Page 111 of The Banned Books Club

Her eyes began to burn and water, and the dark image he made above her blurred. She knew she had only a matter of seconds before she passed out.

Shecouldn’tlet that happen, couldn’t be defeated so easily. She just hadn’t been prepared for this, had never dreamed he’d be bold enough to come into the house. Striking when he had an open escape route was more like him. But she’d obviously pushed him beyond his normal boundaries, made him so mad he’d risk almost anything.

She was scratching at his arms, but that proved ineffectual. She had to reach a more vulnerable part of his body. She tried to knee him in the groin, but the blankets got in the way, and the attempt only made him laugh. “Look at you,” he said. “I could do anything right now.”

For a moment, she was afraid he’d act on that threat in a sexual way. She could tell he was trying to decide if he had the nerve to go that far. And that moment of hesitation, of brief indecision, was all she needed. Summoning every last bit of strength she had, she pressed her thumbs into his eyes and heard him yelp in pain.

He let go of her neck to pull her hands away—and she gasped for air, hauling in one lungful, then two. But still, she couldn’t scream. He was trying to get his hands around her throat, trying to return to the position that’d given him so much leverage when she managed to kick free of the bedding and knee him.

As he gasped in pain, she found her phone, which was under her extra pillow because she’d fallen asleep texting Cormac, and started pounding him in the head with it.

She wouldn’t have thought such a small device could do much damage, but he put up one arm to fend her off. Then he grabbed her wrist, trying to wrest her phone away. She was afraid he’d run off with it—and Margot’s contact information.

She had to relinquish it but letting go paid off. Grabbing the phone tied up one of his hands, and she was able to squirm out from underneath him by essentially falling out of bed.

He jumped off the bed to come after her, but she sprang to her feet and started throwing everything she could at him. A jewelry box. A figurine. A bookend. A book.

She didn’t realize she was screaming to high heaven until her father came running into the room and turned on the light.

“Oh, my God! What’s going on?” he shouted.

Gia thought Sheldon was planning to take her phone and run right through her father. She already knew he didn’t care if he hurt someone. But she stuck out her foot just in time. As she tripped him, he went down like a felled tree, and the lamp she hit him with next knocked him out cold.

She was breathing so heavily she thought she might throw up as she stood, wavering, still holding the lamp like a bat in case he tried to get up. “Call...for...help,” she managed to say to her stunned father, and he picked up her phone, which had gone skidding across the carpet almost to his feet.

After coming into the room and turning it toward her face to unlock it, he dialed 9-1-1.

“Gia? What’s going on?” Her mother came into the room, but she was so weak she had to cling to the door frame to remain standing.

“We got the son of a bitch,” Gia said. “We got him, Mom.”

“He broke in?” Ida said.

“He sure did. And he assaulted me.” Gia dropped the lamp and gingerly touched her throat, which hurt so much she could barely speak. “The police won’t be able to ignore this.”

Her mother looked stunned. “What was he trying to do?”

“He was after my phone, but he didn’t mind doing a little damage at the same time.”

Her father left the room and came back holding a kitchen knife. “He’d better not try to get away.”

Sheldon was starting to come to, but he wasn’t getting up. It didn’t appear that he could. He was rubbing his head where she’d struck him and writhing in pain, and he was bleeding. It looked as if she’d nearly cost him an eye.

Still, she wasn’t confident her father would be able to stop him if he got to his feet. But Leo had apparently called Cormac as well as the police, because only a couple of minutes later, Cormac came running down the hall, calling her name.

“What happened?” he asked. “Are you okay?”

She was trembling from all the adrenaline as she nodded. “It’s over,” she whispered hoarsely and sank back onto the bed. “Give me my phone. I want to call Margot to tell her she and the boys can come home.”

The police insisted both Sheldon and Gia go to the hospital. It didn’t take long for Sheldon to be examined, bandaged up and released into police custody, but the doctor made Gia stay a little longer for observation. While she was there, the police sent a photographer over to take pictures of the bruises that were starting to show around her throat.

“Sheldon’s insuchbig trouble,” Cormac told her. He’d been with her since it happened, had called and had his sister cancel all his appointments, which was well beyond anything Gia had expected. She kept telling him she was okay, but he didn’t want her to be alone after something that traumatic. Her parents had been there with her earlier, but Leo had taken Ida home so she could rest.

“He should be,” she said. “The vandalism was bad enough. But breaking and entering? Assault? He tried to choke me!”

“I know that, and so do the police. I heard someone talking about possible charges, and attempted murder was on the list.”

“I don’t think he was trying tokillme. At least, I hope he wasn’t. But his rage was certainly boiling over.”

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