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9
KELLY
Christmas was ruined, thanks to me. Once Lee had calmed me and coaxed me from the back corner of my closet, I’d had to face my parents with puffy red eyes and try to pretend that I wasn’t dead inside. Then, I’d had to sit there opening their gifts to me while the three of them got nothing in return.
I was a horrible daughter. I’d always been a last minute shopper, and I hadn’t done any shopping before. Refusing to step foot outside the house until Christmas Eve afternoon meant I hadn’t bought a single damn gift for any of them.
Sitting through breakfast, eating the too-sweet cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate with marshmallows on top, didn’t help matters. I felt sick. I felt itchy. I felt like I needed to run away from this hell and disappear, but my old childhood hideout was no longer safe.
Not since Lee found me there.
Still, the moment I could, I left the living room and snuck away to the back of the house. I couldn’t get away from Lee’s scent. It was in my room, in the bathroom. And in the guestroom, it was strongest. Strong enough to draw me in, to make me feel like I was safe, even without the security of his arms to fall into.
Lee’s bag was on the bed, and I couldn’t stop myself from reaching in and snagging one of his shirts. Drawing it to my face, I breathed in, taking his scent deep into my lungs and holding it there.
Like doing so could return me to the closet and Lee’s strong arms. To the whisper of his lips as they coasted over my skin, promising the words he spoke to my parents were lies.
I would never touch her.
Just the thought of them had me dropping his shirt and looking for an exit.
Instead, my gaze was drawn to the buzzing cell phone beside the bag.
I lifted it without thinking. Read the message that popped up on the screen.
Carina: Merry Christmas, big guy.
Carina: Let me know when you’re free. I have something special for you to unwrap.
Dropping his phone to the mattress, I stumbled back a step, my chest pulling tight. Did he have a girlfriend? And he never told me?
I would never touch her.
You’re safe with me.
Lies. All of it lies.
I was no safer with him than I had been on that boat. Then, it had been my body at risk. And now?
Now, it was the pathetic excuse for a heart that was beating in my chest, each thud nothing more than a whimper begging for me to let it stop.
I would never touch her.
My foot snagged that stupid rocker again as I raced from the room, but I didn’t care. I couldn’t care about anything but getting away.
From this house. My parents.
From Lee.
The chilly morning air bit at my skin as I slipped out the kitchen door and into the back yard. Snow crunched under my stockinged feet, but I couldn’t bring myself to care. I was halfway to my old high school before the burn in my lungs had me slowing my racing steps. I clutched at the pain in my side and stopped on a patch of bare cement, my eyes drawn to the little green house that sat across the street.
Back in high school, a guy named Henry McKey lived there with his grandpa. It was said that all you had to do was knock on the basement window, and Henry would take care of you.
Drugs had never been my thing. I’d never felt I needed them, not until Rhys convinced me I had to try it if I wanted a taste of him.
Now, my feet numb yet burning from the cold, I padded around behind the ancient Santa Claus that sat near the front steps and peered into the basement windows, trying to see if Henry might still live there. At the back of the house, at the larger egress window, I could see what looked like a small apartment inside. I leaned in for a better look only for my foot to slide on a loose clump of snow. My body tilted and fell, one leg falling into the window well as my ass hit the metal rim, the snow smacking against the glass.
Before I could make sense of what happened and pull myself out of the hole, a face appeared at the window, the guy letting out a scream.
