Teaching Aleck (The Last Hangman MC #2)(57)

After a couple of hours, I sober up and get on my bike to drive over to her place. It’s been a couple of hours now, I hope she’s calmed down enough agree to talk to me.

I park in front of her house and see that I don’t even need to ring the bell, she’s opened the door as I was getting off my bike. A good sign, at least she’s open for discussion.

“What are you doing here Aleck?” Maybe not…

“I’m a f*cking *. I’ve hurt you yet again and I’ve hurt myself. I managed to push away the one thing, besides my daughter, that brings a smile to my face. I’ve been a miserable bastard all week, but was too f*cking stubborn to admit I was wrong. I don’t deserve you, but I can’t stay away from you anymore”

“Where have you been this past week then if you can’t stay away from me?” She crosses her arms over her chest.

“Compound. I didn’t go home at all, I didn’t want Ally to see me like this.”

“Did you slip back into your old habits?” She looks at me intently.

“Once, the first night, Ant kicked my ass for it, if it makes it any better.”

“No, it doesn’t. I didn’t dump you for you to go back to your old ways. I just wanted to show you that you don’t get to make all the decisions. I love you Aleck. I know what you’ve been through. I know you didn’t have the best environment growing up, but f*cking hell, give me a chance to prove to you that we can be happy together, that you can be happy. That you shouldn’t run away with your tail between your legs at the first chance you get.”

I f*cking deserved that. “I dealt with it the only way I know how to. I thought I was doing what was best for you, even though it killed me to do so. I know I was wrong bu-”

“Did you just admit that you were wrong and I was right?” She smirks as she interrupts me.

“What have you done with my sweet innocent Charline? More importantly will she have me back?” I can’t help but chuckle, despite the serious conversation.

“She’s still in here somewhere, she’s just pissed at you. Do you really need to ask? Do you think I went to the compound just to tell you off for the sake of it?”

I take the two steps that were separating us and lean down, brushing my lips over hers. “Will you tell me what happened to you and who is leaving those notes?”

She sighs. “Come in.” She steps away from the door letting me walk in.

We settle down on the couch before she begins, “When I was in my second year in college, I went to a Halloween themed party one night. I was walking from my dorm on my own because I had forgotten something on the way to the party, so I told my friends to go on without me. I heard a noise in the alley that separated two dorms. I should have known better than to walk by that alley, it always gave me the creeps. I heard a blood chilling scream which should have made me run away, but no, I walked towards the alley and the noise. What I saw made me feel sick.

“Three guys were carving into a guy’s chest. I didn’t know what the f*ck was going on. I froze, I couldn’t move or say anything. Their victim must have spotted me because he called out to me for help, but this drew his attackers’ attention to me. One of them started to come after me. I tried to run away, but I was wearing heels so couldn’t run very fast. Stupid me didn’t think of taking them off.

“Just when he was about to catch up with me, a security guard ran over to us. He must have had heard the screams. Just as I was about to shout at him to help, the guy chasing me grabbed me arm and told the security guy I was his girlfriend and that he had scared me as a prank. I had to agree with his story because he had a knife digging into my back. When the guard left the masked man told me that he would come for me if I told anyone what I saw. He let me go after that and went back to the mutilation. I tried to run, but my legs wouldn’t move. When they finally did, I rushed back to my room without looking back and never told a soul.

“It wasn’t long after that that the threatening texts started. I only began receiving notes when I had changed my phone number, I have no idea how they got it in the first place. When I moved back here, it stopped all together, until the first day of school and you know the rest.” She shrugs as if she had just told me she’d been shopping with Ayden.

“What the f*ck? First of all, I can’t believe you had to witness that and then have someone breathe down your neck because of it. How in the hell have you been able to do this on your own and never talk about it? You don’t seem phased by it at all.”

“It’s a messed up situation. I’ve just tried to get on with my life. It was hard in the beginning, I used to have a lot of nightmares, but it got better with time. If they wanted to hurt me they could have, they knew which dorm I lived in, they had my number. I grew confident with time because how would they be able to find me now? Why would they even want to hurt me, they knew I wasn’t a threat. They were wearing masks so I have no idea what they looked like. If it is them, they could have taken me when they left the note on my car, so surely they can’t still want to hurt me, wouldn’t they have done so already?”

“Besides the accident involving Blades, nothing has happened to you, it makes no sense. Unless Blades was one of the three, but why would he have business so far away?”

“I don’t know. I can’t remember many details, I was in shock. I only know that they were all in black and had masks.”