Page 75 of The Predator

Tears fill my eyes and over run to pour down my face. "Oh my god. Oh my god. I...I remember."

This man who has given me so much, and taken so much, too...tried to kill me.

He looks scared, and maybe he should be. "What, Ely, what is it?" I don’t say anything. I can’t. I can barely manage to breathe. Noticing this his fear climbs and he gives me a little shake. "Tell me, what’s wrong?”

I can barely form the words, let them out, make them true. "You...you...shot me."

Bile rises up in my throat, my body goes rigid, and I can’t believe this. The man I’m now tied to forever tried to kill me.What does this mean?I shake my head. I need to go. Get out of here...away from him. His hands tremble when they tighten around my biceps.

Slowly he lowers one hand and reaches into his coat, and my heart damn near implodes in my chest, when I see him pulling out a gun.

Where did he get that and why did he bring it here tonight?

Panic threatens to engulf me as I beg him with my eyes and shake my head. "Sebastian...?"

He can’t mean to use that on me right? I mean...I can sort of see it before we met, but now, after everything we’ve been through together? He wouldn’t kill me.

He grabs my hand, tosses my glove away, and folds my warm fingers around the grip of the handgun. I try to resist. Tugging my hand back, trying to pull away but there’s no escaping Sebastian.

No. I don’t want this thing.

I shake my head as I stare down at the weapon with wide eyes.

Gently, he moves my thumb to a little switch on the side and helps me flick it. "That is the safety, just click it to move it on and off. But it has to be off for the gun to fire." Then he shifts my index finger to the trigger. "All you do to fire is squeeze here, squeeze, don't pull."

The gun shakes in my hand, in our hands. I don’t understand what is happening right now. He adjusts my arm and presses the muzzle right into his chest over his heart. "Keep the gun trained here. If you feel the need to pull the trigger once I tell you the truth, then I want you to do it.”

All I can do is shake my head. He’s insane.

"No...I..." Quickly, I glance around, looking for a way out of this.

A place to escape. But there’s nothing but carnival lights, macabre with their jolly tunes taunting me.

"Listen to me… I shot you, Ely. I shot you that night because my grandfather made me. Once he showed me the contract all I could think is that I couldn’t live in that house while he...used you...probably raped you and see it happening. He told me if I thought you'd be better off dead then I needed to do it myself. So I did. In my mind, death would be a better option for you. It shouldn’t have been my choice to make and I understand that, but I couldn’t… "

Tears blur my eyes, and I blink them away as I study his face, trying to process what he’s confessing to me. "But…you didn’t kill me. You…missed?”

He nods. "Yes, I missed. I don't know now if it was my subconscious or what? Afterwards I thought you were dead. There was so much blood and you were already pretty beat up from your father and Yanov. With the thought that I had killed you, I walked back into that room and killed my grandfather.”

I blink once, and shake my head. What the hell is he saying right now? He shot me then killed his grandfather to avenge what he thought was my death? "You killed your grandfather for me?"

"When I told you I did it to protect you I wasn't lying. I was also trying to protect myself. He wanted someone to use, to force into things, to submit to him. He wasn't going to stop at you, he was going to find someone else when you were gone and I knew I wouldn’t be able to stomach it. I took out one more asshole intent on taking what doesn't belong to them. I guess...in that moment...he reminded me too much of what happened to me because of Tanya." He closes his eyes and slowly breathes in and out through his nose like he’s trying to settle himself. "There was no way I could leave you to the same fate. And when I realized my mistake, when the doctor told me you were alive…guilt consumed me. I had to fix my mistake, I had to make sure you survived and had the chance to succeed.”

Anger, bile, rage, all of it surges up, forcing its way out. "You were such an asshole to me though!” I scream at him.

"I know, and to be honest, I’m always an asshole, but with you it was different. I had to be, because the moment you opened your eyes and looked at me, seeing right fucking through me, I knew you’d be my damnation. I wanted you to be mine. On every level. And I refused to be like Tanya, or my grandfather."

We stare at each other, his hand wrapped around the top of the gun, mine trembling. Even as angry and confused as I am, I keep my finger off to the side of the trigger so I don’t accidentally do something stupid.

"That's it,” he whispers.

"That's it?" I echo. Slowly, I lower the gun, and he doesn’t stop me.

When I turn, he snatches me hard around the middle and pulls me into his chest. "No, we promised each other. No more running. For sickness and health, through the good and the bad. All of it."

I shudder against him and drop the gun to the ground.

"Why did you do this to me? How could you? Just shoot me? Like I’m no one, not even a human being. How long did you leave me to lay there, dying?”