Total pages in book: 139
Estimated words: 128083 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 640(@200wpm)___ 512(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128083 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 640(@200wpm)___ 512(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
“Shit. I’m sorry.” She shook her head as she chewed another cracker. “She’ll never be the same. She was terribly victimized. But at least she’s alive. The mom and younger daughter didn’t get so lucky.”
She’ll never be the same.
Rex’s head pounded and his guts churned. Cami had been there when her mother and her sister died in a demented act of violence. The beautiful seventeen-year-old girl in the pink bathing suit that he’d finally spoken to yesterday after having a crush on her for three years, had lost almost her entire family last night and suffered unthinkable trauma.
“Do you . . . do you know what they did to her?” Why had he asked? Maybe he didn’t really want to know.
“I can’t get into the crime, Rex. I shouldn’t have even mentioned her name. But I know you won’t gossip.”
“No, of course not.”
Carolyn gave him a tired smile. “I should get back.” She glanced up at the clock on the wall. “And what are you doing out and about so early on a Saturday?”
He looked at the time too. “I was . . . running. Jogging.” He ran a hand through his hair, now dry. “I saw all the cop cars and walked here.”
Carolyn raised a brow at the news that he’d been out exercising but didn’t comment. He accompanied her back down the hall and then gave her a quick hug goodbye before she headed through the door to the ward beyond. Rex turned down the hall that led to the elevators, stopping when he saw another gurney. Only, this time there was a girl with auburn hair sitting in it, staring blankly at the wall, her arms around herself, shoulders drawn up. His heart leaped. The nurse behind her had stopped to exchange words with a doctor who was jotting something on his clipboard, and two officers stood to the side, obviously guarding Cami.
Rex swallowed, his ribs tightening, and then Cami turned her head, their eyes meeting across the distance. And when he saw her, it felt like not only his face, but his whole being cringed. Her skin was mottled with bruises, her right eye red and swollen. And her skin was red and raw on each side of her lips, the shape such that it appeared a piece of tape had been ripped off her mouth. Horror dripped down Rex’s spine, and all he could do was continue to stare.
If she recognized him, she made no sign. Her blank expression didn’t change at all. He felt this intense pull to go to her, to reach out, to say something, and though his foot lifted to obey his instincts, he forced himself to set it down. Attempting to offer comfort was ridiculous. There was nothing he—a practical stranger, and maybe even someone she vaguely pitied, like everyone else did—could do for her. Her world had just imploded.
The nurse nodded to the doctor, who approached Cami, bent down, took her hand, and said a few words that she didn’t seem to respond to. Then the man stood, and Rex watched as Cami disappeared around the corner with the nurse and the two officers.
The doctor gave Rex a small nod as he passed, his gaze slightly questioning. Shit, he looked like some stalker just standing there in the middle of the hall, staring at the empty space where Cami had been.
As he walked back toward the elevators, he saw Hollis and his family talking to a nurse near the front desk. Hollis looked up, his gaze first registering confusion as though he was trying to place Rex, then recognition, then confusion again. He looked away, back to his mother, who had two fingers over her lips like she was about to vomit. Rex pressed the down button and faced the elevators, not being able to help overhearing the conversation nearby. “We should give her time,” Mrs. Barclay was saying.
“Yeah,” Hollis breathed. It was the first time Rex had seen Hollis looking anything other than confident. Cocky.
“We’ll come back in a few days after the shock has worn off. Cami is going to need tests and . . .” Mrs. Barclay’s words dwindled away as though she couldn’t bear to finish her sentence.
The elevator dinged and the door slid open. He stepped inside and then turned, hitting the button for the lobby, his eyes meeting Hollis’s narrowed gaze again before the doors shut between them.
The Barclays had obviously just found out what had happened to Cami. And instead of feeling deep sympathy, they appeared to be experiencing . . . disgust. Instead of grieving with his girlfriend, he was going to “give her time?” Time alone when she’d just gone through hell and was existing at the depths of despair?
What pieces of shit, both of them.
He pictured Cami sitting alone in some room now, staring at a different wall, no one there to hold her hand or just be with her, and he felt so helpless and sad that he could hardly stand it.