Reese was so unprepared for Mati to jerk violently beside him, he almost fell out of bed.
She settled again, eerily still. A wrinkle creased her forehead and she whispered, “No.”
Then a tear leaked from the corner of her eye.
Reese couldn’t suppress his whimper of distress. David sat up and looked at him.
Mati let out a loud, sharp cry.
David practically materialized at her side of the bed, moving frighteningly fast. He put his hand on her shoulder, as visibly upset to see Mati crying in her sleep as Reese felt.
David shook her gently. “Mati, honey, wake up. Wake up. You’re safe. You’re in Boston with Reese.”
Mati’s face scrunched up.
David shook her again. “Come on, honey. Wake up.”
Mati vaulted upright, gasping and throwing off the covers. She spun toward David, her braid whipping around her arm and lashing at Reese.
“Whoa, whoa, you’re okay,” David said, his hands up. “It was just a dream, I promise.”
She looked as if she didn’t know where she was.
“Mati—sweetheart,” Reese said. He touched her elbow.
She flinched away, then his arms and lap were suddenly full of clinging, gasping Mati.
“You’re okay, sweetheart,” he said, holding her tight against his chest, one of his hands wrapped around a bare thigh. “It was just a dream. You’re okay. We’re in the hotel. In Boston. David is here.”
She sniffled against his neck. “David?”
“Yeah, I’m right here.”
She held out her hand, flapping it until David took it in his. He let her tow him forward, crawling onto and across the mattress. He was wearing only boxer briefs and had an excellent case of bedhead going, which made him look younger and sweeter than should have been possible.
He landed with a bounce, and they tipped into his broad chest. David wrapped them in his arms and squeezed until the tension bled out of Mati.
“You’re okay,” David said softly, the vibration of his voice soothing. “It was just a dream.” He ran his hand up and down her back. “It was just a dream…”
It sounded like a mantra, one Reese feared David had often repeated to himself.
“It wasn’t just a dream,” Mati mumbled, her voice muffled in the dark space between their bodies.
“What’s that?” Reese asked.
“I was remembering the run to the panic room. Hiding in the bedrooms.”
Reese’s heart ached, his stomach churning with his own culpability.
Mati sighed. “And then there was Frankie.”
David held them tighter.
“Have you dreamed about him before?” Reese asked, hoping that talking about it would help, and that David would tell him if he was going in the wrong direction.
She shrugged. “Yeah. This time I dreamed he was the one chasing me.”
“Bad dreams are funny that way,” David said. “Sometimes they jumble things up in your head, you know? The past and the present. But it was still a dream. You’re here now, and safe. Focus on that.”
