“Calling Brent?” she asks.
“Yeah. Can you listen out for her?”
“Yeah. You go handle him,” she says with a smile.
I turn and walk downstairs. When I get into my office, I dial Brent’s number. He doesn’t answer, so I just keep calling. Around the tenth time, he finally picks up. “What do you want?!” Brent snaps.
“He almost killed her,” I say. “Mark is dead, and I don’t know why he was there. She has completely shut down, and I don’t know how to help her.”
“Mark is dead?” Brent asks quietly. “How?”
“I gather that Fredrico killed him, but I don’t know why he was in there. During the Hunt, she went to an old equipment shed. When I got to her, Mark was dead and Fredrico was raping her with his hands around her throat. She was completely limp, but when I shot him, she started screaming and begging me to let her go. I’m not really confident she didn’t mean she wanted to die. She was so angry, but at the same time, she wasn’t. She’s broken…”
“Fuck. I did this,” Brent says with a sigh. “I stopped reaching out to Mark because he just… I had a bad feeling, so I backed off.”
“She’s in the bath right now. Will you please come talk to her? She thinks she made you run away,” I tell him.
“Fuck. Okay. I’ll be there soon. Just don’t leave her alone for too long. She spirals silently, and if she falls too far, she doesn’t know how to catch herself,” he explains.
“I’ll go check on her,” I say. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. I’m… getting there. I’m sorry I did that to y’all. It would have been easier to just explain that he is a fucking psycho. I panicked and ran when I should have just…”
“He shot you, Brent. You have every right to panic. She will understand,” I say. “You got really fucking lucky, so let’s just help her and then deal with that fuckwad.”
“Okay. Thanks, man,” Brent says.
When the call ends, I stand and walk back up the stairs. When I get to the third floor, the door is locked. “Alania? Unlock the door, baby,” I say, knocking on the door. It’s eerily silent, and that terrifies me. Maybe she is still in the bath? “Alania?”
Nothing. Not at first, at least. I listen for a moment, but when I hear the click of a hammer being pulled back, I slam my shoulder into the door and send it flying open.
Chapter Twenty One
Alania
I can’t get thememories out of my head. Why can’t I just stop thinking about him? The biggest fucking mistake I’ve made all day was opening that nightstand drawer, knowing there was a goddamn gun in there. I knew I was teetering on the edge, but seeing it lying in that drawer sent me over the edge. Now, I am pacing around the room, trying to get myself to stop thinking about Brent and put the fucking gun down. He doesn’t want me, and I just need to learn how to accept that. I love Adrian with all of my heart, and it’s not fair to him for me to be thinking about Brent. I hear Adrian knocking on the door, calling out for me, but I can’t. I can’t let him come in here and talk me down like I somehow deserve him. I don’t deserve him. He deservesso much better than me. Everyone does. I fuck everything up. Maybe I have been manipulating everyone unintentionally. Is it still bad if I didn’t mean to hurt anyone? I never should’ve called Dad out. If I didn’t do that, Brent never would’ve known what I did. I wouldn’t have confused him, and he would never have come into that cage.
I pull the hammer back and scream when the door slams open. “Alania. Baby. Please don’t do this,” Adrian says softly. I have the revolver pressed to my temple, and I’m crying. I hate crying. I hate showing how weak I really am.
“Go away,” I cry. “Just let me go.”
“I can’t do that, Little Dove. I’ll never walk away. Brent…”
“He left me!” I yell. “I did that. I broke him. He doesn’t want me.”
“Yes, he does, baby. Brent loves you,” Adrian says pleadingly. “Please give me the gun.”
“I can’t want both of you!” I scream at him. “Don’t you see? I ruin things. I break people. You’ll leave me just like he did. I don’t want to know what it feels like to lose you. I can’t do this anymore. I’m tired of hurting. Everything hurts. Youhurt me. Every time you tell me you love me. It fucking hurts. It’s a lie. You are lying!”
“No, baby. I do love you. Please give me the gun. Please, Alania.”
“No!” I scream at him as tears fall down my face. I put my finger on the trigger, and his face goes white. “Go away! Just go. Leave me alone!”
“I won’t do that, baby. I’m not leaving you,” he says. “Brent is coming, okay? I told him what happened, and he’s coming to you.”
“Why would you do that?!” I scream at him. “He’s going to hate me! Fuck. I can’t…”
“He doesn’t, baby. He loves you. I promise, he does. He…”
