Chapters (72)
Was that an admission? He let her continue.
‘She’s the only one who completely gets me, who understands why sometimes I react the way I do. I guess I get so wrapped up with it all, I forget she deserves a life too. I want her to be happy. I really do.’
‘Then we have a common goal,’ Liam told her, his tone softening. ‘Because I want her to be happy too.’
Rosie studied him carefully. She seemed much calmer now. Rational.
‘Do you love her?’
‘I care about her a lot.’ It was the best he could offer. He wasn’t going to lie to Rosie, not at this point. ‘Hannah knows the score. I’m here to write a story, but I made a friend along the way. At least I had made a friend.’
The barb hit and he saw Rosie wince.
‘So you’re just friends then?’
Liam nodded.
Not quite the truth. What he felt for Hannah ran much deeper. It couldn’t go anywhere, though, so there was no point in saying it out loud, but two of her friends were dead and he planned on sticking around at least until he knew she was safe.
He reached for his keys. ‘Look. I hate to be a dick, Rosie, but you have to leave now. I need to go and try to fix this.’
She looked up and there was a flash of something in her dark eyes. At first, he thought it was temper, but then he realised it was fear.
Not of him. At least he hoped it wasn’t. But of losing Hannah.
He had a huge amount of sympathy for everything Rosie Emerson had gone through as a child, but it was time for her to let it go.
That’s when she surprised him for the second time since showing up at his door, nodding as she got up from the sofa. ‘Okay. I want to come with you.’
56
She recognises me the second she sees me and the fear in her eyes as they widen is everything I have dreamt of.
I had hoped to toy with her for much longer, but my plans have been forced to change. Hannah is dessert and if everything has to end today, there is no way I am leaving without my dessert.
This moment is finally happening and she is reacting exactly how I want her to.
‘Bill?’
She looks so shocked to see me, for a moment I don’t think she can move. She recovers quickly though, running back into her flat and, turning, she tries to slam the door in my face. I am quicker than her, my foot already moving to block the door and my fist shooting out, connecting with her jaw. It makes her teeth snap together in a satisfying crunch that sends her flying backwards, landing in a heap on the floor.
Have I hurt her? I fucking hope so.