Chapter 125 Dancing Snow
At first, all I seem to notice is I've stopped shivering. The prickles along my skin seem to have disappeared. The numbness in my fingers and toes starts to disappear. The chattering of my teeth stops. And I can finally breathe.
I breathe in the scent of Rick, holding his jacket up to my nose. It's familiar and warm, and it brings back safe memories. Memories I want to replace all the bad.
I can hear Rick's voice in the back of my mind. I can't really understand what he's saying. I know he's trying to reassure me. He has classical music on in the background. I never pictured a rock star legends son to listen to the quiet stuff. The thought almost brings a smile to my frozen face.
He's doing all of this for me. Somewhere deep, I can feel it. That little spark of recognition. That love I have for him, pulling me back from the dark abyss that is my mind right now.
I hear him telling me how sorry he is.
"Baby, this was never supposed to happen. Not the fact that you walked in on me with another woman! I never wanted the woman! I told her to fucking get out! She fucking drugged me..." he rambles on.
So maybe I was right. Maybe he really didn't mean any of this. I think I can forgive him for being an idiot. I don't understand who she drugged him, but if that is really what happened, I'm not going to blame him for everything.
I listen to him talk. Ramble actually. I'm pretty sure he's said he's sorry about a hundred times by now. And that's okay. He's also said he loves me twice as much. I wish I could respond to him and let him know what I'm thinking.... But I can't.
I love the sound of his voice. It masks the damn words James sneered at me. I don't want his voice in my head. I push him out and just focus on Rick's voice.
It doesn't even really matter what the hell he's saying. It's mostly background noise to me anyway. It's just something to focus on. Grounding me in the present time.
He saved me. I'm no longer in the dark cold room staring out the window as the snowflakes fall. I'm in his car, on the road, moving away from the dark place in the snow.
The snow is constant and quiet. It makes on judgement. It doesn't blame anyone for anything. It just exists. Softly falling to the ground. It is neither good nor bad. Just there. Taking my mind off all the horrible things from the past few hours.
But it is making it hard to see through the window...
My mind focuses back on something Rick is rambling about. It somehow catches my attention. What the hell did he just say?
"Dean is gonna pay for this, sweetheart. This was all his fault. I didn't know he was so fucking desperate to keep us apart that he'd set something up like this..."
He says something about a set up and making his father pay for what he did to me. I can hear him promising that he's going to make sure the cops know about his connection to all of this.
But what does his father have to do with any of this? I never saw Dean Kingston at all! There was only one person in the damn room besides me. He's the one that needs to pay for this. He's the one who tried to break me... And I think he almost did.
It was James! James was the one who drugged me and kidnapped me and...
The flash of his face sneering down at me turns my stomach. I don't want to think about him! Never again!
Rick told me he was going to jail, and I believe him. I saw all the cops swarm the place, even if I wasn't paying attention. It did register in the back of my mind. He'll be going away for a long time.
I wonder how long he can be put away for abduction and rape?
I focus on the snow we are driving through. The soft cold snow that floats softly to the ground, drifting on the gusts of wind, doing its own little ballet before its final performance.