Page 247 of Under Her Skin
‘No, I don’t. I swear, Amelia, if you knew what being truly obsessed is… obsessed is what got Jess stabbed and nearly killed, obsessed is being raped over and over by your creep of a step-brother, obsessed is living in fear of your life for almost half your life. Theo and Jess have that kind of love that most of us are lucky to see. I had it, you had it oncetoo.’
Amelia muttered her ascent but Jules, his fingers gripping his cup tightly, calmed himself at Max’s words. Fucking bastard. What the hell did heknow?
‘When are theyback?’
‘Next week, Tuesday, I think. Jess says she wants to go back to work but we have a wedding to plan so I’m hoping to persuade her to stay home for a month orso.’
Max laughed. ‘Good luck withthat.’
Later,as they left, Jules was outside waiting in his car. He watched as Amelia Storm got into her Mercedes and, leaving a reasonable distance, followed her across the island. After an hour, she pulled up to an impressive house. A man nodded to her and got into her car as Amelia ascended the stairs to the frontdoor.
Jules watched the house for a while not knowing why he had followed the woman. She’d given him enough good information in the diner. Theo and Jess were away as he’d thought, and he would bet a million bucks that whatever Theo and his cronies had done to Malcolm, Jess didn’t know aboutit.
Maybe it was time that shedid.
There weredark clouds over the islands and at first Jess couldn’t understand where they’d come from. She was standing on the deck of the villa and the breeze was cold against her bare skin, making hershiver.
‘I can make you warm,baby…’
She turned at the sound of his voice, smiling but the joy turned to horror. Theo aimed a gun at her.Confusion.
‘Theo? What are youdoing…?’
The first bullet made a whooshing sound and smashed into her belly, right through her navel. She gasped at the pain, looking down to see blood start to pour from the wound when a second, an inch higher, hit her. ‘No,no….’
Theo was laughing. ‘I told you I’d make you warm, hot…’ He shot her again, walking towards her. Jess wondered why she didn’t fall or clutch at her wounds but she just stood there, taking one bullet after another. When Theo reached her, he pressed the cold muzzle against her skin, pulling the trigger so many time it was impossible…no gun would hold that many bullets….is this a dream? Am I dead? God, someone help me, wakeme….
Cold.Something slimy passed over her skin. A fist was being jammed down her throat and she tried to cough, tried to gasp for air but the pressure in her chest, her lungs was unrelenting. She opened her eyes and saw blackness, a flicker of light but mostly dark, oily darkness. She realized what the slimy thing was, what the blackness was.Water.
She wasdrowning.
She struggled, tried to make her arms move, to propel her body upwards, out of the water but something seemed to be holding her down. Her mouth, her nose filled with water and now she began to panic, her lungs, her stomach filling with choking water. She pushed up desperately and managed to break the surface. The full moon was the only light in the dark night. The black spots in her eyes were back and they swept over her sight, blinding her again. She struggled, wrenched her body upwards but unconsciousness was threatening. She struggled but then one thought kept replaying itself in hermind.
Oblivion took her as, exhausted, shattered and broken, she finally stopped struggling and gaveup.
She openedher eye to bright whiteness and a clean, antiseptic smell. Unfamiliar surroundings. A hospital. She moved her head and saw Theo at the window. Jess struggled into a sitting position before saying his name. He looked around, strain obvious in hiseyes.
‘How do you feel?’ Clipped,distant.
‘Theo, what am I doinghere?’
Theo sat on the bed and sighed. ‘You decided to go for a little midnight swim. I think you were sleepwalking, so do the docs, because I know, I know, you’re not stupid enough to swim in the ocean alone atnight.’
She raised her eyebrows at his harsh tone. ‘Theo… of course not. Why the hell would you thinkthat?’
His eyes were hard. ‘And it wasn’t… anythingelse?’
She was getting irritated now. ‘Like what?’ Then she realized and her whole body relaxed. ‘God, Theo, no. It wasn’t on purpose if that’s what you mean.’ She reached out to him but he drew away, not looking ather.
‘You were just floating there. You’d given up. I thought… Jesus, Jess, I thought I’d lost you.Again.’
She slid out of bed and went to hold him, pulling his head onto her chest. ‘Theo… never. I would never do that.’ She tilted his head up so he could see her and tried to smile. ‘Too many other people are trying to kill me, why would I do it myself? That’s just poor timemanagement.’
‘Don’t joke. I thought you weredead.’
‘I’m sorry, I don’t know what happened, I had anightmare…’
She trailed off as the nightmare came screeching back. Theo. Shooting her. Theo. She shivered and then it was his turn to tighten his grip. ‘What? What isit?’
