Page 11 of Erik's Redemption
The second Erik got the command of execution, he squeezed the trigger.
The guy dropped.
“Perfect kill shot to the chest. Shooter, lock and clear.”
That was exactly what Erik wanted to hear.
He was just taking his eye off the scope when his spotter cursed.
“A car just stopped in front of the target. People are getting out. We should get out of here.”
Erik dismantled his weapon quickly before rising to his haunches and loading everything into his bag. He’d just risen to his feet and turned, expecting to see his spotter behind him.
But instead he saw…her.
The blood drained from his face, and a fear like he’d never felt before rushed through his veins like ice. “Hannah…”
“What did you do?” she whispered, voice full of pain. “He was my family!” Her hand went to her opposite wrist, running a finger over the cloud charm on her bracelet.
“Hannah, please…” He took a step toward her, but she shuffled back. And that distance between them killed something inside him. “He wasn’t a good man.”
“How do you know that? Because you read some information on a piece of paper? I knew him. I knew his heart. He was good. And you took him from me.”
The tears that gathered in her eyes gutted him.
“I’ll make it right.” But even as the words left his mouth, he knew they were a lie. He couldn’t go back and undo what he’d done. He couldn’t bring a man back from the dead.
“You can’t,” she whispered, a single tear falling down her cheek.
She turned to walk away. The despair inside him turned to poison. He couldn’t lose her. She was his world. The only person on this goddamn planet who made him feel whole and healed and alive.
He tried to follow her, to drop to his knees and beg for her forgiveness, but something grabbed his arms, fingers so strong that he couldn’t move a single step.
“Hannah!” he yelled.
She didn’t pause or turn. She just kept walking away, the distance between them becoming greater with each step.
He growled and tugged at the hands on his arms, the desperation a living, breathing beast inside him.
He couldn’t let her leave. He couldn’t lose her, dammit! He pulled harder, swearing he’d tear down the world around him to keep her.
He turned and attacked the figure touching him, sending them both to the ground as he wrapped his hands around their throat.
Pained growls cutinto Hannah’s sleep, tugging her consciousness to the surface. Sleep tried to pull her back under, but the sounds grew louder, the mattress beneath her body shifting with movement.
She opened her eyes to darkness. It was the middle of the night.
At the sound of another growl, she reached for the bedside light and turned it on. Beside her, Erik was twitching, his head shifting from side to side, his hands fisted. And that look on his face…it was something between pain and utter terror.
God, what was going on in his head? It looked like he held the entire world on his shoulders, and right now, that world was crushing him.
She touched his arm. “Erik, wake up.”
He didn’t. If anything, the sounds tearing from his chest grew louder. The thrashing grew more violent.
She swallowed, desperation starting to stamp out every ounce of self-preservation inside her. She leaned over him and grabbed his upper arms, her voice louder this time as she yelled, “Erik! Wake up!”
Suddenly, his growl turned into a snarl, rage ripping across his face as he shoved her away. Air burst from her lungs when she hit the floor beside the bed, hard.
