Page 103 of Relentless

They’ll keep going until they kill me.

Collectively, they all step forward.

But as outnumbered as I might be, I still fight. I still scream. I still let every one of them know what I really think of them.

28

JD

Iwake up sitting in the middle of my bed and not a second later, I discover why.

The screams.

Her screams.

Instantly, I’m wide awake as I launch myself across the room and rip the door open.

Lifting my foot to step out, my heart jumps into my throat when she runs past me, almost taking me out.

“Dove?” I call as she runs full speed toward Reid’s end of the hallway.

But she doesn’t stop, I’m pretty sure she doesn’t hear me.

“No, no, no,” she chants when she gets to the end and finds herself trapped by walls.

The second she spins around, reality hits.

Her eyes might be open, but they’re glazed over.

She’s asleep.

Asleep and living out one of her night terrors.

“Dove,” I say a little harsher. “I need you to wake up for me,” I demand as I approach.

She sees me coming. Well, not me exactly. A person. A man.

Fear like I’ve never seen from her before rips through her, making her wobble on unsteady legs.

Her chest heaves with exertion and her arms lift, ready to defend herself.

“It’s okay, little dove. It’s me. It’s JD,” I offer softly.

But she doesn’t hear me.

Instead of focusing on me, seeing that I’m no threat, her eyes jump around, searching for a way out. But she’s trapped herself at the end of the hall.

The only door is to a closet. I’ve already passed Reid’s and the guest bedroom, not that they would have offered much of an escape.

“No, please. No,” she begs, the words seeming to fall from her lips without instruction from her brain.

“Baby, it’s me. I’m not going to hurt you.” I hold my hands up, pain ripping through my own chest as I watch her suffer.

Fuck I hate this. No wonder Mav has spent five years trying to protect her.

If this is the lingering effect of everything she’s suffered half a decade later, I can’t even begin to imagine what it was like immediately after.

I step closer, and the screams start up again. Her arms flailing, her legs kicking out in an attempt to stop me.

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