Chapter 9
Why wasn’t she answering his messages?
He’d sent seven. Which might be overkill since he’d sent them all in the last two hours.
Actually, no, that didn’t seem like overkill. She should be answering his messages. After all, it was after nine-thirty! She said she wasn’t going out at night this week. So why wasn’t she replying to him?
This wasn’t acceptable.
Travis paced up and down the living room of his apartment.
That’s it. He was going to call her.
His frustration grew along with his worry as the phone rang and rang and no one answered.
There was only one thing left to do.
Go to her apartment and check on her. That was completely reasonable, and even if it wasn’t, he was still doing it.
Caren woke up confused. Where was she? What was she doing here? And what was that noise?
The noise stopped, thankfully. Her head was throbbing incessantly.
Something tugged at her consciousness but she couldn’t quite grasp hold of the thought. Getting up, she held her head as she gingerly made her way around the room.
It wasn’t her bedroom. It had to be a hotel room. Why was she in a hotel room? And why was she so confused?
Finding the bathroom, she walked into it and stared at herself in the mirror. Her face was so white she looked ill. There were dark marks under her eyes. And a large gash by her hair line above her right eye.
Holy heck.
How had she gotten that? Not only had the skin opened, but there was a big lump there already.
“No wonder my head hurts.”
Did she even have any painkillers with her? Should she take them? Had she blacked out or just fallen asleep?
What time was it? She stared down at herself. She was still in her clothes.
There was that noise again. Oh, it was her phone. She moved back into the bedroom and glanced around. Where was it?
There was her handbag on the floor. So far to bend over. But she managed, grabbing her bag and only swaying slightly as the room spun.
This wasn’t good. She couldn’t handle looking at her phone, let alone talking to anyone.
It was probably just Oliver, anyway. He was the only person who called her other than Lacey. And Lacey was on her honeymoon so it wouldn’t be her.
So instead of checking who it was, she found the side button and turned the phone off.
Ahh, blissful silence.
She also found some painkillers in her handbag and swallowed them dry.
Eh. Gross.
But she couldn’t see any water anywhere and she didn’t feel like searching for the bathroom.
Standing carefully, she pulled the curtains.
It was dark out. She wasn’t sure of the time.
There was a digital clock by the bed, but her eyes didn’t want to focus.
She stripped off down to her underwear before climbing into bed.
Tomorrow she’d worry about what she was doing here and what had happened.