I jerk away and before I have a second to rationalize, I panic and I run.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Pushing people aside, I swerve through the crowd and run for the exit. What have I done? I lost complete control of myself. We almost had sex right on the dance floor. Okay, not really, but if we’d been alone, we would’ve.
Abbie filmed the whole thing.
I groan as I scramble out the club’s exit door, hail a cab, and jump in. I give the driver the hotel address, and as he pulls off, I glance over my shoulder to make sure Riel hasn’t followed. He hasn’t.
Twenty minutes later, the cab pulls up in front of the hotel. I jump out, sprint inside, and up to my floor. I throw my clothes inside my duffel and formulate a plan.
I have about hundred dollars left in my monthly scholarship allowance. I’ll go rent a car and drive back down to the Keys. Or I’ll get an Uber. Or, I don’t know, I’ll hitch. I’ve hitched before. It’s not ideal, but I can’t stay here.
I don’t want to face Riel or Abbie or myself for that matter. I’ve messed everything up. My scholarship…there’s nothing stopping Abbie now. I’m going to lose it all. I know I will. Everything I’ve worked so hard to accomplish. God, I’m an idiot. Consequences be damned? Why did I even think that? And over a guy. Stupid. I told myself I wouldn’t do this again and here I am. Bad decisions around Manny, and now bad decisions around Riel.
I zip my duffel shut, sling it over my shoulder, and take the elevator to the lobby. I’ll get back to the academy, think about it all, and figure out how to handle it. Maybe I should just go to Director Williams and come clean. Better he hear it from me than from Abbie. I can throw myself on his mercy. I can beg for forgiveness.
“I’m sorry, miss,” the car rental company tells me nearly an hour later. “You have to be twenty-one.” He points across the lobby. “You can try Keys Shuttle. They run back and forth every hour on the hour. Nearly double the money though. There’s also El Guapo’s bus. But it doesn’t leave until two in the morning. Or I guess you could try an Uber.”
“I already did,” I mumble. But no Uber driver was willing to take me that far. If I had Abbie and Peter’s money I could just rent a driver and be back in no time. But El Guapo’s bus it is and around four in the morning I finally arrive back to campus.
I tip the driver what little money I have left, grab my duffel, and step from the rickety bus. I look up at the beautiful administrative building as the bus pulls away. This time tomorrow this place won’t look so welcoming.
I lug my stuff down the short walkway, then key in the access code to open the night door.
“Hello, Viola.”
With a gasp, I spin around.
A man dressed in all black with a hood steps toward me. “You’ve been out whoring around,” he says, his voice garbled and distorted. “I saw the video.”
Fear punches through me, but I don’t hesitate as I grip my duffel and swing out. He blocks it with his left arm, sending it bouncing across the sidewalk, and knocks me down with his right. My head hits the concrete, and I wince.
With a disoriented moan, I try to roll over. The man yanks my arm and drags me around the side of the academy and into the surrounding woods. Somewhere in the back of my mind I know I should be fighting, I know I should scream, but the dizziness unbalances me.
He releases me, and pain immediately registers in my head. With shallow, shaky breaths, I squint into the darkness and see the man standing above me, shadowed, and backlit by the moon.
As I regain my bearings, I narrow in on the academy through the trees, estimate the distance, and roll to my hands and knees.
The man pushes me back over with his shoe and presses it into my ribs.
I squirm and shove at it, gasping for air, the reality slamming into me. This is him. I wasn’t being paranoid. Someone has been following me, watching me. Suddenly, I think of Rachel, found strangled in the woods, and terror slices through me. I shove harder at this shoe. “Please…I can’t…breathe.”
The pressure eases, and I gulp a deep breath and look up at the hooded man. I push on his leg and try to roll to the right, and snickering, he increases the pressure again, knowing he has power over me.
He twists his foot, and I grunt. “Whores deserve punishment.”
I focus on his voice. Why is it garbled?
“Viola,” he hisses. “I’ve been waiting for this moment.”
I stop squirming.
“I’ve been watching you.”
I swallow the sickness in my throat.
“I’ll give you what you’ve been asking for,” he whispers.
I swallow the nausea again, hysteria mounting, realizing I’m about to puke. Realizing just how much power this man has over me.
“Such a prick tease.”
I turn my head and vomit and try desperately to remember the self-defense class I took last year. But I can’t seem to recall any of it as I twist and turn and fight and get nowhere.
He lowers himself to straddle me, his knees planting my arms to the ground. “Good job. Now you stink.”
I rear up and knee him in the back.
He lets out a soft grunt. “Have to do better than that.”
I knee him again, harder, wishing I were bigger.
He slaps me, and my head reels. Grabbing my jaw, he yanks it back, and I bite down as hard I can.
“You bitch!” He wedges his forearm under my chin, forcing my head back against the ground.
I cough and gasp for air as his arm presses my throat, and he laughs at my struggle. With renewed strength, I thrash my head back and forth and kick my legs.
“No!” I scream.
He clamps his hand over my mouth. “Shut up!”
Headlights pierce the dark night, and he flattens his body against mine as he glances over his shoulder. The car gets nearer and slows. No, it’s not a car, it’s bigger. It’s a shuttle bus!
