Page 135 of Prey

There was no point in denying it.

“I—”

He slapped me.

It was on the same side of my face that the tall one had slapped, but it wasn’t as hard.

I cried out.

This slap hurt much more than any beatings I could have gotten from those men.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m so sorry. I just… I love him. You protect the ones you love, right? I’m so sorry, Daddy. I’m so sorry.”

And I was sorry for hurting him, but I wasn’t sorry for telling Roman, and I thought he knew that too.

He shook his head. “How could you? I raised you with my own hands. I fed you, cared for you… love you.”

The two men laughed, drawing our attention to them. I recoiled when I saw a rifle in Stephen’s hands.

Dad held up his hands and moved forward until he stood in front of me.

“Put that away, and let’s talk about this.”

Stephen shook his head. “You can’t even control your fucking daughter. Letting her open her legs to that bastard, ruining all of our plans, and now you want to talk? We have to save her for him, but you—” Stephen pointed the gun at my dad.

I pulled on the chains, trying to get in front of him.

Dad looked back at me, a warning in his eyes, telling me to stay quiet. As if I could when a crazy bastard was pointing a gun at him.

I shook my head and opened my mouth. To say what, I didn’t know.

Stephen did a pump action with the gun and aimed right at Dad’s chest.

“No!” I screamed out, and a second later, the door burst open with a loud bang. Shouts came out, along with the sound of guns going off.

I loudly screamed, and Dad’s eyes widened as he rushed forward to shield me with his body.

He wrapped his arms tightly around me and buried my face in his chest as everything around us erupted in chaos.

More men came inside the cabin, and at this point, I didn’t know whose side they were on.

Bullets flew everywhere.

One hit the wall near me. I huddled closer to my dad.

“Dad!” I screamed.

He tightened his arms around me. “Shh, it’s okay, baby. It’s okay. I got you. I won’t let anything happen to you—”

He stiffened against me, pulling away slightly.

I looked up and met his eyes, frowning. What just happened?

A bad feeling bloomed in my chest and fell to my gut, weighing me down. I watched him stumble back another step. It felt like time had slowed, or perhaps I was watching everything in slow motion.

I understood what was happening… I just didn’t want to.

I didn’t want to, and if I wished hard enough to go back in time, would it be possible?

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