Page 26 of The Devil's Redemption

“Hi.” I can barely get the word out.

Is this an act? If so, what is she trying to pull?

“I—” she looks down at her hands and picks at her fingernail. “I wanted to stop by to say…”

My eyebrow raises in question, causing me to suck in air from pain that my injury is still causing me. The sound makes her head snap up quickly, eyes landing on my pain-contorted face, and she speaks again.

“I wanted to say how sorry I am for what happened to you.”

I don’t respond.

“I know we haven’t always gotten along, and I’ve done and said some pretty shitty things to you before. Yeah, I can be a real bitch sometimes, but I never would have done anything to put you in danger had I known.”

“I’m confused. Known what?”

“Elena…”

I close my eyes at the sound of her name. A tear leaks from the corner of my left eye and spills down my cheek before I open them again.

“She would ask me questions about you. Who you were friends with, who you were hooking up with, where you lived. Things like that. I just thought it was petty, mean girl bullshit. But once I found out who she was and why she came to work at the diner, it made me sick to my stomach.”

I look away from her, staring at my reflection in the television screen at the foot of my bed. I don’t know what to say to her. I see Steve run his hand over his chin, uncomfortably, out of the corner of my eye.

“Anyway, we’ll let you rest now,” Toni offers.

“I’m glad you’re okay, Sasha,” Whitney adds.

“I’ll see them out. Sasha, if you need anything, you know how to get ahold of me.” Hawk reminds me of the remote that operates the level of my bed. It also has a button which will alert Hawk via his phone if I need him.

I hear the door close as the two of them leave. Ellie and Steve stay behind, Ellie taking the seat next to my bed.

“Are you hungry? Do you need anything? I can bring you something to eat from the diner.”

I look back at her. I’m not hungry, and there is nothing that I need at the moment, but the helpless expression on her face is begging for something to do.

“Sure,” I smile lightly. “Some of Mikey’s chicken soup would be great.”

“You’ve got it.” Ellie stands, ready to say goodbye.

“How did they find out about Elena?”

“She stopped showing up for work the same day that you did. I’d been calling you over and over again with no answer. When I called her to find out if everything was okay, I asked if she’d heard from you. I didn’t think you’d reach out to her, but I was desperate to figure out what was going on. She could have ignored my call, but…” My heart breaks when emotion cracks Ellie’s voice. “But she wanted me to know who she was and what she did. She told me that you were now property of Death’s Road, and I would never see you again.”

A lone tear escapes my eye, and Ellie hands me a tissue from her purse.

“Toni and Whitney… Do they know what happened?”

Blade told Ellie some of what happened. Knowing him, he wouldn’t have mentioned the rape. But I know Ellie is smart enough to put things together. The sorrow in her eyes tell me she knows I endured more than just physical abuse from Death’s Road.

“If they suspect anything more than what I told them, it’s because they made their own assumptions about what those vile barbarians did to you.”

“What about others in town? Has word gotten around about what happened?”

“Rose Delaney—”

I scoff as soon as her name leaves Ellie’s mouth. She doesn’t need to say any more for me to know that the entirety of Whispering Valley—shit, probably all of the surrounding towns, too—surely know something went down where I was concerned.

“She said she heard a crash at your apartment but by the time she got over there to check it out, you were gone. She saw the mess in your living room and came to her own conclusions. She’s certain the Devil’s Skull had something to do with it because she remembered seeing Blade at your house once. So yes. The town knowssomethinghappened. But they don’t have any true details other than you were abducted.”

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