Delayed by Nathan Kingsly (best manga ereader txt) 📕

not religious, but it’s still true. We had no control over what they did to us, just as we hadn’t on the day we met. I wouldn’t be willing to trade one if I couldn’t have the other. You changed me in that hotel room back in South Carolina, but I couldn’t admit it until you were out of reach. Did you know I went back for you?” Her eyes search my face. I was too afraid that if I spoke, she would stop, so I shake my head. I’m relieved she goes on.

“That little girl that kept showing up in the hall...” She waits for my nod. “She and her mom stopped me at my terminal while I was in line to board. Her mom's face was so serious as she gripped my arm that I thought she might attack me, but before I could get a word out, she whispered in a harsh voice that I was making a mistake, that I had let go of one of the good ones. I stood there like a child scorned, her mother telling her for the last time to clean up her room. However, this lady was telling me to do it for my life. I left that terminal hoping to find you, but you’d already left. Even missed my flight and had to wait for a different one.” We must have missed each other by minutes at some point when she went back for me.

“That too, I believe was meant to be, because we grew towards each other even though we were apart. If that’s not showing we are meant to be something more than we are, then I don’t know what would be.” She moves over to the side of the bed, and her hand slips into mine.

"So... I begin, but the door swings open.

"You've got to be kidding; he’s been awake for ten minutes ..."

“Ma’am, I’m doing my job.” A young officer, resting his hand on his gun holster, looks between Emma and me. His tired eyes and five o’clock shadow betray his state.

“What do you want to know?” I ask as I squeeze Emma’s hand.

“A statement of the events as they transpired. I was able to get Ms. Baker when you two came in. And ..”

“Ger was the man that killed my father, and when he got out of prison, sought revenge.”

“Revenge?” He grabs for his notebook, flips it open, and scribbles something down as I continue.

“I was the one that tackled him and detained him until the police arrived.”

“How long ago was that?”

“About six years ago.”

“What about a Mr. ...” He looks at his pad. “Brian McCullin? He was shot and found dead on the scene.”

I sit up straighter. “I shot him after a fight for the firearm.”

He peers over and then to Emma before looking back to the notebook. I continue before he can. “I tackled him off of Emma in his attempt to …” I swallow around the pain in my throat and my pride. “rape her.”

The questioning went on until I had told the story twice. My mom and sister had come back to hear the second telling, and I was thankful that I wouldn’t need to retell it a third time.

“I think I have it all. We’ll be in contact if we need anything else. Thank you for your time.”

“Wait, I have a question.”

“Sure, if I can answer it.”

“How did he get in? I searched the room myself before Emma went in.”

“A joining room next to yours, your door wasn’t locked, so it was a matter of him unlocking his to get access.

The door closes, and of course, it barely clicks shut before Mia opens her mouth. “Dude, you killed someone! Are you going to start a gang now or become an assassin?” She looks excited by the prospect. I can see Emma’s mouth twitch from the corner of my eye. Remembering as I am when she questioned the same thing about me, I'd bet.

“Mom dropped you on your head as a child.” I tease.

My mom gasps aloud. “I most certainly did not!”

At the same time, Mia bites back a “Hey!”

Movement catches my eye. Emma is rising from her seat and gives me a tentative smile. “I’m going to visit with my parents now. I’ll be back later.” She chances a glance over at my family before deciding to bend down and place a kiss against my mouth. Reluctantly, I let her hand go. Even with the threat of Ger and Brian gone, there is so much I wish I could keep her protected from. Watching her leave, the door swinging shut, I suspect that the tightening of my chest will not release until she walks back through it again. I wonder if this is how it will be from now on. Watching her go, then to be ever in suspense, until she returns.

“She’ll come back,” my mom says, and I finally look over. “She hasn’t left since you two got here.”

“She was starting to smell.”

I look over at my sister, who is walking over to take Emma’s vacant seat. “Shut up, Mia. You don’t look all that pleasant either.”

“No shit! My brother was shot, had to leave my vacation to sit around in a hospital waiting room instead of naked on a beach.”

“I could have lived without that image.”

She laughs. “Serves you right for scaring the shit out of us, and let me tell you, it was not the way we wanted to meet your woman.”

“Yes, that was unfortunate. I can’t believe what almost happened to her.” My mom shivers in her seat and rubs her hands up and down her arms.

That reminds me. “Ger said something.”

Her eyes focus on me, and they are wide. If I wasn’t looking at her so closely, I wouldn’t have seen how the blood drained from her face. Could I be right …? ”Mom,” I say with the tone of someone trying to coax a small animal from under a porch.

“Liam …” she protests.

“What