Vicious Carousel (Suncoast Society #25)(10)

“Yeah,” Nolan sadly said. “Me, too. I thought she was adorable.” Kenny’s attention snapped onto Nolan. “What?” Nolan asked.

Kenny took a moment to answer. “Long-term. If,” he strongly emphasized, “she is in a healthy place, I’m not against you and me talking about maybe more than just protecting her.”

“Long-term,” Nolan agreed. “And only if, after we bounce it off others first, they think it’s a good idea.”

Kenny rested his head against Nolan’s shoulder. “What time is Ed getting here?”

“We’re supposed to call him, but he said he wanted to be here by ten.”

“Okay. I hope she’s awake by then.”

“Why do I have a feeling our world just shifted?”

“Because it did.” Kenny kissed him before slipping past him and heading for the kitchen doorway, where he pulled up short. “Oh, dammit.” He turned.

“What?”

“Mom’s coming for dinner tonight.”

“So?”

Kenny pointed down the hall. “So? Really?”

“We tell the truth. She’s a friend in trouble. If Dennis comes with her, maybe it’ll make him keep his mouth shut around Betsy.”

“I should cancel dinner.”

“No.” Nolan walked over to him and pulled him in close again. “I don’t want to cancel dinner. I suspect Mom’s going to need to get out of the house, and I’d really be shocked—like buy a lotto ticket shocked—if Dennis came with her. Maybe having Mom here to talk to might help Betsy.”

“You think so?”

“I think it’ll help take Mom’s mind off her troubles.” There was a little hard cider left in the bottom of the bottle. Nolan took it from Kenny and drained it, then put it in the recycling bin under the sink. He returned to Kenny and took his hand. “Sorry you didn’t get your beating and f*cking.”

Kenny shrugged. “To be honest? I’m too exhausted and mentally wrung out for either right now. But, hey, bonus, shift in perspective. Having a homophobic douche for a step-dad is no biggie, in the grand scheme of things.”

Nolan chuckled as he led him down the hall toward their bedroom. “That’s putting it into perspective, all right.”





Chapter Four


Betsy startled awake the next morning, her left eye wide, right eye unable to open, fear spiking adrenaline through her system and making her heart jackhammer in her chest.

Fear even overshadowed the disorientation she felt as her one-eyed gaze darted around the room, taking in the unfamiliar surroundings.

This wasn’t Jack’s bedroom.

This damn sure wasn’t Jack’s bed—and thank god for that, because it was like a thousand times more comfortable.

She sucked in a deep breath and let it out again as her mind slowly began to turn and settle back into place, the events of the previous evening coming back to her. Getting the chain off her foot.

Getting free.

But how free was she, really?

She literally had no money. Worse, now she had a hospital bill she’d have to figure out how to pay. At least with Jack, she wasn’t in debt, not that he wouldn’t have loved to put her there and even more firmly under his thumb.

She wanted to sit up, but when she tried to lift her head she realized that wasn’t going to be possible. Pain, sharp and piercing, slammed through her skull. And that made her wince, which made all her other pains speak up and holler for attention, including the agony in her right ankle. She laid back down again, her eyes squeezed closed, as she prayed for the pain to abate.

Shit.

Breathing hurt. Hell, thinking hurt.

After a couple of minutes, she realized she would have to move eventually. She slowly reached out with her left hand and couldn’t feel the edge of the bed.

Okay, that means I’m on the right side.

Sure enough, slow and careful exploration with that hand allowed her to discover the edge and showed her how much room she had to work with so she didn’t roll her stupid ass right off onto the floor.

Taking a couple of long, slow, deep breaths, she gingerly tried rolling onto her right side. It took every ounce of strength she had not to scream in agony.

Dammit.

Okay, getting up on her own wasn’t an option at that time.

Moving slowly, she turned her head toward the left. Outside, light leaked around the edges of the horizontal blinds covering the windows. As she tried slowly moving her head back to the right, she spotted the time on a cable box.

7:27

Okay. I have to get up.

She gave up when a dizzying wave of vertigo accompanying the spike of pain swept over her on her second attempt to lift her head.

Somewhere out in the house, she heard someone moving around and smelled coffee brewing. It made her stomach growl.

Yeah, come to think of it, she hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast Saturday morning. She wasn’t allowed to eat unless Jack gave her permission. If he came home and found stuff missing from the fridge or cabinets without him okaying it, he would beat her for it. He’d said she needed to lose weight, even though she hadn’t thought she was fat.

I hope he’s in jail.

Screw that, she hoped he was under the f*cking jail.

In the cold light of day, as her new reality slowly began to sink in, she realized survival mode was no longer necessary. She had survived, despite what she’d stupidly let him do to her.