Break Pace: A Thrilling Pace Morrow Mystery by D.K. Greene

Author:D.K. Greene [Greene, D.K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kawaii Times
Published: 2024-10-29T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Six

Pace

Chirping birds and soothing music bring Pace back to consciousness. She fishes her phone from her pocket and checks the time. Six-thirty in the morning. She’s due at work in an hour and a half. The sounds of rolling harp music and twittering birds comes to an abrupt stop when she snoozes her meditative alarm.

Eyes closed, she rolls on her side to set the phone on her nightstand but the phone drops to the floor. Waving her hand around the side of the bed she realizes the nightstand is missing. She opens her eyes, pushes the covers back, and blinks the sleep from her eyes. Looking up, she realizes this isn’t her ceiling. This is Bill’s ceiling. How the hell did she get here?

Her stomach rolls and the sickening grip of nausea takes hold when she sits up. Piercing pain shoots through her left eye and into her brain, and then her skull seems to shrink around the soft tissue when a migraine attacks.

Now she remembers. The assault at work. She hadn’t gone home after because Mrs. Stubbs would be there with her nephew, and having a man thrust upon her was the last thing she needed. She drove all the way back out to Vader and stopped at the pub in town. And then…

Pace rubs her temples and tries to recall how she got from The Lowry House to Bill’s bedroom, but there’s nothing.

She checks her phone again. All she wants to do is pull the covers over her head and sleep, but if she doesn’t get moving, the long miles of commuter traffic on the highway will make her late for work.

She’s still fully clothed from the day before and lifts her arm to check her smell. She gags on the rank odor of stress and alcohol sweat. The world tilts when Pace forces herself out of bed. She braces herself against a wall to keep her balance.

There is no time, but she can’t go to work like this. She eases her way to the bathroom and strips off her clothes while she waits for the shower water to warm up. She combs her fingers through her matted hair and catches herself in the mirror. She looks like shit. Bags sag under her eyes and a periwinkle bruise stretches across her forehead where she hit her head the day before. Purple fingerprints dot the curve of her neck.

The water stings when she steps into the shower, and she doesn’t bother turning the knob to cool it. The too-hot water burns while she rakes at her skin with soap and a washcloth, trying to erase the feeling of Rudy on her.

Every ache and pain reminds her of him. When she blinks, she sees the flash of predation behind her eyelids. Her heart rattles against her ribs like it is desperate to leap from her chest, and her lungs tremble while she pants in the steam. She shuts off the water, not because she feels the memory of him any less, but because she can’t stand being naked any longer.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.