Page 96 of Holiday Hostage
My nightmares were not something I’d share, not even with her.
I’d reassured her that I would be okay and made her a promise that I’d call if I needed anything.
It was a lie.
I needed my men, but they were beyond my reach.
I fell into bed that night exhausted physically and emotionally.
The nightmares came in a torrent that left me weak and shaking in bed by the time dawn broke over me the next morning.
My stomach twisted so violently it threw me from the bed and sent me scrambling to the bathroom, where I retched until my stomach emptied.
Sitting in the corner of the bathroom with my knees drawn up to my chest, I texted Lisa, asking if she was okay after eating the chicken last night.
She replied that she was fine and asked why I wanted to know.
I told her I must have caught a stomach bug or something, though we both knew I hadn’t been anywhere to catch any kind of anything.
“Sure you’re not pregnant?” Her text popped up a second later.
My hands turned numb.
I tried to answer that, of course, I wasn’t pregnant.
It was something I’d eaten. Except…I’d barely eaten at all until last night.
And if Lisa was fine, then it wasn’t food poisoning.
My finger shook when I flipped through the apps until I found my period tracking app.
I tapped it open and closed my eyes, taking a slow, deep breath to try and ease the twisting sensation in my stomach.
The date on the app surprised me.
I’d known several days had passed, but not three weeks.
My mouth dried up, my tongue turning into a husk.
I should have started my period two weeks ago.
The app said so, and thanks to my birth control, I was never late.
My birth control.
Shit. My birth control had been in my backpack.
The backpack that Jack never picked up when he kidnapped me from the river.
I doubted he’d have even thought to give me my birth control while he held me captive.
Men didn’t think about shit like that.
The tremble that had started in my fingers spread throughout my body until I vibrated so hard my teeth clacked.
I hadn’t even thought about starting my birth control since coming home.
Weeks of sex with Mav and the others. Weeks when I hadn’t been protected.
