Be With You ~ Hearts Intertwined Book Two

Chapter Eleven

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Recap;

"It's okay, come on. We need to get you to a calm environment or get you some drinks." Caiden says, leading Marley away.

But his head turned to look back over his shoulder, our eyes met briefly earning tingles around my entire body, and my heart skips a beat.

What in the hell is going on?

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Chapter Eleven

I turn towards Holten once Caiden and Marley leave.

"Do you know Marley?" I ask, narrowing my eyes at him.

"She's the wife to my childhood best friend, of course I know her." Holten replies, but his eyes avoid meeting mine.

"No, Holten. Do you know her?" I ask, putting emphasis on 'know' and watching as his shoulders slump forward a little.

"I once knew her. I met Marley five years ago. She was so stumbling drunk she ran right into me and had quite an adventure with a crazy cat, or so she says. She came to my place and crashed for the night." Holten says.

The bartender comes back with our drinks and I take mine, my heart in my throat and start chugging the liquid without thinking.

"Did you sleep with her?" I ask, but as soon as I asked that question, my stomach started to roll in on itself, so I already knew that answer with the gut instinct I had.

"Yes." Holten barely said it above a whisper and I struggled to hear it, but the faint resounding 'yes' stayed in my ears.

Tears fill my eyes.

That's why Marley threatened me to take Holten away, because he had already wanted her once before, he could just as easily want her again.

Holten had slept with Marley five years ago.

What the fuck?

"What the fuck." I say, not really in a question form, just more like a statement.

"Did you want more?" I ask, fearful to hear the answer.

I couldn't get any indication of how Holten was feeling, but he turns his head and our eyes meet, I see the regret and sadness swimming in his beautiful light green emerald eyes.

"Yes, I tried to get in contact, but she said she had met somebody else. So I deleted her number and forgot about her until a few months ago when Caiden showed up with her on my doorstep to announce they were getting married." He says.

"So she is basically the one that got away?" I ask, gulping about half of my drink down.

"What? No. Raven, if you're thinking I still might like her, that's long gone. She has changed within the last five years I saw her. I want nothing to do with her. I've been clear about my feelings since day one my beautiful Trainwreck." Holten says, his voice soft but still that same deep tone that naturally sings to my soul.

Holten leans close and eliminates just about any air space we had between our bodies, his breath fanning across my face as my breath hitches.

"Why do you insist on calling me that?" I decide on changing the subject to a lighter tone.

If there should be anything coming up in the future, I'll question it, but for now. I need to let myself have this moment with Holten.

"Because, I will always proclaim my Trainwreck fell for me, by tripping over a doorframe and falling into my arms." Holten snickers.

Samson lets out a loud whine beside me and my head shoots down to glance at him, to see him pacing and shaking.

Oh no.

"I need to take Samson out to pee. I'll be back." I say, rushing off and pushing passed the crowds of people mulling about to the staircase leading to the ground-level exit to the outside.

I run up the stairs with Samson beside me, fling open the red door and run into the back parking lot of the building and run across the parking lot to the tree line.

I huff and catch my breath just as we stop at the treeline, Samson parks his butt almost on the ground, and the only thing I can describe as actual diarrhea squirts out coating the ground around.

I close my eyes and turn around, hoping like hell I wasn't downwind and wait patiently until Samson is done.

The night air whizzes past and a cool breeze filters in through my thin clothing, making me start to shiver. My eyebrows come together as I feel something twisting in my gut.

The pressure gets unbearable but still, I look around and see nothing out of the ordinary, I shake my head trying to rid myself of these unsettling feelings and thoughts.

It felt like something or someone was watching. The constant feeling of someone's pair of eyes on you, and not the good kind.

The good kind makes you want to blush when someone stares, the bad kind makes you want to run or to disappear as your nerves kick up more and more.

Samson seemed blissfully unaware of my imploding anxiety and paranoia as he sniff the ground, pacing back and forth.

"Sammy, do you really have to go again?" I ask, looking down and chuckling at my weird dog.

A twig snaps in the treeline, making my head instantly whirl around to face the largely spanned green trees, the wooded area thick, too thick to see through as I squint my eyes.

"Hello!" I ask.

I don't know why I was yelling out hello like I'd get an answer, but like everyone else in horror movies, I stand there unaware of my immediate threat and yell out hello hoping and also not hoping somebody would answer me.

I heard nothing, absolutely nothing but the sheer heartwrenching screams of Samson behind me.

I whirl around to see a hooded figure, with a mask on holding Samson up on his hind legs, the stranger's arm looped around his upper body and neck to keep him suspended up in the air, and holding a rather large knife to Samsons throat, pressing in.

I see blood run down the left backside of Samsons leg, pooling on the floor.

What the hell did he just do to my dog?

"Wha-What are you doing? Let my dog go." I say.

The hooded masked figure looks at me, then down to Samson still wiggling like crazy in his arms, then back up to me and shook his head.

As I blink and tears cascade down my cheeks, I scream Samson's name just as the stranger rams the knife into Samson's left front leg and threw him to the side.

With tears in my eyes, I ran blindly and dumbly to Samson's side only to get hit with something hard and get knocked down to the ground.

I kick and scream, but the stranger is already on me, holding me down and choking me before I could do anything serious. The stranger pressed his fingers into my throat almost making me pass out instantly.

The stranger took one hand away from my throat to reel it back, curl his hand into a fist and punch me on the right side of the face, I cry out.

I open my mouth trying to squeeze and gasp air into my lungs, but darkness hedges across my vision and my eyes close.

I had no oxygen left and I was tired of trying to breathe.

I know I am about to die, I knew it.

I tried to fight it, but this guy was too strong for me, and just as I give up, relax my body and succumb to the darkness, I heard Holten's deep voice far away and then close by as I drift off into darkness.