Page 64 of Overcast

And now we’re out in the middle of nowhere, and I’m worse off here than I was at my last prison cell. That woman in the apartment must’ve been half-deaf for not hearing me.

Or she was that enraptured by Emric’s good looks and body when he took his own shirt off. I can honestly and perturbedly say that I gaped at it myself.

Emric was magnificently built, a monster formed from the devil himself. He was a lure of everything a woman would want in the looks department. He’s not the definition of a bad boy because his idea of a good time doesn’t seem to be fake chivalry or how untouchable he is.

Emric is the latter. But that’s only because he’ll slit your throat before you can bat an eyelash or steal a graze of him. He’s a man with a persistent attitude and mind that won’t be swayed. As stubborn as a mule, constructed to destroy, and as beautiful as a song.

However, put any woman in my shoes, and they’ll quickly find that his touch doesn’t send wistful emotions and goosebumps coursing through you.

“Move out of that seat—” Emric’s voice booms suddenly, producing my head to snap

up. “—and I’ll break something.” He doesn’t wait for me to respond or agree, marching back up the stairs that we came down and disappearing around the corner.

The eerie silence hastily swallows the room, allowing me a moment away from Emric’s sour mood before I hear the softness of a woman’s voice.

You know the saying curiosity killed the cat? Well, I’m already dead, but I have something that might work in my favor. Emric’s knife—the one he used and stuck into Hollis. I don’t know where I got the courage to pull a metal object out of someone’s flesh, but I took the only opportunity I had.

And it now dwells in my back pocket. Hollis pointed the blame on me when he didn’t correct Emric on my being involved in this. He made me sound more and more like what Emric probably believed in his head.

A better shot? I’ve never held a gun, nor have I ever seen one in real life until Emric’s. He was my only chance of clearing things up, and he devastated it. Made it appear as though he and I were lovers, which is entirely far from the truth.

Ever so slowly and quietly, I make my way to the bottom of the staircase, hearing the murmuring of voices. Even though they are speaking low, I can still make out the female’s. Another woman whose possibly here to see him for sex?

Placing my foot on the bottom stair, then the next one, I’m hoping so. I don’t dare push my luck further by turning the corner, but I don’t need to.

The female is loud enough and irritated. “You’ve had her for awhile,” she grumbles. “Let me take a crack at her.”

“No.” That coming from Emric.

“Why?”

“Because I fucking said,” he replies.

“Then why did you bring her here? Yards away from—”

“I got it.” I hear a blatant scoff, the woman not fully convinced.

Who is she?

She obviously knows I’m here but “take a crack at her”? There are more people like him?

No thanks.

“Obviously, not if you still don’t know who’s behind Reagan’s attempted assassination,” she leers.

“Mind your own fucking business, Emmy. I’m putting her down tonight.” I’m not sure if he says anything else. All I hear is the violent thudding in my ears as my biggest and most prominent suspicion comes full force. My heart pulses and pounds in my chest as I back away from the steps.

I’m putting her down tonight.

Shaking my head, tears begin to form and burn my eyes, finding it hard to imagine that I won’t wake up for another day.

That this is it for me.

How I desired more in life, and I took it all for granted. I’ll never get married and have my own home. My last night of freedom was with Hollis’s fingers inside me, practically drooling at the fact that I let him touch me.

And I did.

I’m a waste of a human being. I could’ve become so much more if I had just pushed myself to be better than my upbringing. With the way things were going before Emric busted through our front door, I may as well have just sat back and waited patiently for all dad’s friends to molest me because I never did anything about their advances. My objections were weak and probably sounded inviting to their ears.

I want to be strong.

I crave a life that is unhindered and filled with happiness to spread to other people in my new existence.

But from the sounds of it, Emric has reached his limit and patience. And no one is going to save me from him.

Except maybe me.

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