Page 47 of Erik's Redemption
She wanted to open her mouth to tell him to get away from her. To step back. But she couldn’t speak or move. It was like she was frozen to the spot, terror rendering her motionless.
He inched forward. “You’ve made my life quite difficult with your…accusations.”
Finally, she stumbled back, but her foot caught on a piece of clothing. She barely righted herself. She aimed the gun at his chest, fingers shaking. “You’re supposed to be in jail.” And the gun in her hand was just supposed to be a precaution. Something she had to feel safe but shouldn’t have to use.
“Bail.” He took another step forward. “Cost me a pretty penny too. Had to put my fucking house up as collateral. Something else you’ll need to pay for.”
She swallowed the nausea at his proximity. Tried to push away the terror that wanted to freeze her mind and body.
“I don’t want any trouble. I just came for my bracelet.” God, why hadn’t she shoved it into her pocket and climbed back out the window faster?
He laughed. “You ain’t taking that bracelet, girlie. Consider it compensation for my troubles.”
“I am.” Suddenly, the tremble in her voice was gone. Because no one was taking this bracelet from her. It was her one connection to her parents. A connection she couldn’t give up. Wouldn’t.
He stepped closer again.
“Stop moving or I shoot!”
He laughed. “You won’t shoot me. You’re too much of a good girl. It’s why I liked you, you know. Usually I get these no-good foster kids with a shitload of baggage and attitude. Not you. You were like a diamond in the rough. All pretty and clean and polite.”
“They should’ve never let you be a foster parent.” He’d probably done to countless other girls the same thing he’d done to her.
His stained teeth became visible as he grinned, evidence of years of drug and alcohol abuse. “They shouldn’t have. But they did.”
He undid his belt, and she felt the blood drain from her face.
“Now how about that payment, girlie…”
The second the belt was in his hands, he lunged forward.
In that moment, it was as if the world slowed. As if every nightmare she’d ever lived and dreamed rolled into one terrifying reality.
The second he touched her arm, she reacted, screaming and shooting in a life-altering fraction of a second.
He dropped to the floor with a thud, blood blooming on his chest. Her panic shifted into something else. Something equally terrifying, but so different.
Oh God…what had she done?
She’d killed him. A man was dead because of her.
Her hands trembled so badly that she almost dropped her phone twice. She dialed nine-one-one…but before hitting call, she hesitated.
What if they didn’t believe her? She was a foster kid. People rarely believed her. Even when she’d told the police what Clarence had done, that he’d climbed into her bed and tried to rape her, some officers had looked at her as if she was telling a story for attention.
Now, she’d broken into his house and shot him in the chest with a gun she shouldn’t have.
Her chest began to heave, terror shaking her limbs.
She deleted the three numbers, and instead called the one man who’d always saved her. The one man who was family by choice.
He answered on the first ring. “Cloud, are you okay?”
She choked at the sound of his voice. “Nico…I need you…”
Hannah’s eyes popped open, her heart beating so fast in her chest that it was almost painful. The moonlight cast a dim glow over her bedroom, and apart from soft breathing, everything was quiet.
She glanced around the room and found Erik in a chair. His head was down, chin on his chest and eyes closed.
