Page 29 of Bend
No nickname this time. Why? He saw my reaction out there on the beach? How? How could he know the name was what made me react?
‘Day, Harper. I hate having to ask you to do everything twice.’
I check the date on my phone, but that’s no help. I never keep track of the date. So I go into my calendar app and my eyes almost bug out of my head.
Friday.
Well, that explains the line at the Mexican place. And my hunger. I was asleep for three days.
‘I’m waiting.’
He can wait all he wants. He’s playing a game with me and I just quit.
‘Do you remember the bath I gave you after you took the pills?’
I can’t remember shit, a common side-effect with Ativan when you take too much. And someone had to stitch my head, change me out of my clothes, clean me up, wash my saltwater-soaked garments, and put me to bed.
That someone really was him.
‘I enjoyed it. Every second.’
The tears fall down my cheeks as I consider the implications of what he’s telling me. I message back. ‘I’m reporting you to the police for rape, asshole!’
Chapter Six
JAMES
Rape.
She has got to be fucking with me. It makes me laugh, but seriously, this girl, after everything that’s happened, thinks I’m a rapist?
I’m two yards away from her building door, but I take a little detour out to the alley to think this through.
Rapist. I roll the possibilities over and over in my mind and only come up with one explanation.
She has no idea who I am.
I run my hands through my hair, pulling a little. She’s driving me crazy and all these months of watching her, all that pent-up want and desire, is clouding my thinking.
If she has no idea who I am, then…
Chapter Seven
HARPER
A pounding on the door makes me jump up from the floor.
“Harper?” the beautiful voice says softly through the door. “Open up, Harp.”
“Don’t call me that,” I say back. “You have no right to call me that.”
“Open the door, or I swear to fucking God, I will kick it in and break the locks.”
“I’m dialing the police.”
“No, you’re not. You’re on the run. It doesn't take a guy like me to see that. Open. The. Door. I need to set you straight. Right now.”
I pause, thinking.
