Then there was quiet.
I waited.
A long time passed and there was a knock on the door.
“Roxie?”
It was Uncle Tex.
“Yeah?”
“It’s just you and me, girl. Everyone’s gone.” I didn’t answer.
I closed my eyes and rested my forehead on my knees.
It wasn’t with relief, it was with heartbreak.
* * * * *
I sat in the dark for a little while longer and, when I felt ready, I came out. Uncle Tex made me eat half of a frozen pizza and made me drink three shots of hooch. The whole time he watched me silently. I could tel he wanted to say something but he kept his peace.
I left him in front of the huge, old console TV in his living room and went to the second bedroom.
The double bed was made with fresh sheets, an old, mint-green, chenil e blanket smoothed over the top. My suitcases were on the floor against the wal , my pajamas had been cleaned and were folded and resting on the pil ow.
I fought back the tears (again), changed into my pj’s and slid into bed.
I stil had my plan and tomorrow, I was going to carry it out.
I didn’t know what was happening to Bil y and I didn’t care. He was dead to me.
I didn’t know where Hank was and I tried not to care. He wasn’t dead to me but we were over. This I knew like I knew MAC cosmetics were the best quality for the price by a long shot.
Final y, I slept.
* * * * *
I woke when the covers moved and it wasn’t me that moved them. For a moment, I thought it was one of Uncle Tex’s cats, then the bed moved in a way that it would have to be the biggest cat in history.
Or a human.
Then, a strong arm slid around me and I was pul ed back against a warm, hard body.
I froze, then I tried to pul away.
“Don’t,” Hank said to the back of my head.
Shit.
I stopped pul ing away but my body was tense.
“How’d you get in here?” I whispered.
“Tex let me in.”
I closed my eyes.
Betrayed by my own flesh and blood.
“Wel , he’s certainly not invited to my next birthday party,” I said.
Silence.
“I’m okay, Hank. Real y. You can go,” I told him, or more like, lied to him.
More silence and he didn’t move.
“Actual y, I’d rather that you went. I’m feeling the need to be alone.”
“That’s too bad, ‘cause I’m not feelin’ that same need.” Jeez, he was stubborn.
“If memory serves, I was the one who was just abducted.
I’m not sure your feelings count about now,” I told him, sounding so uppity I was borderline bitchy.
His body got as tense as mine, I felt it like a warning.
Then, his mouth came to my ear. “I feel the wraps,” he said, his hand running gently along my ribs. “And I know the way Vance found you. I’m sorry you went through that, Sunshine.”
I didn’t answer and waited. I expected he wasn’t done.
I wasn’t wrong.
“But, I came home from a run the morning after the best date I’d ever had, a date with a girl who talked about pigs wearing toupees, who could quote Springsteen lyrics, who whispered to horses and who grew up in Indiana and was scared of cornfields. I came home thinkin’ that I was gonna make love to that girl, shower with her, get her breakfast, get her to trust me and final y, start to get to know her better.
Instead, I found my house a disaster, what I could only assume was her blood on the wal in my bedroom and she was gone.”
Dear God. How’d my blood get on the wal ?
He must have been out of his mind. Uncle Tex must have been out of his mind.
I closed my eyes and sucked in a breath.
“Was that your blood?” he asked.
I let out my breath. “Wel , I tried, but unfortunately, I was the only one who ended up bleeding.”
I should have stayed silent or, possibly, I shouldn’t have been flippant. For one reason or the other, the air in the room changed so much I found it hard to breathe and it had nothing to do with his arm tightening around my ribs.
“Hank, my ribs,” I whispered.
Instantly, his arm loosened and his mouth went away from my ear. I waited while he got control. The air changed back to normal and he spoke again.
“I guess I’m sayin’ that my feelings do count about now,” he finished.
“I’m sorry. I’l pay for any damage or cleaning of your house,” I said.
He ignored my total y stupid comment.
“You told me you weren’t in danger.”
Shit.
I had said that.
“I wouldn’t have left you alone if I’d known you were in danger,” he went on.
Good God, he thought it was his fault.
“It wasn’t your fault, Hank. I didn’t think I was in danger,” I told him.
And it was true, I didn’t think I was.
I thought Bil y loved me. He was crazy and possessive, not to mention crazy possessive, but I never thought he’d even hit me, much less beat me up and threaten to rape me on another man’s bed. I never thought he’d drag me across country, on the run from what had to be bad guys and put me in even worse danger from them than I had from him.
How lucky was I that they didn’t take me with them or shoot me on the spot?
How f**king lucky was I that they left me cuffed to a sink?
I never thought, growing up with dreams of being a corporate goddess with two closets ful of clothes and another one dedicated to shoes, that I’d end up like this.
My tense body started shaking.
“Oh shit,” I said.
He felt it coming and he turned me. I resisted but he did it anyway.
“Shit,” I repeated as it came over me. “Shit, shit, shit.” I was face-to-face with him and both Hank’s arms went round me as the tears arrived; great, wracking sobs.
Dammit, I hated when I cried. I was so f**king weak.
And anyway, crying hurt my ribs.
I put my hands over my face and, pain or not, had no choice but to let loose.
“I’m so s-s-stupid,” I stammered, between crying hiccoughs, taking my hands away from my face. “Bil y scared me, what with the sledgehammer and al , but I was so stupid. I thought I could play games.”
“Sledgehammer?” Hank asked but I ignored him.
“I thought I was smarter than him. Uncle Tex said my plan would go south. It’s so south, it’s in the next f**king galaxy!” I shouted.
“Let’s go back to the sledgehammer,” Hank suggested.
I pul ed away and started to rol out of bed. I was nearly out when Hank tagged the camisole top of my pajamas and pul ed me back into bed.