“Hey, what’s wrong? Are you scared of me?” Cash asked.
Scared of him? No. Scared was the last feeling she had around him, unless she was talking about her emotions andfeelings towards him. Those were something she was scared of. But that was to do with the way she felt about him, not because she thought he might harm her.
“Because you don’t ever have to be scared of me, Addie. I know I look scary. I also know I can be bossy at times. For most of my life, I’ve felt like I’ve got no control over what I do, when I do it, or how I do it. There’s always someone pulling my strings, and I like to be in charge. I can be bossy. It’s important that you eat. You’re already small, and I can tell you’re feeling the cold, which is probably because you haven’t got enough fuel in your body. And you haven’t had enough sleep. You need to eat to keep going. Understand?”
He wasn’t wrong. He was just high-handed in how he went about it. But sometimes she needed someone to take control and just tell her what to do. She needed to shut off the part of her brain that kept worrying, thinking, and trying to tell her that she was doing everything the wrong way.
If someone else was in control, she didn’t have to worry about any of that.
Reaching out, she picked up the sandwich and took another bite. Cash placed his hand on the back of her neck and rubbed it slightly. “That’s my good girl. You’re doing such a good job.”
Killing her. He was killing her.
Was she just a charity case to him? A good deed?
Maybe he and Ralen just felt invested in what was happening. They wanted to see it through. But what about their jobs? Did they not need to work today?
“Your sisters are something else, huh?” Cash said. “Dotty is a force to be reckoned with. Monroe seems so happy and fun.”
Was he interested in Monroe? How could he not be? She was utterly gorgeous and yeah, lots of fun.
She was very different from Addie. Monroe was an extrovert, people flocked to her, wanting to be around her.
With Addie, they just gave her polite stares or looks of pity and kept out of her way, as though whatever she had wrong with her was catching.
“Hey, did I say something to upset you?” he asked. “I didn’t mean that in a negative way. The three of you are obviously really close. The fact that you and Dotty came with Monroe in search of her husband is proof of that.”
Had Monroe’s husband really broken into their hotel room? And why? It didn’t make much sense.
All he had to do was meet with her for thirty seconds and sign the divorce papers. Instead, he trashed their hotel room after getting someone to steal her purse, and then he wrote that message on their mirror?
This could have all been over so quickly. Why would he be so upset at Monroe for trying to find him?
Addie shook her head and put the sandwich down. Then she stood. This time he didn’t try to stop her, which was an improvement.
Or, at least, she told herself it was.
“Do you want to go and have a nap on the staff room couch again?”
She shook her head. Her head was throbbing, and she could use some painkillers. Addie got the feeling her period was coming. She had that heavy feeling in the bottom of her stomach, and she felt a little ill.
“I need to go out,” she said, searching in her bag and not finding the stronger painkillers that she used for this time of the month.
She also didn’t have any sanitary products with her, which was just perfect. She could ask her sisters or Sable for some, but she really preferred using period panties.
“Not happening, sorry,” he said. “It’s safer for you to stay in here.”
Frustration filled her. But was he right? Was it too dangerous? What if someone tried to attack her? What if whoever wrote that message was watching and waiting?
No. No, that was her mother’s paranoia speaking. No one was watching her. That was ridiculous.
“No one is interested in me.”
“You don’t know that,” Cash told her.
“My head hurts.”
Addie found some chewable painkillers and popped them into her mouth. They’d do for a while, but they weren’t going to manage her pain forever. She always got a bad headache right before her period.
