that I wasn’t Shawn.
“Connor.”
“It shouldn’t have been you,” he said.
“I knew what I was getting into.”
“You shouldn’t have been in there. Hell, Griff and I were working up a way to break you out.”
I chuckled at that. “I’m glad you didn’t.”
“It couldn’t have been easy.”
I let that hang in the air. If anyone could relate to my experiences, it was Connor. Hell came in many forms. Just because his prison had been his prep school didn’t mean he hadn’t gone through hell and back.
“It’s done,” I said.
“I owe you everything.”
He hadn’t exactly replied the way I thought he would. I stared into space a second before replying quietly, “He got away?”
“Damn local police were focused on the men leaving with the girls. They didn’t listen and go inside in time.”
That time had been me taking Tayla’s virginity and losing myself in the act. Hell, I hadn’t noticed Ruin leaving. “I made mistakes too,” I admitted.
“We all did.”
Before the silence that followed became awkward, I said, “I’m going to get some sleep. Tell Lizzy I’ll call her later.”
“I will,” he said, a beat before adding, “Thanks.”
We ended the call after that. I lay back on the bed with the phone between my hand and chest. For the first time, I feared closing my eyes, not for my safety, but for fear of the nightmares that would come when I did.
Staring at the coffered ceilings, exhaustion bound, chained, and dragged me into slumber against my will.
The nightmare began with something I should have noticed on the walk to my cell that first day. A prisoner I hadn’t noticed because I’d been facing forward shouted, “That’s the one.”
It had been enough for me to turn and glance over my shoulder. The guard behind me nodded. I hadn’t made anything of it because there were all kinds of lewd things yelled as I walked past the cells. I’d wrongly assumed the guard’s nod was a form of acknowledgment, like a grain of salt.
Later that night, when my cellmate had given me the lower bunk, another thing I should have taken more notice of, the setup happened.
The click of the lock releasing the door gave me a second to ponder my situation before the small enclosure filled with inmates there to hold me down as the man who’d laid claim walked in.
I jackknifed up, dripping with sweat as I pushed the memory back down where it belonged. As I tried to take control of my racing heart, I wondered if I would ever have a good night's sleep again.
To chase away the bad, I conjured a different memory. Her face was that of the angel that rescued me from all that. Just like I had that night, I focused solely on her. As her lips parted and begged me to be her savior when she was mine.
Her name left my lips like a prayer. “Tayla.”
10
TAYLA
From my personal research, the sickly sweet smell from the cloth was chloroform, I thought as I roused. Because I knew the effects could last anywhere from twenty minutes to two hours, I wasn’t sure how long I’d been out.