Less than Perfect by S. J. Evans (librera reader .TXT) 📖

I’m in trouble. I love you, Mom. I could never blame you for what happened.”
They embraced each other in a hug, crying despite the small smiles on their faces. Skye’s body warmed at her mother’s touch, so soothing and safe, and she sighed in relief. She didn’t care that Johnny was on the loose in that moment, all she cared about was the fact that she was with Leah, safe, and no one could sabotage it. Not even Johnny.
Drawing herself away from Leah, she fell against the bed in exhaustion. Her beaten body was still caught in the healing stage, battered and sore. Her eyes became heavy, sleep so close yet so far away. She couldn’t grasp onto sleep, only wish for it. A restless heart kept it much too far away as she thought about what was going on around her.
She knew that Johnny was out there, somewhere, most likely waiting for the perfect time to make a move. But she also knew that he wouldn’t get the perfect time—the cops wouldn’t allow that to happen. And for that, she was grateful. In a way, she wasn’t afraid of him. She knew that he could still be a threat, but it didn’t matter. As long as he was out there and her loved ones were not, everything would be okay. Her only hope was that Jules had made it to her house safely.
She looked at Leah, who quietly lay beside her inhaling and exhaling normally again, and her smile quivered. “What’s going to happen to us? Are we going to be safe?”
Leah stared deep into Skye’s crystal orbs, face contorted in thought. “We are going to be safe,” she replied, voice small and quiet. “The authorities are going to make sure we stay safe; all the while, they’ll be searching for Johnny. They’re not going to let him get away, Skye.”
“So there are police here, right now?”
“Yes, sweetie,” Leah confirmed. “One’s outside, one’s downstairs. They’re here to protect us, but they’ve assured me that they won’t be in our way. They’ve given me their word that they won’t be a bother to us. Although, Chief would like to talk to you, get the facts straight about what Johnny did to you. You don’t have to if you don’t want to, though. He assured me it was up to you. We understand it’s not an easy thing to discuss. ”
“I don’t have to?”
“No, sweetie,” Leah soothed, rubbing her daughter’s shoulder, “you don’t have to if you don’t want to.”
“I’ll do it,” Skye added hastily. “I’ll tell him everything.”
Leah looked at her daughter carefully, eyes furrowed in confusion as if she hadn’t expected Skye to do it. “Are you sure, sweetie? You certainly don’t have to. I’ll manage for you.”
“I want to, Mom. I mean, maybe it will be good for me to talk about it some more. It felt good getting it all off my chest by telling you, even if it was hard. And I know it won’t be easy, but I should be the one to tell him. After all, it happened to me. I

have to share it.”
“Oh Skye,” Leah sighed. “You’re so brave, baby. I’m proud of you.” She kissed her on the forehead softly. “I’ve always been proud of you.”
Skye smiled a little, despite the unnerved feeling that overwhelmed her body at the thought of telling a practical stranger of Johnny’s abuse. She knew she wanted to be the one to tell the Chief what happened between her and Johnny, not Leah, but it didn’t make it any easier to think about. Part of her was still fighting that it had ever happened; part was still fighting the nightmares.
“I love you, Mom,” she whispered. A stray tear fell down Leah’s face and she wiped it away with her shaking hands. “Please don’t cry about this anymore. I’m going to be okay, soon.”
A cry trembled from Leah’s lips as she managed a small smile in return to Skye’s. “I know, sweetheart, I know.”
Pulling away from Leah, Skye rolled on her back and stared at the ceiling, eyelids threatening to close. Her head spun a little but she didn’t care to ask for Joe; she wanted to be sure a few questions were answered first.
“Are Rachel, Victor, and Jules safe?” she questioned, winding her fingers together on top of her stomach. Everything threatened to go back into the abyss of a dark slumber, filled with an escape of nightmares and dreams, but she strained as best she could to hold it back. “Are the authorities keeping them safe too?”
Leah sighed beside her as she moved herself in the same position as Skye, staring deeply into the warm ceiling’s color. She hesitated before speaking, lost in thought, and took a few long breaths.
“Yes, Skye, they are. In fact, Jules and Victor are downstairs as we speak. Joe and I tried to get them to leave and get some rest, especially Victor because of his minor injuries, but they wouldn’t. They’re quite stubborn young fellows. They must both really care about you. They’re both quite gentleman if you ask me.”
Skye heart warmed, tension released, at the sound of Jules’s name, security wrapping a blanket over her spirit. She thought about his smile, the same charming smile that gave her strength when she didn’t feel any, and couldn’t help but allow her own smile to form at the corners of her lips. He gave her peace just by the small thought of him being close to her, even when many things had gone wrong around her.
After a few moments caught up thinking about Jules, she pulled her mind away to wrap around everything that Leah had told her. She’d mentioned that Victor had stayed, despite his injuries, and refused to leave. The reasonable part of her figured he’d only stayed because Rachel wasn’t around and there wasn’t another place to go but home where, as Jules had once mentioned, was quite low on Victor’s list of places he’d want to be. But then there was another part of her, one that churned her insides around in confusion, which told her he had entirely different motives. She’d noticed something seemed off the night before but what it was wasn’t close to her comprehension.
Biting her bottom lip, she thought about the ways he’d looked at her and shivered, unnerved by her own imagination. Gentleman they are

