“Yes, you can.”
“No, Christien, I can’t.I have a life to get back to.I have a job I can’t lose.”
His scowl deepened.“Lucheux said—”
“I know what Mr.Lucheux said, but I can’t take advantage of him.At some point I need to go back.”
He uncrossed his arms.His jaw flexed.“When are you leaving?”
“Tonight.”
“So soon.”
“You had to have known.”
He looked away.“I don’t like you going back out there when someone tried to hurt you.”
She didn’t either, but she refused to cower.“I can’t stay locked away forever.”
His look told her he thought hiding away forever was a very good idea.
“The police are looking into it,” she added.
He scoffed.
“You can’t protect me from everything.Maybe it was an accident.Maybe someone bumped into me and being a klutz I lost my balance.”
“You said you were pushed.”
Lainie ran her hands through her hair in exasperation.She’d thought a lot about that moment on the curb.Shehadbelieved she was pushed, but what if she was wrong?
“The police talked to all the witnesses.No one saw anyone push me nor did they see the blond guy.What are you going to do, keep me here forever?”
His gaze snapped back to hers, and she realized in his long look that he’d considered the option.
“I can’t live my life in fear and I can’t stay up here hiding from the rest of the world.”
What she didn’t tell him was she needed room to think.It was so hard to think in his home, with his presence all around her and with her ears attuned to his every movement.The dreams were becoming more and more disturbing, haunting her in the middle of the night.Almost every morning she woke to a wet pillow where she’d cried in her sleep, desperately afraid for Madelaine’s safety.The people in her dreams were as real to her as the people she saw on the streets and it worried her.She was losing touch with reality.Returning to work, to her apartment and bills and obligations, would bring her back to reality faster than anything else.
Sheneededto leave to keep her sanity.
“Stay one more night.”
“Christien.”She sighed his name, frustrated.
“Spend the night with me.”
She froze.The bottom dropped out of her stomach and she blinked several times.“What do you mean?”
“I think you know.”
“I don’t know.”She was afraid to hope.Afraid she was reading too much into this.
“I want you to stay the night with me.To be with me.”
She wanted to stay so badly she ached with it, but still she held back.Why now?Why did he come to her now, as she was getting ready to leave when for the past four nights he’d carefully kept his distance?Her old fears resurfaced.Doubts, misgivings.Things they needed to discuss before they took such an important step.
“Does this have anything to do with the other Madelaine?The one in my dreams?”When he didn’t answer she had to look away, the pain nearly unbearable.“I see.”
