Page 1 of Hide My Heart
ONE
Amber
I wish I could shutthe voices.
I wish he’d leave me alone.
But I must keep running. Never stop running.
It’s not just me anymore.
A truck door slams and I jump. Grabbing my suitcase, I peek through the curtains, and my heart slides to the ground.
It’s Hunter.
“Amber! Time to go.”
What do I do now? I can’t go anywhere. Can’t hide. It’s his house, and he’s coming to get me. To make me.
The key slides through the lock. He stomps his boots, once, twice to remove the crushed ice.
“What’s that for?” He slips an annoyed glance at my bulging suitcase. Without waiting for an answer, he yanks my arm. “The appointment is at ten.”
“I’m not going.” I wince at his fingers digging in. For sure, I’ll have a bruise from his iron grip. “Take me to the bus stop.”
“No can do.” He twists my suitcase from me and shoves me out the door. “You’re going to get this taken care of, and you’re going to do exactly what I say.”
He dumps my suitcase in the snowdrift.
“Hey, I need my stuff.”
“Not for the clinic you don’t.” Marching at the pace of death, he strong-arms me to his pickup truck.
“What if I don’t want to?” I jut my lip, knowing I’m pushing him, asking for it.
He slams me against the truck bed and raises his fist.
Stupid me. I blink and cringe, and that’s when he smiles. He knows I’m scared, knows I’m helpless, and it makes him gloat.
“You have no one but me.”
My breath steams in the chilly winter air. “I’m leaving you.”
He snickers and cracks open the door to the cab. “Get in.”
When I don’t move, he picks me up and throws me onto the seat. A jolt of pain stabs and tightens my abdomen. I hold my breath, refusing to give him any satisfaction.
His nostrils flare, and a vein pulses in his temple. “You have nowhere to go, and you know it.”
Of course, he’s right. I have no friends, no money, no job skills. I was homeschooled and don’t know how to work a computer or those fancy little telephones with the screen, but I’m far from helpless. Maybe someone at the clinic can help. Maybe they can look up stuff on their little phones or they have a computer. I must remain calm. I swallow the nausea creeping up my throat and rest my head against the cool window glass as the discomfort in my womb subsides.
Hunter starts up the truck and backs it down the snowy driveway. “There’s no reason to leave after we take care of your little problem.”
“My problem?” As if he didn’t have anything to do with me getting pregnant.
“Look, don’t make me the bad guy here. Not many guys pay for the abortion, and thanks to you running away from home, you don’t have health insurance.”
I fight the tears welling. He’d been the one to take me on this great adventure. He made me believe he’d take care of me. If he cared about me, he’d want our baby, wouldn’t he?