, she reminded herself in her head. Both of them. Jules and Victor are both gentleman. Victor would never be that stupid, he’d never do anything to risk relationships. Jules is his best friend.

Snapping away from the thoughts that didn’t seem to fit right with her, she took a breath and calmed her hammering heartbeat. “Yeah, they are,” she murmured. “And Rachel? Are the authorities going to keep watch over her too?”
“They will be,” Leah confirmed. “Once she gets back from her cousin Savannah’s house, if Johnny’s still on the loose, they’ll be at her house making sure she’s safe. Johnny wouldn’t be able to get to her even if he tried.”
“You’re sure about all of this?”
“Yes, sweetie, I am and so are they. Although, if you have any concerns we can always talk with the Chief some more about it—anything to make you feel better about this.”
Skye let out a long breath. “I understand. Thank you, Mom. Everything’s really going to be okay now. Johnny can’t hurt anyone I care about.”
“That’s right, baby,” Leah soothed. “Johnny’s not going to hurt you or anyone else ever, ever again. He will be caught soon. There’s only so far he can get without being discovered.”
“Mhm,” Skye murmured, letting her eyes fall shut as the warmth of the room enveloped her in a blanket. She felt sleep trying to pull her away, to steal her away into the pit of dreams, and reached for Leah’s hand to grasp onto. As the darkness started to take over her before she fell under, she squeezed Leah’s hand and hoped that nightmares wouldn’t consume her.

“Skylar?” someone spoke, waking Skye from her eerie slumber.
For a moment, before she processed the actual owner of the voice, Skye heard the menace of Johnny’s deep voice right before an attack. Her eyes sprang open as she gripped the sheets underneath her out of fear. She tried to calm herself when she looked into the rich, brown eyes belonging to Joe, but it wasn’t as easy as she wanted it to be. Her heart was hammering in her head, causing her to grimace in pain, as haunting images of Johnny flashed before her eyes. He’d returned to her through nightmares, threatening her as if it was real.
“How are you feeling, Skye?” Joe asked, standing above her beside the bed. “You look quite pale.”
She swallowed her sobs and shook her head of the images. “Not so good, Joe,” she murmured, sighing. “I can’t seem to sleep well and my head kind of kills. What’s wrong with me?”
He looked at her with caring eyes as he knelt down beside her on the floor. “You have a pretty bad bump on your head, a minor concussion, and I’m sure the lack of sleep is coming from nightmares, am I right?”
Slowly, she nodded and took a deep breath, letting go of the sheets as her body calmed a bit. Besides the aches that pounded throughout her body—especially her neck, head, stomach, and chest— she’d fallen into a different blanket of tranquility, holding her in peace and security. She wished the pain would go away but decided it wasn’t about to and decided she’d deal with it as best she could, pushing the emotional pain in the back of her mind so that she could work on healing.
“Your body took the abuse but not without a price. You’ll be tired a lot for the next couple of days, in which you really should sleep, as your body tries to recover. You have quite a nit of bruising and your head suffered much trauma. It’s quite amazing you don’t have a worse concussion. You got lucky with that one.”
She strained to process his words, splintering pain stretching across the back of her head. “I must look pretty awful then,” she muttered, rubbing her hand over her face.
He smiled then, the corners of his lips stretching up. “I wouldn’t say that,” he replied. “You look as great as ever, just a little on the tired side.”
She scoffed, glaring at him. “Yeah right, Joe!”
“No really, Skye,” he insisted. “You look just as beautiful as ever, even if you have a couple of bruises.