Page 72 of Redemption

No!

This is not about me, or what I want! I need to fight! Not for me, but for Cece. She deserves a life, a good life. She doesn’t deserve to know of him or to see him. Not even once.

She deserves my fight.

She deserves my sacrifice.

I’m not sure it’s a well thought-over decision, but I decide to kill him. I take a large enough log and clutch it in my hands. It’s doable. He’s just a man. He’s not invincible. I know because I beat him once.

He’s still not trying to enter the house, and for that I’m eternally grateful. I pray I’ll make it. I have to walk in a wide circle to get close enough behind him. The last ten feet or so I’ll have to leap across the open, and then it will be over. I tell myself, over and over, I will make it as I keep him in sight while moving through the decaying forest. The leaves beneath my feet are wet and soft and my steps don’t make a sound.

As he moves, I stop and curse, crouching behind some bushes. What’s he doing? He paces back and forth outside our house before he suddenly disappears. I hold my breath. I don’t think. I don’t hate. I don’t feel. One-one thousand, two-one thousand, three-one thousand… He’s gone behind the house for fifty seconds before he reappears as suddenly as he disappeared. I’m not sure if I’ve taken even one breath the whole time he was gone. I strain to see if he’s got something in his arms or not.

He doesn’t.

Good.

I’m so focused on the task I don’t even have time to be afraid. I lie flat on my belly, pressed to the wet ground, and wait as he glances around him. When he turns, I move. My legs tense and with the log in the air I dash across the open and slam it with full force against his head. In the last second, he moves and screams. His arms flail as he tries to catch my arm. I jerk to the side and try to hit him again, but he knocks it out of my hands. He grabs my coat sleeve and a seam rips as I throw myself back, slipping in the wetness, falling to the ground.

He approaches me with a wicked smirk on his handsome face, his steps measured. When he’s within reach, I kick out and hit his knee. I scramble backward and dart to my feet, already running as I hear a roar from much too close behind. I run for my life, away from the mayhem, away from the devil himself.

“Ker!”

I hear him roar my name and then the eerie echo rolling off the mountains surrounding us.

‘Eerr—eerr—eerr—er—er—er—er.’

Nononononono!

Christian

I sense a movement, and spin around just in time to partially dodge what comes flying through the air. My ear takes a hit, and it feels as if it’s being ripped off. The attacker slams the object at my head again, but I’m better prepared this time and almost tear off the arm of the much smaller person who slips and falls with a thud followed by a whimper.

It’s a woman. With all the clothes she’s wearing I only see a nose and ferociously dark eyes that glisten with hate.

Oh my fucking God, it’s—

Kerry.

I can’t help but grin as I approach her.

She kicks out and hits my knee so hard I almost fall. It feels as if something breaks inside it. A wave of agony shoots through me, and I roar in pain as she turns and flees.

“Ker!” I roar at her rapidly disappearing form.

I’mnotletting her get away this time!

When I get my bearings right, she’s already halfway to the tree line. Initially, I gain on her, but my knee hurts immensely. Nauseous from the pain, I decide to go back and wait for her in the cabin instead. She’ll be back, because I have a hunch she’s not alone. That there’s something of such value in there she will risk everything for it.

Limping, I take a route with less climbing. A flash of silver catches my attention. It’s a SUV. I spend a few minutes making sure she won’t be going anywhere with it anytime soon.

Now all I can do is tend to my wounds and wait for her to come to me.

Twenty-Two

Christian

The lock is shit. An easy, old, rusty mechanism. It’s a piece of cake to break once I’ve decided to. It snaps open with just the right push.