“How long before I can shower all this shit off me?”
“Give it another few hours at least,” Celia tells me. “I know you’re not going to listen to me, but you’re just coming off the anesthesia. Your body needs time to recover from that before you go gallivanting around and tearing all those internal stitches.”
I suck in a gasp. “I would never.”
Celia gives me a hard stare. “Uh-huh.”
Knight scoffs beside me, and I don’t doubt that he’s more than on Celia’s side now, and I can’t help but wonder how these next few weeks are going to pan out. Are they about to become besties, bonding over their mutual desire to torment me with my own hospital stay?
Just fucking great.
Celia gets on with everything she needs to do before upping my morphine and finally leaving me to rest, but not before scolding Knight on his choice of seating arrangements. Realizing there’s no hope, she lets me know that Dr. Levine should be around soon to check in on me, and then she leaves me to deal with the grumpy asshat beside me.
Once the silence fills the room again, Knight finally adjusts himself beside me, shifting back to the small armchair beside the bed.
“Doll,” he says a moment later, his elbows braced against the mattress as he clutches my hands in his, and with that one word, I know exactly what’s coming. “I’ve gotta know what happened,” he begs. “I’ve called down to my contact in the hospital surveillance, but they don’t have cameras covering that portionof the parking garage. I’m at a loss, babe. I’ve got no fucking leads. Nowhere to start. I need to find who did this to you.”
I swallow over the growing lump in my throat, my heart breaking for the pain he must be going through, and while the last thing I want is to dive into the details of what happened in the parking garage, I know he needs to hear it, because the truth is, neither of us will be able to sleep soundly until this bastard has been put away.
I clutch his hand like it’s my only lifeline before letting out a shaky breath and allowing the memories to swarm back, my eyes instantly filling with tears. “I, umm . . . After I texted you that I was on my way home, I was just about to get into my car when this eerie feeling came over me. It’s as though I could feel something was off, but when I looked around, I couldn’t see anything, so I tried to shrug it off and keep going to my car, but then he appeared. He just stepped out from behind my car as though he’d been waiting for me.”
“Waiting for you?” Knight questions, his brows furrowed. “So this wasn’t random? You knew who it was?”
“No,” I say, shaking my head. “I don’t . . . I don’t know. I didn’t know him. I didn’t even see his face, but he was definitely waiting for me. It wasn’t random. He targeted me. I just . . . I don’t know why.”
“Fuck.” Knight pulls his hand from mine and springs up from the armchair beside my bed. “What can you tell me about him? Anything could help. Height. Size. Hair color. Anything at all.” He’s pacing up and down the length of the hospital room in anticipation.
The picture of the vampiric mask flashes in my mind, and I go to tell him what really happened out in that parking garage, but the stalker’s words pull me up short.
Who’s going to believe you now?
He’s right. If I tell Knight that this attack has anything at all to do with the stalker who tormented my mind for the past few months, he’s immediately going to assume that this was all in my head. That I’d somehow made it all up and managed to hurt myself again, just like I had with the carvings on my ribs. He’ll think the meds aren’t working, and I can’t go through that again. I can’t have him not believe me now that I need him more than ever.
I shake my head as if struggling to recall the details. “He was tall,” I start, feeling sick to my stomach for not telling him absolutely everything. “About your height. Broad. He wore all black and heavy-duty boots.”
“That’s good, doll. Anything else?” he asks, his gaze narrowed as if sensing that I’m keeping something from him, being able to read me better than I can read myself. “Hair color? Eyes? Any markings on his skin? Tattoos or scars?”
I shake my head, the tears now falling down my cheeks, only I can’t work out if they’re falling out of sheer fear from what happened or out of the guilt I feel for not being honest with Knight. “I’m . . . I’m not sure. It all happened so fast. One second he was covered in shadows behind my car, and the next, he was right in front of me. It was still early. I only finished my shift at four, so it was dark.”
My hands start to shake, and Knight instantly stops pacing, rushing to my side as he takes my hands against his, his thumbs brushing over my knuckles. “Hey, it’s okay,” he coos. “Don’t cry, doll. We can take a break if you need it.”
“No,” I say, shaking my head and pulling my hands free, not liking the weakness coursing through my veins. “I can do it.”
He nods and straightens to his full height, simply waiting for me to find the courage to go on.
“His eyes. They made my skin crawl. He looked at me as though he’d been waiting for that very moment all his life. Itwas like I was staring straight into the soul of the devil,” I tell him, a shiver sailing down my spine. “I didn’t recognize anything about him, but I could tell that he wanted something from me. I just . . . I don’t know what.”
“What do you mean?”
My fingers lift to my throat, my gaze shifting across the room, not able to meet his eye. “He was choking me, but it’s not like when you and I play. This was real. I couldn’t breathe, and it hurt. He had the blade in his hand, so I was trying not to scream or provoke him,” I explain, shaking my head and trying to recall the exact words he used. “He told me that there’s no escaping him, and he’s got me right where he wants me, but before I could even work out what that meant, he stabbed me.”
The tears fall heavier down my face, and Knight sinks to his knees, his soul crushing right before me, but I don’t stop, knowing I need to get this out.
“He released me, and I fell to the ground, and I remember I couldn’t scream from the pain because I was too busy gasping for air, and by the time I was able to even look up, he was already gone.”
“Fuck, doll,” he says, his heart on his sleeve. “I’ll do whatever it takes to find this bastard. He won’t get away with this, and I promise, I won’t let him hurt you again.”
I hastily wipe the tears from my eyes, knowing without a doubt that he means every word, but that’s not a burden I can put on his shoulders. It’s not his responsibility to watch over me every second of the day. I know he’s a SWAT officer, and this is basically what they’re all about, but this isn’t on him. There’s a whole police force out there, and until I’m able to figure out more about who this bastard is, we’ve got nothing to go on. Not a single clue who or what I need protection from.
