Page 38 of Splintered Desire

It sounds silly even to my own ears, but I know it’s true. Jace is unhinged on the best days; he could have just as easily carved me up and raped me…

No!

I force the thought away and back to the task at hand.

Clean the cut, then shower to clean the rest of me.

One step at a time.

Thankfully, the cut on my hand isn’t deep. I’d been worried because with the adrenaline pumping through me, I couldn’t even feel it, which isn’t usually a good sign.

I clean it but leave it unwrapped. I’ll handle it after I shower.

Peeling off my shirt, I wipe my face with it and toss it in the trash.

Turning the knob to the shower, I give it a second to warm up when my phone vibrates on the counter, and I damn near jump out of my skin.

I’m tempted to ignore it.

Nobody I know would message me at this time, which means it’s probably one of them, and they are the last people I want to communicate with in any way.

I turn my back to the phone and move toward the shower, only for it to vibrate again.

“Ugh!” I groan, snatching my phone off the counter and pulling a face when I’m met with the bloody screen.

I forgot I’d made a mess of it.

Digging my shirt out of the trash, I wipe it down and almost drop it.

Fuck.

This whole night has just been a dream, right? I’m going to wake up in bed, not covered in cum from my psycho stepbrother with a text from Reed…

I’m a fucking liar, just like he knew I was. His number is in my phone, but I never intended to use it! It was more like a security blanket.

Who is this?

Those three dots of doom appear at the bottom of the screen, and I’m aware that I’m wasting all the hot water and once again bleeding on my phone, but I can’t seem to move as I wait for whatever he has to say to come through.

My only saving grace is that he obviously doesn’t know my number, and why would he? I don’t go around sharing my phone number.

Wait…

My breath gets stuck in my throat when I look up and see that I’d somehow sent him a text. A simple period, seven minutes ago.

How is this my life?

The blood! My phone had been covered in it from my hand. I should have known better than to even open a message to him.

Calm down, breathe. I’m nobody, just a random number that sent punctuation. People get numbers wrong all the time.

Vix?

FUCK!

Of all the things he could have said. I always knew he was smart, but this has to be a lucky shot in the dark.

He can’t know it’s me, not really, but it’s a good guess given our most recent conversation.