“Thanks.”Hannah tried to get up from the bed, but Darryn pulled her down for another kiss.
“Don’t go too far away, please?”
She smiled, touching his face.“Karen must be very worried.Let me phone her and then I’m going to take a shower.”
Darryn’s eyes darkened, and she remembered their previous conversation about showers.
“Take your call, but Don put your suitcase over there,” Darryn said and pointed toward her bag sitting on a nearby chair.“Use my bathroom?”
She nodded and fled the room.Wow, he was hurt and his face swollen, but one look from his chocolate brown eyes had her nearly melting.
*
The police arrivedshortly after the rest of the family.Her sisters, Dana, her mother, and Darryn’s mother, Rosa had pulled her in for a group hug.
“I’m so glad you’re not hurt.”Her mother sniffled and cupped Hannah’s face.“You’re my baby.I was going mad not knowing where you were.”
“I’m so sorry,” Hannah said, hugging her mom again.“But—”
Her mother patted her arm.“I know.There is a crazy person out there.”
Darryn had refused to stay in bed.He was dressed, but still very pale.He pulled Hannah down next to him on the couch and took one of her hands in both of his.
Everyone sat down, and Don explained to the police what had been happening, including the attack on Darryn.
One of the two policemen looked at Hannah.“Let’s leave last night’s attack out of the picture for the moment.Can you give a detailed account of the incidents you think Stephen White has been involved in?”
“Not ‘think.’We know!”Darryn interjected.
The policeman nodded, but kept his eyes on Hannah.
Her throat constricted.She didn’t want to remember all the horrible things that had happened over the last two years, let alone talk about them.But she also wanted this to stop.
Darryn tightened his hold on her hand, and she took a deep breath.With him by her side, she could do anything, even talk about Stephen bloody White.
Starting with Stephen getting fired because of her complaint, she listed the events that had happened chronologically.
“Do you have any concrete proof that everything that happened to you was this White fellow’s doing?”the policeman asked.
“Well, I have…had the messages that he’d left on my phone, but I left that back in my apartment in Paris.”
“I brought it with me.”Caitlin rummaged through her bag.“I thought you might need it.I switched it off, and Don took the SIM card and battery out so it couldn’t be traced.”She handed the phone to the policeman.
“The trouble is, he never admitted to doing anything, although the only times I heard from him were after the incidents I’ve just told you about,” Hannah said.
The two policemen looked at one another, then put the phone down on the coffee table.
One cleared his throat as he looked at Darryn.“And you think the person who attacked you last night was the same individual?”
Darryn glared at the policeman.“I don’t think that, I know that.I was here, I saw, and I heard him.He said very clearly, ‘She’s mine.’”
The policeman coughed.“The doctor said you have a concussion.You don’t think—”
“No, damn it, I don’t ‘think,’” Darryn said sarcastically.“I bloody well know it was him!”
The policemen got up.“If you could get us a report from your doctor?”
Darryn grunted.“Well, then, we’ll—”
