Page 35 of Love Bleeds Red
Leon:You’re the best, Bailey. Thank you.
Me:Goodnight, Leon.
I was grinning so hard my cheeks hurt. How does texting with Leon feel so easy and natural? Like we’ve been doing this forever instead of him just getting my number tonight.
I’m going to make him cookies tomorrow. He deserves it.
CHAPTER TWELVE
BAILEY - BEFORE
We’reon edge all day, even more so when Yuri gets back with two others in tow, new men I’ve never seen before. The moment his eyes meet mine, empty and cold, he barks for us to go upstairs and stay there until someone tells us otherwise. That’s fine with me. I’m already trembling all over, my thoughts spinning around and around like some nightmarish carousel.
Not again. Please.
“Come sit,” Cat says, pulling me by the hand onto the bed. I know she’s looking closely at me, taking in my shaking limbs, my wide eyes, and raw lips, bloody from picking at them.
“How are you okay right now?” I manage to ask. “Knowing they’re planning something. Knowing someone will use us again. Hurt us.”
A joyless laugh leaves her lips. “I’m not okay, B. I haven’t been okay for so fucking long, I don’t even know what okay means.” She meets my gaze, her warm brown eyes shining with fire I haven’t seen in weeks. “You know what? Fuck keeping secrets.” She stops mid-thought and crouches by the mattress. “I’m getting us the hell out of here. All four of us.”
I lean closer, watching her. “What do you mean?”
She digs around in her stash and drops a pile of random bills and coins onto the bed. With a satisfied smile she says, “I’ve been planning this for a while. Erik coming here, fixating on me. I’ve been using it.”
I eye the money, mentally calculating how much she’s collected. Maybe a hundred dollars, no more than that.
“What have you been doing with him?”
She rolls her eyes. “Reading Shakespeare. God, B… I’ve been doing what I need to. And at least he pays me directly. Lord knows, he could have tried to take what he wants, plenty of others have.” She starts to gather the money into a neat pile and stuffs it back under the mattress.
I nod, absorbing what she said. “So he’s going to help you escape?”
“Us,” she corrects. “And no. He doesn’t know shit.”
“Good, I don’t think we can trust him. We can’t trust any of them.”
She slides onto the bed beside me. “I know. But wecanuse him.”
I realize my trembling has subsided a bit, but the looming thoughts remain. Whatever Cat has planned, it’ll be dangerous, reckless. Who knows what will happen? But I can’t let them touch me again. I just can’t.
“I have to find out what happened to my cousin.” When I look over at her, she’s staring out the window into the darkening sky. “Even if it might put my other family at risk. I just… need to know.”
That crimson stain on the motel carpet flashes in my mind, and I nod in agreement. “What’s the plan?”
Two days go by.Two days where we’re only allowed to leave the room to use the bathroom and nothing more. We haven’t been able to check in with Lydia or Elise, but I hear their footsteps pacing in the bedroom next to ours.
This waiting for what’s to come is almost as bad as the act itself. I’ve barely eaten the hastily thrown together sandwiches they’ve given us, and what I’ve managed to choke down sits in my stomach like a weight.
“He should have come,” Cat says as she paces the length of the small bedroom for what feels like the hundredth time. “He left me a note in the bathroom.See you later.When the fuck islater? I need something, B. Some kind of info. What the fuck is going on down there?”
There’s a light knock at the door before it swings open. Erik appears in the doorway, his gangly frame taking up the space. It’s like Cat’s words conjured him into existence. She starts to speak but he raises a finger to his lips. Her jaw clenches but she obeys. I don’t know how to feel, what to think as I watch their exchange.
“Come on,” he whispers, stepping back to give her room.
A look passes between Cat and me as she closes the space between them. Relief tinged with fear. My pulse kicks up as I watch her disappear into the hallway, suddenly aware of how much I’ve grown to depend on her presence for comfort. The quiet is suffocating. The walls feel like they’re closing in.
My chest tightens because this is how it always started. Alone in the room, waiting. That’s when King came to me. When he beat me until bruises formed in delicate areas and blood dripped from open wounds. When he raped me, again and again… usingme like I was nothing more than a doll. I start to shake and before I realize I’ve moved, I find myself crouched in the corner of the room, my knees folded against my chest as tight as they can go.
