Page 142 of Shamed
The cab driver pulls up in front ofBudz!, and I thank him as I slip out of the back seat.
Before going upstairs, I peek through the front window of the already closed store, to see if Clint is still inside by chance. I want to ask him about replacing the bathroom window, since it has a crack in it.
No more telling myself I don’t deserve it.
Hurting myself isn’t helping Jacob.
It doesn’t look like anyone is inside, so I start back toward the side of the building where my stairs are.
I’m just about to take the first step, when two hands come around me from behind, one reaching across my chest and the other covering my mouth.
“Miss me?”
CHAPTER FORTY
Jennifer
Fear clouds my brain and body, the shock of what’s happening leaving me momentarily immobile against his hold.
I forget how to breathe, forget how to move.
But then everything rushes back to the present, terror bursting through me, and I start tostruggle.
The voice is familiar, though I can’t pinpoint where I know it from.
At first, my fear-addled brain thinks Dylan found out I told my dad and somehow tracked me down, but then the fog clears and I remember he’s dead. He can’t get to me.
But someone else has.
My legs flail out in front of me as I’m lifted backward, my eyes blowing wide and heart pounding while I’m dragged into the dark, dead-end alley beside the stairs to my home.
“You thought I forgot about your sweet little ass, and how it rubbed all over my cock?” The man tsks and then chortles, his hot breath gross against my neck as he drags my struggling body. “I’ve just been biding my time.”
Dread fills my belly as it occurs to me who the voice belongs to. The disgusting creep from the club. The same man Mase stopped from getting to me.
Nausea curdles in my stomach at the feel of his clammy hands on me, and the thought of them trying to touch me in other places.
I try to scream, my body thrashing under his grip, but his hand muffles the sound.
“You see, girly, I’ve been watching from my window, so I know your shadow won’t be turning up tonight. Trouble in paradise?” He chuckles again, kicking a random can aside.
My shadow?
Mase.
“Bet you didn’t realize that I live just down the street, did ya?”
Heart hammering, I feel a rush of panic spread through my limbs as we move farther from the street. No, this can’t be happening again. If only Mase were here as my shadow tonight.
My mind almost collapses in on itself, turning paralytic from the terror—a defense mechanism, I realize, to keep my mind from suffering further.
Defensemechanism.
Defense.
Self-defense.
The word triggers my brain into action.
