Page 10 of Damaged

The restraints that had been holding me in place disappeared and I instantly sat up. My lungs hurt as I tried to take in deep breaths. My eyes darted around my surroundings. Even as I gasped for air, one memory after another was like a slap to the face.

Maggie’s funeral.

Walking in the rain.

A stranger with a gentle voice.

Dry clothes that smelled like the man next to me.

“Dalton,” I managed to choke out.

“Focus on your breathing,” I heard Dalton say and then his big hand was rubbing circles over my back.

That hand felt good in so many different ways that I focused on it and nothing else. When it made a complete circle, I’d inhale. With the next circle, I’d exhale. It took a while to match his rhythm but when I did, his hand slowed even as it continued to rub circles against the soft material of my shirt.

His shirt.

Despite the fabric on the inside of the shirt being worn down, it still felt good against my skin. I wondered what it would be like if there was no shirt separating us.

Reality slammed into me like a freight train as I remembered our arrangement. I’d know what his touch on my skin would feel like soon enough. I yanked my body as far from him as I could. My side hitting the inside of the car door made the bruises on my body scream in pain.

I reminded myself that the bruises were a good thing. They were proof that Ivan would never be able to touch me again. The beating that had nearly killed me had been Ivan’s last punishment.

He was dead.

I’d watched him die.

Some of his blood had splattered the side of my face when a bullet had ripped through Ivan’s head. There’d been a lot more bullets flying but by then a heavy hand had pushed my naked body to the floor, leaving me to stare at Ivan’s lifeless body as blood pooled beneath his head. At first I’d thought the heavy body that was partially covering mine was one of Ivan’s men, but it hadn’t been. Whoever had put their body between mine and the flurry of bullets that seemed to be coming from everywhere had taken a split second to whisper in my ear that everything would be over soon. I couldn’t remember anything about the man besides his rumbly voice and the way he’d covered my body with his heavy one yet hadn’t pressed his entire weight down on me. I must have blacked out at some point because I couldn’t remember anything after those words had been spoken in my ear.

“Silver, it’s okay. You’re safe now.”

They were Dalton’s words.

I was with Dalton.

I was safe.

For the moment.

“Where are we?” I asked, terrified that we were already at Dalton’s house. I wasn’t afraid of the Dalton before me now, but what would happen once we walked through his door? Would he fuck me up against it right then and there? Or put me on my knees first? Maybe he’d bend me over whatever piece of furniture was convenient.

Two hundred dollars, I reminded myself. I wasn’t sure how far it would get me, but I doubted I would have made that at a bus station.

“We’re at a gas station,” Dalton responded. I managed to settle my eyes on him. He was leaning away from me, his hands in his lap, palms flat against his thighs. His position made me feel better. I wondered if he knew that and that was why he’d done it.

“We’ve still got a few hours left until we get to my house. This gas station has a restaurant attached to it. We can sit down and eat if you’re hungry or get something to go,” Dalton explained. “They have restrooms inside,” he added.

“Restrooms?” I asked in confusion. “Why would people want to rest in a room in a gas station?” I settled back into my seat and looked at the building we were parked in front of.

“They’re bathrooms. Restrooms is just a fancy way of saying bathrooms,” Dalton explained.

I felt like an idiot. It was the seat belt thing all over again. There was only so much you could learn from the internet, especially if you didn’t know what you were looking for. I definitely hadn’t had any reason to look up fancy words for bathroom.

“Um, okay,” I began to say when something in my mind clicked, and an unexpected wave of betrayal came over me. Instead of reaching for the door, I curled in on myself and wrapped my arms around my stomach to try and ease some of the cramping that had taken over from the moment I’d realized I’d fallen for Dalton’s act.

“Silver—”

“So what’s the plan, Dalton? I get out of the car and they grab me, or are they sitting in the restaurant just waiting for me to walk inside?”

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