“Let her go, you’re hurting her…” Cam orders from the front seat. The softness of his voice slices right through me. They’re like night and day, good and bad, but I’m not fooled by it, their end goal is still the same. Keep me silent at all costs.
With a snarl, he releases me and directs his attention to Cam. I sag against the seat, sucking air into my lungs. I’ve never felt so much anger being directed at me in my life.
“She’s your responsibility now. I don’t want to fucking deal with her anymore.”
For some reason, what he says hits me right in the heart. It almost feels like he’s breaking up with me, which is ridiculous since we were never together in the first place. I don’t even know what we are. I’m just a piece of meat to them, hanging from the top of the cage. Eventually, they’ll jump high enough to reach me and rip me to shreds.
It doesn’t matter that they offered to care for Grams and me. They aren’t doing it because they care. They’re doing it so they can fuck me, and I might be naive, but I’m not stupid enough to believe that they care one more ounce about me outside of that.
“Fine,” Cam responds and starts the SUV. We drive in complete silence, Easton ignoring me, putting more and more distance between us as the miles pass.
When we reach the house, I’m shaking, and not just because I’m cold. I’m angry and hurt. Angry with both of them for treating me this way and hurt by the way Easton dismisses me. It’s like he decided to be done with me, and that’s it. He is throwing me away like a piece of garbage. I should be glad that he’s losing interest in me. I should be… that’s what my brain is telling me at least, but my stupid heart is getting in the way.
My heart hurts. I feel abandoned and alone, two feelings I know all too well. When I lost my parents, that’s all I could feel. I fought many years to be somewhat happy again, to push those feelings down, but today all of them are resurfacing, and I’m not sure if I can find my way back to happiness again.
Easton gets out of the car, slamming the door shut behind him with such force I worry about him breaking something. Cameron gets out as well, opening my door next.
I scurry outside and into the house with Cameron following close behind.
“Are you hungry?”
“No,” I whisper, wrapping my arms around my middle a little tighter.
“Let’s go take a shower then,” he suggests, and I nod my head slightly. He leads me to his bathroom and starts stripping my clothes off, before turning on the water and getting naked himself.
Like everything in this house, the shower is modern, sleek, and expensive looking. There is plenty of room for multiple people, and it even has two showerheads. When the water turns hot enough for it to steam, I step under the spray and let it caress my worn-out body, and my aching muscles.
There is a slight burn between my legs, and I remember what we did just a few hours ago.
“Are you sore?” Cam asks, stepping into the shower.
“A little. It’s not bad…” The ache in my chest about what Easton said and how I saw Grams today is much worse. The image of her tied to the bed pops into my mind again, intensifying the pain.
“You look like you’re about to cry.”
“They tied her to a bed… they gave her drugs and tied her to a bed,” I sob, unable to hold my emotions back any longer. Overcome with pain and anger, I seek comfort in the only place I know I can. In Cam’s arms. Stepping into him, I bury my face into his chest and snake my arms around his torso.
I think he’s going to push me away, but instead, he pulls me closer as I sob against his skin. It’s embarrassing and ugly, but I’m like a dam that can’t hold any more water. We stand there like that for a while, and he just holds me while I cry in his arms. When I finally compose myself, I stand up straight and wipe the wet strands of hair sticking to my forehead away.
“Don’t worry about Grams, I’ll take care of that tomorrow. That won’t happen again. Now… let me wash you,” Cam says his voice soft as he reaches for the soap and a washcloth.
“Okay,” I agree, and watch as he soaps the cloth and starts to run it over my body. I can’t remember the last time someone took care of me like this. I forgot how nice it felt being cared for, even if this is a one-time deal, I’ll gladly take it.