Page 96 of I Promise You
I close my eyes, trying to catch my breath.
But I still see her.
Her smile glimmers in my mind. The same smile she gave me when I surprised her for her birthday. It dazzles in my head. Then I see her wide-eyed brown irises looking up at me, tears rolling down her face when she had my cock down her throat. Blood rushes down to my core when I remember how I had her against the hospital room wall, her beautiful tits bouncing each time I drove into her.
Her hard nipples should be in my mouth right now.
Fuck this.
I grab the whiskey bottle and take another drink, downing it quickly like water.
She should be in my arms right now, taking slow, peaceful breaths while she sleeps.
And if she has another night of terror, I should be there to promise her, assure her that she’s okay.
We’ll be okay.
I thought I was making the right choice by not informing her about the bounty I’m the center of.
Still, I don’t regret not sharing it. I’m solid in my decision.
She’s right, though. The evil won’t stop.
She lost Paul and our son in one year. I don’t want her to imagine me in a casket, too.
Something pulls at my heart, and the need to check on Ari consumes me. Breathing hard, sweaty palms, I check the cameras on my phone, ensuring she’s safe and okay.
After a few swipes, I find my little angel. I can’t see her face, but she’s cuddled underneath the blankets in her room; on her side, the tulips I left her are on the nightstand.
I knew Kane stayed behind when I ordered them out of the building. He told me he needed to piss, and I told him to make it quick, but the asshole lied.
Our friendship ended the day he first overstepped. When he first aimed blame at me for Paul’s death in Iraq. And then he asked Ari on a date right before.
It ended right then and there that day…and I don’t feel shit about it.
The fact that he thinks he’ll have Ari underneath him one day makes me laugh.
Over my dead body.
No one will ever touch her the way I do.
I stopped by her mother’s early in the morning while Ari was at work. I wanted her and her mother to spend some time without me there, so I waited for her at her place after I showered and went to the store for her favorite flowers. I waited while they had dinner.
I shared a long, personal, one-on-one conversation with Mrs. Alvarez. We talked about Paul, and I asked her what Ari was like as a child. She told me she had always been intelligent, caring, and giving. Never selfish. Never disloyal.
But now, that same girl wants nothing to do with me or this military lifestyle.
I look at myself in the mirrors I have installed on the walls of my gym. I run my hand through my beard, my chest heaving.
Then I fidget and have both hands on my waist, pacing back and forth. My abdomen constricts as I breathe.
I’m tempted to finish the rest of the bottle of Jack, so I can pass out asleep without thinking of what Ari said.
But then a flash of red catches my eye.
I can feel something wet that’s not my sweat, and I wipe the bottom of my nose to find blood smeared across my fingers.
I look at my reflection in the mirror, confused, narrowing my brows, and see more blood fall, and I swear my heart sinks with dread.
