I felt beyond dirty, if there was a word for how I felt I sure didn’t know it. A million scalding showers and a pool of bleach couldn’t wash away the feeling surrounding me. That sick bastard had been in my home. He had touched my body without my consent. A fresh wave of tears spilled from my eyes blurring my vision. Using the back of my hand I wiped them away.
Fuck Miami. Fuck Robert Davidson, Bob, whatever the fuck he calls himself. Sick twisted bastard was a better fitting name. The sick son of a bitch needed to be taken down. I hoped Emily had the strength to finally pull the proverbial trigger and do it.
I had done the math, there was no way in hell I had enough evidence to have Bob convicted, let alone arrested. I knew it was him, but there was no way I could prove it. Unfortunately, it wasn’t against the law to be creepy, trust me, I made enough calls to check and be sure. I had no evidence he was in my house other than him admitting it. I couldn’t even prove he said it because he didn’t identify himself and his number had been blocked. It pissed me off. I couldn’t prove a damn thing I knew to be certain. Which meant hanging around Miami would make me a sitting duck for whatever sick games Bob had planned.
There was no way in hell I was going to make this easy for him. It had taken me a record forty-five minutes to get out of Miami and onto the highway out of here. I still hadn’t heard from Devon which bothered me more than I cared to admit. Bob had been courteous enough to call me a record twenty times since I hung up on him. I have no idea why in the hell that man had ever thought I would answer the phone to him again. Now that I knew who the unknown caller was I felt even sicker to my stomach. Had he called from inside the house? Was he already there waiting on me to come home from the club? Did he wait for me to pass out before calling to wake me? The endless questions swarmed through my brain. I wasn’t brave enough to answer the phone to him and demand answers. I wasn’t sure if it was because I was more afraid of him or if I was more afraid of what the answers might be.
Just as Devon had promised, Trina had sent me an address to the land in Columbus, Nevada. Two thousand seven hundred and ninety-one miles, my first time leaving the state and I somehow decided to take one of the longest road trips ever, nearly crossing the entire country. My GPS showed a forty-one-hour drive. Doing the rough math in my head it accounted for at least a four-day drive if I only drove ten hours a day and didn’t run into any issues. The longest leg of the trip was going to be along highway 10. All I needed to do was get as far away from Miami as I could and the rest would figure itself out. Thankfully I had a full tank of gas and my little Prius got amazing gas mileage. I typically got around fifty miles to the gallon, which meant I would only have to stop for gas at least four more times. Doing the math in my head I roughly estimated I would need to fill up every time I stopped to rest.
Math made my head hurt, thinking made my head hurt, hell, the whole situation made my head hurt. I didn’t want to be calculating rough estimates of time and travel. I wanted to be surfing the net for my next land purchase while I downed a gallon of chocolate thunder ice cream, like any other twenty-five-year old woman confused about her relationship. Fuck you Bob Davidson. Fuck you in the ass.
-
The sun had already set, leaving the roads deserted. The empty highway felt like a living representation of my life, dark expansive empty space with the occasional passing motorist and city lights. The bright lights of Port St. Lucie were fading from my rearview mirror when my phone rang, sending my heart to my throat with nervous energy. It had been an hour since Bob had tried to call and my nerves were still on edge.
Looking at the display I felt my heartbeat race for an entirely different reason, the pulse sounding loudly in the silent car.
“Hey.” I smiled weakly as I answered.
“Hey yourself.” Devon’s voice sounded hollow and empty.
“Everything okay?”
“Yeah, everything’s good here. Well, as good as can be expected.” There was a slight hesitation to his voice filling me with dread.
“So, what’s up?” I asked with as much fake enthusiasm as I could muster.
How did one normally tread during these types of circumstances? Normally, just the thought of the word threatened to have me doubling over in laughter. What an oxymoron, as though these types of situations happened often enough to have a particular way of digesting and conversing about.
“Did you get out of the house?”
“Uh huh, I just passed Port St. Lucie a few minutes before you called.” I could hear Devon sigh in relief.
“Just keep headed toward Nevada. I’m beat. I’m going to get some rest. I’ll call you in the morning to check up on you.”
“Okay-“ I couldn’t hide the disappointment in my voice.
“Look, Sasha, I’ve been up for over forty-eight hours, I’m tired. I just want to sleep. I don’t want to argue. I’ll call you tomorrow.” The annoyance in his voice was heavy bearing no room for negotiation.
“Talk to you tomorrow, Devon.” Pressing the button on the steering wheel I ended the call, not giving him a chance to reply.
Anger and annoyance coursed through my veins, pushing me forward. It wasn’t until I hit Shreveport that fatigue hit me. I had been on the road for over sixteen hours. The sun had set, risen, and set again leaving my eyes heavy and my body stiff. The anger that coursed through my veins was still riding high, leaving me a raging mess of venom.
Devon’s promise to call resulted in even more bitter anger. He called asking how I was. Once I replied that I was fine he ended the call with the promise to call the following day. I wanted to hate him. I truly did. But I was so angry I couldn’t even focus on hate. I was just fuming mad, unable to go beyond the raging inferno that had taken up residence in my soul.
Sam had called me once. I wanted to answer the phone and talk to her. I wanted to tell her everything that had been going on, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it, which only fueled the pit of rage.
Pulling over to sleep for a few hours at a rest stop, the wave of emotions overwhelmed me, swallowing me whole. Sobs wracked my body. I was angry, scared, alone, and felt completely drained. I sobbed alone in the tiny cab of my car until my body gave out, every limb of my body felt weak with fatigue, and sleep eventually pulled me under. I sank into a deep restless slumber, nightmares waking me through the night filling me with panic.