My head just wasn’t keeping up with her conversation. I needed a drink.
“Hannah,” Emily said sternly. “Look at me.”
I stopped scanning the room and focused on her.
“What?”
“You were kidnapped by rapists. Are you hurt?”
“If you’re asking me if my cooter is sore, the answer is no, Mom. No unexpected pregnancies to inconvenience your future. Where are my supplies? I made a fair trade at Tenacity and want my jars.”
“I’m sorry I can’t help you, Hannah,” she said softly. “I tried.” She reached out and gave my hand a quick squeeze. “There’s someone here to see you.”
She walked out of the room, leaving the door open behind her.
Before I could get up to search for something to drink, Merdon strode in.
“Get out of bed.”
His harsh tone and the way he stood over me grated on my last hungover nerve.
“Get the fuck out of my room, Merdon.”
He leaned in close, bracing his hands on the mattress on either side of me.
“You smell worse than a cow,” he growled at me. “Go shower.”
“Piss off.”
The blankets covering me abruptly disappeared. A moment later, I was over his shoulder, and he was striding across the room. It happened so fast that I didn’t even have a chance to think about kicking him or screaming. Then, I was on my feet again in the bathroom.
“Shower,” he said, shoving me toward the tiled enclosure.
“Back the fuck off,” I said, pushing away his hands.
He was like a damn octopus, though. Hands everywhere, nudging me into the shower whether I wanted to go there or not.
I swore up a storm, calling him every vile thing I could think of. He didn’t flinch at all. Or stop. Once I stood in the shower, I swung at his head. He caught my fist and reached around me.
Cold water blasted me.
“Mother fucker!”
He slammed the shower door shut and leaned his back against it.
“Bathe, Hannah.”
Knowing full well Merdon would only turn it back on if I turned it off, I beat my fists against the glass until the water started to warm. Then, with a snarl, I stripped off my wet clothes. With satisfaction, I pushed the sopping wad over the top and watched it tumble over his head and shoulders.
He flicked it to the ground, unperturbed at the water now soaking his hair and shirt, and glanced back at me.
“Wash, Hannah. It will be more pleasant while the water is warm.”
I slowly lifted my middle finger.
“Do you know what this means?” I all but snarled. “Go screw yourself, caveman, and crawl back under the rock you came from.”
His lip curled in a small sardonic smile.
“If you would rather wait for the water to run cold again, that is your choice. I am a patient man.”
He resumed his comfortable position, facing away from me, and I spit out every vile name I could come up with. Then, I washed.
“Under your arms, too,” he said without looking. “You reek of—”
“Yeah, I get it,” I yelled, already scrubbing my pits angrily.
I didn’t stop calling him names the entire time. Somehow, he knew when I finished washing and left the bathroom before I managed to shut off the water.
Livid, I stood there, shaking. Cooling water dripped from my hair and down my back as I grappled with what had just happened. My tremor-inducing anger wasn’t just because Merdon had forced me into the shower and made me strip like some hooker. It was that he was here, involved again, and ruining my life. Why did he keep showing up?
It had to be Emily. Just before he’d barged into my room, she’d apologized and said I had a visitor. Why apologize? The answer was obvious. It was because she’d invited him in. She’d done this to me.
Emily’s betrayal was the biggest source of my anger and hurt. I obviously couldn’t count on her to have my back anymore.
It was time to make a change. Tenacity had what I needed. Living in Tolerance with a hateful roommate and a psychotic fey, who couldn’t mind his own business, no longer made any sense.
I wrapped a towel around my torso and strode into my room, focused on one goal. Packing my shit up to get the hell out of the viper’s pit I found myself in. Given the light coming from the window, I could probably find someone at the wall to hitch a ride to Tenacity. But I needed to hurry.
Since I didn’t have a suitcase, I started tossing clothes onto the bed.