Alliance – Chapter 14

I left Yvette’s just after one o’clock that afternoon. I was grateful the committee meeting wasn’t until six-thirty.  My mind was racing and I knew I would need every millisecond of the time to pull myself back together.   It figured that the first time I chose to try and get my social life back that Eric would be somehow involved.

Pulling one over on Michael was hard enough, but no one on the planet knew me the way Eric did.

Eric Sauters…Two years ago, I thought he was the man I was going to marry.  I met him at the end of my sophomore year in college while trying to study at a coffee shop. I didn’t realize how crowded it was until Eric asked if he could sit down.  We spent so long arguing about politics that I was almost late for my class.  He got my phone number under the pretense of continuing our argument at a later time.

Of course, I didn’t find out until our second date that he only picked the fight with me so he would have an excuse to get my number, not that he needed one.  With his golden blonde hair and brown eyes, I would have asked for his number if he hadn’t asked first. I wasn’t exactly the sort to sit back and wait for the guy to get around to making the first move.

I was also never one of those girls who thought she was in love with every boyfriend, so when I realized I was in love with Eric, I fell especially hard.  If people really only got one great love in their life, he was mine. A few weeks before my college graduation, I found the ring in his sock drawer and faked puzzlement at what his big surprise for me was.

That was the way my life was supposed to turn out: Parents still alive and living in married bliss to the man I still thought about each night before sleep claimed me…

Fate had other plans for me, I guess. One phone call destroyed my life. It changed everything. It changed me.

I didn’t even find out about the robbery until after I walked across the stage. I can still remember scanning the crowd for my parents and never seeing them there. On that horrible day, the emotion that crystallizes in my memory for me is anger. My father was dying and I was angry they weren’t watching me graduate.

Eric was an angel through everything, but I couldn’t stand to have him around me, loving me.  I didn’t deserve him and I sure didn’t deserve his love, so I pushed him away.  It was for the best, I always told myself.  What happened in the month after my father’s death left me an empty shell with nothing left in my heart except bitterness and vengeance. That wasn’t something I wanted to dish out to the man I loved.

No, the blackness in my heart was all for Raptor.

Eric was shattered when I told him I didn’t want to see him anymore.  I always hoped he would move on and find someone who could offer him more than the murderous thoughts that consumed my mind.  It was too painful for me to try to be his friend so I severed all ties to him.  The last I heard he was making a name for himself in the investment business.

As soon as I closed my front door, I knew I was not alone.  Why did it seem like Parker was always around when I least wanted him to be?  I was not in the mood to play his games right now.

“Come out, Parker.  I know you’re here,” I snapped into my living room.

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