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“To accentuate your stunning legs. Besides, I heard that the sun is coming out.” Kat turned to the doorway. “They want the island to return to normal…whatever normal means with a pack of misfits like us.”
Normal.The word filled me as she left. I moved to the dresser, grabbed panties and a bra, and slipped them on before dressing in the clothes Kat had picked out for me. It was well after ten now. I’d already missed the first class on hand-to-hand combat techniques. But there was a shorter class on psychology in an hour I wanted to attend.
Just let me go, Finley.
The words haunted me as I tugged on my heeled boots and strode from the room. But it was Finley’s response that chilled me to the bone.Not even if you begged me to.
“Thanks for the coffee.” I grabbed the cup from the counter and drank. “And for taking care of me.”
“That’s what besties are for,” she called from her bedroom. “Wait…are you leaving now?”
“Yeah, I’ll meet you there, okay?”
“Sure.” She appeared in her doorway, shrugging into her shirt.
There were bruises on her ribs, small…round, and another lower down, this one larger, yellowing. “Kat.”
“Hmm?”
“You’re okay, right? I mean, you asked about consent for me. But you and Damon, you’re safe?”
She just swallowed hard and turned her gaze away. “We’re fine, honey. I’ll see you in class, okay? Save me a seat.”
She seemed to close down in front of my eyes. I wanted to stay, to pull her into my arms like she did for me. I wanted to coax more from her. But how could I get her to talk to me when I barely knew how to talk myself. I gave a nod. I wasn’t finished here. Somehow, I’d get Kat to tell me about the bruises I saw.
I left her then and made my way downstairs, to where a new guard waited. He stood as I approached. I just lifted my hand. “Save it. I’m going straight to class and Kat’s upstairs. She needs you more than I do.”
I grabbed my phone as I made my way out of the building, resigning myself to the phone call I’d been dreading. I found myself on the small beach where Kat and I had sat and talked. One glance around me as I sat and pressed the button, just to be safe. The unknown number rang three times before it was answered.
“Button,” Dad’s voice was strained and hoarse.
“I’m sorry,” I started.
“What happened?"
I closed my eyes.So much, Dad…so much and I can’t tell you about any of it.“There was a problem.”
Dad’s heavy breath was loud in my ear, making me wince.
“Are you still safe?” I questioned, hating how it’d come to this.
“For now. But I can’t hide from them forever, Annalise.”
I winced. He never called me by my whole name. I lifted my gaze to the dark clouds slowly moving away. “I’ll try again.”
“Button…” Dad said with a resigned sigh. “It’s done.”
“No, Dad,please.Let me try again.”
I heard movement through the phone as bedsprings groaned. “Do you want this, Anna? Say now if you’ve changed your mind. Say now if I need to run.”
On his own…that’s what he was really saying.
“I can make it so they never look at you.” His words were filled with torment. “They’ll have no cause to ever come after you.”
“And what, sacrifice yourself?” I cried, hysteria a little too close.
“If it comes to that.”
