Page 11 of The Truths We Seek

“You were cold last night, so I turned the AC off,” he tells me as he fumbles in the dark, but the sharp beep once he stills lets me know he’s turned it back on.

“Thank you.”

Taking a deep breath, I push to my feet and head straight to the bathroom. Closing the door, I flick on the shower, stepping out of my panties and what I’m assuming is Rory’s t-shirt, trying not to take note of my reflection and the mottled bruises that cover my skin.

I step beneath the deluge of water, hissing as the hot spray stings against my skin, washing away the gross remnants of the last however many days, scrubbing with Rory’s soap until my skin is red raw where it’s not a wash of purples and greens.

Pain isn’t something new, but I’m glad the water from the shower hides my unwanted tears as they trace silently down my face as memories obliterate my mind.

Trent.

The bathroom.

Expecting Hunter and then my world falling out from beneath my feet when I saw Trent’s face instead.

I close my eyes as it all rushes back.

My breath hitches with excitement when the door opens and I stand up straight, glancing in the mirror, ready to see my blond-haired Adonis.

Except what I see turns my blood to ice and I’m frozen in place, despite everything inside of me screaming at me to run.

Trent steps forward, the gun in his hand pressed against my back, and I want to vomit when he leans forward and sniffs my hair. That’s when I notice the blood spatter on his white shirt. He’s dressed in a tux, except his tie is loosened around his neck and there’s a tear in the shoulder of his jacket.

This can’t be happening.

Tommy was supposed to be watching him.

How is he here?

Icy fear trickles down my spine and every part of me that’s been training to fight him freezes. I can't fight, I can’t run, it’s like everything shuts down and I can’t even scream.

He runs his nose up my cheek and I gag, swallowing the vomit that rises. He takes the panties from my fingers and presses them against his face as he pushes the gun harder into my back. Glancing at the panties in his hand, his sadistic grin widens. “Oh, Sweetheart, I knew you’d be missing me, but I didn’t think it would be this much. It took a lot to get to you, but I made a few new friends who helped. Even if it took spilling a little blood, we both know that wasn’t going to keep me from you after all this time.” My heart stutters, because I don’t know who he’s talking about.

Tommy?

Hunter?

He should be here by now.

Why isn’t he here?

He moves slightly and pain splinters through my head. It takes a second to register the sight in the mirror, the gun above my head where he hit me with it. My vision starts to falter and I feel my legs go weak. I try to grip the counter, to stay conscious, to buy time for someone, anyone, to find me. Just something.

But then I see the syringe in his hand and in a blink, a stinging pain explodes in my neck as he plunges it into my flesh. “I imagine after slutting it around like you’ve been doing, you have a whole host of new things to show me. Now, you sleep. I’ll get us out of here before one of your little thugs decides to come and find you. By the time you wake up, we’ll be home. You belong to me, Quinn. You should know better, but I’m going to make sure you can never leave me again.”

A shiver runs unbidden down my spine, and despite the shower, sweat coats my skin again. I switch the heat to cold, hoping to cool down. To push the memories away. I still don’t know what happened after that, but I know it can’t be good.

Not from the look Rory gave me yesterday.

Not from the fact that Hunter and Meyer aren’t here.

Trent said he spilled blood, but I don’t know who he was talking about.

Urgency rises up in me as my stomach twists, and I launch myself from the shower to the toilet just as the contents of my stomach rise. I throw up until I dry heave, but that doesn’t stop the churning feeling inside of me.

I need to know what happened.

A knock at the door tells me the sound of the shower didn’t overwhelm the noises of my upchucking. “Quinn?”

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