Cut Me Free by J. R. Johansson

Author:J. R. Johansson
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780374300241
Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux

17

My hands refuse to pick the box up. My mind is whizzing through every nightmare in my life and landing on the only question that matters.

Who would know to call me Piper?

My hands shake so hard it takes me forever to open my locks. I count to ten. Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out. My stomach, hands, and feet are blocks of ice. I force myself to move slowly. If I pretend to be calm then maybe I will be. Following my newest ritual, I walk to the window, check the park to be certain no one is watching, and close the curtains tight.

I place the box on top of my table and stare at it. No matter how calm I pretend to be, I’m still terrified to open it.

I pick it up but my fingers are numb, and when the lid pops off, the entire box slips free and lands with a thud on the cream-colored rug at my feet. It’s like blood, blood everywhere, pools of red spread across the carpet before me. I stumble back and fall to my knees. Then I see it. A fully blossomed red rose sticking out of the box on the floor. Rose petals.

I gasp for breath and my head pounds from lack of oxygen. The abrupt release of tension makes me laugh as I scoop the petals into a pile and put them in the box with the now half-naked flower. My heart hurts as I think it must’ve been Cam, but he was with me tonight.

Who else could it have been? Maybe he had it delivered, but it’s strange that he would use the name Piper. He seems too smart for that, too careful. I glance around and spot the lid on the floor beneath the table. When I bend down to retrieve it, my blood turns cold. There are four words, carved in deep gashes on the black silk inside the lid.

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