Page 86 of Erik's Redemption
“But…” Owen continued, taking a step toward her, “my auntie was quite the drunken rambler. One of the last times I saw her after he disappeared, she told me a story. About this foster kid they took in, who broke into her house and shot him. She heard the gunshot and went to the room, peeked in to see this girl standing over the body of my uncle, a gun in her hand. My aunt ran and hid. Probably passed out. And when she woke up, the body of my uncle was just…gone. Now, I know that she was a raging drunk—but she was never a liar.”
For a moment, Hannah couldn’t breathe. The air literally wasn’t making it into her lungs. “You…you’re Clarence Burns’s nephew.”
A cruel smile spread across his lips. “I am.”
“And you’re the person who’s been harassing me.”
He pulled out a knife from somewhere behind him. It was so big, her skin crawled. “I was the only one who seemed to care about what my aunt was saying. She told me your name. That you’d wrongly accused him of attempting to rape you before going back to their house and killing him.”
She fisted her hands to stop the tremble. “It wasn’t wrong. Hedidtry to rape me. And I only broke into the house to get my bracelet. Your uncle tried to attack me again. Shooting him was self-defense.”
Owen laughed, but the sound was eerie. “You expect me to believe that? If it was self-defense, you would have called the goddamn police, who would have called anambulanceand given my uncle a chance to live!”
Tears pressed at her eyes. “It was a shot to the heart. He was dead. And I was young and scared.”
“You’re a liar,” he growled. “Because ofyou, I had to grow up in a hellhole with a host of stepfathers who treated me like the dirt on the bottom of their shoes.”
“Owen—”
“Imagine my surprise years later when I see a news reports of a woman named Hannah Jacobs from Redwood, who was involved in a shootout at a bar in Seattle.”
She stumbled back another step.Thatwas how he’d found her? “So why haven’t you just killed me already?”
“Because I wanted to scare you first. Ruin your life for a while before I killed you, just like you ruined my uncle’s life before you killedhim.” He cocked his head. “Notes and texts to scare you. Henry told me you couldn’t swim, so shoving you into the pool was a bit of fun. Oh, and I put sleeping pills mixed with clozapine in your juice the morning we had breakfast together.”
Her mouth dropped open. It wasn’t a virus…he’d drugged her.
“Did you really think you could kill a man and just get away with it?” he asked.
“He deserved to die.”
Anger distorted his features. “My uncledid notdeserve to die!Youdeserve to die!” He lifted the knife and angled it toward her. “Getting you alone proved a challenge these last few weeks. I almost thought I’d missed my chance. But this works. I can gut you instead of shooting you so lover boy outside doesn’t hear. But don’t worry. I have a bullet ready for both him and Henry when I’m finished with you.”
Oh God…Henry. Where was he?
On her next step back, her hip hit the dresser…a dresser that had an old lamp on top.
Owen closed more of the distance between them. “You want to beg for absolution before I kill you?”
She reached behind her and wrapped her fingers around the lamp. “No. Because I don’t regret killing Clarence Burns. He was a rapist—and I’m glad he’s dead. I’d kill him a second time if I could.”
The rage that crossed Owen’s face was like nothing she’d ever seen. He lunged.
Hannah ripped the lamp from the dresser and swung it at his head.
CHAPTER 29
Erik returned to the front of the house, his gaze moving to the long driveway. He hated being out here. It was too isolated. If something happened and he needed to call in backup, it would take too fucking long for help to arrive.
He’d watched his tail the entire drive. They hadn’t been followed. No one should know they were here. So why did something feel off? Why was acid crawling around his gut, making him feel sick?
He shot a look to his watch. He’d give them another ten minutes, then they were leaving. He didn’t care if they weren’t done—Hannah’s safety came first.
He moved toward the house but stopped when his phone rang, Chandler’s name flashing on the screen. “Chandler. Did Rachel get the job done last night?”
He needed his friend to say yes. That this human trafficking ring was taken down once and for all. “Actually, no. They heard rumors of a mole, but they don’t know who, so the agent’s cover is holding. But the scumbags scrambled to move their operation at the last minute. We’re already trying to find them, but obviously the job was postponed.”
Erik cursed. The fuckers would live another day, but Chandler would find them. He always did. Although he hoped it was sooner rather than later so that no more innocents got hurt.
