“You needed it.”

An aide appeared with my food and set it down without a smile. “Gracias,” I murmured as she turned to leave. I opened the lid and then quickly shut it.

“You need to eat,” Rev urged, when I pushed the tray away.

“I’d like to see you try that.”

With a smile, he rose from his chair. He took the lid off my tray and then picked up a fork. He cut a piece of the pale, overbaked chicken cutlet. After he took a bite, his expression soured, and he quickly turned to spit the food into the trash can.

“That’s horrible.”

“I tried to tell you.”

“I’ll call Bishop and ask him to bring us some food that’s a little more appetizing.”

I smiled at him. “That sounds like a plan.”

After Rev made the call, he didn’t put his phone away. Instead, he kept looking at it and then at me. The expression on his face told me he was apprehensive about something. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong.”

“Are you sure? You look funny.”

A teasing smile played on his lips. “That wasn’t a very nice thing to say.”

I laughed. “I didn’t mean it like that. You look like something’s bothering you. Like you need to tell me something you really don’t want to.”

Rev’s smile faded. “You’re very perceptive. You’re being discharged in the morning, so we’ll be leaving for El Paso.” Then he proceeded to tell me the plans that I assumed Breakneck and he had made earlier. “But before we leave, I need you to talk to your parents.”

My stomach churned at the prospect. “I tried to kill myself earlier today. Must I endure that as well?” I said, knowing I sounded bitter.

He stared at me, his dark brows furrowed. I could tell the wheels were spinning in his head about what kind of heartless girl I must be not to want to put my worried parents’ minds at ease. In the vast scheme of things, it didn’t matter what he thought of me, but at the same time, I couldn’t bear to have someone as good and kindhearted as he was thinking I was a bad person.

“Rev, I’m sure this all seems strange to you, but just like I don’t understand the world you come from, you don’t understand mine, either.”

His expression softened a little. “Trust me, I get that people have fucked-up families. But no matter what happened before with them, they have a right to know.”

Nibbling my lip between my teeth, I contemplated his response. I finally relented. “What if you called them?”

“Seriously?”

I nodded. When he still seemed unconvinced, I said, “Please?”

He exhaled a long, almost defeated sigh. “Do you want to speak to them after I have?” When I shook my head, he groaned. “Fine. I’ll call them.” He then wagged a finger at me. “But you owe me.”

“You’re right. I do. But for more than I can possibly repay.”

“Some things are on the house,” he replied, with a tender smile that made my chest tighten with emotion.

“I’ll give you my father’s private number. That way you won’t get the run-around from his aides.”

To my surprise, Rev put the phone on speaker. My father picked up on the third ring. “This is Emmett Percy.” Hearing his voice should probably have brought me some form of comfort, but it didn’t move me at all. When your parents have kept you at arm’s length your entire life, even a catastrophic event doesn’t change the way you feel. The only person I would want to talk to at the house was Connie, my former nanny, who was now employed as my mother’s assistant.

“Mr. Percy, you don’t know me, and I don’t know you. The only thing you do need to know is your daughter Annabel is safe.”

My father sucked in a harsh breath. “What do you mean? Who are you? Where is my daughter?” he demanded.

“The fewer details you know of her kidnapping and rescue, the better. That can be said for all parties involved. She is safe and recuperating, so any search efforts you had should be canceled. She will be returning home to you in Virginia in a few days.”

“I don’t believe a fucking word you’ve said. I want to speak to my daughter this instant.”

Rev thrust out the phone to me. His no-nonsense look told me I had no choice but to speak to my father. With a resigned sigh, I said, “It’s me, Father.”

“Annabel? Annabel, are you really okay?”

“Yes, I am. I swear. And I’m not being coerced into saying that, either.”

“Where are you?”

“You don’t need to know that.”

“The hell I don’t! Is that man the one who kidnapped you? I’ll have the CIA and the FBI on his ass in seconds.”

“Father, please. He saved me from something pretty horrible. He doesn’t need to be harassed by you or your minions.”

“I want you home—immediately. It’s been a media circus since you left—”

Rage boiled inside me at his comment. Gripping the phone tighter, I spat, “I didn’t just leave. I was kidnapped by a group of traffickers. Do you understand what that means? I had no choice. In anything that happened or anything that was done to me.”

My father remained silent for a moment as if he was trying to process the horror of what I had just said. But he wasn’t focusing on my torment—the unspeakable pain his daughter had gone through. No, I was certain he was worrying about how my family could find a way to get out of this unscathed both politically and socially. “I will send the plane for you right now. Wherever you are in the world.”

“No. It isn’t necessary.”

“Annabel, be reasonable. Your mother has barely slept in the two months you’ve been gone. Both of us are wrecks.”

Once again, he was thinking only of himself. It didn’t matter what I had gone through, the sleepless nights I had endured. “I’m sorry, Father. But that’s all you need to know right now.”

A humorless laugh came through the phone. “Fine. I see this experience hasn’t humbled you and has only made you even more headstrong. So if that’s the way you want to play it, I’ll just find your location from the phone tracer. Or have you forgotten that all my calls are traced?”

“This is a GoPhone. Good luck with that one,” I replied, before disconnecting the call. I tossed the phone back at Rev. “Happy now?”

He didn’t look happy. In fact, he appeared horrified at what had transpired between my father and me. “They had to know, Annabel.”

“Now do you understand why I didn’t want to call them?”

He jerked a hand through his hair. “Yes, I do. And I’m sorry—not for making you call, but I’m sorry that’s the family you have to go back home to.”

“It is what it is. My parents are horrible, my sister is tolerable, but at least I have a really good group of friends. They’re the ones I would want to know I was okay.”

His expression turned suddenly contemplative. “Do you have a boyfriend back home?”

For some reason, the very innocent question didn’t seem so innocent. “Why would you ask me that?”

He shrugged. “Just wondered who else there might be in your life worth getting back home to.”

“No, there’s no boyfriend.”

His brows shot up in surprise. “How is it possible a girl as pretty as you doesn’t have a boyfriend?”

The compliment seemed so foreign coming from him. In spite of that fact, warmth flooded my cheeks. “That’s sweet of you to say.”

Even though he looked slightly embarrassed, he said, “I mean it.”

“No, there’s not been a boyfriend for a while actually.” As I thought about the old Annabel’s life, I found myself almost smiling. “There was a guy I liked back in College Station.”

“A guy you went to school with?” Rev asked.

“Actually, he was a vet at the animal hospital I worked at.”

“Is that what you were in school for? To be a vet?”

I nodded. “I can’t imagine doing anything else. I’ve loved animals practically since I was born.” With a sly smile, I added, “I guess I found them to be much nicer than my family.”

Rev laughed. “I can see how you might believe that.”

I absently flicked away a piece of fuzz on my blanket. “I was in my first semester of veterinarian school. I’ve missed so much that I guess I’ll just start over in the fall.”