Things Made Right Read Online Free PDF Page A

she tearfully whispered.
    “Then I’ll make it right,” he said. “I swear to you I will.”
    While the rational part of her understood it was a platitude, well-intentioned but likely meaningless in the grand scheme of things, there was a small, quiet part of her deep inside that believed him and knew he meant every word of it.
    It scared her.
    But even more, it brought her a small measure of peace.

Chapter Four
     
    Now…
     
    Sully watched as Loren stirred her iced tea with her straw. She’d gone quiet, and he was loathe to interrupt her. He’d handled more sexual assault cases in his time as a detective than he cared to remember.
    It didn’t matter if it was thirty minutes or thirty years ago, the victims always bore a similar, haunted way about them. Sometimes tinged with rage, sometimes with fear, sometimes a mix of both and more.
    He waited.
    She drew in a shuddering breath. “They really didn’t want to discharge me,” she softly said. “I thought it was more a malpractice thing. I didn’t understand until later, a couple of days later, as I started to get myself under control again and started thinking, that I realized it was because of how badly I was injured.”
    She stared at her left wrist. “Ross never left my side that morning. Neither did Emily, although she would move away and sit over in a chair by the wall if they were doing something. Ross held my hand the whole time. The only time he let go was when he helped me get the hospital gown on, and then when I put my own clothes back on.”
    Her right index finger lightly stroked the back of her left hand, near the wrist. “I don’t think he realized it at the time, I think it was a nervous tic of his own. He kept lightly tapping my hand with his ring and pinky fingers. He had this little three-beat rhythm he kept up. It was soothing. Distracting. I didn’t even realize it at first. It was one of those things it finally hit me later, he was holding me one night while I was crying in bed, before he had to leave to go home, and he was humming to me. And it had that same soothing rhythm. Just a little made-up song. But it sort of became a kind of anthem for me, you know?”
    When she finally lifted her gaze to Sully’s again, her eyes were rimmed with red, as if she was close to crying. “I caught myself humming it all the time when I was stressed or worried. It was like he was there with me. Sort of a self-soothing kind of thing.”
    Sully nodded but didn’t interrupt.
    Loren finally let go of her straw and sat back in her seat. “He tried. He tried so damned hard. He pushed. He got angry. I was scared and retreated and pretty much gave up. If it wasn’t for him ordering me to keep going to classes after I missed that first week, I think I would have quit and dropped out.”
    “What happened to Chelsea?” he finally asked. “Why had she left you there alone at the party?”
    “She’d looked for me. The four guys told her I’d left with someone else. She was actually pissed off at me, thinking I’d deserted her without even telling her. Then I told her no, I hadn’t left.”
    “What’d she say?”
    “Her face fell. She asked me what happened, and I told her I didn’t want to talk about it. I didn’t want her to know. I didn’t want her feeling guilty when she wasn’t a part of what happened. I just didn’t want anyone to know.”
    “Why not?”
    Loren met his gaze dead on. “Because by then I knew the campus cops weren’t going to do a damned thing about it. And so did Ross.”

Chapter Five
     
    Then…
     
    Loren stared out the passenger window of Ross’ car as he drove them back to the apartment. It was Monday afternoon, and they’d just had another talk with the campus police.
    Who’d ruled there was no basis for further investigation. There was no proof. It was Loren’s word against theirs, and they claimed they hadn’t seen her after midnight. That they’d been told she left with someone else, so that’s what