“Danielle,” I whisper. “Where is Danielle?”
I dial her number and she doesn’t answer. I dial again. And again. I press my hand to my face and look at the time. Five in the morning. My car is at Jesse’s house. I start walking, looking for a sign, anything to tell me where I’m at. Finally, I find a sign: Rock Creek Park. The party was in McLean. Rock Creek is back in Washington, a good forty minutes away. I lean against the sign and my mother calls again.
I answer. “Mom?”
“Thank God,” she breathes out, her voice filled with both panic and anger, two things that my mother, a gentle soul, and doctor, who loves people, rarely allows to surface. “Oh, thank God. I’ve been so worried.”
“I don’t know what happened, Mom. I blacked out and I’m at a park.”
“Near Rock Creek,” she says. “I know. I did the ‘find my phone’ search but it’s not exact and I was about to call the police. I just knew—” She sobs before adding, “I just knew you were dead in the woods. I was about to get help. I was about to have a search start.”
“I—Mom, I—”
“Go to the main parking lot.” She hangs up.
My cellphone rings with Danielle’s number. “Where are you?” I demand.
“At Jesse’s,” she says. “Where are you? I was asleep and I thought you were in a room with David, but he was with some other girl.”
“You don’t know what happened to me?” I ask.
“No. Jesus. What happened?”
Headlights shine in my direction from a parking lot. “I’ll call you later,” I say. “I have to deal with my mother.” I hang up and start running toward the lights. By the time I’m at the driver’s side of my mother’s Mercedes, she’s there, too, out of the car and reaching for me.
“You have so much to explain,” she attacks, grabbing my arms and hugging me. “I am furious with you. You scared me.”
“I scared me, too,” I say hugging her, starting to cry, the scent of her jasmine perfume, consuming my senses, and calming me. “I don’t know what happened.”
She pulls back. “Did you drink and do drugs?”
“No. I mean—one drink. I’m fine. I—”
“One drink. We both know what that means. This wasn’t the first time.”
“No. Mom. It was. One drink. I don’t know what happened. Someone drugged me. They had to have drugged me.”
Her lips purse. “Get in the car.”
“Mom—”
“Get in the car.”
I nod and do as I’m told. I get in the car. The minute she’s in with me, I try to explain. “Mom, I—”
“Do not speak to me until I calm down.” He seatbelt warning beeps.
“Mom—”
“Shut up, Hailey,” she says, putting us in motion.
I suck in air at the harsh words that do not fit my mother, who is not just beautiful, but graceful in her actions and words. Perfect, actually, and everything I aspire to be. I click my belt while her warning continues to go off. She turns us onto the highway and I listen to the warning going off, trying to fill the blank space in my head with answers I can give her. But there are none and suddenly she lets out a choked sound and hits the brakes. My eyes jolt open, but everything is spinning. We’re spinning. I can’t see or move. “Mom!” I shout, I think. Or maybe I don’t. Glass shatters. I feel it on my face, cutting me, digging into my skin.
We jolt again, no longer spinning, but the world goes black.
Time is still.
And then there are sirens and I try to catch my breath, but my chest hurts so badly. “Mom,” I whisper, turning to look at her but she’s not there. She’s not there. Panic rises fast and hard and I unhook my belt and ball my fist at my aching chest. Forcing myself to move, I sit up to find my mother on the hood of the car, a huge chunk of steel through her body.
I scream and I can’t stop screaming. I can’t stop screaming.
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***
NEW STANDALONE COMING IN MY LILAH LOVE SERIES!
This series is a suspense series with a steamy side of romance! The first two books are available now, but the third book can be read as a standalone as well!
https://www.lilahlove.com/
ALSO BY LISA RENEE JONES
THE INSIDE OUT SERIES
If I Were You
Being Me
Revealing Us
His Secrets*
Rebecca’s Lost Journals
The Master Undone*
My Hunger*
No In Between
My Control*
I Belong to You
All of Me*
THE SECRET LIFE OF AMY BENSEN
Escaping Reality
Infinite Possibilities
Forsaken
Unbroken*
CARELESS WHISPERS
Denial
Demand
Surrender
WHITE LIES
Provocative
Shameless
TALL, DARK & DEADLY
Hot Secrets
Dangerous Secrets
Beneath the Secrets
WALKER SECURITY
Deep Under
Pulled Under
Falling Under
LILAH LOVE
Murder Notes
Murder Girl
Love Me Dead (2019)
Love Kills (2019)
DIRTY RICH
Dirty Rich One Night Stand
Dirty Rich Cinderella Story
Dirty Rich Obsession
Dirty Rich Betrayal
Dirty Rich Cinderella Story: Ever After
Dirty Rich One Night Stand: Two Years Later
Dirty Rich Obsession: All Mine
THE FILTHY TRILOGY
The Bastard
The Princess
The Empire
THE NAKED TRILOGY
One Man (June 2019)
One Woman (September 2019)
Two Together (November 2019)
*eBook only
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Lisa Renee Jones is the author of the highly acclaimed INSIDE OUT series.
In addition to the success of Lisa’s INSIDE OUT series, she has published many successful titles. The TALL, DARK AND DEADLY series and THE SECRET LIFE OF AMY BENSEN series, both spent several months on a combination of the New York Times and USA Today bestselling lists. Lisa is also the author of the bestselling LILAH LOVE and WHITE LIES series.
Prior to publishing, Lisa owned multi-state staffing agency that was recognized many times by The Austin Business Journal and also praised by the Dallas Women’s Magazine. In 1998 Lisa was listed as the #7 growing women owned business in Entrepreneur Magazine.
Lisa loves to hear from her readers. You can reach her on Twitter and Facebook daily.
Her Submission Page 19
