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

me the money he says you have. He tried to tell me he got it all, but I know that isn’t true. He finally confessed that you’ve got a couple of thousand. Now, we both know nice girls like you don’t walk around with that much cash unless there’s something you need in untraceable bills—maybe a weed buy, maybe some E, maybe some crystal. Doesn’t matter. You’re going to give that money to me so E.J. can stop bleeding. You can always get high later.”
    She was shocked into silence. First, by the fact he really knew about the money … and then, a split-second later, by the realization that Elijah had lied about how much she had. He’d told Solomon a big enough number, but only a fraction of what she actually had.
    He was still trying to protect her. Even now.
    Hope took a deep breath, held it, and then slowly let it out. Her heart was pounding hard, but she kept her voice steady with an effort. “If I give you the cash, you’ll let him go?”
    “Let him go?” Mr. Solomon sounded lazy and amused, and all too confident. “No. He’s a good earner for me. Besides, he recruited a girl to my crew, and he thinks the world of her.”
    “You mean, you’re holding her hostage,” she said. “So what does my two thousand dollars buy?”
    “It means I stop my friend Skinner from kicking the crap out of him and get poor Elijah some quality medical care.”
    She remembered the bruises on his chest, and shivered. She managed to control her voice, and was surprised by how cool and distant it sounded. “Why should I care? I just met the guy.”
    “Let’s not play. You tried to help him run away. There’s something there, and you know it. So just give me the money and let’s stop being coy about it. Couple thousand, you buy a man’s life. Pretty good deal, I think.”
    Hope was concentrating so hard on his voice—his oily, smarmy voice—that she almost missed the sound of a door slamming down the hall, until a woman’s scream pierced the quiet. Hope yelped and dropped the phone. She jumped out of bed and cracked open her own door to look, then moved it open wider, because the noise was coming from Brittany’s room.
    The door—broken around the lock—swung back and forth. Brittany was yelling now, in a panicked, high-pitched screech. “Get out of here! Help! Rape! Fire ! Somebody call 911!”
    The lights blazed on. In the glow, Hope saw the bald-headed thug who’d dragged Elijah off, silhouetted from behind. Brittany was standing on her bed, clutching a heavy textbook like a club.
    “You’re not the right bitch,” he said. “Where’s the wallflower?”
    “ What ?”
    “The other one who lives here. Hope.”
    Oh, God.
    Hope eased the door shut, locked it, deadbolted it, and backed away. The phone was still on where she’d dropped it, and she picked it up and put it to her ear. “You did this.”
    “Skinner? Ah, good, he’s there. Just give him the cash and you’ll never see any of us again. In fact, he’s going to want that backpack of yours. Just in case E.J.’s been lying to us about how much you’ve got in there.”
    Hope hung up the call, grabbed her backpack and shoved the phone inside the outer pocket. She looked around at her new room, her small collection of precious things, and thought about taking her Bible. But she didn’t have room in the bag.
    I can always get another Bible. He’s always with me.
    She opened the window. When she looked down, it was a long, long drop to the grass below. But the one thing that they’d all joked about on the dorm were the very prominent big square blocks—some kind of architectural design feature—that made up an irregular pattern sticking out of the side of the building. Students were always rock-climbing the thing, though they got in trouble when caught by the campus cops.
    Hope was not much of a climber, but she didn’t have much choice, really. She put the backpack on with both straps over her shoulders, and then took a deep breath. She crawled