The bus pulls away, and I hear Riel’s voice, “Viola?”
“Help,” I wheeze.
“I see your duffel,” Riel says a little louder. “I know you’re here.”
“Shit.” The attacker rolls off of me. “This isn’t the end,” he whispers and scurries off through the trees.
Holding my midsection, I try to get up. “Here,” I yell, but it comes out a whisper.
“Viola, you can’t just run off in the middle of the night. Can you at least tell me why you’ve been avoiding me, and what the hell was that between us on the dance floor?”
“Riel!” I manage louder than a whisper, gripping my stomach at the pain.
Silence.
“Viola?” he shouts, running toward me.
I hear him cut into the woods. “Here,” I whimper, trying to get up and hoping to God he hears me.
Shadows flicker as he thrashes through the woods and then he’s right at my side. “Viola!”
“I think”—I pant—“my rib’s broken.”
“Sh…” Riel soothes my hair from my face. “Just lie still.” He unclips his phone from his belt and dials 911.
Chapter Forty
Stalker
Doesn’t she care she was all over the internet?
What was she doing with Riel on that dance floor?
She is a whore.
How could I have ever thought she was soft?
How could anyone think she’s pretty?
There’s nothing special about her.
She deserves what she got.
Chapter Forty-One
Tall. Not skinny. Not fat. Hood over his head.
My responses irritate the investigative officer, but there’s nothing about my attacker that stands out. Or if there is I’m not remembering it. Except for his garbled voice, which the officer already notated.
“I bit his hand,” I tell the officer, wincing at my sore throat.
The cop scribbles something. “Which one?”
I shrug, frustrated. It was so dark.
“You’re five foot two and weig
h 130?” the cop asks.
I nod.
“You said the guy was tall?”
I nod again.
“I imagine everyone seems tall to you.”
True. But why is he challenging my answers?
“So he may not be tall. He may be more like five-ten. Right?”
Is this guy trying to be a jerk? “Five-ten. Six-foot,” I snap. “Write down whatever you want.” Jesus.
Closing his notepad, the cop looks at me for a second, and then his expression gentles to something I would’ve expected all along. “Miss Burnett,” he says. “I don’t mean to come across harsh. I have no tolerance for men who prey on women. The more details you can remember, the quicker I’ll find this guy before he attacks again.”
Attacks again. I didn’t even think about that. This isn’t the end. That’s what he said to me, and remembering it now sends a distinct jolt of panic through me. He’s coming back for me.
“Anybody you can think of who would have done this?”
Bud and Manny pop into my mind first. Other than giving me the creeps, Bud’s never actually done or said anything. But I still tell the cop all about him as well as the dark SUV that followed me, the creepy phone call, and the note delivered to my dorm. Hell, I even tell him about the green running shorts that I thought went missing.
I watch as he opens his notepad again and writes everything down and then I quietly say, “My ex-boyfriend’s out on bail right now for rape.”
The cop stops writing and looks at me. “What’s your ex’s name?”
I give it to him.
“How tall is he?”
I think about that, but I don’t know. I never asked him. “Five-ten maybe.”
The cop studies me for a second. “If you think of anything else, call me.”
“There’s supposedly a video.” I swallow my tender throat. “My attacker said he saw me on a video.”
“Video of what?”
“I think of me and Riel dancing.”
He pushes the curtain aside to reveal Riel standing, staring out the window into the just dawning morning. Two hours have passed since he found me. “That him?”
I nod.
The cop goes over to talk to him, and as I watch I think through what the doctor told me. I have a dislocated shoulder where the man dragged me into the woods. A bruised rib where he ground his foot into me. And an injured esophagus where he pushed his forearm into my neck.
It’s bad, but all I can think is, my momma’s had worse.
Riel says goodbye to the cop and turns to see me looking at him. Keeping his expression unreadable, he crosses the floor and over to my bed. “There’s a video?”
“That’s what my attacker said,” I whisper.
Riel’s jaw hardens. “Abbie.”
I don’t say anything to that as a tense moment passes. I’m sure he’s thinking the same thing I am. If Abbie hadn’t posted that video, I may not have been attacked. The freak saw that video and came after me.
I detect a slight shaking in Riel. “You okay,” I hoarsely ask, and wince. I really do need to stop talking.
He lets out a huff. “You’re the one lying in the bed and you’re asking me if I’m okay?”
I give a little shrug and try for a smile.
Sliding into the chair beside me, Riel takes my hand. “You don’t have to be brave around me.”
Brave? I don’t feel brave. Helpless more accurately describes it.
Riel keeps looking at me, and his probing stare becomes too much. I turn away. I don’t want him seeing so deeply inside me. “Can you let me have some time alone?” I whisper even though I don’t want him to leave.
Quiet seconds pass and he doesn’t move, then finally I hear him get up. “I’ll be outside if you—”
“No.” The thought of being alone right now sends a jolt of panic through me. “Stay.”
A few more seconds go by, and I feel him lay his fingers on my back where the bandages wrap my bruised rib. The gentleness and the tenderness of that touch makes my breath hitch, and I cringe as fiery pain sparks through my side and tears silently begin to fall.
