The Vargas Cartel Trilogy (Vargas Cartel #1-3)(30)
An empty pack of gum.
A few used tissues.
A pen.
A phone charger.
Nothing…
Leaning to the side, while keeping my eyes trained on the road, I opened the glove box, and my heart slammed against the walls of my chest. A cell phone. It was old…the kind with a flip front and barely-existent screen, but as long as it worked long enough to call a number or two, I didn’t care.
My hands shaking, I opened the phone and dialed my dad’s number plus the international code from memory. My dad didn’t participate in the video conference yesterday, but I still thought he was my best option.
With every ring, my heart climbed the walls of my chest.
One ring.
Two rings.
“Come on…pick up.” I squeezed the phone tighter and tighter.
Three rings.
“Dad, answer your f*cking phone,” I screamed as I white-knuckled the steering wheel with my free hand.
Four rings.
“Beep.”
“No,” I yelled.
“You’ve reached Richard Covington’s voicemail, please leave a message.”
“Dad, it’s Hattie. Where are you? I need you. I’m lost. I don’t know where I am.” I started to disconnect the call and then I stopped. “Call me on this number,” I added, hoping the number showed up on his missed calls list.
I disconnected the phone call.
My mind cataloged the people I could call. Vera. My mom. My brother. Evan. My mom and brother would be useless. Vera never answered calls from unknown numbers. That left Evan. I wavered a few seconds before I decided to call him, but in the end, I did it.
The waiting started once more.
One ring.
“Hello.”
“Evan,” I whispered. His name rolled off my lips like a benediction. A prayer. Even though I still hated him, he symbolized home and my life before Ryker unhinged everything I knew and believed about my life and myself. Evan cheating on me seemed like an inconsequential hiccup in comparison to my current problems.
“Hattie, baby, is that you?”
Stunned that he answered the phone, I nodded my head, forgetting he couldn’t see me.
“Hattie?” he repeated louder. “Can you hear me?”
“Yes, it’s me.”
“Where are you?”
Fragmented thoughts tumbled from my mouth. “I don’t know. I ran. I got lost. He found me. There was a bed and breakfast. We fought. Why does he do that? There was a car. I stole it, and now I’m driving somewhere. I don’t know where.”
“What? Hattie, you need to calm down and explain.”
I slowed to a stop and surveyed my surroundings. The road dead-ended twenty feet in front of me at a small terra cotta colored cottage with a thatched roof and a light blue front door. Uneven gray stones were stacked on either side of the cottage, forming a rudimentary fence. Brightly colored clothes hung from a string between two wooden posts.
“Oh shit,” I murmured.
“What?”
“I’m at someone’s house.”
“Don’t go in,” Evan warned, but his words sounded faded and distant as reality slapped me across the face.
I fled the bed and breakfast on the one road that was a dead end. No wonder Ryker didn’t run after me. I couldn’t go anywhere except back to the bed and breakfast, or I could get out and run aimlessly through the jungle again, because I couldn’t drive the car through the dense foliage.
“I’m f*cked.” The words were a pained whisper ripped straight from my pulverized soul. Defeat churned savagely in my stomach, and I started to cry. I was so sick of crying. “I thought I won. I can’t believe this. I can’t get away from him, and every time I see him I crumble.”
“Who are you talking about?” Evan yelled, and I jerked in reaction to his harsh tone. I’d almost forgotten he was on the phone.
“Him.” I shoved my sweaty hair out my eyes. “Oh God, Evan, I don’t understand how he does it. He touches me, and I try to fight it, but he overwhelms me and I cave. I’m weak. Hopelessly pathetic. Something is wrong with me…so wrong.” My voice fractured on the last word.
“Hattie, you’re scaring me. What are you talking about?”
“He’s corrupted me. I don’t even know who I am anymore,” I said, my voice sounding dead to my ears. My head dropped to the steering wheel and disjointed sobs streamed out of my mouth one after another.
“Listen to me, Hattie. I will find you. I promise. I’m sorry I hurt you. I will do whatever it takes to get you home safely, and then we’ll start over. Believe me, I will never let you go again. It’s you and me forever.”
I wanted to believe him. I wanted my safe, predictable life so much I could practically taste it. Even more, I wanted the life I thought I had before Evan shattered it into a million pieces. “Please, Evan,” I pleaded. “I need to go home. I can’t stand this. I’m so confused.”
“Listen to me. I’m coming for you. I will find you. I will bring you home, and then we’ll start over. Together we’ll create a new life until we’ve erased all of this shit with bigger, better, and more meaningful memories.”
“Oh God, Evan, I don’t know if it’s possible. I’m so f*cked up. This is so f*cked up.”