Page 193 of Surrender

Dare let me leave the bedroom, but by now, he has probably realized I’m not in the house. He’ll be able to track me with the phone, so I won’t have long to myself before he comes after me.

To my right is a narrow alley between the buildings. There’s a dumpster I could hide on the other side of, but on second thought, I want to see him coming.

I sit down on the other side of the alley so I’ll be able to see the sidewalk traffic coming from the direction of our place.

I draw my phone out of my pocket, half expecting to see a text message from Dare telling me to come back home, but there isn’t one.

I swipe the screen. Since the last thing I was doing was screenshotting Hannah’s messages, the app opens and shows me the picture she sent a little bit ago that started all this.

A crack in the numbness. I feel my lips curl up faintly.

I like the flutter of happiness, so I chase it like a little girl with a butterfly net.

A part of me insists it’s a bad idea, that Dare would be angry if he knew, but the overwhelmingly in charge part of me tonight doesn’t have a single fuck to give. Let him be mad. He makes me mad sometimes, too.

The first ring makes my heart speed up.

It rings twice, and I swallow, preparing myself for her voicemail.

I won’t leave one. I’ll hang up. But I’ve never heard her outgoing message before, and I want to hear her voice even if it’s just a recording.

My fatigued heart nearly stops when I hear, “Hello?”

She answered.

All my words get trapped in my throat for a moment, prompting her to speak again.

“Aubrey?”

The sweet sound of her voice brings such an immediate sense of relief, I find myself sighing.

“Hi,” rushes out of me like the last breath leaving someone’s body.

“Hey,” she says, her tone warming, but I can still hear a slight edge of alarm. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah. I’m sorry if I woke you.”

“You didn’t. I’m not in bed yet. The time difference, remember?”

Her unguarded and friendly tone swaddles me in her healing warmth. “Right.”

“Even if you did wake me up, I wouldn’t care. You’re always free to call,” she adds, because she’s Hannah. Of course she wouldn’t mind being ripped from sleep just to talk me off a ledge.

And I must be on a ledge if I’m risking this kind of contact.

“I shouldn’t have called,” I say, unsure exactly how much I want to share. “But Dare and I had a… fight, and… I don’t know. I needed to hear your voice.”

“Are you okay?” Hannah asks, the concern clear in her tone.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Did he hurt you?” she asks hesitantly.

“No.” I tilt my head back against the solid brick. “I mean, kinda, but not the way you’re thinking.”

Probably.

“He saw your picture,” I say, realizing that’s probably the most important thing to tell her. “It was my fault. I didn’t show it to him, but we were in the car and my phone vibrated. It’s later here, so he wanted to know who I was texting so late…”

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