Page 22 of The Model

“Thank you, Raine.” I rested my head against her arm. I was starting to get tired. “You’re a good friend. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“You might not think that after I tell you who I was on the phone with.”

Lifting my head, Raine’s body was held tight as she looked down at me. “Just spit it out because I have no clue who it would be. My family is dead, and you’re my only friend.”

Her eyes got glassy behind her glasses. “Please don’t be mad, but it was Ryder. He was calling you back, and I told him what happened.” She bit her bottom lip. “You really should call him back. He seemed really upset when he heard you were hurt.”

Holding my hand out, I tried to keep my voice calm. It wouldn’t do any good for her to know how pissed off I was at her for speaking to Ryder. “Give me my phone, and I’ll call him while I’m at the hospital since I’ll probably be there a while.” I spit the last part out.

Handing my phone over, she looked everywhere but at me. “Please don’t be mad. What was I supposed to say?”

I guess I hadn’t hidden my anger very well. “You shouldn’t have answered my phone, no matter who it was.”

Raine’s hands went to her hips. “Why, so you could never tell him?”

“He’s all the way across the globe. What would telling him do but make him worry?” Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath and let it out. “Let’s just drop it. What’s done is done, and I don’t have the energy to argue with you.”

“I’ll see you at the hospital.” Turning around, she walked over and got in my car without a backward glance. I wasn’t going to feel bad for being mad at her for meddling in my life.

* * *

“Lexie,”Ryder answered the phone worriedly. “Are you okay? Raine said—”

“She overreacted,” I interrupted. “They brought me to the hospital to make sure I’m okay, which I am.”

“The hospital? She didn’t mention you were going to the hospital. That sounds serious.” I hated that he was worried about me for no reason.

“It’s not. I only have one superficial cut, and they’ve already fixed me up. Now I’m just waiting to be discharged so Raine can drive me home.” Only I didn’t want to go home now. I was afraid Ben would show up tomorrow, demanding some mystical drugs.

“Your voice tells me something different. Talk to me, Lexie. You can tell me anything.” Even all the way across the world, he could tell something wasn’t right.

“I’m scared to go home.” Tears filled my eyes, and my chin started to quiver. “He…Ben said he’d be back in twenty-four hours, and he wanted his drugs. But I…”

“Take a slow, deep breath.” His deep voice soothed me. “He can’t get you right now. Do you think he has drugs in your apartment?” he asked calmly.

“If you had asked me a month ago, I would have said no, but now I don’t know. When we were together, he didn’t do drugs, so I don’t know why there would be drugs in my stuff.”

“Okay, I don’t know the law, but maybe you can have the cops come with a drug dog to see if it can sniff out any drugs if he hid some in your things.”

“That could work. Maybe they can stake out my place and catch him. Only…”

“Only what?” He tried to pry the rest out of me.

I was usually a strong person, but Ben’s attack had shaken me up more than I wanted to admit. “I don’t want to be there. I don’t want to be anywhere near here right now. Maybe I need to go back to Hawaii. It was nice when we were there. Or go to—”

“Come to Rio and stay with me. You can be on a plane tomorrow morning, and we can spend the week together. That would be nice, wouldn’t it?”

He couldn’t be serious. I didn’t want to run away from my problems—but I also didn’t want to hurt anymore…or die.

“Pack a suitcase full of bikinis and condoms.”

“Have you already used all the condoms you bought in Oahu?” I wasn’t sure I wanted to see him if he had been having sex with other people in the last couple of weeks.

“I’m not even going to dignify that with a response. If we’re together more than a couple of days, we’ll need more.”

“What if I’m on my period the whole time?”

I wanted to laugh at the grunt that filled the phone and then the short pause. “It will be the perfect time to get into your ass.”

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