Page 40 of Not Your Hero

“Why not you? I see you, and I see a future, Emerson. I see happiness I’ve never had before.”

“With me?” I ask, confused by all of this.

“Yes, with you.”

“And your brother? What’s going to happen with him?” I shiver at the thought of him coming near me again, but judging by the look in Gannix’s eyes right now, there’s no way he’d let him.

“He’ll be dealt with when the time comes.”

“You would kill him for me?” I ask, needing to know just how deep in this shit I am with him.

“Without a second thought.” That shuts me up. I sit back against the wall and just stare at him. It doesn’t make any sense. He’d kill his brother for me? A girl he hardly knows? How does that make any sense?

“How long have you watched me?”

“Years.”

“Years?” I blanch.

“Yes, years.”

“Then why have you never come to me before?”

“The time wasn’t right. At first, I thought you were happy with Brandon. I was going to leave it at that and let you live your life, but then, I saw the sadness in your eyes, the longing, the yearning, and I knew you deserved more.”

“He was a prick who only really cared about himself,” I mumble as I think about our relationship. He wasn’t the best boyfriend, but he didn’t deserve to die, either.

“The last time he made you cry, I lost it. In fact, I tore this very room apart.”

“Why?”

“I didn’t want to see you hurting. Your pain was my pain, Emerson.”

This is all too much. I run my hand through my hair and try to make it all make sense. It doesn’t. None of it. He’s been watching me for years? How have I never noticed? How did I never see it?

“What happens now?”

“I told you already.”

“You’re a murderer. You kill women, kill people in general, and you think I’d fall for someone like you?” I almost laugh in his face, but I see how he looks at me, and he truly believes he can make me fall in love with him.

“Killed women. I don’t plan on doing that anymore,” he adds.

“And that should make me feel better?”

“Yes. You’re the reason I don’t plan on doing it, Emerson.”

“Okay. Say I go along with this fucked up plan of yours. How do you plan on making me fall for you?” I ask this time, needing to hear what he has to say about it. I’ve never fallen in love with anyone before him so I’m curious how he plans on doing that.

“You get to know me. The real me. You spend time with me,” he explains as if that’s the easiest thing in the world.

“But you won’t tell me why you need to drug me to sleep with me?” he shakes his head.

“Not right now. I can’t do that.”

“In time?”

“Possibly.”

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