Finding Tessa by Jaime Hendricks (good story books to read TXT) 📕

37

TESSA

I don’t know how long I’ve been out, but when I open my eyes, I’m in a strange bedroom. Blue walls, frilly white curtains, ugly paintings you’d see in a cheap hotel, and I’m under a comforter with a blue and white gingham pattern. There’s a window to my left—it’s evening. Dusk. I can tell the way the light moves into the room. I’m in pain everywhere—my head, my shoulder, my arm—fuck. I’m attached to an IV.

My baby.

“Hello?” My voice is raspy, like I haven’t eaten or drunk anything in a week. I may not have. “Is anyone there?”

A light flips on to my right. “Well, hello there, Tessa.”

I don’t need to look—I recognize the voice and my stomach turns inside out. I press my eyes shut, willing him to go away. It’s just a nightmare.

“You gave us quite the scare, darling.” Drew stands and walks to the bed, then sits on the edge, too close to me and a tear falls down my cheek. “I’ve had you sedated for a few days.”

“Where am I?” Where’s Jace?

“Shh, shh, my darling.” His finger touches my lips, and I know I don’t have the strength to bite him. “Don’t you worry. You’re fine. The baby is fine. You’ve been very well taken care of.” He motions to the machinery in the room. There’s a big contraption that’s beeping, with squiggly lines of different colors and lots of medical bags attached to wires on hooks. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think I was in the hospital.

Oh, God. How does he know about the baby?

Maribel.

“Where’s Maribel? She did this.”

“I know, I know. She brought you to me because she knew Jack could get here and fix you up. You remember Dr. Kelly, I presume? He removed the bullet. Got you on antibiotics. Kept you asleep to heal.”

Jack Kelly is a less-than-scrupulous doctor that Drew knows from Philadelphia, one who will give him medical-grade painkillers if he wants to get high, or, on occasion, if I needed them after a beating. Or if I needed to be stitched up and not have any questions asked. Drew knows someone horrible and immoral from every walk of life.

“I remember Jack” is all I say.

“Jack pulled through and got his ass up here when I told him it was an emergency. Don’t worry, you’re safe. All the tests were done while you were sleeping.”

Up here. I’m still near my house. “What tests? How long was I sleeping?”

“Well, tests on our baby, of course. You remember that’s the only thing I can’t do? But I own you, and now, this baby. Little baby Grant is going to be just fine. I hope it’s a girl. You know I always wanted a little girl.”

His smile is evil, and horror seeps through my bones as I get a chill, which makes me shiver noticeably, and he pulls that ugly comforter farther up to my neck. If Drew thinks for one second that he’s getting his hands on my baby, I—oh God, I’ll what? What can I really do? He’s kept me housebound and cut off from the world before and he’ll do it again.

“Where am I?”

“I said you’re safe.” This time, the smile is gone, his voice is deeper and he’s not messing around. He’s not going to let me go.

Jace. I have to get out of here.

I move, just for comfort reasons, but the pain is everywhere. I try to wiggle my toes to see if I still have feeling in my legs, which I do, but they’re like wet spaghetti right now. I can’t make a run for it. I don’t even know how long it’s been since I’ve moved.

He did say my baby was safe. My baby, with my husband Jace. My everything. Drew has taken away so much; I won’t let him take this too. I need to find out where I am, how long I’ve been here, where Maribel is, and what his plan is.

So I do the unthinkable. I survive, because that’s who I am in my bones. A survivor. I begin flexing the muscles in my legs and rotating my ankles.

I turn to him, and smile.

“Are you going to take me home?”

Now his disgusting hand is on my face, the backs of his fingers touching my cheek. He smiles back.

Then he backhands me. Hard. I let my head flop to the side. He prefers me submissive.

“Take you home? Of course you’re coming home with me as soon as we can get you out of this bed. Which, now that you’re awake, seems like it could be soon. You were out for five days. I wanted you to heal without complications. Make sure the baby was okay. While I took care of everything else.”

“What else? What else did you do for me, baby?”

He’s rubbing my leg, and I face him and force a smile again, even with my cheek throbbing. I know exactly where every fingerprint will be and how it will look. I feel the bile crawling up my throat, but I push it back down when he begins to talk.

“Maribel played along for the first few days, pretending she wanted you to heal too. But I know how she gets.” He laughs and blows a breath out of his mouth. “Man, she was a jealous one. She was thrilled when you left me. But you’re mine. That’s what no one understands. I own you.” His eyes are wild, possessed. Obsessed with me. “I know what she’s capable of, after she killed Rosita a few days ago. Sure, setting up your man for that was par for the course, but she really killed Rosita because I fucked her. Maribel wouldn’t be able to stand the fact that you’re in my life again. That we’re a family. I couldn’t take a chance with her around you anymore.”

Oh, God. So Maribel did kill Rosita, just like she said she would. Oh no. Is