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As much of a relief as that was, I couldn’t imagine Jeremy had good intentions. “What are you going to do?”
A sinister smirk washed over his expression and sent an unwelcome shiver down my spine. Jeremy leaned in closer, his face a fraction of an inch away from touching mine. He smelled of sweat and had putrid breath, and I nearly vomited at the stench. Though, my stomach was already a mess, and that had everything to do with the fact I’d even considered him to be a nice guy at one point.
“I’m going to make sure you understand what you need to do when the time comes,” he started, his voice menacing. “I’m going to teach you a lesson, Daisy.”
“Wha… What?”
The next thing I knew, Jeremy’s hand released my arm. But it was only so he could backhand me across the face. My head snapped to the side, my hand immediately coming up to cover the side of my face. I could feel the warmth of the blood running down my cheek. No doubt, I had a cut right on my cheekbone, just beneath my eye.
I barely had the chance to allow that to register when the next blow came to my abdomen. I doubled over in pain, struggling to find my breath. I hadn’t managed to do that when Jeremy pushed me forcefully, sending me stumbling backward and to the ground.
He came over me, hit me in the face again, and sneered, “You better forget everything that happened.” His fingers curled around my throat and squeezed, depriving me of the precious oxygen I’d been struggling to get since the attack started. “Not one fucking word about anything I said to you that night. Nothing at all. Do you hear me?”
I didn’t know if he expected me to respond, but there was no way I could. I was beginning to feel lightheaded and like I was about to pass out when he released the hold on my throat.
And after several more blows to my body, all of which didn’t make it any easier to breathe, he stood up straight and warned, “Hopefully, now you know what you need to do. If you don’t do what you should, next time, I won’t be so nice. And if you dare to go to anyone about this, you’ll wish you hadn’t. I’ll be watching you, Daisy. Don’t be stupid.”
A moment later, I watched as his feet took him toward the door, where he slammed it behind him as he walked out.
Then, I succumbed to the pain and closed my eyes.
I didn’t know how much time had passed when my eyes fluttered open, but unless it had been more than twenty-four hours, I knew it couldn’t have been that long. The sun was still shining in through the windows.
My body ached.
My face hurt.
And there was only one place I wanted to go.
This would likely be the worst possible thing I could bring on him, but he was the only person I trusted.
Slowly, I pushed myself up off the floor until I was sitting upright. My face was throbbing. I probably needed medical attention.
But before I did anything, I had to clean the blood off the floor. I wasn’t coming back here ever again, and Marci was going to be showing the place soon.
So, I had no choice.
It took me quite a bit longer than I would have hoped it would to clean the floor, and that had little to do with the limited cleaning supplies I had left under the sink in the bathroom. My body was simply in far too much pain for me to move any faster than I was.
Once the floor was cleaned, I moved back to the bathroom, washed my hands, and attempted to clean some of the blood from my face. It had dripped down onto my shirt, but I couldn’t be bothered to think or care about that.
Not looking good at all, but desperate to get to Forrest, I didn’t even look back into the space when I opened the front door.
And the next thing I knew, I was on my way to Steel Ridge.
I didn’t know where Forrest lived, but I hoped I’d make it to Harper Security Ops before he left work for the day.
Throughout the entire drive, I didn’t do anything but listen to the directions my GPS gave me. I didn’t turn on the music. I didn’t make any calls. Then again, it wasn’t as though I really had anyone I could call.
Well, besides Forrest.
I didn’t even know what I’d say to him at this point. There was no plan for when I arrived. I just knew I needed to get to him as quickly as I could.
So, I focused on my driving, doing my best to not go much more than five or six miles per hour over the speed limit. God, if I got pulled over now, I could only imagine how that conversation would go.
Time ticked by, and it felt like it took an eternity, but eventually, I made it to Steel Ridge.
Just a bit more.
