I slip in and out of consciousness as he continues to beat on my ribcage with his boots. It’s always a spot on my body that can be covered up so my father doesn’t see what he’s been doing to me. Or my brother. Ryder is the only one who would care out of the two. And my best friend, Aubrey, she’d care. But she’s not here anymore to question the random bruises that escape hissafe zones.
“Fucking bitch. You’ll never fucking learn, will you?” James gets one more kick in, and I feel his steel toe cowboy boot dig right under one of my now broken ribs. “I always think you’ll get it, but jokes on me, because you constantly embarrass me. You’re lucky you belong to your father, or you’d have nothing to offer.”
So fucking lucky.
I listen as his boots walk away and the door slams. My left eye is swollen shut already. I can’t keep living like this. I need to get out of here. But one attempt to move tells me I’m not getting off this floor on my own. The only person I have to call is Ryder.
Fuck.I really don’t want to involve my brother. He’s under enough stress as it is “training” with our father to take over the business. A business neither of us wants. A business that got my best friend’s husband killed.
Sighing, and then cringing at the sharp pain in my abdomen, I suck it up and ask my phone to call Ryder on speaker.
“Hey, Soph. What’s going on?” Thank God he always answers for me.
“Help. Me,” I manage to garble out.
“Where the fuck are you? What happened?” His truck already dings on the speaker as he opens his door.
“Home.” Coughing, small spots of blood dot the floor in front of me.
Shit. That’s not good.
“I’m going to kill that fucker, Soph. I’m coming.” The roar of his diesel truck echoes over the phone line.
I want to close my eyes again. But I can’t let myself go under. I can’t let him win.
“Soph. I need to hear you.” Panic laces his unevenly pitched voice.
“Here. Hurry.”
“I’m coming. I promise.”
That’s the last thing I hear from my brother before the darkness wins, pulling me under.
My eyes flutter open and the bright light stabs into my brain.
“Oh my God! Sophia!” A cold, slender hand grips mine. “You’re finally awake.”
“Aubs? What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be in Maine. If they know you’re here…” Cold panic slices through me.
“Shh. Don’t worry about it. Ryder has it handled. He called me, and there was no way I wasn’t coming. We have to get you out of here though, Soph. You can’t keep going like this. You can’t stay in Montana.”
Suddenly, panic surges through me once again. If Aubrey is here, and Ryder found me at home…shit.“Where am I?”
I attempt to move my head to look around, but the light is too bright, and my vision is too blurry.
“Hey, hey. Don’t worry, relax, breathe.” She sucks in a breath, and exhales it slowly as I subconsciously follow her movements. “Ryder has us at a safe house about three hours from the ranch. There’s a private doctor that works for him that’s been coming to check on you. You have six broken ribs, a concussion, and a fractured eye socket.”
I reach up to touch my eye, but she stops me.
“Don’t touch it, girl. It’s still really swollen and the doctor said your vision might be blurry for a few weeks.”
“How long was I… unconscious?”
“It’s been almost a week. The doctor kept you under for a bit to help your body heal a little. They stopped the sedation last night.”
“Where’s James? What does he know?”
Her face grimaces. “Well. That’s kind of the thing. To the rest of the world, you’re dead. Sophia Chiave is no longer. Ryder is working on something for you to escape. I think you need to come to Maine. With me. I know a place that you can rent for cash, and you won’t need to prove who you are if I give the reference.”
