EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE by Debby Conrad Read Free Book Online Page B

passed out? And I could have raped you just now, but I didn’t.”
    He saw her swallow. “Hollin, it wasn’t me that night. Don’t you remember asking me to stop when we were here, lying on this very same bed? I stopped. And then I drove you home.”
    She tossed her head back and forth. “You . . . came . . . back.”
    “I didn’t. I swear to you, I didn’t. I came directly back here, told everyone who was here that night to leave, and I went to bed.”
    She shook her head again. “No,” she whispered. “It was . . . you.”
    At the trial she’d claimed that she’d been raped and sodomized that night. In her own backyard. Had gone on to say that a man wearing a ski mask had grabbed her and pushed her face into the ground while he forced himself into her. Hearing her story had sickened him, knowing that someone had done that to her, and yet part of him had no sympathy as he was the one who was being accused of the crime. The whole trial had seemed like a bad dream, and throughout it he’d kept telling himself he’d wake up soon.
    She’d waited close to a week before reporting the incident to the authorities. By that time all traces of DNA were gone. The only evidence was her word against his, and an old pocket knife they’d found in a patch of lilies by her garage. A knife his mother had given him for his tenth birthday. He hadn’t realized he’d lost the stupid thing, hadn’t carried it in years. Anyone could have lifted it from the trailer and planted it there, or Griffin could have dropped it somewhere when he was a kid.
    Yet a jury still sided with her over him. The way she’d told her story in court, in front of all those people, he would have done the same thing had he been a member of that jury. Her story, as well as her tears, had been convincingly real. He could tell by the way she’d behaved in court. She’d definitely been raped, he would have bet his life on it. Only she’d blamed the wrong man for hurting her.
    Griffin closed his eyes in defeat. She was never going to believe it wasn’t him. Not in a million years.
    And after the way he’d behaved, only moments ago, how could he possibly blame her?

     
     

CHAPTER FIVE
     
    Griffin opened his eyes and stared down at her, his labored breaths matching hers in intensity. It was the first time Hollin had truly looked at his face since he’d walked into the trailer and surprised her.
    He hadn’t shaved that morning. Dark, brittle whiskers dotted his face and jaw. Her face still stung with whisker burn from when he’d kissed her.
    There was a knot on the side of his head where the heel of her shoe had done little damage to that thick skull of his.
    She could see something in his eyes that looked like sorrow, but she couldn’t be sure. Was he sorry? She doubted it.
    He opened his mouth, started to say something, but only shook his head instead. And then, he simply rolled off her and onto his back, staring up at the smoke stained ceiling.
    Hollin released a heavy sigh. She was free. She sucked in a long breath and blew it out. But rather than make her escape, she didn’t move a muscle. She was too tired to move. She felt drained, hollow inside. If she tried to run now, her legs would probably fail her rather than carry her to safety. Yet she knew she had to try.
    Then again, maybe his releasing her was a trick. He still had her car keys, and one of her shoes was lying somewhere on the floor.
    Closing her eyes briefly, she prayed for strength. She’d survived him once before, she could do it again. Wanting to make sure her limbs worked, she wiggled her fingers and toes, testing them, while trying to get her racing pulse and breathing under control. She wondered what he would say or do if she asked for her keys. Maybe he wanted her to beg for her freedom, although he was no longer imprisoning her with his big, powerful body.
    Before she’d worked up the courage to ask him for the keys, he turned his head toward her, his cheek only inches