Hope
Teagan: Lucky's back in Boulder.
Hope: At your house?
Teagan: He was. He left thirty minutes ago. Said something about getting a beer.
Hope: Oh god.
Teagan: Move your ass, Carter. I heard him talking to Noah in the basement. He's not back for long.
"Where are you going?" were the first words I heard when I stepped off the bottom step of the stairs on Thursday night.
My heart sank into my butt.
I thought he'd be passed out by now.
That was the norm, after all.
Not bothering to respond, I continued rummaging through my purse for my car keys, dutifully ignoring him.
The need to find Hunter was choking me.
I had to find him.
Speak to him.
The need to see Hunter overrode all my fears and worries. I could figure those out later.
Right now, I needed to get to him.
"I asked you a question, Hope," Jordan continued, breaking through my thoughts as he stumbled down the staircase, hot on my heels. "I'm talking to you!" Following me down the rest of the steps, he reached out and grabbed my forearm, halting me in my tracks. "Answer me."
An overwhelming amount of fear swept through me, all linked to the hand he had wrapped around my arm.
Get off.
Get off.
Get off.
"Don’t touch me," I warned him as I tried and failed to yank my arm free from his hold. The stench of whiskey on his breath was stifling "Let go."
Twenty-nine days.
I had spent twenty-nine days holed up in this shithole of a house, having abuse hopped off me like shit off a shovel.
Spending every hour of every day being devalued and persecuted.
And I was done.
Done being beaten into submission with blackmail antics and dangerous threats.
I was so through with living in fear of drug dealers, angry outbursts, and being blamed for him slowly killing himself, and then getting slapped around when I tried to help.
He wouldn’t let me call his father, threatening to break our deal if I did, and his mother never got back to my message. I was all out of options. And pity? I had run out of that, too.
I was done, period.
With all of it.
"Tell me where you're going," he repeated flatly.
"I'm going to see Teagan," I lied, glaring at the hand he had wrapped around my arm. "Or would you rather I stay locked up in this hell hole for the rest of my life?"
"Will he be there?" There was a glazed over look in his eyes and he was swaying on his feet. "At Teagan's?"
"No," I snapped, finally managing to free my hand from his grasp. "He doesn’t live there anymore."
"Hope, I don’t want to –" Jordan began to say, then quickly cut himself off. He took an unsteady step towards me, but stopped and bowed his head. "Don’t forget our deal."
"How could I?" I snapped, pulling the front door open. "I'm living with the consequences every day."
"Fuck you, Hope Carter," he whispered, glaring at me like I was the devil. "For destroying me."
"Fuck me?" I snarled, hand gripped on the door handle with so much force my knuckles had turned white. "No. Fuck you, Jordan Porter," I shot back cruelly. "Fuck. You."
When I slammed the front door shut, I thought I was free from confrontation for a little while.
Oh, how wrong I was.
"Running back to lover boy?" Annabelle sneered as she balanced a bag of groceries against one hip. "Slut."
Stifling a groan at the sight of the blonde she-devil, I jutted out my chin and proceeded to walk towards my truck. "That's right," she continued to taunt. "Go on and run home to daddy. Bury your head in the sand and have him make all your problems go away with a flick of his credit card."
"Stay out of my business, bitch," I retorted.
"Whoa," Annabelle taunted mockingly. "Bad words for a good girl."
Stopping just short of my truck, I swung around to glare at her. "What the hell is your problem with me?" I demanded, having had quite enough of her shit to last me a lifetime. "You don’t know me," I added. "You have no idea who I am."
"No," she replied. "And neither does Jordan. He holds you on a pedestal of perfection when we both know that's not the case, right Hope?"
"What the hell did I ever do to you?"
"It's not what you do to me, it's what you do to him. Every day. Looking at him like he's a rescue puppy you need to save. News flash, Hope: he's a man with a hell of lot going for him. A good man. One who overcame a hell of a lot without anyone's help! Not his parents. Not yours. He's not a requirement either. And if you can't love him with all of your heart then step out of the way because there are plenty of woman who can and will."
"Are you fucking kidding me?" I shot back. "What cloud are you living on?" Furious, I stalked over to where she was standing. "He hasn’t overcome anything," I growled. "Because of people like you who cover up his lifestyle and feed his addiction."
She paled and opened her mouth to reply, but I wasn’t having it.
"I know what you've been doing," I sneered. "Bringing him drugs? Fucking spoon feeding him into an early grave." I shook my head and gave a look of pure disgust. "Some fucking sponsor you turned out to be."
"I love Jordan," Annabelle strangled out, face turning bright red. "And unlike you, I can't stand back and watch him suffer like this."
"Then you're sentencing him to death," I shot back emotionless. "Because what you're doing is wrong, Annabelle."
She jerked forward, but I stood my ground, too riled up to take another ounce of crap from these people. "Do it," I hissed, getting in her face. "Put your hands on me again. I dare you."
"You're not worth it, honey," she sneered, then stepped around me. "You're nothing but a convict's whore."
"And proud of it, sweetie," I called after her.
Bitch.