Page 111 of Catching My Dreams

Noah’s half-sister and her boyfriend had waited outside the locker room to congratulate him, and though he was happy to see Olivia, he wished she hadn’t come to watch him play when he couldn’t seem to stop messing up. It was humiliating enough as is.

He knew his dad and stepmom had also attended the game like they always did, but now his little sister got to see him screw up as well.

Olivia and Drew disappeared into the parking garage Noah had also parked in, and he briefly considered insisting that Olivia come home with him.

The rest of his family might like Drew, but he still wasn’t a huge fan of Olivia’s boyfriend. But he knew that Olivia would throw a fit rather than go with him.

“She’s still dating the toolbag, I see,” Chris commented when the pair were no longer in sight.

“Yep,” Noah replied, simply glad his friend was deigning to talk to him directly. “I doubt I’ll like anyone Olivia dates,” he admitted. She was his younger sister. He would always be protective of her. “But she can do better than him,” he finished.

“She can do a lot b—” Chris’s words cut off as a female scream sliced through the air.

“Olivia,” Noah breathed out, frozen in place for a second before he was running, his bag discarded somewhere behind him.

He was exhausted after the game, but the tiredness seemed to vanish as soon as he began running. He raced down the sidewalk faster than he thought he was capable of, but even then, it felt too slow. He heard Chris following him, breathing heavily in his post-game fatigue.

Noah wasn’t sure what he expected to find in the parking garage. He hoped it would just be Olivia and Drew messing around and nearly giving him a heart attack for no reason, but a part of him already knew before he ran into the space that something was wrong. Olivia’s scream hadn’t been a playful one.

What he hadn’t expected to find once he’d bolted into the parking garage and come to an unbalanced stop was that his half-sister wasn’t the one in danger. Olivia was on her knees, being helped up by Drew, but it was Ella who had the tip of a hunting knife poised above her chest.

It was Ella, whose cheerleading uniform was already covered in blood. It was Ella who was lying on the ground, her eyes open and seeing, but her face drained of color and her arms lying motionless by her sides.

Everything came to a stop. Noah had felt terror before, but never anything like this. Never anything as decimating as seeing the white ‘G’ on the front of Ella’s uniform stained red with blood, the knife used to wound her poised above her heart.

He screamed, and the world seemed to unfreeze at the guttural sound. Brett lifted the blade, but Noah was already moving. He reached them quicker than he would have thought possible, and he didn’t hesitate.

Brett was kneeling beside Ella’s prone body, and Noah could only be thankful that the position allowed him to tackle the distracted man without harming Ella. The two of them went flying to the ground, Ella still too close to them for comfort.

Brett’s head hit the hard concrete with a thud that was music to Noah’s ears.

“Go get help,” he shouted at Olivia and Drew, needing his half-sister to be as far away from this psychopath as she could get.

Satisfied that they were running off as ordered, Noah turned his full attention back to Brett. Not one to let his advantage slip away, he landed two swift punches to his dazed face before making a grab for the knife still clutched in Brett’s hand.

He tried to wrestle the handle from Brett’s fingers, but the other man held on too tightly. With a snarl, Noah grabbed his wrist and struck Brett’s hand against the floor until his grip loosened and the knife fell to the floor with a clatter.

“Help her,” he yelled, hoping Chris didn’t need the order and was already at Ella’s side. He couldn’t afford to check, though. Brett was too dangerous an opponent for him to slip up and get distracted.

Even taking the time to yell out those two words was apparently enough for Brett to gain the upper hand, however. He was below Noah one second, gone the next, and then standing in front of him, his knee lifting to strike Noah’s nose before he could move.

Stars burst behind Noah’s eyes, and the taste of blood filled his mouth. But he didn’t give Brett the satisfaction of so much as a pained groan as blood dripped from his nose. He reached out and wrapped his fingers around the knife Brett had used against Ella.

He stood up, knowing he would use it to finally free Ella from Brett’s machinations, or he would die trying. Those were the only two options.

Brett only grinned, though. If he was scared of Noah, he didn’t show it, and when he disappeared again, Noah spat a curse.

“Fucking coward,” Noah shouted, spinning around in case Brett decided to reappear behind him. “Show yourself, you fucking bastard.”

Unfortunately, Brett did just that. Only he did so right next to Noah, crashing into him and sending them both back to the ground. Noah didn’t remember letting go of the knife, but his fingers were empty when Brett straddled him and wrapped his hands around his throat.

Noah’s next inhale was nothing more than a choked sound. He tried to pry Brett’s fingers away from his neck, but the man’s entire weight was behind the stranglehold. Blood was filling Noah’s nose and mouth, suffocating him further.

Panic was swift to tear his previous bravado into shreds. In that moment, he couldn’t remember why he’d ever thought he could stand a chance against someone who could travel between different planes. He’d been a fool to think he could do anything but fail.

But then Noah thought of Ella. He couldn’t let Brett win. He didn’t know if she was okay or not, but he sure as shit wouldn’t let this psychopath get away with everything he’d done to her.

When he sent a punch to Brett’s grinning face only for his fist not to reach its target, he resorted to reaching his hands out to the sides and frantically combing the floor with his fingers.

---