Knuckles (Dragon Riders MC #4) - Savannah Rylan Page 0,26

smack dab in the middle of the tiled wall. I peered out into the world as hot water battered against my skin, and part of me wondered if maybe I could still leave. If I cashed in the pennies and quarters I had in my jar and take the few bucks I had stowed underneath my mattress on the floor, maybe I’d have enough to at least get within walking distance of the Iron Horse. I mean even if it was an hour’s walk to the damn place, so long as I had a map and some road names, I’d be fine.

But the idea of Skeleton stopped me.

That idea stopped me from doing just about anything that meant leaving this small town.

What if he was out there looking for me, too? Just like I knew JayJay was? What if I left and he found me first? I couldn’t stomach the thought of it. The idea of being back in Skeleton’s grasp after running like I did petrified me. And it was enough fear to keep me rooted to Cherry Branch.

“Fucking hell,” I whispered.

I leaned my head against the tiled wall and engaged in yet another ritualistic activity that had become a pastime here in the small town. I cried. I let my shoulders shake and my knees grow weak as I slid to the bottom of the tub. I didn’t hold back, either. In the diner? I held back. In bed? I held back. Eating food? I held back.

Not in the shower, though.

The shower relaxed me enough to let things flow.

“What am I gonna do?” I asked through my sobbing.

I curled up into a ball on the floor of the tub and cried until hiccups started. I couldn't catch my breath and I couldn't breathe. I felt helpless and it was all too much. Everything about my life right now was too much. My bills were going unpaid. My credit card debt was mounting by the second. Interest compounded upon missed payments compounded upon percentages of other things I didn’t even understand.

“I’ll never get out of here,” I whispered to myself.

I laid there until the water turned cold, and even then, it took me a second to move. I hadn’t cleaned myself down at all, but at that point I didn’t care. I sat up with the world spinning around my head and turned off the water. Then, I forced myself out of the shower. Dani would be home soon, and I wanted there to be at least a bit of hot water for her to use.

But as I wrapped a towel around my dripping wet body, I saw my hazy reflection in the steamed-up mirror.

And I found myself hating the little bit that I saw.

“You’re useless, you know that?” I said to myself.

Echoing the sentiments of my foster mother’s words every time I got myself into this kind of trouble.

Only this time, I knew the sentiment was right.

11

Knuckles

Giggling came from behind me and I whipped around. But every time I thought I was facing the beautiful, ethereal sound, it always appeared somewhere else. Everywhere I looked, that sound was behind me. And in front of me?

Well, nothing but endless darkness.

“Hello!?”

The giggling continued. “Over here, JayJay.”

I paused. “Simone!?”

“Come catch me!”

I heard the pitter patter of her little feet and I took off in the direction of the sound. With my feet falling on nothing but darkness and the expanse in front of me nothing but a blank slate, I ran in the straightest line I could. But every time I thought I was getting closer, the sound quickly faded away.

As if it had stepped into another room that didn’t exist.

“Over here, JayJay!”

I whipped around. “I can’t see you, Simone!”

“Hide and seeeeek!”

Hide and seek. Her favorite game as a little girl. I grinned as I put my hands over my eyes. I started counting out loud, always to the number fourteen. Never any more or any less than fourteen seconds.

“Twelve, thirteen, fourteen. Ready or not! Here I—”

Something clung to my leg and I went to look down. But I couldn’t pry my hands away from my face.

“What the— Simone!”

She giggled. “So loud all the time.”

Something gripped tighter against my leg and tears rushed my eyes.

“Simone, is that you?” I asked.

She nuzzled against my leg. “Hi there, JayJay. Can’t look, though. I might go away again.”

“Why are you going away? I want to see you.”

“Can’t see me! Hide and seek.”

“We don’t have to play hide and seek, though. Not if you don’t