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They glance at each other skeptically.
“I have a cut on my leg from it.” My voice wobbles, but my words seem to have them second-guessing.
“You want us to call the police?” the younger guy asks.
The police… no. He’ll kill my mother, Landon, Pandora…
“I...I can’t. I’m afraid of him,” I say, ashamed.
“You can put a restraining order on him. He won’t get to you.”
I huff out a dark, humorless laugh. “You don’t know him. He’ll find me before I even get the order.” I lower my eyes, shaking my head. “It’s not me I’m concerned for. It’s my friends and family. He threatened them.”
“Ma’am, I really must insist—”
“Forget it. I lied. He didn’t make me.” I cut him off, knowing it’s no use. I won’t do it, and if I don’t lie, they’ll likely force my hand.
They both look at me in contempt, and I wilt.
“You need to pay for this room and get out,” the older guy snaps. I look around, and my heart lurches in panic. My clothing and my purse are gone. My car keys, my cell phone.
I beg and beg them not to call the police.
“I don’t want to be here all day talking to the cops,” the older guard says to the other guy, rolling his eyes. Then he looks at me again, his lip curling. “Just get someone to pick you up and get the hell out. And pick a different hotel to turn your tricks in. Don’t ever come back here.”
He thinks I’m a prostitute.
I’m gulping sobs as I call Pandora, using the hotel phone. I clean myself up in the bathroom while I wait, wiping Bastien from my thighs, sick with shame. The older guard waits outside the door in case I try to bolt without paying.
Pandora shows up half an hour later and pays them $150 for the room. As we leave, she looks worried. “I need that money for rent,” she says. “What the hell happened, anyway?”
I should tell her the truth, but I don’t want to put her life at risk. Bastien is watching her, and he’s already threatened her life.
“A lapse of judgment. I’m really sorry. I’ll get you the money first thing tomorrow.”
Her eyes narrow in on me and my wrecked clothes. “Did you cheat on Landon?”
I inhale sharply, thinking about what I’ve done. “I can’t talk about it.”Yes. I cheated on him and came so hard that I nearly passed out.
“Are you going to tell him?” She sounds as if she wishes I wouldn’t. She has always had a soft spot for Landon and has made it clear that she thinks we’re the perfect pair.
“I don’t know if I have a choice,” I say honestly. “People… saw.”
She gasps. I love Pandora, but she’s a prim, prissy woman who doesn’t tolerate a single whiff of scandal. She’d be a perfect match for Landon, if only I hadn’t met him first.
“This was a one-time thing, I swear. I’m completely fine,” I tell her with confidence I don’t feel.
She looks at me out of the side of her eyes, and I know she doubts me. It hurts, but I can’t blame her. I’m barely dressed at a hotel I’ve been kicked out of with no money or personal belongings to account for. It doesn’t look bad; it looks like a scandal for the ages.
She drives me home without saying another word. I thank her again and promise to pay her tomorrow, but she only offers me a tight-lipped smile before driving off like a bat out of hell. I grab my spare keys, and then go back to the hotel to fetch my car. I’m just going through the motions, barely registering anything around me.
I’m broken and bruised. Shallow and shamed.
When I get back to my house, a bouquet of fresh lavender sits on the kitchen table in a ceramic milk jug with French lettering.
Bastien.
He got past my deadbolt locks.
