Page 121 of Too Safe

Take down your ponytail when you walk alone at night.

Always tell someone where you’re going.

Never let them get you to the second location.

It’s my worst nightmare. And one I’ve already lived.

Another picture is snapped. A sequence of synapses fires off in my brain.

My grasp on reality slips.

I feel it. I’m going under. I can’t let them take me. I won’t go back there again.

My instincts take over, and it isn’t until the douchebag sneering at me says it out loud that my actions register.

“Oh, shit. Fuck. Grab her! She’s going to jump!”

I’m halfway over the side when I feel hands—handseverywhere.

Touching. Grabbing. Groping. Pulling.

Don’t fucking touch me!

I don’t know whether I think it or say it. Feel it or sob it. It doesn’t matter. They’ll do what they want. They always do.

Hands grope and pull until my toes no longer skim the water.

Arms brace around my torso as I thrash and scream.

I relive.

I regret.

The edges of my vision go hazy. My sobs turn to laughter, I think.

That’s when I know they’ve won. When the sobs stop. When my body stills.

I fought as hard as I could. It wasn’t enough. It never is.

I crave the rush of water as my vision blurs, my hearing wavers, and my body finally, mercifully, gives up the fight.

Chapter 49

Decker

Tracingtheoutlineofmy phone in my pocket, I nod as if I’m actually following the conversation.

I’m trying to play it cool. But I can’t hold out much longer.

The way she looks tonight—in those tiny red shorts and those perfect red lips?

I want her on this boat.Now.

I pull out my phone to tell her as much, but before I unlock the screen, I pause, considering how to play this.

I’m not used to doing the pursuing. Women are usually lined up and waiting for me. Ready and willing. Repetitive and boring.

Not Josephine.Not my siren.

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