Page 62 of What Is Love
I pulled over just after crossing the Kendry Bridge. Resting my forehead on the steering wheel, I tried to calm myself enough to think. It took a while, but I eventually came up with an idea.
I grabbed my phone. It was charged to ten percent. That was plenty for the call I needed to make. I went through my contacts for the number I had received last night before parting ways. After wiping both of my cheeks, I hit call and brought the phone to my ear.
It rang a few times until muffled voices and music filled the other end of the line and a female voice answered. “Hey, babe!”
I sniffled before I tried to say with a calm voice, “Hey, Mac.”
I heard her breath hitch a little. “Lottie, are you okay?” As she spoke, the music and voices grew distant.
“I need your help,” I said.
Chapter Sixteen
It had beena little over an hour since I’d gotten off the phone with Mac. I was parked in a hotel’s lot waiting for her to show up. It had started raining. As I sat in my car, I numbly stared at the drops hitting the windshield.
Caught in a daze, I jumped a little when my passenger door opened and Mac hopped in with a large jean tote bag. “Now don’t get mad, but I don’t have a car, and I figured he was the lesser of three evils.”
Just as she said that, there was a tap on my window. Wyatt stood just outside in the rain. He stared at me with a timid smile.
I glanced back at Mac. She was in sweats, a baggy T-shirt, and sneakers. Her hair was still up in a messy bun, but her face was washed clean of makeup. She was looking at my ripped dress with wide eyes.
“It’s fine.” It wasn’t. I didn’t want anyone to see me like this. I didn’t want anyone to know. It had been hard enough to call her. “Did you bring clothes and shoes?”
She continued to stare at me, her face going a little pale.
“Mac?”
She shook her head as if to help her focus. “Uh—yeah.” She patted the bag she’d brought.
“I’m going to move to the back to change,” I said as I slowly and stiffly moved to get out. The adrenaline had worn off and everything hurt.
Wyatt stepped back so I could open my door. He noticed my sock-covered feet that went to the wet ground as I slid out. Then his eyes traveled to my red and already bruising knees. Lastly, he saw where my dress was ripped.
His mouth slowly fell open slightly. “What happened? Mac wouldn’t say.”
That was because Mac didn’t know. All I had told her was,I need help. I can’t go home. My clothes are ruined and I don’t have any shoes. Can I borrow an outfit from you? Please don’t tell anyone. Especially not Roe, Wyatt, and Reid.I hadn’t been able to hide my crying, and I was pretty sure that was why she’d agreed to help me right away instead of overwhelming me with questions.
Wyatt’s face was so stricken with worry. I was so used to being on my own—bearing the pain alone—that I didn’t know how to handle it. I stared down at the ground as I put my hand on my hurt ribs. “I’m going to change in the back. You can get in so you’re not standing in the rain.”
It wasn’t an answer to his question, but he didn’t push.
It hurt to lift my right arm. I had to open my car’s rear door with my left hand, which was a little awkward. After I climbed into the back, Mac handed me some clothes similar to the ones she was wearing. As I took them, Wyatt got into the driver’s seat. He and Mac exchanged a look. I didn’t have it in me to wonder what it meant, but I had a feeling I knew what they were thinking. I got busy taking off my dress. I had to move slowly as I pushed through the pain in my ribs and my arm that Clay had twisted behind my back. My elbow was killing me, too.
I got my arms out of the sleeves, but I struggled getting the dress over my head.
“Here, let me help you,” Mac said just before I felt her pull the dress off the rest of the way.
I took it from her and laid it over my lap to cover my exposed lower parts. “Thank you,” I said numbly.
Mac let out a curse as she stared at me. I lifted my arm to try and look at my ribs. A bruise was already blooming; though all I could see of it was where it wrapped around my side to my back, that was enough to tell it was big and ugly.
“Do—?” she started to say as her gaze traveled up to my neck, reminding me that those bruises weren’t covered with concealer anymore. “Do we need to go to the hospital?”
Her words made Wyatt, who up to this point had kept his gaze forward to give me privacy, turn in his seat and look at me.
I shook my head as I stared down, not wanting to see his expression as he saw what I’d done my best to hide for years. “I’m fine.” My weak voice made me sound like a liar. I couldn’t care about that right now.
I grabbed the shirt Mac had brought me. It was big and gray and soft. I put it on despite how much my body protested the movement.
