Nothing Without You | Eric Coulter [2]

six

    "What are your orders, sir?" The guard who'd passed me the tablet asks after a beat of silence.

"Stand down," I grit out, hurrying down the hall, somehow already having an idea of where she might be going.

I turn into Jeanine's office just in time to see Nessa pull a gun from her waistband and point it at Jeanine.

Since security had already been put on high alert with the alarm, the room is swarmed with guards, all raising their guns in turn.

I caught a good look at her face and felt a pang through her chest at the sight of her face covered in tears.

There's a mixture of sadness and rage in her eyes, but as she focuses them on Jeanine, pure hatred shines through and I found myself all for killing the woman for whatever she had done to hurt Nessa the way she did. However, I also knew that there was no way we would escape while we were surrounded if Nessa killed Jeanine.

So, I met Jeanine's eyes, giving her a small nod to let her know that I had this all under control.

I put myself between Jeanine and Nessa, raising my hands in front of me and blindly trusting this person- who in all sense was basically a stranger to me- not to shoot me.

"Nessa," I say softly, slowly approaching her.

Her hand trembles slightly as it sits on the trigger.

"Get out of the way, Eric." Her voice comes out a little hoarse, "She deserves this."

"Maybe," I agree, keeping my voice low so no one else could hear me but her. "But now is not the time. You see these guards surrounding you? They will kill you in a heartbeat."

Nessa's eyes dart over my shoulder and I've never seen a glare this deadly coming from someone that petite in my life.

"Hey, don't look at her, look at me." I tell her and her eyes dart back to mine, "Give me the gun."

"Eric, she killed Marlene." Her voice ends with a sob, and even though I didn't know who this Marlene person was, it was obvious that she meant a lot to Nessa and that made anger rise in my chest.

"We'll get her, I promise," I tell her, finally close enough to touch her and I reach out to cup her face. "For now, I just to trust me. Can you do that?"

When she nods, I wrap my free hand around the barrel of the gun, pulling it free from her grip and tossing it across the floor.

Then, as much as I didn't want to, I pulled her hands behind her back and secured them with cuffs.

"Good job, Eric." Jeanine praises from behind me and I suppress the urge to want to hurt her for putting Nessa through that much pain. "I knew it was the right to keep you on. Lock her up, would you?"

"You've got it," I grit out, seizing Nessa by the bicep and escorting her out of the room.

Nessa doesn't struggle as if she knows I would never betray her this easily and silently follows me.

We remain this way as we walked through a couple more hallways until we're away from the guards and in a quiet tunnel where it doesn't look like anyone is around.

There, I make quick work of release by her from her cuffs and spin her around to face me.

"What were you thinking?" I demanded, panic I'd never felt before rising in my chest as I remembered the sight of her with all of those guns pointed at her.

"Marlene's dead," She mumbles, tears welling in her eyes once again.

Not thinking twice about it, I crushed her to my chest, pressing a kiss to the crown of her head.

I don't know this girl, I remind myself. But still, I can't bring myself to part with the feeling of her against me.

Nessa's shoulders shake as she sobs into my chest, the miserable sounds making my heart twist.

"I'm sorry," I mutter into her hair.

"I don't want anyone else to die because of me," She says next.

I pull back slightly, brushing the hairs that were sticking to her tear-filled face away.

"None of this is because of you," I tell her, "And we'll fix this. Okay?"

Her eyes roam my face and she stays silent for a minute before she reaches up to brush her fingertips across my cheek.

I let out a sigh at her touch as she whispers, "I've missed you."

And though I was still not fully convinced that I truly knew her, for some unexplainable reason I found myself replying, "I've missed you, too." The even more confusing part was that I'd meant those words.

Wiping her tears away with my thumb, she rises on her toes and wraps her arms around my neck, resting her forehead on mine.

"I love you," She says to me.

The words get stuck in my throat when I open my mouth to say them back. Once again, I'm stumped by the fact that I didn't even remember this girl and yet I still felt all these feelings for her.

Instead of saying those words back to her, I did what I've wanted to do since the day I'd seen her in that supply closet at Candor Headquarters; I kissed her.

I never understood what people meant when they said they'd found pieces of themselves in someone else. But now, as the pieces fell into place with her in my arms, I think I finally understand.