Body Double by Hinze Vicki

Author:Hinze, Vicki [Hinze, Vicki]
Format: epub
Tags: Suspense
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2010-01-25T18:00:00+00:00

An hour later, when Joan knocked on her bathroom door, Amanda was still in the shower. Her lips were blue and her teeth chattering from the cold water. Her skin was red and raw, and still she scrubbed. “Go away!”

“I can’t, Amanda.” Joan said, then cracked open the door and walked into the bath. “They told me to come check on you. You’ve been in the shower for over an hour.” Joan reached for the faucet.

“No!” Amanda shouted. “Touch it and I’ll break every bone in your hand.”

Joan jerked back. “What’s wrong? What did Kunz do to you?”

“I don’t know.” The water pelted her in the face, on the chest and shoulder and ran down her stomach to her feet. “That’s why I can’t get clean. I don’t know.” She jerked the shower curtain out of Joan’s hand and pulled it closed. “Get out, Joan. Just go. I have to get clean. Don’t you understand? I have to get clean.”

Joan left.

And returned within minutes with Mark. “I think she’s been raped. She’s exhibiting symptoms of it, but she denies knowing what happened to her. She’s in some dark place, and I can’t reach her, Mark.”

He wiped his damp palms on the pale blue scrub pants that “patient” detainees wore, and then walked into the bath. “Amanda.”

“For God’s sake, get out of here. Leave me alone!”

“Amanda, it’s me, Mark. I’m not leaving.” He closed the door behind him. “I have to talk with you.”

She hugged the wall; let the cold water pelt her. It stung, hurt. That, she remembered. The pain was clear and certain in her mind. That, she could feel.

“I’m coming in there,” he warned her.

She flattened against the wall, huddled, trying to be small. So small he couldn’t see her. Amanda knew what she was doing. She knew this behavior was irrational, erratic, maybe even crazy, but her emotions seemed to have snapped and they refused to let her control them anymore.

Mark eased the shower curtain aside and stepped into the shower, fully clothed. “Amanda.” The water was beating on her. She was red and blue and yet her eyes were dry. No tears. “Come here. Please.”

She stared at him. “I don’t know what I did,” she whispered low to keep anyone from overhearing her. “Did he rape me, or did I want to have sex with him? I don’t know, Mark.”

“Come here, Amanda.” He opened his arms. “Please, honey.”

“He’s the enemy. He’s everything I hate. Yet he touched me, and I swore I’d never be touched again by anyone I didn’t want to touch me. I swore it.” She slumped toward Mark.

He closed his arms around her. “It’s okay. Shh.” He pulled her head close to his chest. This was about her father. About his abuse and her being a defenseless victim. This was about Kunz making her feel like that helpless and hopeless child she had once been.

Rage burned in Mark’s stomach. He talked to Amanda, whispered gentle words and reassurances, talked of nothing and everything; about their work and all the ways he knew her to be strong.

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