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It wasn’t always like this. Dad used to be loving and kind, someone I looked up to. He and Mom meant the world to me, but then he lost his six-figure corporate job because he couldn’t stop drinking. That was seven years ago. Seven years of being forced to grow up too soon because my mom refused to fight back.
And now she’s gone because she finally did.
Tears begin to burn my eyes, but I don’t have time to grieve right now. I have to get far away from here before Dad decides to come looking for me.
Or maybe he won’t. Perhaps he’ll be so glad to finally have me out of his hair that he won’t even wonder where I’ve gone. That’s what I’m hoping, anyway.
The storm is wild and unforgiving as it rips through the city. Only an idiot would be out in this kind of weather and at this time of night. There are usually not too many people out around midnight, anyway, but now the streets are deserted. At least, I think they are. I can barely see more than a foot in front of me.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see something huge and black come to a stop beside me. I look to my left and barely make out a man trying to get my attention from a large, lifted truck.
Shit. Is he trying to kidnap me? He doesn’t get out, and through the thick curtain of rain, I can see him motioning for me to go over.
This is terrible kidnapping weather. My raincoat is barely doing anything against the onslaught of rain, and I’m already starting to shiver. He probably just wants to offer me a ride. He saw someone struggling in this weather and wants to help.
That’s all, right?
Chapter 3
MICAH
“You need a ride?”I call over the pounding rain. I don’t know what in the hell made me pull over in this weather, but I guess I’m feeling a little generous tonight.
Her small frame hesitates, and she looks around cautiously, but when lightning strikes a tree, she flies over to the truck just before a long branch crashes to the ground. I hop out and put her suitcase in the backseat before jumping back in the front and pulling off.
She wraps her arms around herself, and I’m not sure if it’s because she’s cold from the wind and rain or because she’s trying to protect herself from me.
The latter thought makes me smirk.
“What’s your name?” I ask her quietly.
She hesitates before saying, “Raine.”
Raine. I like it.
“I’m Micah. Anywhere I can take you?”
She peers at me from behind her hood, and then she instantly starts to cry.
Dammit. Why the hell is she crying? I don’t do well with crying women; they make me uncomfortable.
Unless I’m the cause of it, of course.
I clear my throat and turn the heat up a little bit. She continues to cry softly and rock herself back and forth.
“I have nowhere to go,” she whispers. For a moment, I think she’s talking to herself until she looks at me.
I almost stop the truck when the light from the touchscreen display illuminates her face.
Fuck, she’s beautiful.
Her thick brown curls are barely contained within the confines of her hood, and her matching brown eyes are wide and round. Innocent.
But when we drive underneath a streetlight, I notice a yellowed bruise under her eye. If I hadn’t been paying such close attention to her, I would have missed it.
I slam on the brakes, sending both of us jolting forward, and turn in the seat to face her. Grabbing her hood, I rip it off her head, not caring when she cries out from me pulling her hair.
“Who the hell did that to you?” I ask angrily.
