Read Online Unfiltered & Unsaved by Payge Galvin, Bridgette Luna - Free Book Online

given her, it felt like home. All hers, no compromises. That felt really, really good.
    And really alone. Again.
    Hope worked on her computer a bit, sent her family an email to let them know the change in room number, and after a hesitation Googled Elijah Crane’s name. She didn’t turn up much. He didn’t seem to have any social media pages, which was weird for someone his age. She checked Facebook, but it was the usual crowd there … no new, mysterious stranger had sent her any friend requests or posted on her wall. Twitter wasn’t any more helpful. He’d disappeared, and except for the remembered tingle on her nerves and lips, it was as if he’d never existed. But she couldn’t forget the desperation in his eyes, or the feel of his hands on her skin, or the truly brave choice he’d made to go back to that van, that life of—well, slavery.
    She felt guilty that she’d let him go.
    Her room felt quiet around her—calm and safe, a blessed space all her own. She found herself saying another prayer for Elijah as she drifted off. She didn’t mean to fall asleep, at least not still fully dressed, but before she knew it, she was out cold.
    She woke up to the sound of her cell phone ringing. Middle-of-the night calls were never, ever good news, and she grabbed for it and opened it without looking at the number. “Hello?” and then, in the next fuzzy second, “Dad?” Because a very small number of people had her cell number, and the only people she could think would be calling this late (early?) were her parents.
    “Is this Hope? Hope Adams?”
    She didn’t know the voice—male, brusque, deep in pitch. She blinked a few times and focused on the glowing phone screen. She didn’t know the number, either. “Yes? Who is this?”
    “I don’t believe we’ve met. You may call me Mr. Solomon.”
    She struggled to identify details. He had an accent, something East Coast, maybe Boston. She didn’t know anyone by that name either, although it seemed familiar to her somehow. Her brain was still trying to throw off the blankets of sleep, and she sat fully up in bed and grabbed a knitted throw her mother had made to put around her shoulders. She felt chilled, all of a sudden, though the room itself was warm enough.
    “Miss Adams,” he said. “Do you mind if I call you Hope? As I said, I’m Mr. Solomon. Elijah’s told me so much about you.”
    Her memory finally clicked into focus. Elijah had said the name, all right. “I want to talk to him,” she said. “Elijah.”
    “E.J. is indisposed at the moment, but he thinks the world of you, Hope. I had a very hard time getting him to tell me about you, and he’s not usually that close-mouthed about his girls. He must think you are more than that.”
    “More than that,” she repeated, because she couldn’t understand what he was saying to her. “More than what?”
    “A quick and dirty fuck, my dear,” Solomon said. It sounded sickening, coming out of his mouth. “I don’t mean he’s in love with you, understand. I’m talking about the attraction you hold for him that’s more than just what’s between your legs. That, I promise you, he can get anywhere.”
    Hope pulled her knees up to her chest in an instinctive huddle. “Stop it.”
    “If you think I’m talking about your personality, don’t flatter yourself. I’m talking about your money ,” Solomon said. It felt like the world suddenly went crystal clear and utterly silent. Hope heard the hiss of blood in her veins. “E.J.’s a nice kid, just not very good with pain. He even tore up the magazine form so I wouldn’t get your address, but that taped back up together just fine. So I can come to you any time I want—but I won’t have to pay you a visit, will I? Because you’re a nice kid, too. And you don’t want Elijah to suffer.”
    “What money? What are you talking about?”
    “That’s how you want to play it? All right. I’m going to torture your preppy little boyfriend here until you pay