Mikhail took his violin and bow lovingly from her hands and placed it in the case. “Come outside with me while I have cigarette, yes?”
“Of course,” she agreed and allowed him to escort her backstage, down the steps and out the back door.
They chatted and laughed for a few minutes while Mikhail smoked and described a future visit from his mother-in-law. Addison laughed sympathetically and offered her assistance. He gratefully accepted. His wife loved Addison and was always happier when she came over for meals. Mikhail insisted Addison would be able to charm his austere mama-in-law, as she did everyone else. She promised to at least try.
He put out his cigarette and unlocked the back door to let them both in, holding it open for Addison. She thought about having to deal with Erica and her own distracted thoughts. “I’ll be just a few more minutes, I’m enjoying the afternoon breeze too much to go in just yet.”
“I would join you, but as you see, I need to ice this wrist before I get back to work,” he said regretfully. “I wish I had young arms like yours again, to play so beautifully as you do.”
“Ha! You never played so beautifully,” Addison teased.
“Just for that, you are on your own with Maestro’s assistant, Madam First Chair,” he announced haughtily, opening the door. “Do you have your key?”
Addison reached for her side and realized she didn’t have her purse. “No, but I can go in the front.”
“Okay, I’ll see you in a few.”
The door closed behind him and she sank down on the concrete stairs, leaning back against the railing of the loading dock. The chill air of the afternoon seeped through her clothes, but she enjoyed the relative quiet after the stifling cacophony of the orchestra practicing independently. She only intended to sit for a few minutes, but her thoughts quickly turned to Daniel and wandered on a path of their own.
An unnatural scraping sound startled her back to reality. Addison jumped and pulled herself to her feet with the railing. She had been so deep in thought that she couldn’t be sure exactly what she had heard. She stood against the brick wall and listened intently. Then she heard it again, a scraping sound, like shoes against the pavement, only this time closer.
“Is someone there? Daniel?” Addison asked, her heart picking up speed.
There was only the symphony hall on that block. The alley behind the symphony was a dead end. There was nothing back there except the loading dock. The only people that went back there were the musicians, staff and people dropping things off. But every instinct in Addison’s body told her that someone was back there with her and they weren’t responding to her question. Visions of her stalker flashed through her mind and danger signals shot through her.
“I’m… I’m blind, so you have to tell me if you’re there,” she said pleadingly, sliding sideways down the stairs with her back to the wall. “Please, just say something to me.”
They didn’t say anything, but she could hear them keep pace with her as she moved. They were watching her every move. Mirroring her. She considered running toward the street and tried to remember how many steps it was. She was too scared though. Adrenalin kicked in, screaming at her to start running. But her legs felt frozen. It was everything she could do to put one foot in front of the other. Her breath came out in pants.
“Please,” she whispered.
“Play for me…” a voice whispered back longingly, so close to her that breath touched her face.
Addison screamed. She reached out to push whoever was there, but her hands touched nothing. She turned and ran toward the street, desperately counting steps, trying to remember as she went how many there should be. She ran her fingers along the bricks of the symphony building scraping the sensitive pads until she ran out of wall and then she hurtled out into empty space, flying toward the street. She was running so fast she couldn’t stop herself before she hit the curb and tripped, falling into the street and rolling into oncoming traffic. She heard a masculine shout and then strong arms wrapped around her middle and scooped her up out of the road.
“What the hell was that, Addison?” Maestro yelled, pulling her to her feet once they were safely back on the sidewalk.
“I’m… I’m so sorry Charles, there was someone in the alley with me. I completely panicked,” she said, gasping for air.
He continued to hold onto her and she felt him twist around to glance back into the alley. Her stalker would no longer be back there. They would have run away after she’d nearly killed herself running into traffic.
“Let’s go back inside,” he said gruffly. “Get you a glass of water and maybe some paperwork with Erica for the rest of the day. Something undemanding.”
“Oh good, my favourite,” Addison sighed, following him inside and rubbing her shoulder where she must have scraped it.
Thankfully the rest of Addison’s day passed much less eventfully and she even managed to convince herself she’d overblown the whole thing. Except for the whispered words “play for me,” spoken in an eerie whisper. She tried to place the voice, but it was so characterless she found she couldn’t even describe it. Recalling that managed to chill her no matter how she tried to shrug off the whole incident. Once home, she’d poured herself a healthy glass of red wine and shakily drank the whole thing before setting about her normal routine of making supper.
It wasn’t until later, as she drew herself a hot bath and sank into the scented depths that she discovered the numerous scrapes all across her body from her fall into the street. Of course she had felt them at the time, but adrenalin had stopped her from experiencing too much pain. And her distraction over the course of the day stopped her from dwelling. Until the bathwater touched the wounds and drew a hiss of discomfort from her. Of course, Daniel chose that moment to join her for the evening. She was really going to have to have a discussion with him about where his key to her condo came from and the value of knocking.
“You’re hurt,” he said coolly from the doorway of the bathroom.
Addison resisted the urge to reach for a towel to cover her nakedness. “And you’re observant.”
“How?” he demanded, moving to the edge of the tub and going down on one knee. He placed a finger against the edge of one of the deeper scrapes on her shoulder and then moved to her knee, inspecting the damage.
She shrugged. “I’m blind, sometimes I fall when I’m not paying attention.”
She felt his instant annoyance like it was a living thing, his hand tightened on her bare leg. “I don’t buy it. Never seen you make a mistake unless you’re upset.”
