Page 14 of Unveiled

“No, no, please! I’m sorry!” Tears start falling down her cheeks as I pull her into me, hoping the feel of my arms around her will pull her from the nightmare.

“Ainsley, baby, wake up,” I plead with her, not able to listen anymore. Her tears wet my bare chest as she sobs uncontrollably, and then she pauses. Just when I think she’s calming down, she gasps for air, like there’s something wrapped around her throat that I can’t see.

“Ainsley, wake up!” I shout, not caring about shocking her awake anymore. Roughly, I shake her shoulder until her eyes shoot open and she draws in a deep breath. “Ainsley?”

Her eyes meet mine, and the sight of her pain is gut wrenching. Instead of talking, she buries her face back into my chest and sobs uncontrollably. I don’t know what she was dreaming about, but whatever it was, it was too much for her.

“You’re okay, little one. It was just a dream. I’m here. You’re safe.” The words spill out of me as I attempt to comfort her, but something I said seems to only make it worse.

“It wasn’t just a dream,” she sobs into my chest. “It happened, my first night with Carlos.”

Her first night with Carlos? But she was crying out for me. Was she remembering what she thought was me being killed as she was dragged away? She told me he made her listen to that video repeatedly to control her. What doesn’t make sense is why she acted like she was choking at the end of it.

“Tell me what happened,” I whisper gently. I want to provide as much comfort as I can, but I don’t want to force her to talk about it if she’s not ready to yet. She told me everything after I rescued her, but I have a feeling she kept it all bottled up after that and never found someone to talk to. Not even Ethan.

“I had a dream that night that you weren’t actually dead, and you were there to rescue me. It was the first of those dreams,” she answers. The first of the many dreams she used to have about me, promising her I was alive. “Except, as soon as I got my hopes up, Carlos shot you in front of me. Your blood splattered all over me and I watched you die. I woke up from the dream to find Carlos choking me. I couldn’t breathe, and he was furious that I was crying out your name in his presence.”

The more she tells me, the more helpless I feel. I know she’s never going to fully recover from what happened to her, but talking about it will help.

“What else, baby?”

She draws in another breath, gathering her strength to tell me the next part. “It was a relief when he let go and I could breathe, but…”

She stops, not knowing how to put her thoughts into words. I don’t interrupt as I wait for her to decide if she can tell me more. “I almost wished he would have just finished. Strangled me until I died, and then I wouldn’t have had to live through that torture, and I wouldn’t have had to live without you.”

I never knew she felt that way. By the end, she had lost all hope and was willing to jump off that balcony, but I didn’t know she wanted it all to end when she thought I died.

“I’m here, Ainsley. I’m here, and I’m not dead. You’re not at that house anymore. You’re safe here, with me. I promise.”

She relaxes into me as her tears slow, but by the heaving of her body, I know she hasn’t calmed down yet. While she tries to catch her breath, I rub her back and whisper soothing words into her ear. After a while, the room is silent as she allows me to hold her while she tries to fall back asleep.

“I guess you were wrong,” she mumbles sleepily. “You don’t actually take away my nightmares.”

I chuckle into her hair, ready to burst this bubble for her. “You’re wrong, little one. I stepped outside for a phone call and when I came back, your nightmare had started.”

“Hm. Maybe being here won’t be the worst thing,” she admits. Before I can come up with a reply, her light snores fill the room as she drifts into a more peaceful sleep.

“Cain,” Ainsley breathes in relief as she sees me there, standing in front of her. I can’t get enough of hearing her say my name, but I won’t tell her that. If I do, she’ll stop.

“I’m here, little one,” I assure her as she looks at me like I’m a figment of her imagination, not believing she’s actually seeing me here.

“But -” she stops, looking over me one more time, still not believing I’m real. “But you’re dead.”

Her words slap me across the face, shocking the breath out of my chest. She thinks I’m dead? No, I’m here to help her. I promised her I’d always come for her. How could she think I would just leave her here?

“I -” I start to tell her I’m okay and I’m here to bring her home with me, but a click from behind her stops my words before they can come out. When I look behind her, I see a gun pointing straight at me, a man ready to take his revenge right behind it.

“Cain?”

I can’t answer her. As my eyes fall back to her beautiful face, memorizing every feature I can, the calm around me shatters as the gun goes off, and then there’s nothing.

I know I’m dead. The image of my blood splattered on Ainsley’s face is the only thing I can see as blackness consumes me, telling me I failed. She screamed my name, but I couldn’t hear her.

Isn’t the pain supposed to go away once you’re dead? Right now, all I can feel is the agony of knowing I failed Ainsley, and she’ll be stuck in that house forever.

I try to call out her name to tell her I’m still here, that I’ll figure this out, but it feels like I’m drowning in the blackness. It fills my lungs, blocks my nose from smelling anything, and clouds my vision. This is it.

“Ainsley?” Her name is the first word on my lips as my eyes spring open, pulling me back into my bedroom with Ainsley still wrapped in my arms.

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