“Did you see them?” he pushed me. “Well? Did you?”
“N-No.”
“Do you want me to tell you what kind of depraved things were in those letters?”
“N-No—”
“Maybe I will anyway so you understand what kind of threat we’re up against.”
“King—” Eric tried to interrupt him, but it was no use.
“Maybe you need to know what disgusting things this person wants to do to your body before and after they kill you.”
“I-I-I’m…,” I stammered.
“Are you listening,fresa?”
“King!” Manny roared, startling everyone around the table. “That’s enough,hermano.”
“I-I think I’m tired.” I rushed to get the words past my lips. “I’m just going to go to bed. I’ll see you in the m-m-morning. Just leave the plates in the sink. I-I’ll get them later.”
And then I scurried upstairs, where I was not getting a reprieve. I could hear their hushed tones while I brushed my teeth. I felt restless. I couldn’t settle, and the grime from the day still weighed heavily on my skin, so I cranked open the taps in the shower. I stripped off my clothes and dropped them into the hamper, and then I stepped into the stone-and-glass stall of my fabulous spa shower and just let the water hit me and wash the day away.
But everything that happened was much too much. The strain of the day finally took its toll, and the emotions of it all—the danger, King, competing against Bobby for control of DHR, all of it—just overwhelmed me. I sank down to the stone floor of the shower and drew up my knees to my chest just in time for the first sob to bubble up and out of my chest.
I ran out of tears sometime after the water had run cold, though the temperature didn’t bother me at all. I felt then, and I do now, nothing but numb.
I somehow managed to catch my breath and pushed up to my feet. I rinsed off as quickly as I could, but still, my muscles felt like I was crawling through quicksand. I dipped my head under the spray to rinse the shampoo out of my long dark hair when a dull pounding echoed in my brain. I knew I was going to have to take some ibuprofen before bed or I’d wake up in the morning with one hell of a headache. And then the pounding grew louder. I pulled my head out from under the water and heard the sound coming from the bathroom door.
“What in the world—”
“Adrienne,” King thundered. “Open this door right now.”
I quickly shut off the water and pulled a towel from the rack. I barely had it around me when I opened the door.
“What’s going on?” I asked him. His angry face took one look at me and softened. I probably look terrible.
“You’ve been in there for over an hour,” he explained. “I was worried.”
“Well,” I began as I drew up my courage. “As you can see, I’m fine.”
“I’m not sure you’re fine.”
Well, that was embarrassing, but there was no use letting that go on, so I did the only thing I could and pressed on.
“The room at the end of the hall is the guest room,” I told him.
“I found it.”
“I’m sure you’ll be comfortable there.”
“Yeah,” he said gently.
“I’ll… uhh…” My courage began to flag. “See you in the morning.”
“All right.”
King looked me over in a way that spoke volumes of how much of me he really saw. I could tell that nothing got by him, and still, I tipped my chin up in an almost defiant way and let him know we would never speak of this moment of weakness.
