“JP.” His body turned to stone as soon as the words left my mouth. There was no denying that he didn’t want me to figure out his name. Must be why he had me sit on the couch. There were no pictures in there, now that I thought about it. It was just a couch and a TV on a stand.
“You weren’t supposed to be snooping. There was a reason I told you to stay on the couch. Now you have ruined everything.” He turned around and the look on his face was downright terrifying.
“I don’t understand why you didn’t want me to know your name. I could have already heard about it from Axel. Although you already figured out that I didn’t. This doesn’t have to change anything at all. You promised me the right to a free life now, and damn it, I want it. You are going to give it to me,” I demanded. I couldn’t believe how strong the words coming out of my mouth sounded right then. It was almost like I meant it. No, I didn’t actually fucking mean it. I just want to get the fuck out of here and back to my life with Axel and Stana.
He was fully facing me now, with a pensive look on his face. He looked as if he was trying to see through my facade but I was letting nothing show. My face was as blank as a brand new sheet of printer paper. No more tears would fall from these eyes in the presence of JP. Which reminded me, “Does JP stand for something?”
“No, it is just JP, now stop saying my name. You are making this entirely too personal for me. Just go sit back down on the couch and wait for me to finish making you food,” he ordered.
“I need the bathroom. Some of my stitches pulled,” I told him. He pointed me toward the bathroom with a “hurry the hell up in there” and went back to doing what he was doing. In the bathroom, I fixed everything with my back that I could.
Heading back out to the couch, I smelled something like bacon. Which was strange because not once has he ever made me anything but those shitty dry sandwiches. When I made my way to the living room it seemed my nose wasn’t deceiving me. There was a plate filled with scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast. There were multiple ways I could go about this but the only obvious one was to eat everything in sight. My stomach was growling at the scent of bacon.
Scarfing the food down like I was a starved woman that hadn’t eaten in weeks, my stomach was now protesting at how full I was. It felt like I gained ten pounds.
“Now let’s get you in a bath,” he said. I was so startled, I jumped. I guessed I was in a food coma and my eyes shut sometime after I was done eating. A bath sounded great but I prayed that he wasn’t going to suggest helping me. I didn’t want to anger him or make him do anything that would be worse than what he had already done.
“I think I can manage on my own, if you wouldn’t mind,” I suggested, since I didn’t think it would be wise for me to demand anything at the moment. We were at a somewhat peaceful position at the moment.
He nodded and said, “Okay. I will leave clothes for you in the bathroom.” Huh. That was easier than I thought.
The bathtub was gross, to say the least. It looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in far too long, but I didn’t have much of a choice. I needed to get JP’s guard down around me long enough for me to finally be able to slip away. Although with his tracking abilities, I most likely wouldn’t get that far. Some part of me knew I would most likely never get away on my own.
Stop being such a negative fucking Nancy. You are better than that and you will be fine. Whether it is getting away by yourself or with someone’s help, it doesn’t matter. You will fucking survive this! Do you understand me?
Her sudden appearance scared the shit out of me. It appeared I was quite jumpy these days, with good reason. I was in the bathtub by myself as I whispered furiously, “Where the hell have you been? I thought you disappeared on me!”
I wouldn’t ever disappear on you. I just needed time to sort out that you might not need me as much as you did before.
“Yes, well while you have been sorting out your feelings, I have been trying to figure a way the fuck out of here. Now I have JP thinking I want to run away with him and live in this fantasy “free” world he was blabbing about!” I was so fucking angry with her for leaving me. I got why she did, since I didn’t let her out to bear the brunt of the brutality I faced, but there was a time I needed to stand up for myself and actually deal with the world. I couldn’t keep relying on her for everything and always sticking up for me.
As I stewed in my anger for Reese temporarily running away, it annoyed me that I was angry at her. It wasn’t really her I was mad at; I was mad at myself. Usually I was so careful because of my father and my ex husband always having people watching me. It should have been second nature for me to look over my shoulder even while using the bathroom in a diner. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case this time, and I screwed up spectacularly. As life would have it, I wasn’t done being fucked with yet.
Bullet
I was in the hotel room that Knuckles reserved for
