Page 91 of Beneath Her Skin

“I don’t want you to freeze to death,” Judith says sharply. “I am not my husband.”

“He didn’t want me to freeze to death, either,” I mutter. But when she pulls me forward into the snow, I go with her, shaking uncontrollably. The snow feels like fire. The wind feels like his knives, slicing me open, so sharp that I barely feel the open wound on my leg.

But I make it across somehow. Judith pushes me through a sliding glass door, and suddenly I’m enveloped by a velvety warmth on the edge of a sunken living room.

I collapse onto my hands and knees, gasping through the pain and the cold. I can’t stop shaking.

A blanket drapes around my shoulders, and I know I shouldn’t, but I pull it tighter around myself, trying to trap my warmth.

“Let me start a fire,” Judith says. “Then I’ll get you a change of clothes and some chicken broth. Wrap up that cut.” A pause, long and weighted. “Then we can talk.”

Surely you’d like some revenge for what my husband did to you?

My head buzzes. I lift my gaze just enough to see her cross the living room and kneel beside the fireplace and turn a knob. Immediately, a blue-white flame flares to life. She glances over her shoulder and gestures for me to move closer.

There’s no fire poker, not with a gas fireplace like this one.

I crawl forward, limbs shaking. I’m aware that I’m smearing blood and snow and filth across her plush cream-colored carpets. But who gives a shit? It’s her husband’s fault.

She watches me with that unreadable expression, waiting until I’m situated in front of the fire.

Then she leaves me alone.

She leaves me alone, but she doesn’t tie me down with chains. She doesn’t slam the back of my head against a wooden table until the world goes dark. She just—leaves me alone.

I could leave.

But I don’t move. The fire feels too good, like it’s thawing me out from the inside. I snuggle deeper into the blanket as if I can burrow away from the nightmare that’s been my life the last three days. Ever since a man with blond hair and a brown mustache slipped Axel, the owner at the Red Blossom, $400 for a private session at the Sunrise Tide Motel down the street.

I’d done it dozens of times, and usually for half that amount. Before, the worst-case scenario was the guy was gross or boring. Best-case scenario, I had some fun.

Not this time. And I doubt Axel even reported me missing.

I squeeze the blanket more tightly around my shoulders, watching the flickering gas flames until I doze off, drifting on a kind of grey haze until I feel a light hand on my shoulder and I snap awake, screaming my throat raw.

“Shhh.” Judith’s lips are next to my ear, her breath warm on my cheek. “He’s not here.”

I gasp down a choking, terrified breath and crawl across the carpet, away from her. She doesn’t move or chase after me, just stands there holding a steaming mug.

“Chicken broth,” she says. “Drink it, and we’ll see how you do.”

I breathe deep, shaking a little. Judith sets the mug on the coffee table and steps toward me cautiously, like she’s approaching a cat. “You’re safe,” she says. “He’s not coming back for a week.”

“What if he does?” The question surprises me a little because it makes me realize I don’t fear her the way I think I should.

Not even when Judith smiles at the question, her expression as cold and cruel as the snow whipping around outside.Thatshould scare me, because it almost reminds me of him. At least until she says, “I’ll take care of him before he lays a hand on you. Promise.”

“You?” I laugh and shake my head. “No offense, lady?—”

“Judith,” she interrupts. “Please. And I’d love to know your name.”

“Judith, fine.” I glare at her. “No offense,Judith, but I don’t think you fully appreciate what kind of monster your husband is.”

Judith kneels on the carpet and pushes the blanket away to reveal the throbbing, glistening cut on my thigh. “He’s not a monster. He’s a man.” She lifts her gaze to mine. “And I know exactly the kind of man he is.”

I swallow. For a half second, I see it: her rage flaming up in her big green eyes. And it sparks something frightening inside me.

“I realize I don’t look like it, but I know exactly how to handle a man like that.”

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