Page 15 of Sweet Temptation

My brother gives me a look that says "you're showing weakness again" but I don't care. If Hanna is a weakness, then so fucking be it. She called me of all people she could have dialled, and I refuse to let another person down.

Ace slams the door to our condo behind him as he rushes into the backseat of my car. Damien speeds out of the driveway, heading straight for Hanna's house. When the car comes to a stop outside her home, my legs race across the steps to the door, both boys right behind me. I knock loudly on the door, but there's no answer, making the rage in my body fire off in waves.

No answer? No answer! What the hell kind of household leaves a twenty-one-year-old woman to cry alone! I use all my body weight and slam the door in.

"Get the fuck out of my house!" a young, twenty-year-old man yells at us. Ignoring him, I leave Damien and Ace at the bottom of the stairs as I race upstairs in search of Hanna's bedroom. I stop at a door covered in black paint and knock. Panic has definitely set in when she doesn't answer.

Fear is a concept I'm not used to, and one I don't want to be used to. "Hanna! I'm here," I call through the black door. When I hear no response, I begin to panic again as I slam my fist through the door.

Ignoring the raging pain in my hand, I race into the room and stop dead, horror filling my eyes. Blood. A lot of it. So much blood that my mind clouds with the past. The blood on my hands.

Except this isn't the past, and I didn’t do this to her. "Hanna! Hanna!" I scream. My lungs can't handle the pain I'm feeling right now. "Damien! Fuck! Call an ambulance!" I grab the fluffy book blanket and wrap it around her naked body, lifting her off the ground into my arms. My legs feel like Jello as I run down the stairs and meet my friends.

The look on the guy's face reassures me this is his fucking fault. I growl in his face before my legs carry me out of that haunted house. "Damon, I called them," Damien responds as he stays in step with me. The look on his face is still telling me this is weakness, but it can't be weakness if it makes me feel strong.

Saving her from that horror show makes me feel strong and knowing she counts on me can't be a weakness. Ignoring the world around me, I clutch her to my chest. I feel everything crack, my insides breaking from the inside out. She can't die. Not when I haven't had the chance to know her.

This girl is one hundred percent in danger when she's in my world, but I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't. At least saving her life should give me some sort of credit, make me less weak in Damien's eyes.

"Call Bailey! She's her best friend," I growl at Damien and Ace. I turn away from them as Ace takes Damien's phone and dials; clearly the world we live in is more important to my brother than an innocent girl we have the chance to save.

Hope fills my eyes as the ambulance's flashing red and blue lights come into view. This doesn't make me weak, I repeat to myself as the paramedics race from the ambulance.

I gently let them take her motionless body from my hands as she's laid out on the stretcher. Slowly, I follow their movements before I climb into the ambulance beside her, catching Damien's disappointed eyes as both doors close behind me. My heart cracks again as I watch her lifeless body wrapped in a fluffy blanket. I swear I will kill him…

If she…

I'll kill him.

I should kill him, anyway. Nobody would find the body and he deserves death if he hurt her in any way—and from the blood covering her inner thighs, I know exactly what he did…

Closing my eyes, I let the tears fall as I crack again and again over the second girl in this world I can't seem to shake. This isn't a weakness, I keep telling myself as I wipe the wetness from my cheeks. I take her hand and squeeze it gently as I watch her beautiful broken face. "You have to live, you have to… I’ll kill him for you. You just have to live!" I close my eyes again, not knowing if she'll even make it.

Was I too late?

I look up as the vehicle comes to a stop and the back doors open. Quickly jumping out, I wait for the paramedics to bring her with me. Following closely behind them, I race after the stretcher through the hospital.

"You can't come in here, honey," the doctor says as she's pushed into a room. I close my mouth to stop the words from spewing in her direction. "I'll come tell you when you can."

Grabbing the doctor by the jacket, I pull her close enough to my face that she can feel my breath fuming against her lips. "If she dies, you do, too. Look up the name Saint, and then tell me you'll call the cops for my threat." I release her with a shove, and she scurries away after the stretcher.

Swinging my hands, I slam my broken hand into the wall and head for the waiting room. "Damon." My eyes meet Damien's when I notice Ace and Sam with him. But I ignore them because Damien is the last person I need to hash things out with right now. I pace the room, flinging my hands around as the rage consumes me yet again. "Damon, she'll be okay." Damien's hand lands on my shoulder, causing me to stop pacing.

Yeah, I know she will be because that doctor's life depends on it.

"Where is she?" I turn away from Damien, my eyes meeting with Bailey's. I feel tiny arms wrap around my body, and I shove them off. I don't want her pity, especially in front of my brother when he's already calling this weakness.

My lips curl up in a sneer as I glare at the blonde. She has no right to touch me. "Saint." I hear my last name clearly, coming from the doctor I threatened earlier. Pushing past the group of people surrounding me, I walk toward the woman, my eyes narrowed into slits.

"Hanna is going to be okay. She's stable, and we checked her out. She can have visitors now," she replies, her eyes darting toward me with fear. I follow the doctor to Hanna's hospital room.

Once I enter, my face pales when I see the now cleaned marks from the knife. She's dressed in a hospital gown, shielding her naked body from any prying eyes.

I slump into the chair beside her, closing my eyes softly before I look at her sleeping form. "I'm here, I'm not leaving," I whisper, gripping her motionless hand. Even though sitting beside her is the last place I should be right now.

I hear footsteps enter her room, causing my body to tense. Turning my head, I lock eyes with Bailey before I relax, facing Hanna. "I know you feel for her," Bailey explains as she sits opposite of me on the other side of Hanna.

I roll my eyes before I watch Hanna's face again. "She doesn't deserve this,'' I mumble instead of bitching out the blonde. Bailey nods and wipes her escaping tears as she grabs Hanna's other hand.