Read Break Me for Free Online

wasn’t a bustling hub of traffic at any hour of the day, but it was even less so right now. I wasn’t sure what I was doing and I knew she wasn’t sure what she was doing either. I wanted inside her head and I got it. Now I just had to figure out how to proceed.
    I’d never been much of a planner. I kind of let my gut and instincts lead me. It had served me well with those who’d submitted to me in the past. But those had been for play, for scenes. I wasn’t so sure it would work with Claire in the long run, though.
    “Why are we going this way?”
    I glanced around. I could admit I zoned out for a second and I drove this route so much that I’d swear my truck could drive itself to my place. “It’s how I get home.” I wasn’t sure why she’d asked at first, but then it dawned on me. The Club was on this street. “When was the last time you were even over here?”
    “Last night. After I closed up the shop, I came over this way.” She sighed and looked over at me. “This is all your fault.”
    “So you’ve said.”
    “Will you stop? Pull over?” Her voice hadn’t risen or dropped. It hadn’t warmed or become cold. It was monotone, almost dead, and it had me concerned.
    “Claire?”
    “Please, Jared. Please pull over.”
    As fate would have it, a spot across the street was open. It was the only one open, so at the streetlight I made a U-turn and allowed the park assist on the truck to parallel into the space. Claire never took her eyes off the front doors of The Club .
    “Claire?” I spoke her name softly in the quiet of the truck cab.
    “Tim died on the next street over. I told you he was driving too fast because he was late. He was too late to stop at light and slammed on the brakes, but it was too late for the care behind him to slow down at all. He rammed Tim from behind so hard it…”
    “It’s okay. You don’t have to continue.” She nodded, tears starting to stream down her cheeks at the telling of her tale. I wanted to reach out and take her hand, but the way she was huddled in the corner of the seat, pressed into the truck door, told me she didn’t want to be touched. I could understand.
    She looked at me then, her pretty eyes bright and reflective behind her tears. “I have to, yes. I told you this was all your fault and it is, but now that it’s begun, now that you’ve pushed me to unravel, all of it’s coming undone inside me and I can’t stop it.”
    “If you’re susceptible to being pushed, then maybe it was time.”
    “His car was pushed hard into a street lamp and witnesses said the person behind tried to stop it or get out of what was happening, but it was too late. His truck was locked to Tim’s back bumper and they just kept going forward until there was nothing that could be done. The impact of the hit from behind rocked his head on his neck and… They said he wouldn’t have known anything else after that. He was gone by the time the medics arrived.”
    “And the truck driver?”
    “Vehicular manslaughter.”
    “I’m so sorry.” I didn’t know what else to say. I didn’t know where to go with it. Maybe it was all my doing, putting her in this position, making her face the pain and hurt she’d bottled up for so long. There really was no maybe about it. I’d already owned up to it. I couldn’t take it back now. I couldn’t make her put it all back inside.
    Claire nodded. “I hadn’t realized how it would feel to talk about it.”
    “How does it feel?”
    “Free. I could only remember losing him. I could only remember seeing the casket. I couldn’t see beyond my sadness. I didn’t want the good memories to invade my heart ache.”
    “Sometimes talking about the hard things helps you heal more than just waiting them out. You loved him. He deserves your forgiveness.”
    “What do you mean by that?”
    “He left you. You said that he did the one thing he told you he never would. He left you. Maybe it’s time you forgive him for that. It wasn’t his