Chapter 40
FORTY
When Shaun woke the next morning, still with no text or call from Kasey, she threw herself into work; going in early and staying late every day, helping the other guys with their jobs when she’d completed all of hers.
All except Nate, who had returned to work at the beginning of the week. He’d kept his distance for most of the first week, but had since resumed his usual behavior of standing too close, watching her from afar, and the occasional unwelcome sexual advance.
Waking early, Shaun lay in bed for a moment trying to figure out what had woken her so abruptly, when she bolted out of bed, racing to the bathroom.
She’d barely made it before throwing up wretchedly multiple times.
Standing, she rinsed her mouth and then walked slowly out to the kitchen, starting the coffee to percolate, but the smell of the coffee as it brewed made her nauseous again, and moments later she threw up in the kitchen sink.
Calling in sick wasn’t an option. If she stayed at home, it left far too much time to think about how much she missed Kasey, or the conversation she’d had with Tommy several days prior.
So, still a little green around the gills, she lugged herself to the shop, several cans of warm ginger ale and a sleeve of crackers sitting on her work bench, close at hand.
“Oy, you don’t look too good,” Brent muttered, giving her a wide berth as she walked through the shop. “Brown bag flu?”
She shook her head. “No. Not sure. Maybe it was something I ate last night.”
“Why don’t you go home,” Ben said from the doorway, arms crossed over his chest, as usual.
“I’m fine,” she muttered sourly. He grumbled something and then walked away, leaving her to her work.
Several hours later, she stood from where she’d been hunkered down next to the Ford Escape she’d been working on, and she reeled slightly, a wave of dizziness washing over her as stars danced in her vision.
Reaching out, she grabbed hold of the side of the vehicle, closing her eyes tightly.
She took a deep breath in, hoping it would help steady her, releasing it slowly, but it did nothing to combat the vertigo.
Nausea rolled through her again, her mouth watering with the urge to vomit.
“Shaun? Hey, are you alright?” she heard from her left, and she nodded, hoping it would be enough to send Nate on his way. “Hey, you don’t look too good. Let me help you.”
She shrugged his hands off her shoulders, but still he moved forward, bracketing her in against the side of the car. Shoving against him with as much strength as she could muster, she tried to dislodge him. “Come on, Shaun. You know you want this.”
His breath was hot as it hit her in the face, his mouth getting closer and closer to her own. Nausea rolled through her at the thought of his mouth connecting with hers, and she shoved against him again. He finally stumbled back, and she twisted away from him sharply.
Oh god, I’m going to throw up.
She squeezed her eyes shut as another debilitating wave of dizziness flashed over her.
Swallowing the saliva that had pooled in her mouth, she shook her head and opened her eyes just in time to see him advance on her again, those creepy black eyes intent on her face.
She shook her head, willing her throat to open enough to call out for help, but she knew if she opened her mouth, she was going to vomit everywhere.
Instead, she took an instinctual, unsteady step backward, her only means of escape.
“Oh, fuck!” she heard, just as her heel connected with something heavy just behind her, and she tripped, falling backward.
It felt as if she was falling for a long time, suspended in the air for way longer than she should have. When she finally landed, she only had a half a second to register the pain that exploded in her side before her head connected with the concrete ground and everything went black.