Page 24 of The Midnight Club
“There was someone here. He grabbed me. He had a knife.”
She heard Maceo’s sharp intake of breath and felt his hands running over her body, trying to find any wounds. “You have some cuts and scratches, baby, but I don’t think you’ve been stabbed. Your head is bleeding.”
“I must have fallen when he grabbed me. I hit my head.” She tried to sit up, but Maceo locked his arms around her.
“Take it easy,bella. We’re going to get you checked out.”
Ori sighed, but relaxed back into his arms, gazing up at his face. His green eyes were full of concern and shock. “I’m okay, I think, Maceo. I just don’t know why I’m still alive.”
She saw him wince. “Don’t say that.”
“It was Tyson. I know it. Or one of his men. I just don’t know why he didn’t kill me.”
Maceo frowned. “It wasn’t Tyson himself, Ori. I know that for sure.”
“How?”
“Because I was just with him.”
Ori did sit up now, her head pounding. “You were with Tyson?” There was no reproach in her voice; she trusted Maceo enough now that he would have only met with Tyson to benefit her. Maceo nodded.
“To warn him to stay away from you. I think he got the message.”
“He must have had us followed and called someone to attack me while you were out of the way. Except….” She trailed off, deep in thought. Absentmindedly, she pressed the heel of her hand to her head, wincing when her skin touched the open wound there. Maceo was watching her.
“Except what,mio caro?”
Ori nodded her head. “If it had been Tyson, I would be dead. He’s sent enough warnings; he would have taken the chance to end it, even if it meant not killing me with his own hands. That’s his ultimate goal, I know it.”
Maceo moaned. “Please stop talking like that.”
Ori tried to smile, taking his hand. “It’s been my reality for over a decade, Maceo. Why do you think I’ve kept moving? If I stand still, he’s got me, and I’ll be dead.”
Maceo swore in Italian and got up, just as someone knocked at the door. The paramedics examined Ori. “I think it’s just a bad concussion but we should still take you in for tests.”
Maceo shut down Ori’s protests and rode with her in the ambulance. Once at the hospital, he arranged a private room for her and settled her in. Ori, despite her hatred of hospitals, felt some of the stress of the day falling away and, when the doctor had seen her and prescribed some strong painkillers, she felt herself drifting to sleep, Maceo holding her hand, ready to spend the night in the chair next to her bed.
The nightmare hither with full force. She was back in their hotel room, curled up on the bed asleep when he entered the room. Weirdly, she knew he was male even though he was entirely clad in black from head to toe. He forced her onto her back and, in the dream, she complied, watching him dispassionately as he pushed her T-shirt up and raised the lethal-looking blade in the air. It was only when he pulled off his mask that she began to scream.
Maceo.
No, no … please, not you, not you, my love …
Maceo drove the knife into her over and over as she screamed out her love for him, and she felt every inch of the cold, hard steel as it sliced into her tender flesh. She was begging him to stop but he didn’t listen, her blood soaking them both. As she died, she felt his lips against hers and heard him whisper to her, calling her by an unfamiliar name.
Viola …
For a few minuteswhen she woke, Ori did not open her eyes. The nightmare had been so vivid and so visceral that she did not want to see the man next to her, Maceo, and associate him with the monster who had slaughtered her in her dream.God.She felt nauseous, tormented. She struggled with her senses, then opened her eyes. Maceo, his head on the bed, his chair pulled up close, looked 20 years younger when he slept, the furrows and lines of his face smoothed out. His fingers were interwoven with hers, and his dark lashes rested on his olive skin. A small scar at the corner of his right eye curved around like a half moon and Ori reached out to stroke it, her body relaxing.
God, how I love you, she thought and as he stirred, opened his eyes and gazed at her, she smiled at him. “Good morning, handsome.”
Maceo blinked a couple of times, still looking like a young kid, then sat up, rubbing his head to try and wake up. He pressed his lips against hers.
“How do you feel?”
Ori nodded. “Okay, actually. I had some weird dreams, but I feel good.”
Maceo sighed. “Thank God.” He moved next to her so he could take her in his arms. Ori snuggled into the warmth of his broad chest.
