The Room to the West by Lauren Biel

Author:Lauren Biel [Biel, Lauren]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lauren Biel
Published: 2022-01-25T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

I wake up in bed with Weston, and he stirs awake.

“We must have fallen asleep,” he says as he yawns. His sweet smile contrasts with the sadistic grin I saw in the desert. His arm wraps around me, and I stare at his hands.

I can’t help but imagine them tightening the scarf and extinguishing Holden’s life. I nod away the creeping thoughts and look out the window, trying to gauge the time of day. The sun has started to lift above the horizon. The sky bursts with beautiful pink and orange hues.

“I have to go to the bathroom. Where is it?”

Weston stands, pulls a chamber pot from under the bed, and pushes it across the floor toward me. My eyes widen at his suggestion.

“You go to the bathroom in here?”

“What else would you do?” He cocks his head at me.

I sigh. Oh, what I would give to pee in a nice porcelain toilet with running water. It doesn’t even have to be nice. Just something besides a wooden box or a pot on the floor.

“I can’t do that. I would rather use the outhouse.”

“You can go outside, I reckon,” he says with a shrug of his shoulders.

I nod and get dressed with urgent, tapping footsteps before walking outside to do my business near the barn. While my skirt is hiked, I look at the surroundings.

Tan sand stretches as far as I can see. The wind rustles it up and whips it against my skin. Reddish rock formations dot the horizon, and everything in the forefront lies flat, aside from the sparse desert grass and cacti. There’s an eerie silence—a staleness. Above me, vultures soar through the clear blue sky on their vast black wings. The sky reminds me of Belle’s eyes, and I find myself smiling at the thought of her.

I walk back into the house with a relieved sigh and find Weston standing in the kitchen. “What did we do?” I ask as I sit down on the bed.

“Nothing he didn’t deserve.” He places a comforting kiss on my forehead. Such tenderness for someone capable of multiple murders.

“That may be so, but I still think it was wrong.”

“No one has to suffer any consequences for taking a woman against her will. The sheriff is easy enough to pay to look away, but I won’t turn a blind eye to it. Hate me for it if you want, but I’d do it again without hesitation.”

The cause is noble, but it still doesn’t make it right. He’s not wrong about the sheriff, though. To no avail, I’ve tried to turn men in to the police. How can a person take the most intimate piece of you and then live their life freely while you’re trapped by your memories? It’s more than criminal.

“I really have to get back, Wes. I can’t imagine a world where I don’t get some kind of repercussion from this little sleepover. Kind of hard to explain that I’m not sleeping with you when I’m literally sleeping with you.

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