Forgiving Nancy (Last Hangman MC, #5)(48)

Women are a weird species. They kiss you, f*ck you but then want to sleep in separate beds. What the ever loving f*ck? Despite everything that happened today Nancy wanted to sleep in her own bed alone, which put a huge downer on my evening and my constant boner. I’m all about letting her call the shots, especially after what she’s been through, but having to sleep without her again is torture.

I wake in the middle of the night with a start after hearing a bloodcurdling scream. My immediate reaction is that I dreamt the scream or maybe the movie I was watching before bed is still playing, but as I mute the TV, I can still hear screaming. It takes me a second to place the voice and realize that it’s coming from Nancy’s room. I jump out of bed and run to her room with my gun in my hand, ready to shoot whoever’s attacking her but I come to a sudden stop when I reach her doorway. There’s only Nancy there. I take a second to calm my racing heart and see that she’s tossing and turning and kicking at the sheets as if someone was attacking her. Her screams chill my blood and I climb into bed next to her and try to bundle her into my arms so she can’t accidentally hurt herself. I finally manage to hold her still, but not without receiving a fist to the face for my efforts. I know it’s not on purpose but it f*cking hurts. Someone’s taught her how to punch.

“Shh, it’s me Nancy, calm down, it’s just a nightmare. You’re safe, you’re here with me.” I try to soothe her but she can’t hear me. “It’s not real, my Gorgeous Girl.” Hearing her nickname seems to calm her down slightly. “It’s all a bad dream,” I whisper and kiss her temple. She slowly wakes up and looks at me with scared eyes. I don’t know what occurred in her nightmare, but considering the look of fear on her face, it must have been f*cking bad. I wish I could erase her fears forever.





CHAPTER 22



Nancy

Seeing the pained expression on Bennett’s face as he wakes me up from one of my nightmares is something I will never forget. I hate to be the one who put that sadness there.

“This is exactly why I didn’t want us sleeping together.” I frown but cuddle up to him.

“It’s fine, I’d rather be next to you when it happens than wake up wondering what the hell is going on.” He kisses the top of my head and pulls me closer.

“I could hit you though.”

“You’ve already done that and look, I’m still here.” He looks at me whilst rubbing his jaw.

“I’m so sorry.” I try to pull away from him but he doesn’t let me move an inch.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“I hit you, it’s not right.”

“It’s not like you hit me on purpose anyway, plus me man, I can take it.” He growls pounding his chest.

“I would never, well unless you’re being a dickhead.” I chuckle softly.

“There’s my Nance. Want to talk about your nightmare?”

“Not particularly.” I sigh.

“I won’t push you but I’m here if you need me.” He kisses my forehead and starts to stroke my hair.

“I know you won’t and I’m grateful. I only ever have one nightmare for some reason, but today it was slightly different.” I rub my face, trying to rid myself of the remnants of my nightmare.

“What do you mean?”

“It’s the day I was kidnapped but you and my parents were there though.”

“I take it that it didn’t go well.” He frowns.

“Not at all. It started off the same, two guys dressed in black, grabbing me from behind and pulling me towards a van but my parents were standing on the porch watching it all with big smirks on their faces and two other men were holding you back. You were screaming and trying to get to me.” I start to cry and try to wipe away my tears without him seeing.

“What do you think it means?”

“That my parents are evil and that it’s a good thing that you didn’t show up because you could have ended up injured or worse that night?” I look into his eyes and see that they mirror my distress.

“We’ll be okay, my Gorgeous Girl.”

“I’m scared, Bennett.” I finally admit, I’m terrified of what could happen in the future.

“I was starting to wonder if you were human or not.” He laughs nervously.

“Why?”

“Because you’ve been so unaffected by all of this, or at least you seem to be. I was getting worried.”

“I should’ve told you.”

“Yes, but you have now and we can move past it. I’ll make sure you’re protected and safe at all times. I love you, Nancy. I’m not letting you get away from me again, got it?”

I nod. “I love you too, Bennett.”

“I didn’t say it to hear it back.”

“I know, I wanted to say it because that’s how I feel. I still love you, that never changed. If anything my feelings only grew with time, even though we were apart and the chances of us ever seeing each other again were slim to none.”

“Looks like fate was on our side.” He beams.

“Looks like it.” I kiss him softly.

“Mind if I spend the rest of the night with you?”

“Please.”