Inevitable Detour (Inevitability Book 1)(60)

When we reach the room she’s been staying in, I say, “Is there a little something going on with you and Rick? He really is gorg, Haven. I wouldn’t blame you.”

Haven drops her gaze to the carpeted floor. “Rick is a really good guy, Essa,” she says slowly. “And he is super cute. That’s true.” She sighs. “But I’m not ready for anything, ah, physical just yet. Not with him or anyone else.”

“Oh my God, I am such an idiot.” I’m rapidly reminded of the events that have brought us here. “I’m so sorry, Haven.” I touch her arm, the bruises further reminders of what she’s been through. “I should know better than to ask something like that after all that’s happened to you.”

“It’s all right,” she says. “And I’m all right.” She takes a breath. “I mean, I will be all right. I’m sure I’ll be back to my old self soon enough.”

I smile, tell her she’s right. “You’re almost there now,” I say reassuringly.

But, damn, I’m not sure how Haven will ever get completely back to her old self. Not when, a short while later, she and I are sitting cross-legged on her bed, facing each other, and she’s sharing with me the things that happened to her—things that include Eric forcing himself on her, like, multiple times.

“Vincent pretty much left me alone,” she says, as if that was a huge consolation.

Softly, I reply, “Haven, I am so sorry you had to go through all that.”

She picks up a throw pillow on the bed and squeezes the edges. “It wasn’t so bad when we stayed at the motels in the beginning. I mean, sure, I thought it was bad. Eric forced me to do things right away, even when I tried to be willing. He liked when I fought, though. So, I played along and fought him. But then he started hurting me for real…”

She trails off, and I tell her, “You don’t have to talk about this, Haven.”

“It helps, though,” she insists. “I need to get it out. Keeping it inside just makes it all fester. I have nightmares most nights. When Rick hears me screaming, he comes in and holds me. And he listens, Es. He’s a good listener.” She looks up at me. “So, if you’re okay with hearing it, I’d like to tell you more.”

Her eyes beseech mine, and I pat her knee. “Of course,” I say as soothingly as I can. “Just like always, you can tell me anything.”

I sit quietly and listen. And Haven tells her tale. It’s nothing short of horrific. Not that I expected anything less. She starts at the beginning, first telling me how Eric and Vincent dragged her away from the apartment at gunpoint while I was out cold.

“First, they made me pack,” she says. “So it would look like I left the apartment willingly.”

“I knew it!” I silently curse the policemen who didn’t believe me.

She tells me how Eric took her with him in his car and Vincent drove hers. “I was kept in the trunk,” she states matter-of-factly.

“Oh, Haven.”

“In Indianapolis, Eric had us stay at a place where he knew how to get me past the cameras without being seen.”

“The Super Eight,” I say. “Farren and I stayed there. He checked out the surveillance videos. And, yeah, you weren’t on them.”

In a quiet voice, she says, “That’s where Eric first forced himself on me. I told him I’d do whatever he wanted, that he didn’t have to be so rough with me, but he liked being brutal.”

“He’s sick,” I hiss, angered and wishing I had the power to hurt the man who hurt this girl I love like a sister.

I ask where Vincent was during all this, and she says, “I don’t know. I guess in another room.”

“That’s strange,” I comment.

She shrugs and continues her story. “We traveled to Oklahoma City next. Eric had Vincent ditch my car there.” She pauses and then says somberly, “It went from bad to worse after that.”

“What happened?” I inquire timidly. How much worse can I get? I think.

A lot worse, I learn when Haven says, “In Texas and New Mexico, Eric started taking me to the homes of his associates. I was kept in the basements.”

“Did Eric still…”

“Yeah, of course. All the time.” She grimaces. “He and his friends would take turns with me. And when I resisted, Eric would hurt me.”

My eyes are drawn to the bruises on her body, the red marks on her neck. She looks away and whispers, “Thank God I was rescued when I was.”

I shudder, as does she. Our eyes meet, and I see in her aquamarines that a few more days and she may have been unreachable. Not just geographically, but in other ways as well. I look away, wondering how much she knows of Farren’s involvement with the men who kidnapped her, the men who hurt her. I wonder if she knows what Farren has been up to these past several months.

Carefully, I say offhandedly, “Yeah, good thing Rick was able to get you out.”

She’s quiet, and I venture a glance in her direction.

“Essa, I know what you’re thinking,” she says.

“Do you?”

“Yes,” she says softly. “I know more than you think.”

“So, you know Farren and Rick work together? You know Farren has been after the organization Eric and Vincent work for?”