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As well as the realization that when Cockface had touched me, I hadn’t wanted to burn.
4
REBEL
The hotel room Bart had booked for me was the most luxurious I’d ever been in. If theirs was even half as nice, I couldn’t blame my mom and Bart for spending the day in bed and ditching me for dinner. I might have done the same if I’d come up here first. I ordered room service since I hadn’t eaten downstairs, and ate it sitting in bed, watching a movie, with the city lights twinkling through the window outside.
For the first time in a week, I slept soundly. The sheets were silk, the mattress free of lumps, and I woke up feeling almost like a new person.
All fine and dandy until I looked at my phone and realized the blackout blinds weren’t the cheap, shit kind I had in my apartment that let sun in from the crack of dawn. Oh no, they were the freaking expensive kind that kept it as dark as the middle of the night, even when it was eleven and you were due at your mother’s wedding in forty-five minutes.
“Fark. She’s going to kill me.” I staggered out of bed, regretting the three extra vodkas I’d consumed from the mini bar after my dinner. In the bathroom, I got the shower going and peeled off the clothes I’d slept in. Not wanting to do it, but knowing I needed to, I cranked the water all the way to the right and let it spray over my naked body. “Oh, finger nuggets. That’s cold.”
But it did the trick in waking me up. I toweled off at record speed and carefully reapplied my makeup, covering every bruise. Next up was the gold satin dress I hadn’t worn in a very long time. The spaghetti straps and low-cut back meant no bra, not that I really needed one with my less-than-a-handful of boob. The hemline fell around my ankles but the skirt had a large split up the thigh.
I stared at myself in the mirror and realized there was no way I could wear this. It was too much. Too revealing. For all the reasons I’d loved it when I’d bought it, I now hated it.
But I hadn’t brought an alternative. The only other option was the dress I’d worn last night, which I’d also slept in, so it was a hot mess. I shrugged on my coat instead. It wasn’t long enough to cover the slit in the skirt, but I could hold that together with my hand. I was out of other options, and out of time. It was ten minutes to twelve, and I didn’t have time to hang around here, pondering over how much skin I was showing off.
On the elevator ride down, my female-only ride-sharing app unhelpfully advised there were no drivers in the area in the next fifteen minutes. That was just great. But there’d been a lot of taxis dropping off and picking up guests the night before when I’d arrived, so I strode out to the drop-off bay, praying I’d be lucky.
A taxi pulled in right as I arrived, letting out an elderly couple who had to have come from the airport, judging by the stickers on their suitcases.
The driver slammed down the trunk and then looked at me. “You need a ride?”
I froze. The idea of being in a confined space with him felt too out of my control. It would be all too easy for him to lock the doors and drive me somewhere private, where he could take whatever he wanted from me.
The man waited patiently for my answer.
I couldn’t breathe. I only had minutes to get to the courthouse, but I couldn’t do it. I shook my head quickly.
Tears pricked the backs of my eyes. I hated this. It was so far removed from who I was, and yet I couldn’t stop the fear crawling up my throat. I didn’t want to be this girl.
I sucked in a few deep breaths and gave myself a mental pep talk. Not every man was Caleb and his friends. Not every man wanted to hurt me, and I couldn’t live my life in fear. If I was going to be like this, I might as well go back to starving myself until my body gave up.
Or take the quicker option, via the gun locked in my apartment.
I was going to get in the next taxi that pulled up. No matter who was driving.
The next vehicle in was exactly what I’d been waiting for. A female-driven, completely empty taxi.
I waved at her, and she pulled up right in front of me. I could have leaned through the open window and kissed her for having a vagina. Instead, I grabbed the handle of the front passenger seat. “Thank you so much—”
The back door jerked open with a squeak, and I stopped mid-sentence as a man slid into the back seat of my ride. “Hey! This is my—” My mouth dropped open. “You!”
The man grinned at me. “Hey, Roach. You getting in or what?”
I glared at him. “I am, but you’re getting out.”
“Nah. Need a ride.”
“This is my taxi.”
He cocked his head to one side. “Possession is nine-tenths of the law, my little insect friend. And I’m the one sitting in the car while you stand there checking me out.”
“I’m not checking you out.” But of course, because he’d brought it up, my gaze skimmed down his body, taking in the dark stubble on his jaw, the white, open-necked shirt, and a navy suit that fit him to perfection.
He chuckled.