My cheeks burn as shame washes over me at the thought of explaining what is wrong. “Yes.”
“No,” Tony says. “Her temp is one hundred and three.”
I squeeze my eyes closed, shielding myself from Louise’s kind gaze. “No one is going to force you to do anything you don’t want to do, Joanna. But if we can help by reducing physical pain straight away, that’s worth starting the healing process.”
“Okay.” I whisper.
Louise’s homeis a gorgeous three-story detached Queen Anne style house. Even in the dark, I can see the love and care Louise lavishes on the home.
She ushers me through the back door and leads the way up the stairs. “You’ll be staying with me in the top floor apartment. There are two bedrooms, so you’ll have your space. I’ll show you around tomorrow.”
She opens a door on the top floor and we enter a clean and light room. The open-plan living space is separated by akitchen island and a round dining table surrounded by four chairs. The sitting room holds a U-shaped gray sectional sofa. Louise points at it. “Take a seat. Doc will be here soon.”
I take a seat on the section furthest away so I can see everything that’s happening. Louise sits opposite me and folds her hands into her lap.
“Why do you do this?” I ask the burning question. It’s clear with how she’s handling me that this is not the first time she’s helped someone running scared.
Louise smiles, but it’s full of sadness. “I’ve been in your position. Through some miracle, I met Mel, who saw a broken soul and offered me sanctuary. There’s an epidemic, and no one is paying attention. The law is fucked, so we have to fight by learning how to survive. There’s a network of us across the country.”
“It was blind luck that I bumped into Mel?”
“Yes, but she has a sixth sense for these things. All of us do. You will too, once you are healed and can stop running.”
I glance at my hands twisted together on my lap. “I can never stop running.”
“One step at a time. Let me grab you a couple of Tylenol while we wait for the doc.”
She disappears into the kitchen and my gaze tracks her carefully as she moves around and opens cupboard doors, before striding toward me and offering a sealed bottle of orange juice and a packet of pills. I take the offerings, pop two pills and take a drink of the fresh juice. With the chocolate and the soda, my stomach protests. I slam my mouth closed and swallow the bile.
I dart my gaze to Louise. “I need your help.”
“Doc is on the way.”
I shake my head. “No, not that. It’s something else.”
I drag my teeth over my bottom lip and stand. “Can you help me get this off?”
I lift my sweater, revealing the trainer. Her eyes glaze over, not in judgment, but in sympathy. “Of course. How does it work?”
I spin, showing her my back and the laces that I haven’t been able to reach. She moves closer. “We will get this off, okay?”
I nod. She fiddles for a minute with the laces, utters a colorful string of curses as she tugs on them. She puts a small hand on my shoulder. “Joanna, do you have the key?”
My head twists to look at her. “Key?”
Her forehead crumples. “There are a few straps and a padlock.”
Fuck I forgot about them. I glance at the white ceiling. Red hot rage burns in my chest. Fucking Gideon. I tremble with the sense of doom that I am going to be stuck in this, buried in it even. Unless I lose enough weight for it to fall off me. “No, I don’t have the key.”
“Don’t panic. I need to grab a pair of scissors and we can cut the straps off, okay?”
My nostrils flare as I expel a breath. I jerk my head, not able to speak.
There’s a gentle knock at the door. I flinch and drop my sweater into place. “Relax, it’s Diana, the doc.”
I spin to face the door as Louise opens it. Her head jerks back and my body freezes. He’s found me again. “Where’s Diana?” Louise whispers. Oh my God, did he hurt someone to get to me?
“Visiting her mother in L.A. She sent me instead.”
