Deadly Debt (Twisted Cross Ranch Book 3) by K. Loraine & Meg Anne

Author:K. Loraine & Meg Anne [Loraine, K. & Anne, Meg]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ravenscroft Press
Published: 2023-10-08T16:00:00+00:00

fifteen

River

It took three rounds of suds to get that disgusting pig’s blood off me. I scrubbed until my skin was pink from the friction and didn’t come out until the water ran clear, my fingernails were spotless, and I could no longer feel his hot breath on my face.

Turning off the water, I grabbed a plush towel off the rack and wrapped it around my body. Then I paused between the stall and the still open door. I knew Walker was out there standing guard, but I wasn’t quite ready to join him yet. My brain was still a jumble, and I needed just a little bit longer to return to myself fully.

Thinking if I could see with my own eyes that I was okay, that I was here, that this was real, might help ease some of that anxious energy, I swiped my hand over the fogged mirror and stared at the woman in the glass.

Spoiler, it was me.

I wasn’t surprised by that, obviously, but if I’m being honest, it sort of felt like after these last few weeks, something would be different. Like there would be some marker on my skin testifying to the horrors I’d endured.

But no. No outward scar. No scarlet letter.

Just me.

River Adams-Cross. (We’d address how fucking weird that hyphen was later)

Long blonde hair, though wet and hanging in my face, eyes a vibrant green, the same rise to my left eyebrow I’d always been annoyed by, and a slightly crooked nose. This was a face I knew so well, though thinner, paler, and more beat up than usual. I looked like myself on the outside but needed to come to terms with who my experiences made me on the inside. No, not who they made me. What I allowed them to make me.

I chose not to let them change a damn thing about me. I fought tooth and nail to get away. I killed Pytor. I stared into his eyes as his blood left his body. And I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

I was not the victim here.

I was a survivor.

No one could take that from me—not unless I let them.

And I think I’d done more than enough to prove I never would.

I watched as the woman in the mirror adjusted her posture. Between one breath and the next, her shoulders were a little straighter, her chin just a bit higher, the spark in her eyes a hint brighter.

There was even the slightest smile ghosting her lips.

There you are, River.

On the heels of that somewhat silly thought came another.

I missed you.

“Darlin’? You okay in there?” Walker’s question had my belly tightening, but not with fear. I’d missed him too. So much.

A flash of the dream I’d had when lost in a drug haze hit me hard. What I’d wanted more than anything else had been my three men. I had them back now, and I wanted to make the most of it.

It was time for me to reclaim everything those motherfuckers had tried to deny me.

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