Total pages in book: 26
Estimated words: 24027 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 120(@200wpm)___ 96(@250wpm)___ 80(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 24027 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 120(@200wpm)___ 96(@250wpm)___ 80(@300wpm)
Smart, Evie. Real smart.
Thankfully, I still have a phone with a phone plan that will last until the end of the month. It’s nearing five o’clock, which means I don’t have long to figure out where I’m going to sleep tonight, so I google the closest motel, which is only seven minutes away, and start walking.
There’s a very bored, very tired-looking old woman at the desk when I arrive who looks at me like I’m a piece of gum that was just scraped off the pavement.
“Can I help you?” Her tone is anything but friendly.
“Yes, I’d like a room for the night,” I say, handing her my credit card.
“Double, single, suite?”
“Single,” I reply. Suite? She must be joking, right? Frowning, she presses a few buttons on the computer.
“Name?”
“Evie Miller.”
“That’ll be seventy-five dollars,” she replies.
“That’s fine,” I say, forcing a smile. Definitely sleeping in my clothes tonight. Keeping her eyes on me, she swipes my card.
After a moment, her machine beeps a negative-sounding sound. She frowns, almost like she was expecting it, and hands the card back to me.
“Your card was declined.”
My heart skips a beat. “That’s impossible. Try it again.”
“Sweetheart,” she barks, shaking her head. “I’m not in the mood for games. You ain’t pullin’ one over on me, all right? Your card was declined. Now unless you’ve got cash, I suggest you get on down the road and find someone willing to put up with your nonsense.”
“But I—”
I start to argue but stop when I realize what’s happened: Callum. Somehow he hasn’t just seized my inheritance and my house; he’s frozen my accounts too. Looking down, a slight smile comes over my lips, and I almost laugh.
He’s a real clever son of a bitch. No wonder he got to where he is today.
He must want you real bad.
“Something funny?” the old woman snaps at me.
“Sorry, no,” I reply quickly. “Listen, ma’am. I really need a room tonight. I’ll do anything. I can work as a maid, clean rooms, do whatever it is you need me to do. I just need somewhere to stay tonight.”
“And I need Chris Pratt to come gimmie an oil massage and then knock the dust off this coochie, but it ain’t gonna happen, sweetheart.”
“But ma’am, I—”
“Now get gone before I call the police.”
The old woman picks up and unlocks her phone and gives me the death stare. I walked all the way here in the cold rain, but it’s only now that a chill starts to set into my bones. Quickly, I back away with my hands up.
“Okay,” I reply. “I’ll go.”
I leave the office and step back out into the rain, which seems to be falling even harder now.
What am I supposed to do now?
I check my phone and see there’s another motel 12 minutes down the road. I already know my card won’t work, but maybe someone there will be more sympathetic and will let me work for a room. So, despite the fact that it’s raining out and my dad would forgive me for crying, I bite the inside of my cheek and start walking.
* * *
About 10 minutes later I reach the motel, which is somehow even seedier than the last one, with a lot of sketchy-looking cars and people in the parking lot. It’s the kind of place that I would never come to under normal circumstances, but these are not normal circumstances. Part of me wonders if I should just turn around and head back to my house and take Callum up on his offer. But would he even still be there anyway?
Maybe I could just break into the house and sleep there.
No, he’d see something like that coming. He probably has men watching it or his own security cameras or security system set up by now. There’s no way I’m outsmarting a man like him.
A group of guys you wouldn’t want to take home to your folks give me the eye as I enter the parking lot. I don’t make eye contact, but they’re standing right in the way of my path to the office. I do my best to go around them without making it obvious, but one of them barks at me as I pass, “Hey, princess. What’s a sweet lil thing like you doin’ down here in the gutter with us?”
I sort of half-smile-half-laugh and try to pass them, but he moves in front of me.
“Hey, I’m talking to you.”
“I just need to go inside and check in,” I say, but as I move to go around him, he grabs me by the wrist.
“Need a room?” he asks. “You know, me and my boys could help you out with that, couldn’t we, boys?”
His friends, three of them, all chuckle in acknowledgement and move around me in a circle like a pack of hyenas. Again, I think back to that day in the lunchroom with Becca. But these guys are a lot bigger than I am, and there are four of them.