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And I kneouldn’t take much

It never did

The lass of water “Rinse and spit into this,” he said as he held up the plastic container I did as I was told because I was good at that and also because I really wanted the vile taste of puke out of ood lass and the container on the nightstand, but the man took them from me and placed them there himself

“How are you feeling?” he asked

I foundto answer because all I could do was focus on his left hand which was fisted

Fine…tell him you’re fine

But my voice failed me What if “fine” wasn’t what he wanted to hear? One blow and I’d be out for sure And then Lucy would be alone with him

Except if I didn’t answer him, maybe that would piss him off too

Fuck, at least with Eric I kne to react I wanted to laugh at the realization that ht actually be the lesser of two evils at the ht on top of ed forhands had wrapped around my throat

“Ethan, breathe,” theI’d still been staring at his hand Or that I’d been holding my breath

I sucked in a deep breath, ignoring the pain it caused and then tried to focus on the aze to his fisted hand again Maybe if I could see the blow co, I’d have a chance

“I’ from the truth I could have said

I wasn’t okay I hadn’t been okay for four fucking years

“Ethan,” thehly suspected he had no trouble with knoas going through my head “Take these,” he said and he slowly lifted his fisted hand and opened it to reveal thite pills

Huh me as I realized he’d had his hand fisted because he was holding them

“They’re ibuprofen,” he added “I found the the bottle to show you”

I sed hard and shookat them He dropped theht back tears of exhaustion as I sed the pills down

“Who are you?” I finally ed to ask If he’d been one of Eric’s iven a shit about my comfort And since Eric had found us yesterday, it made no sense that he’d send someone up the mountain after us when he could have just as easily come himself