Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 73192 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 366(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73192 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 366(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
“Let. Me. Go,” I repeated, trying to haul my hand away.
Luckily, I did manage to get my wrist away from him. Unluckily, to do that I had to get out of the boat and my means of escape.
Once I hit the lake’s bank, the boat shifted off without the weight of my body in it and started to slowly drift away.
I spared it a glance and felt my heart hitch up into the vicinity of my throat.
I did not want it to float away, especially with my puppy in it, but with Dusty advancing on me, I knew that I couldn’t go after it without first taking my eyes off of him.
I pressed a button on my iWatch and held it down, hoping that it would work for what I’d intended it to.
I glanced down at my watch for one short second, swiped my finger across my screen and looked up in time to see Dusty almost directly in front of me.
I had enough time to get my hands up before Dusty was taking me to the ground.
In broad daylight.
He laughed at my miniscule struggles.
Well, miniscule to him. I was wiggling, kicking, scratching and hitting with everything I had, but Dusty was a big man. He’d always been big and strong, the only problem was that to get that way he did a lot of gym work and no real work.
But, it was good enough to hold me down and keep me where he wanted me.
“Let me go!” I screamed, grabbing a fistful of his hair and pulling it.
He growled and situated himself between my legs, holding me down with his hips.
It didn’t go unnoticed that he was hard.
I started to panic, knowing with all my heart that Dusty was about to cross a line that should never be crossed. Not by a man or a woman.
“I haven’t had you in so long,” he murmured, his mouth pressing to my cheek.
I used his closeness to my advantage and reared up, hitting him with my forehead.
His nose crunched with the move, but he didn’t let go. He didn’t even let up an inch.
Instead, he seemed to only get madder.
Before I could so much as cry out in protest, I was on my stomach and Dusty was going for my pants.
I struggled harder than I’d ever struggled before and started to scream and cry.
My throat hurt with the urgency of my cries, yet no one—not even the man I could see watching me with impassive eyes still on his dock—did a thing.
No one who was a human being, anyway.
One second, I was crying and screaming with Dusty holding me down and the next I was seeing a brown blur, sopping wet and ferocious, sailing over my head and growling.
The next, I felt something hit my head and then Dusty was up and off of me, screaming about his face.
I scrambled up just in time to see my dog put himself between me and Dusty.
Moments later, I heard the first sound of sirens.
***
“You’ve got to be kidding,” I said to the man who was taking my thumbprints. “I nearly get raped and you’re bringing me in on trespassing charges?”
The officer didn’t look happy. “Look. I don’t make the rules, I only enforce them. You don’t like the laws? Go to your lawmaker and try to change them. In the meantime, I’m only doing my job.”
I didn’t know what to say to that.
The sheriff’s deputy continued to press my fingers into the ink and once he was done, he handed me a wet wipe. “Go stand against the white wall.”
I didn’t want to.
I really, really didn’t want to.
Yet, my father was a cop.
I wouldn’t fight with this man, despite how wrong he was, if it was the last thing I did.
My father had instilled enough morals in me over the course of my life to bang home the fact that, despite whether you agree with them or not, you should always do your best to comply with officers.
So that was what I did.
I allowed the sheriff’s deputy to arrest me and didn’t say another word.
I didn’t ask about my dog.
I didn’t ask about my boat.
I didn’t ask whether the statement that I’d given about Dusty trying to rape me had been taken seriously.
I didn’t say a goddamn word.
Because, if I did, I might say something I regretted.
And, once again, I knew that what my father said was gospel.
You respect them, they respect you.
Plus, I knew that within an hour, Tyler would be here.
Luckily, the sheriff’s department was right next door to Hostel PD. They shared a wall, in fact.
Which meant that when Katy had seen me walking in through a side door with my arms cuffed behind my back, her eyes had widened into the size of small saucers.
Tyler would be here and he’d be pissed.