Page 108 of Hidden By His Side

Hope bit into her chest. “Ram?” She wished with all her heart for her dream to be true. Her eyes fluttered open. “Ram?”

“Sorry, sunshine. It’s only me.” Ash’s face came into focus. He wasn’t smiling. He looked hard and cold, his perfect face carved out of ice, his thick, dark hair disheveled. “Can you stand?”

Her body still curled into itself. Every part of her ached, and she tried not to remember what had caused the aches. Vague memories of what Ovidio had done, not just once, slitheredin her head, and she whimpered. Time had melded together, enough time that they’d tried to feed her, food she’d refused more than once.

“I’m sorry.” His hands hovered over her. “I’m so sorry.” He wrapped the blanket around her still curled-up, naked body, and his hands shook. She’d never seen his hands shake.

Summer didn’t care. She shut her eyes. She only wanted one thing. “Ramiro,” she whimpered, wishing she still slept. She could see him in her dreams.

“He’d be here if he could.” Ash lifted her from the bed like she weighed nothing.

His words reminded her of reality, and a sob escaped. “He’s dead.” Her voice broke on the word. She shouldn’t say it. If she said it, it’d be true.

“He’s not dead.” Ash’s words made her eyes open. “The doctor is working on him, but he hasn’t woken up yet. So you get me.”

She stared into his dark gaze, searching for the truth.

“He’d be here if he could,” Ash repeated. He wiped at the tears flowing down her aching cheek, but even his gentle touch made her wince. “Sorry,” he murmured, focusing past her on the door.

She wished she could tell him it was okay, but even his arms holding her sent spikes of needles through her skin.

“I-I can walk,” she said.

Summer needed Ramiro. She would have let Ramiro carry her. His arms would be safe, but he wasn’t there. He was alive, just not there. The hope that flared made her lightheaded.

Ash grimaced. “Not a good idea. We’ll move quicker this way.” His hard, worried eyes focused on hers. “Did they…” He swallowed, staring out at the dark hall beyond the door. “Never mind. Let’s get you out of here, sunshine.”

He slipped out of the bedroom and into the hallway. He only made it about halfway down when a gunshot rang out, and they fell. The blanket unraveled as Ash shoved her away. She stared into his panicked face.

“Run!” he shouted, his next shove weaker.

Summer found her feet and ran right into the last person she wanted to see. Ovidio’s hands clamped on to her shoulders.

“Rodriguez’s boys are loyal. I’ll give them that.”

Summer tried to pull free, but his hands were too hard, too tight.

“Dump the body,” Ovidio ordered one of his men before dragging her away. Not toward the bedroom, like she expected. No, he dragged her the way she’d tried to run. She wanted to look back, to thank Ash for trying to save her, but she was too weak to pull away. She stumbled over her feet when Ovidio shoved her into a room.

There were men in the room. Men and a pool table. From her sprawled position on the floor, the view of the pool table was eerily familiar.

The room where her whole life had changed had looked similar to this. She’d been dizzy from whatever the boy had spiked her soda with, and she’d fallen, and more than one boy had laughed. She hadn’t known anyone else was in the room until she heard that laughter. The memory had always been vague before, but now it felt clear, much too clear.

“Teach her what happens when she runs,” Ovidio said.

There was laughter in the room. They were laughing at her. Taunting her.

The high school boys took everything from her. They’d left her broken and ashamed and pregnant.

That’s how she’d ended up on that bridge.

She tried to find that small space in her mind where Ramiro waited, tried to imagine he was with her again.

Instead, she sank into another memory, one that she’d avoided for so long.

“Fuck, she’s crying again. Shut her up.”

A hand covered her mouth, muffling her sob as pain sliced through her from the way the next boy pushed inside.

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