With slow, careful movements, Riel rubs a soothing circle over my back. “Go ahead. Let it out. Let it all out.”
I do then. I let it all out. The humiliation. The fear. The violation. My attacker could’ve done so much more. He would have if Riel hadn’t have shown up.
Chapter Forty-Two
They move me out of the ER and into a room for observation. When I wake, I see Riel sitting beside my bed sleeping.
He needs to get home to Mar.
More importantly, I need a bathroom. Gingerly, I sit up, and Riel’s eyes fly open. “Hey, everything okay?” he asks.
“Bathroom,” I croak, reaching for the water instead. Eagerly I gulp down several mouthfuls, nearly groaning at the comfort it gives my raw throat.
“Want me to get a nurse?” Riel asks.
I shake my head and point to my throat.
Riel nods his understanding.
I swing my legs over the side of the bed, give myself a few seconds, and slide to my feet. Riel stands to help, and I wave him off.
Grabbing my IV stand, I roll it along beside me to the bathroom. After I pee, I brace myself against the sink and I take in my image. I look at my puffy face and tangled hair, and at my swollen eye and bruised neck.
My attacker’s hooded face flashes through my mind, and I flinch. Give you what you’ve been asking for. I never asked for anything. No one asks to be attacked. What kind of thing is that to say? I close my eyes, then immediately snap them back open to the harsh florescent light. Light’s much better than dark.
I grab the mouthwash, swish it around, then finger comb my horrible hair. I wash my face with cold water and the available soap and go back into the room.
The doctor is here now, talking to Riel. They both turn to look at me.
“Good morning,” the doctor greets me a little too brightly.
I make my way back over to the bed.
He checks his clipboard. “The admitting physician last night says you don’t want anyone notified?”
I shake my head. Absolutely not. My momma will worry sick.
“Well, you’re eighteen, so you call the shots on that. There will be an admin coming in before you leave to discuss billing and what not.”
Billing. My shoulders drop. Crap. I didn’t even think about that. My student health insurance will pick up 80 percent, but I’ll still be responsible for twenty. Twenty percent I don’t have.
The doctor surveys his clipboard again. “I don’t see any reason why we can’t release you tomorrow, but you live in a dorm, right?”
I nod.
“I’d feel a lot better if there was someone to watch over you. It’ll be several days before you can comfortably use your voice again. Plus, you shouldn’t be lifting anything with your shoulder and rib. And you were just attacked. You need to be somewhere safe.”
“I have a place,” Riel volunteers. “She can stay with me and my sister.”
I shake my head. “Gillian,” I croak.
“Her roommate,” Riel tells the doctor. “But it’ll be fall break in a few days, and Gillian’s going with her parents on a cruise.”
That’s right. The dorm will be empty.
“It’s not safe for you to stay alone in an empty dorm.” Riel reads my thoughts.
I don’t think twice about it. I’m not stupid. I’m not staying in that dorm alone. I’m staying with Riel.
Chapter Forty-Three
The next morning, Gillian gets me from the hospital and takes me back to our dorm room. On my desk sits a bouquet of flowers. The card reads, From Peter.
That weird smile he sent me the night we had the flat tire immediately comes into my mind. Then that time he suggestively squeezed my arm and totally creeped me out. Why would he send me flowers? I don’t even like the guy.
The director excuses me from Friday classes, but I spend most of the day in t
he library getting caught up on missed work from our Miami travels.
Whoever attacked me had disabled the security cameras outside the administrative area so nothing had been caught on video. I heard the director spent the whole day fielding calls from parents, assuring them that nothing like this had happened in the past and would not happen again.
Students, Director Williams addresses us all in an email. All facilities will be closed for fall break for safety inspection. Please take everything you need when you leave.
Good thing Riel offered me a place.
As I’m deleting the email, Abbie strolls into the library. She takes one look at me and to my surprise walks straight toward me.
“How are you feeling?” she asks with fake concern.
I don’t even respond.
“What are you doing for fall break? Heading home to Tennessee?”
I ignore her and go back to my work. There’s no way I’m telling her I’m staying with Riel.
“We’ll be in Hawaii with Daddy, sans the new girlfriend.” Abbie shrugs as if it’s completely normal she’s flying across the Pacific. “Whatever, I’ll make sure I tell Daddy what happened to you.”
I do look at her then.
She smiles, like she’s got some ulterior motive.
I hate her. And that is the first time in my entire life that I’ve actually thought that about someone. She knows everything about me. Stay away from Riel or she’ll squeal. Well, it’s obvious I didn’t “stay away from Riel,” so when is she going to rat me out? Or is she going to hold this over my head? Taunt me with it. Of course she is. That’s exactly what she’s going to do.
Which brings me back to the fact that it would be a lot better if I went to Director Williams with my lies.
She waves. “Later then.”
In my periphery I watch her walk off. As soon as she’s gone, I bring up Director Williams’s page on our academy’s site. I go to the REQUESTS tab and fill out a form to ask for a meeting. Then without sending it, I just stare at it, playing things out in my mind.
Watching You Page 13