Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 101254 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101254 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
I smile, even though the thought of ice cream makes me want to hurl. “Would you?”
“I absolutely would. As long as you promise no more drinking. Alcohol solves nothing.”
“I know. I know.”
“This isn’t like you, Tessa.”
I sigh again.
“Are you really in love?” she asks.
Am I? I feel something. Intense attraction. It’s similar to how I’ve felt before when I’ve been in love. Or thought I was. “I think so. I realize I haven’t known him very long.”
Skye shrugs. “You’ve known him as long as I’ve known Braden, and we’re in love. Sometimes you just know.”
“And sometimes one person feels something the other doesn’t.”
Skye shakes her head. Her two heads. I don’t feel so well.
“Tessa, you’re a catch. We both know it, and so does Garrett.”
“I’m not sure he does.”
“Then honestly? He’s not worth it.” She grabs her purse. “I’ll be back in a flash. Dump the rest of that.” She nods to the vodka bottle.
“Yes, ma’am.”
Once she’s gone, I take the bottle to the bathroom and dump the tiny bit that’s left in the toilet.
Then I slide to the tile floor and—
“Oh, shit.”
The convulsions start in my stomach and rise. Acid, bile, vodka, everything putrid…
It all comes up and out into the toilet bowl…
My head… Spinning… The toilet goes blurry… And… And…
Darkness.
…
Present Day…
“I know you’re in there, Tessa,” Garrett Ramirez says. “There’s someone here who wants to say hello.”
The man with Garrett on the other side of the door is the bartender from Jamaica, the one Ben got fired.
He holds up something white. “Recognize these, Tessa?”
Rita scrambles out of my arms, and I lean against the wall for support. My heart is racing, and the familiar tingle of panic hits my fingers.
No. Fucking. Way.
That’s why that bartender looked so familiar. He was the altar boy. The one whose name began with D. David. I remember now. David Conrad. My first communion. He took my panties, and he—
I gulp back the nausea that threatens to make its way up my throat. What kind of sicko keeps a little girl’s panties?
Must focus. Must stay strong. Can’t panic. Won’t panic.
“You two get the hell away from here. I have a restraining order against you, Garrett. I’m calling the cops.”
“You might want to talk to your new boyfriend before you do that,” Garrett says. “Because if you call the cops, things could get real dicey for him.”
My new boyfriend? Ben? How do they even know about Ben?
Right. Jamaica. The bartender he got fired. Of course.
The urge to protect Ben swarms through me, overruling my own panic and fear, and in a flash I’m a lioness, ready to strike.
“Get out of here right now,” I demand.
“You going to sic your ferocious little dog on us?” Garrett says, laughing.
What a fucking creep! How did I ever think I was in love with this asshole? I didn’t even understand what love was.
I couldn’t date until I was seventeen, and I went wild in college. All those physical feelings were new to me, and I mistook them for love.
Every single time, I mistook them for love.
Not anymore. What I feel for Ben goes so far beyond anything I thought I felt for Garrett or anyone else. We didn’t get physical right away, which was my MO before.
We didn’t…
He wouldn’t even kiss me.
And now that we’ve been together? I know how much better the physical is when the emotion is also present.
My God…
Both of these men took something from me. David stole my innocence, and Garrett stole my spirit.
My innocence may be gone forever, but my spirit has been restored. Ben helped me with that. He showed me what’s important. What I have to fight for.
Myself.
David and Garrett may have both taken something from me that was not theirs to take, but I can survive.
I can thrive.
My heart still beats.
And damn it, I won’t let these two assholes harm Ben in any way.
“We’re waiting, Tessa.” Garrett’s voice slithers like a snake over my skin.
“Get the fuck out of here.” I hold up my phone. “I’ve got 911 punched in. All I have to do is hit send.”
“Do that,” Garrett says, “or call anyone else, and Ben Black goes up the river.”
Do they think I’m stupid? “Ben Black is a billionaire,” I say through gritted teeth. “And the best man I know. Save your idle threats for someone who believes them.”
“I think you might need to talk to my brother,” David says.
“I don’t need to talk to anyone.”
“Open the door,” Garrett says, “and we’ll tell you everything we know.”
“You’ll tell me lies, and I’m not interested. Now get the hell out of here.” I reach to hit send on the 911 call, but something holds me back.
Why won’t they leave? Why do they think I won’t call the cops?
They’ve both done something horrible to me, and now that I remember what David did, I can have him arrested too. I think I can, anyway. I’m not sure about the statute of limitations.