Page 18 of Redemption

I love you like a father.

Grief wrapped an icy hand around my throat and my breath caught at the thoughts flooding my brain. I pushed the palms of my hand into my eyes, trying to scrub away the images behind them.

I heard a noise and looked up. I didn’t realize how far I’d walked and I was back at the scene where I’d taken Sherry’s life. And her bench was up ahead, with a familiar person sitting on it.

Kat.

I was going to leave, I was going to turn and run in the opposite direction. I knew how hard it must be for her to see me. It was hard for me to see her too. I swear I was going to walk away.

But then I heard her sob. It cut through me like nothing I’d known before. So full of anguish. And before I knew what was happening, I was getting closer.

Stop! Go back! What the fuck are you doing?My brain screamed and by the time I came to my senses, I was too close to leave without her noticing.

Except the closer I got, the less she seemed like herself. She was swaying slightly and muttering to herself.

“Kat?” I asked, keeping my distance in case of another altercation like yesterday morning.

Her head spun towards me but her eyes took a moment to focus. In the streetlight I could see her blue eyes were watery, like the ocean.

She scoffed. “Well, fuck. I guess thisss iss going to happen more hof…hoften, isn’t it?” she slurred.

Shit, she’s wasted.

She waved a piece of wet, torn paper at me. “I bet you’re here for thisss, huh? Jussst typical. Breaking my family wasn’t en…enough, you had to come and take our property too!”

“I have no clue what you’re talking about,” I said. I glanced around the street, conscious that although it wasn’t a main road, anything could happen out here. I was proof of that.

“Let’s get you home, I think you need to get to bed, Kat.”

Her eyes crackled with fire. She stood up, stumbling slightly. “Don’t you tell me what to do, don’t youdaretellme what to do!”

I held up my hands, wanting to keep this as peaceful as possible. “Okay, I’m sorry.”

“You’re s…sorry,” she mocked, her pretty face twisting in disgust. I probably shouldn’t notice how pretty her face is. Not just her face, her entire everything. The woman was a smoke show and I was only human, and hadn’t been around women for a very long time.

She stumbled back to the bench. “Goodnight, Mama,” she hiccupped, pressing two fingers to her lips and tapping them to the gold plaque. My stomach twisted at the fact that she had to say goodnight to a bit of gold and wood instead of a person.

Because of me.

She straightened and headed off. I watched her go and was ready to leave myself, it had to be close to ten and I really didn’t want to miss my curfew. But then she twisted her ankle and fell down.

“Shit.” I approached her, unable to watch her struggle to stand. I couldn’t leave her, no way was she going to make it home. There were bears and wolves out here, not to mention she could stumble into the path of an oncoming car.

“Come here,” I said, wrapping my arm around her waist and pulling her to her unsteady feet. She turned her head to me slowly, confused.

“Jack?” she murmured.

She gripped me tight as we stumbled and I held her tighter, pressing her against me. I liked that I didn’t have to crane my neck to look down at her, she was pretty tall for a woman. With tanned, toned legs that seemed endless. She was soft and dainty in my hands and my eyes dipped to her lips and for a brief moment I wondered what they would be like to taste.

Just as I remembered whose daughter I was holding,she realized who I was and shoved away from me. “Don’t touch me!”

“I’m sorry, I was just helping you up.”

“I’m ssorry, I’m sorryyy. You can say it until the bison come home but it don’t change a goddamn thing.”

“I can’t leave you here, Katarina. I know you don’t want me here but is there someone I can call to come get you?”

She glared at me before she began digging in her purse probably for her cell. She held the device up and kept tapping at the screen. “Ugh, come on, sstupid facial recogmation.”

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