Page 10 of Tinley's Daddy
I held in a grin. Happy to have gotten a direct response to something.
She picked up the pen and paper and wrote on it. When she turned to page to face me, she’d written ‘chicken noodle soup’ on the page. She gave me enough time to read the word before writing more.
She showed it to me again.
I read her words out loud. “Tea.”
She rubbed her throat.
“Is your throat sore?”
She nodded slowly, with a slight tilt of her head.
“Thank you for telling me what you need.” I nodded back. “Soup and tea, coming right up.”
I couldn’t keep from grinning this time.
I reached behind me to call in the order. She leaned back on the couch with her feet drawn up and hugged her knees.
“Can you tell me your name?”
She shook her head.
“Okay, no worries, we can get to it later.” I looked her over and she had cleaned the blood off her lip and her forehead. It must have been an older wound.
“Did you hurt yourself?”
She shook her head and picked up the paper.
“No doctor,” I read out loud.
“Okay, I understand.” I steepled my hands. “I just wanted to make sure you weren’t hurt.”
She wrote on her pad.
“A few bruises and a bump on the head, but it’s fine now.” I was happy she wasn’t badly injured. I had seen some bruises on her legs and arms. What did those guys do to her? Maybe I didn’t want to know.
I got an alert and picked up my cell phone. They were about to raid the hotel room.
Randall: I didn’t mention the girl is with you, but they will ask about her.
I frowned.
My guest wrote something quickly on her notepad and showed it.
It said, “What’s wrong?”
Josh: Let’s give her until tomorrow. I want her to trust me before releasing her to the wolves.
My houseguest grunted.
“I’m sorry.” I put the phone down. “No one will come into this room without your permission. You are safe now. You get that, right?”
She hesitated but nodded.
“My friend on the computer, he’s actually one of the owners of this place.” I pointed to the ground. “He has access to the video surveillance in the hall and alerted the police.”
Her eyes darted around. Goose bumps popped out on her skin, and she gasped for breath. She stood up and collapsed back down.
