Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 83800 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 419(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83800 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 419(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
"It's been fun being here with you," I tell her.
"Even though we haven't spent much time together?"
"It's fine," I assure her. "I don't expect you to be at my beck and call or anything. We might have to riot against the food choices, though."
Kaylee scrunches her nose. "They eat like teenagers."
I point to the machine I'm walking on. "Do you think I'd spend an hour and a half on this damn thing if I wasn't forced to eat a pop-tart for breakfast this morning?"
"I can talk to Ellis," she offers, but I hold up a hand to reject the idea.
"I don't want to be a pest. I'll have to go home soon anyway."
"No," she says. "It's not safe out there."
"You sound like a cult follower," I tease. But when I look in her direction, it floors me just how serious the expression on her face is.
"It's really dangerous," she continues. "I was only part of that marriage-for-sell shit for like eighteen hours, and it was horrible. The living conditions were horrendous. I have no doubt the women who are married off are abused every single day."
"I'm not getting tangled up in a marriage-for-sell scheme," I remind her. "I have to go to work, Kaylee. I've already missed too many days."
"You have vacation time, don't you?"
"I do," I say with a quick shake of my head. "And I've been hoarding every vacation day for the last three years for my trip to Europe."
We've had this discussion before. I hate my job most days because it's incredibly boring, but the company I work for pays very well, and they allow us to roll over our vacation time from year to year. I have every intention of taking a very long European vacation next summer.
This bullshit with Henry and my impromptu stay here at Villa Cerberus has dipped into that saved time already.
"You'd brave traveling in a foreign country alone?"
"Yeah," I respond.
"Even after what happened?"
I tilt my head to consider her line of reasoning. I know she took the worst of what Henry had to offer in an effort to get Robert's attention, but it still happened in my home, where I thought I was safe from danger.
"If something terrible can happen in my own home, then I'm not safe anywhere."
"So why chance getting hurt by traveling out of the country?"
"Because I'm not safe anywhere. I can't curl up in a ball and be terrified for my entire life. If I don't do what I had planned, then that means the asshole wins, and I can't have that."
"We're safe here," she assures me.
I don't know if she's got an overabundance of faith in Ellis and the other guys, but this place isn't Fort Knox. Other than the threat of being seen on video cameras, what stops anyone from jumping over the back fence of this place and wreaking havoc?
"I support you in everything you do. You know that," she says as she reaches up and turns her machine off. "But maybe take a little more time or, at a minimum, let them put some protections in place for you."
"But deep down, you don't think I should return to work?"
She considers this for a moment.
"I know I wouldn't," she says after a long beat of silence.
"We're different," I mutter, turning my machine off.
"How do you figure?" she challenges, and I can already hear the argument in her tone. On any other day, maybe I could look past it, but I've been cooped up for days, and it's driving me insane.
"Maybe you're fine with staying here, never leaving, and letting these men look after you, but I can't. I can't sit around and do absolutely nothing with my life and be okay with it."
She shrinks back like I've slapped her in the face. I should probably stop while I'm ahead, but instead, I let my irritation flow.
"I refuse to be helpless and reliant on anyone, Kaylee."
Her eyes dip as she chews the inside of her cheek.
She pulls in a deep breath.
"I guess we are different because I'd rather be bored than dead."
With those last words, she walks out of the room, leaving me standing there feeling like a complete asshole.
As much as I want to go to my room and pack my stuff up, I head toward the big room where the guys always meet instead. At a minimum, I can take her advice and see if they can put some stuff in place to keep me a little safer than I'd be if I were out traversing the world alone, despite having done it every day as an adult thus far.
I tap my knuckles on the door before stepping inside. I don't want to interrupt Robert. I know he's always busy helping one of the guys.
His smile is bright when he looks up from his computer monitors and sees me standing there.