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Not wanting any of the other visitors of this part of the club to spot her, I nod for Hollis to take her to the car.
She leaves me without another word. Hollis follows and the door closes, leaving me alone in this empty dungeon.
I suppose after what I just did to her, I couldn’t have expected a warm farewell.
Still, I don’t enjoy how the room feels colder the moment she has left it.
Chapter Five
Hallie
I will get out of bed.
Iwillget out of bed.
I will get out of bed.
Instead, I burrow deeper into my protective blanket cocoon and squeeze my eyes shut. They’re puffy and tired from not gettingenough sleep last night. I suppose the crying didn’t help much, either.
If it were any other day, I would be kinder to myself. I would be gentle and practice self-compassion. I would remain curled up in this bed for the rest of the day if I needed to.
But itisn’tany other day. It’s Charity’s wedding day, and I have to get my shit together and show up for her regardless of what happened last night.
As soon as last night begins to flit across my memory, I swat it away. There’s no time for that.
Running from my own memories gives me the shove I needed to get out of bed.
My bedroom is dark, just the way I like it. On a normal day, I would open the curtains now that I’m awake and let the sun shine in. I would change into workout clothes, put my yoga mat down at the foot of my bed, and get the day started right.
Today I head straight for the shower.
My hair is still damp from the one I took last night.
When I made my empty threats in Hell, I told him I wouldn’t, but I couldn’t climb into my own bed and feel safe there if I still smelled him on my skin, felt the evidence of him inside me.
It was bad enough that his pushy bodyguard insisted on escorting me inside my apartment. I didn’twanta strange man in my home, especially after being trapped in that dungeon with his boss, but Hollis said those were his orders. When I told him I didn’t care about his orders and tried to shut the door in his face, he stopped the door with one hand and followed me in anyway.
I didn’t have the energy to fight him any more than that.
Luckily, he didn’t prove as twisted as his employer. He escorted me inside, checking each room as we walked in as if I were a princess under constant threat of danger and he the man tasked with keeping me safe. It didn’t make much sense, but I was too exhausted and depleted to expend much energy on it. I didn’t even wait for him to leave my apartment before shutting myself in my bathroom to undress and scrub the remnants of Calvin Cutler off my body.
I dreaded leaving the bathroom, afraid the bodyguard might still be out there. But when I scraped together enough courage to leave my safe haven, the man was gone.
My front door was locked, but not deadbolted. The lock on the doorknob has been busted since I moved in, so the place isn’t actually secure until the deadbolt is engaged. The man wouldn’t have been able to do that from outside without a key, so I walked over and locked it myself. I looked around the kitchen, but nothing appeared to be displaced. When I returned to my bedroom, I found a cup of steaming hot tea waiting on my bedside table.
He made me tea?
I didn’t drink it, of course. It could have been drugged. I took it to the kitchen and dumped it out, but it still seemed strange that the bodyguard provided post-assault aftercare.
That conjured memories of the moments immediately afterward when Calvin sat on the couch and played with my hair. The gentle way he touched me, the reassuring tone of his voice; it was almost like he was trying to…
I shake off the thought without finishing it.
Fuck Calvin Cutler.
At least it’s over now and I’ll never have to see him again.
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