Page 23

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

L aine crouched in the corner of her bedroom, her arms cradling her legs, trying to stop the throbbing of her thighs.

She was desperate to shower and take a wee, but she felt too shaken to pull her abused body from the floor, and she knew peeing would sting.

She felt guilty. She thought she should have fought back, but she couldn’t. It was as though her body hadn’t belonged to her. She had tried; she felt sure of that. He must have put something in the water he’d given her. She’d felt fine before that.

She should never have gone. How she wished she’d gone into town with Jassy.

It did occur to her to go to the police, but who would believe her word against his? She couldn’t bear to tell her parents or Needles. She felt too ashamed.

The memory of his body on hers made her feel physically sick, and she had to rush to the bathroom to throw up.

‘You okay?’ her mum’s voice called from downstairs.

‘Just a tummy upset.’ She wiped her mouth of the sick and sat on the toilet to pee, wincing as the urine stung. Finally, she forced herself into the shower and scrubbed herself so fiercely that her body was red and sore when she finished. Lying on her bed, she thought of ways she could make him pay. Laine was quite inventive, and blackmail shot through her brain like a bullet.

He’s had my body, and now I’ll have something of his. It’s amazing what you can learn about a person online. It didn’t take long to find him and learn he was married.

‘I’m sure you wouldn’t want her to know,’ Laine said, looking at his photo on a health site.

Oh yes, she could do well out of this.