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Natalie gave the dispatcher a description of the truck and the license plate nuainst an overturned couch Her head felt like a smashed melon She needed to warn Beau, but the only number she had on speed dial was for the landline in the ranch office The phone rang and rang without clicking over to voicee, how likely was Beau to get it in time?

Using the couch for balance, she dragged herself to her feet and pulled up her jeans She felt nauseous If she could make it to the bathroom in the house, she could at least wash up But what she really needed was to get out of here, to someplace safe

Maybe she should have asked for an ambulance But if she had, the whole toould knohat had happened by to to focus, she speed-dialed the one friend who’d always been there for her

Tori showed up fifteen minutes later to find Natalie still slumped on the floor The first words out of heryou to the hospital”

Righting the couch, she helped Natalie sit Then she raced into the house and ca of ice and a towel “Hold this on your face,” she said “We can talk on the way I can’t believe that bastard raped you”

“What about Erin?” Natalie ed to ask “Youfor me—”

“I took Erin to the neighbors’ She’ll be fine, and the house is locked up tight”

Just having her friend here on on her own and buckled herself into the front seat “Can you call Beau and warn him?” she asked

“I don’t have his cell number But there’s no need I called the sheriff ’s office on e He eaving all over the road By the time you called nine-one-one, he was already on his way to jail We can file do You still want to, don’t you?”

“It’s not that I want to It’s that I have to” Natalie fought back waves of nausea Her head felt like somebody had taken a jackhammer to her skull She probably had a concussion And she didn’t even want to think about the da beneath the ice bag Tori had given her

“This won’t be pleasant, so be prepared” Tori had pulled into the street and was headed for the highway “I’ll take some pictures of you in the hospital, as well as some photos of your clinic The police will need to interview you and collect DNA for the rape kit—”

Natalie groaned “Is that absolutely necessary?”

“You were unconscious Slade’s lawyer could clai—or that you’d been with Beau earlier”

Natalie lay back in the seat as the words sank in Was spousal rape even a crime in Texas? If it was, and if it could be proven, Slade could go to prison,time All she’d really wanted was her freedom

This was a nighthtmare, and she had to keep it that way