Page 46 of Addiction

“Hello?” Susie’s voice filled the handset, and a thousand memories of her childhood exploded in Ella’s mind. Suddenly, she remembered the woman who’d loved and nurtured her and recalled how much she’d missed her.

“Mum?” She turned toward the jaw-dropping vista, conscious of the tears burning in her eyes.

“Ella?” Susie sounded frantic. “Oh my God, are you okay, darling? Where are you?”

“I’m fine,” she insisted, sniffing back her tears as she rose and walked toward the vast window. “I don’t know where I am, but I’m somewhere in the city.”

“Your asshole of a father told me what he did.” Susie’s emotion was evident in her voice. “I’m so sorry, Ella. I should never have brought him back into your life.”

“It’s okay.” Ella frowned at the desperation in her mum’s tone. It wasn’t a sound she was used to, and she didn’t want to hear it again. “I’m safe, and I’m being looked after.”

“Alexander said he gave you to some old friend!” Susie sounded rightly disgusted, although Ella could barely remember when she had felt the same way. “How dare he treat you that way?”

“I know,” she agreed. “But the guy I’m with is okay. He treats me well, Mum.”

She glanced back to the sofa, her sex clenching at the memory of how she’d only recently been his footrest. What would her mother say if she knew just how well she and Tucker were getting on?

“Let me call the police,” Susie responded at speed. “I don’t see a number to call you back on, but maybe they can track the call and—”

“Mum,” Ella interrupted. “Wait.” Tucker had already explained how the phone she was using was virtually untraceable, but she didn’t want to go into all that with her mother right now. “I have a time and place to see you if you’d like to meet.”

“Like to meet?” Susie’s tone reeked of her exasperation. “I want you home, Ella. Julia and I miss you. We’ve been worried sick!”

“I know.” Ella’s belly lurched as her own homesickness mixed with her new, spiraling feelings for Tucker. Guilt twisted inside as she tried to reconcile her emotions. Could she fall for her captor and still love and miss her mother? Did making concessions to Tucker make her disloyal to the people who loved her? Hell, a girl could go mad trying to resolve the dilemma. “But for now, this is the best I’ve got.”

“Is he holding you hostage?” Susie’s voice lowered as though she knew she was on speakerphone.

Instinctively, Ella’s attention traveled to the doorway, half expecting to find Tucker looming there. But, despite her racing heart, there was no sign of him.

“It’s not as straightforward as that.” Ella could never make her mother understand what was happening between her and Tucker because she didn’t comprehend it herself. “At first, he held me against my will in the woods, but now we’re in the city, things are better.”

“Better?” Susie sounded skeptical. “Is he hurting you, Ella? Is he making you do things?”

Her tone of voice altered as though she was too afraid to reference sex, but Ella was an adult. She’d been enjoying her sex life before Mr. Bowman had ripped into her world. The only difference was that sex with Tucker was better than any she’d known before.

“Mum.” Ella sighed. “Will you meet me so I can explain?” Or at least try to explain… She rested her head on the glass pane.

“Of course, darling.” Susie sniffed. “Just name the time and place.”

Chapter Nineteen

Recollections

Tucker

Tucker paused in the darkening hallway, straining to hear Ella’s conversation. It was wrong, he knew. He shouldn’t eavesdrop on the only exchange she’d been able to have with her family since her useless father had dumped her in the forest, yet, somehow, he knew he’d do so, regardless. He’d been tearing through rules since before Ella was even born, so what difference did it make if he ripped through another boundary now? Gripping the strap of the backpack he’d brought from the cabin, he leaned against the wall, steadied his breathing, and listened.

“Mum,” Ella’s impatient tone floated from the lounge.

He knew how he’d have responded to that tone of voice if she’d employed it in his direction, but on this occasion, the words weren’t intended for him.

Just as well.

He smirked. He was pretty sure her gorgeous backside couldn’t take much more of his attention for the rest of the day.

“Wait,” she went on. “I have a time and place to see you if you’d like to meet.”

Good girl.

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