Page 41 of Corrupt Idol

He stared at her, eyes unreadable in the dim light.

She thumped his chest. “Hello!”

“Yeah,” he said as he ran a hand down her spine.

“Yeah,what?” she pushed.

He sighed. “I love you.”

“And I love you.” She pressed as close as possible. “We’re supposed to stay together, a unit, don’t you think? You know I have abandonment issues.”

“Go to sleep, Vi,” he said, voice thick with amusement.

“Don’t laugh at my abandonment issues!”

“I’m not.”

“You are! You’re not taking me seriously—”

His thumb brushed over her lips. “Hush.”

“You better not leave me,” she growled.

“Sleep,” he murmured.

His fingers tunneled through her hair and massaged, easing her into sweet, dreamless slumber.

Eight

She woke in mid-fall.She let out a stifled shriek and flailed before she collided against something hard and unyielding.

“I got you.”

She blinked up at Jesse as he toted her across a badly lit parking lot. “Wus happenin’?” she slurred as she tried to get her bearings.

“Got a room.”

She started. “What?”

“It’s midnight. We’ll crash here for a couple hours and finish the drive tomorrow.”

“I can drive,” she offered and tried to clear the cobwebs from her cloudy mind.

“No, you can’t,” he said as he shouldered through a door and dumped her on the bed. “I’m gonna get our bags.”

“But, I can—”

He slammed the door behind him. She sat there, dizzy and exhausted despite her catnaps. Throughout the day, she slipped in and out of consciousness. It was awful to wake every hour and realize they were still on the road. She glanced around the room, which seemed worn, but clean. As she stared dazedly at the blank TV, the door opened and Jesse came in with his pack and her duffel. He set both on the floor before he locked the door and fell face down on the bed.

“Are you okay?” she asked belatedly.

He grunted. “Falling asleep at the wheel. Lots of animals on the road. Not worth it. Need sleep.”

Resting for the night was logical, but it extended their time together. She eyed his unmoving form for a minute before she heard deep, even breathing. He was clearly exhausted and no wonder. They left Salt Lake City around six in the morning. He had been driving for eighteen hours. She grabbed her phone and sat in a chair by the window. According to her phone, they were in Texas, and about five hours from home. That wasn’t too bad. She messaged her friends and parents and sent them their location even though they were probably asleep. Tomorrow, it would be over. They would be around friends and family and she was going to do her best to avoid Jesse and his psychotic episodes.

She grabbed her duffel and went into the bathroom. She showered, brushed her teeth, and smeared lotion over her dry skin. She leaned toward the mirror and examined the bite on her neck. He hadn’t broken the skin, but it was red and swollen. What the fuck was wrong with him? Her ear was fine, but there was a dark smudge on her breast from his rough handling and she was sore and achy. Her eyes were bloodshot, hair a frizzy mess, and she was trembling. It could be because she had been eating junk food all day, hadn’t had a real meal, stress, or emotional overload. Maybe it was all those things combined.

It was one in the morning, which made six days since she had come home to Austin and discovered Lynne’s diagnosis and come face to face with Jesse. A week ago, she was unemployed and searching for living options. That seemed like a piece of cake compared to what she was dealing with now.

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