Page 45 of Rescued By Midnight

“Look, I just want to say I’m sorry, babe.” Brayden takes a giant bite of his sandwich.

I’ve barely touched mine. Maybe I’ll take it to go.

The red and white checkered tablecloth is sticky beneath my wrists, so I fold my hands and tuck them into my lap.

“I understand you’re sorry,” I finally say. But I don’t forgive you. All that time, I was trapped in the woods with my kidnapper, and Brayden was fucking my best friend. “But it isn’t something I can just brush away, sweep under the rug.”

“You have to understand how hard things were for me, for us,” he says.

I wave between us. “And by ‘us,’ you mean you and Jericha?”

Every time this guy opens his mouth, he makes it sound worse. He talks about himself and Jericha like they’re a unit, a couple. How can he possibly want to reconcile when she’s in his head like this?

“Look, let’s not keep worrying about this.” He leans forward to take my hand. There’s a glob of mustard on his thumb, and it slides greasily against my skin.

I ease my hand out of his grasp and subtly reach for my napkin. “You said you went through the Church laws.”

“I did. Did you?”

Taking my phone from my pocket, I open the note-taking app. Most of the laws are ridiculous notions that I always thought of as old-fashioned, like the Old Testament in the Christian Bible talking about women needing to be segregated and untouched by men during their periods.

But when Brayden wanted me to break off my friendships with Landon and Cody because of the Church laws, I realized he was taking this a lot more seriously than I ever have.

It’s time to see where we stand.

“So, the laws about women and education,” I say. “You always told me that I was free to go to college if I wanted to.”

He nods.

A nod isn’t a real answer.

“How do you currently feel about that?”

“If you really want to go to college, I’ll let you, of course.” He pops a potato chip in his mouth and follows it with a swig of soda. “But I thought your goal was a big family, and caring for our children.”

“It was.” I can’t picture that kind of thing anymore, though. Instead, I picture big breakfasts with Landon and Cody. I picture being seduced in the kitchen, not sequestered.

“Well, good.” He leans back, looking smug and superior in his blue polo shirt. “What’s next on the list?”

We go through several more Church laws, including everything from a woman’s requirements to dress modestly, to keep her hair no shorter than shoulder-length, to never pierce her body.

Brayden gives satisfactory answers, telling me I can do whatever I want to do, even though, he makes sure to impress upon me, he thinks a lot of those things are unattractive. Tattoos? Gross. Piercings? Disgusting. Short hair? Why would I want to cut off my lovely locks?

“And your thoughts on purity?” I ask.

His response is immediate, and he leans forward, his gray-blue eyes staring directly into mine. “It’s necessary.”

“What if my kidnapper raped me?”

“He didn’t, though.” There’s enough doubt in Brayden’s voice to give me a sliver of satisfaction.

“He didn’t. But if he had, would I be considered impure?”

“I—no, of course not.” His gaze slides off to the side. He doesn’t really believe that. He thinks I’d be impure.

That anger I’ve been pushing down since adolescence threatens to rear its ugly head. I push it back into its cage, lock the door, and drop it in the back of my mind. I am calm, I am perfect.

“Is Jericha impure?” I ask in the quietest, steadiest voice I can muster.