My Hunter Love

Chapter 28

Caty POV

When I began to wake up a few hours later, I could hear the tv on a low volume. I turned over and ran my hand over Zak's side of the bed, hoping that he would be there, but his spot was empty. I opened my eyes to see if he was somewhere in the room, but the only person I saw was Tara, sitting on the couch, watching an episode of Ghost Adventures from a few months ago. We had gone to Portland and were investigating there. As I sat up and rubbed my eyes, I saw her and me on the screen. She was talking about a child's spirit that she was picking up.

"It's so weird to see ourselves on tv," I said as I leaned back against the pillows. She looked over at me and chuckled. 

"You aren't kidding," she said. I scooted over to Zak's side of the bed and she slipped into the bed on my side. I snuggled up under the covers and she joined me giggling slightly. "We haven't done this for a while. It seems like so long since we've been able to have just a girl's night."

"Well normally girl's night involved lots of snacks and drinking and unfortunately right now I can only do one of those things," I said, laughing. She laughed before responding.

"Well, snacks are better than drinking anyway. We'll just get drunk on juice," she said and we both laughed again. 

"I take it Zak is with the boys talking about the investigation?" I asked, getting up to get myself something to eat that was leftover from the makeshift party earlier.

"Yeah, he said that they needed to discuss a few things and I volunteered to come and sit with you," she explained. I sat back down in the bed and sighed, digging into my food.

"I'm going to tell you what I told him," I said, shoving food in my mouth." I don't need a babysitter. His lack of faith in me is a little offensive."

"It's not that he doesn't have faith in you, he's just extremely nervous and just wants to keep you safe. Trust me he has been a wreck since you left Vegas and he found out about the twins," she explained, turning to look at me. "I know you feel like your independence is being taken from you, but we just want you and them to be safe."

"I know," I sighed. "I just feel like he's going overboard a little bit. He is beyond protective and I love him, but it gets a bit annoying."

"Caty, you have no idea what happened to you do you?" Tara asked, muting the tv. I rolled my eyes.

"Tara of course I know what happened," I scoffed. "I was attacked and thrown up against a wall."

"You didn't see it happen though," she replied, her eyes filling with tears. "I swear, the image of you laying in Aaron's arms unconscious after what happened, will haunt me until the end of time. I was terrified that you were gone. I was terrified that I was going to lose my best friend and my sister. In a way, Zak is lucky that he wasn't there when it happened and was only able to witness it through the video footage. But because of that, he is going to blame himself for the rest of his life, because he wasn't there to protect you and he feels like it was because of him that this happened."

"How does he figure that?" I asked, shocked.

"He still feels guilty about the whole Holly thing even though we have all told him that it was all her fault. He feels that if she hadn't been there, none of this would have happened and you wouldn't have run to Greenville in the first place. In some way, he wishes that he had never dated Holly in the first place because then she wouldn't be obsessed and you never would have gotten hurt," Tara explained and my head was spinning. I was silent for a moment before responding.

"How does he know that it wouldn't have happened?" I asked. "How does he know that if we had come out here together I wouldn't have been attacked. The thing, whatever it was, said it wanted what was inside me. It was going to attack either way. It wanted the twins, not me, and attacking me was the only way to get to them. I don't understand why he keeps blaming himself for this. This is in no way his fault."