“Mom, I need to go. We’ll see you at brunch.”
I bit back a whimper when he ran his fingers over where I was bare and ready for him, and slapped at his chest when I noticed the hungry, yet amused, look on his face.
“You can tell me this at brunch. I really need to go— Mom— Mo— Never mind. Bye.” He hung up and tossed his phone on the island countertop next to me, and grinned wolfishly when I smacked his chest again.
“That was not—” He cut off my reprimand with his mouth on mine, and swallowed my moan when he pressed two fingers inside me.
“She knows now,” he said through the kiss. “And you know she won’t be able to say anything at brunch because we’ll be in public.”
My eyes fluttered shut, and I leaned away from him, keeping my hands secured to the back of his neck for support as his fingers brought me closer and closer to the edge. “You’re terrible,” I said halfheartedly, my focus mostly on what Kyle was doing to me.
“What was that?”
I sucked in a quick breath when his thumb pressed against my clit and murmured something unintelligible.
“That’s what I thought,” he said quietly, his tone laced with humor.
I woke up in the dark place sometime later, gasping and screaming in a pool of my own vomit. Almost immediately, I was forced back into unconsciousness the same way as before.
“Who’s that?” Kyle asked an hour and a half later when we were stepping out of the house to meet his parents for brunch.
I glanced up, my chest tightening when I saw her.
Jenna, a girl I worked with, was standing next to an idling car at the end of the driveway.
Even from where I was, I could see that her arms were wrapped around her waist tightly, and she was shaking.
“Jenna,” I whispered, and gave Kyle a knowing look before hurrying over to her. “Hey, wh—oh my God, Jenna. What happened?”
Her mess of blonde hair fell like a protective curtain around her face, but it didn’t stop me from seeing it. Her bottom lip was split open and her right eye was red and purple, and so swollen I doubted she could see through it.
In the year she’d been working with me at Glow, I’d noticed a couple suspicious bruises along her arms, but she’d always had an excuse for them. That is . . . when she’d spoken to me.
No one knew anything about her or her home life since she was incredibly shy and never said much to anyone. And she hadn’t said a word to me for nearly a month after I’d brought the bruises up.
I’d always mentioned my worries to Kyle, but it was obvious Jenna hadn’t wanted our help back then. Now . . .
“I have to go, Briar,” she said through her trembling. “I have—I have to get out of here.”
I stared at her in shock for a few seconds with my head shaking before I nodded quickly. “Of course, what do you need us to do? We can take you where—”
“No,” she said quickly, harshly. “I have a car, but m-m-my dad . . . he thinks I’m on my way to work right now, and he has my phone. If I don’t show up, they’ll call.”
I wasn’t understanding what she needed. All I could focus on were the bruises and the cuts on her face. The violent shaking of her body and the raw fear in her voice.
“Your dad?” I asked lamely, and wondered for a second how old she was. She had to be at least twenty-one to work in the restaurant. “What do you need, Jenna? Tell me what I can do. Do you need money?”
“N-no. No, can you cover for me at work? P-please, I n-need time to get away, Briar. I need time, and if he realizes I’m not there, he’ll come looking for me right away.”
“Of course,” I said without hesitation. “Of course I will. What time is your shift?”
“It starts in ten minutes.”
I nodded again, and tried to get my mind straight. “Okay. Okay, I’ll call and tell them I’m running late. That I forgot we switched. Are you sure we can’t help you in any other way? My fiancé can—”
“No, just—I just need to leave.”
“Jenna, my fiancé’s mom is the governor, so she can do something about your dad if he’s the one who’s been doing this—”