Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 77841 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77841 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
The tactic doesn't surprise me. Liam isn't exactly the type of man who’s going to admit that he's scared. He won't tell me that involving me in his life is too dangerous for me, because he should know by now that I'm willing to take the risk. I'm willing to run to the ends of the earth for the man and I'll explain all of that to him.
But the words he said, the truth in all of them, were like slashes to my skin. I don't think he believes them, but if there's even a chance that he feels the way he just said he does, then he may be right. There may be no hope for us.
“Excuse me,” I say mechanically when I bump into someone on the sidewalk.
“Miss, are you okay?” the woman asks but I don't acknowledge her.
I keep walking. I keep my head down. So people don't see how upset I am. This devastation isn't meant to be witnessed. My world falling apart, my heart utterly broken, should be done in private.
The sun gets lower in the sky as I continue to walk but I keep a pattern of left and right, left and right at the end of each block, so I'm able to zigzag my way back to Liam.
“Ma'am,” another female voice calls out, but I ignore her too. “Ma'am.”
I hurry my steps, turning right at the next block.
“Raya Reed.”
My feet stutter to a stop at the sound of my name, fear making my heart pound. My first instinct is to run but after taking a quick glance over my shoulder to assess the situation, I know I can't. A uniformed police officer approaches slowly, her hands facing me palms open, in a way you would expect someone approaching a dangerous animal would act.
“Miss Reed,” she asks, her voice questioning as if she can't believe I'm standing right in front of her.
I know I can't get away from her. With all of the running I've done on Liam's treadmill, I might be able to lose her but I'd never be able to outrun her reports back to dispatch. It will only be a matter of time before every cop in the small towns descends on this area.
Liam's voice rings in my ear of the options he gave me. Tell them I took you or tell them the truth. I still haven't decided which way I'm going to go as she ushers me to her car.
“I'm sorry about this,” she says as she opens the back door. “The computer takes up more than half of the front seat. You’re not under arrest.”
I feel very much detained, not free to walk away, as she closes me in the back. Her radio comes to life after reporting that she just found me wandering the streets of Mission, Texas, incoherent and completely distraught. I imagine she'd be just as upset if the man she loved said the things to her that Liam said to me, but I don't open my mouth to tell her so.
My tears are renewed as she drives past the motel I left not long ago. Liam's car is already gone. Even if I managed to find my way back to him, he couldn't be bothered to stick around. Maybe the things I tried to assure myself weren't true, he actually meant.
The cop car rolls to a stop outside of a small regional hospital and you’d think that there was an assassination attempt on my father’s life with how many people rush out to greet us. I'm not given the option to walk inside, as a burly orderly lifts me under my arms and places me on a gurney. Numerous members of the hospital staff descend on me, taking my temperature, my blood pressure, asking a slew of questions and not waiting for any form of response.
I wince at a pinch in my arm, wondering if they're just taking liberties, as a nurse fills a vial of my blood, or if I'm as incoherent as I heard the policewoman mention on her radio on the drive in. Nothing seems real and I think that has more to do with the fact that I don't want this to be real. I don't need the hospital. I need Liam, but Liam isn't an option. He made that blatantly clear saying the things he did, and then leaving.
He proved that I don't matter to him. That I was a game. That I was a toy he broke for fun.
I'm not transported into a trauma bay. I'm instantly put into a quiet room. I don't speak to them, but I do acknowledge that I am in fact Raya Reed when they ask.
The next several hours are a mad rush of tests and questions that I can't answer. Questions that I won't answer, like where have you been? Who took you? Did they hurt you? I ignore all of them until a doctor steps into the room. She shuffles everyone out and I know what's coming before she even speaks.