Sweet Seduction Sacrifice (38 page)

"I had to do it," I said through silent sobs. The nurse's hand came to rest on my shoulder comfortingly.

"I'll get your parents," she said softly, wrapping up the BP cuff and returning my chart to the hook at the end of the bed. "Everything looks good. I'll come back in a little while and remove your catheter and I'll contact Mr Anscombe for you."

"Thank you," I managed, trying to curl up into a little ball on the bed, but that hurt too much, so I had to settle for crying lying flat on my back. It's surprising how dissatisfying that is.

Seconds later my parents walked back in and soundlessly they surrounded me, both wrapping me up in their arms. It was good to be held by my Mum and Dad, it was familiar and safe and comforting, but it wasn't what I wanted or needed. And that just made me cry even more.

After the tears, I slept fitfully for a while. The nurse returned and removed the catheter and helped me to hobble to the attached bathroom to make sure I could pee. Thankfully that went without a hitch and when I climbed back into bed and settled in under the covers, Mum and Dad reading quietly off to the side, I fell instantly back to sleep.

I woke to raised voices, not quite whispers, as the volume was escalating past that and heading straight for a hiss. I blinked a few times to bring the room into focus, my head starting to pound again from the noise.

And spotted the problem.

My father stood in front of a very irate Dominic, dressed in his suit as though he'd come straight from the office to here, my mother clinging to Dad's upper arm - either for support or out of fright. Dominic could be impressive when he was fuming and one look at him now indicated as much.

"Let him in," I said shakily. My parents turned their heads to me and started to smile.

"Genny-Benny," Mum said placatingly.

"No, Mum. Let the man inside the friggin' door. It's my hospital room and he's my..." Once again words failed me. I really wasn't sure where to pigeon hole Dominic, I had a suspicion one didn't do that to him.

"Boyfriend," Dominic supplied succinctly.

Oh, OK then. Boyfriend. I smiled, then cringed at the pain in my cheek and somehow Dominic skirted the gate keepers and was at my side.

"Sweetheart," he said on a groan of pain. Pain, I realised, at seeing
me
in pain. I blinked up at him as he rested his frame gently on the side of the bed, one hand entwining his fingers in mine, the other brushing through my hair at the side of my temple - where I wanted his lips to be.

"Hey," I said softly.

"Hey," he said just as softly back. "You are one courageous woman, you know that?"

I blinked again. Did he just say courageous? I thought he'd call me stupid or insane or lacking any ability to judge how dangerous a situation was. I certainly was taking that path.

"Um..." I said, my mouth miraculously frozen.

"Katie is fine because of you," he explained. My eyes closed, thinking Katie wouldn't have been in danger at all if not for me. But Dominic hadn't finished. "You fought like a hell-cat to get away. You didn't go quietly, once you knew Katie was safe, you gave it everything you had." I watched him swallow visibly. "You jumped out of a moving vehicle to escape a fate worse than death. No fear. Amazing."

"Aren't you mad at me?" I asked in surprise.

"Furious," he whispered. "But completely in awe as well."

Huh. "Katie's OK?"

"Spitting mad at Elliott and his cohort, but fit as a fiddle because of you."

"It's all my fault," I said, biting my bottom lip.

"How do you figure that, sweetheart? You're not responsible for Elliott's criminal behaviour. No one holds you to blame."

"I do," I whispered, my eyes sliding away from his face.

"Genevieve,"
That
voice. One word. Nothing else. But he didn't need to say anything more, the set of his jaw and the intense look to his eyes said it all. That he wouldn't entertain any more nonsense from me. It was almost enough to make me laugh.

I didn't though, but I did relax into the bed for the first time since I had woken from unconsciousness. His presence alone allowed me to do that, but his conviction that I wasn't to blame really made all the difference. I stared at him, thinking he was simply too good to be true. And he stared back with an expression I couldn't quite decipher. It could have been wonder, but that seemed inappropriate, so maybe it was relief that I was alive.

"I've missed you," he said in a deep, low voice.

"It's only been two days," I whispered back.

"Two days too long, sweetheart." He fished inside his jacket pocket and pulled out my cellphone, then handed it to me. "I'm going to go talk to the nurses and see when I can bring you home, now that I'm off the terrorist list." His lips twitched on those last words.

"The writers of said list are still in the room watching us," I pointed out.

"They are?" he asked, innocently. "I hadn't noticed." Then he leaned forward and kissed the side of my head, on my temple, in amongst my hair. Bliss. Then whispered, "I respect their efforts, but they had to sleep sometime, and it was then I was holding your hand."

With that little disclosure he stood up, nodded to my parents - my mother with her mouth halfway open, my father with a rueful grin and if I wasn't mistaken a look of appreciation on his face - and then walked out the door.

"Well," my Dad said, "he certainly has a way about him."

"Oh, boy," Mum added, fanning herself.

I let a snort out, which surprisingly didn't hurt, and powered up my cellphone. I doubted I'd be released today, so Dominic providing me with my phone was very much wanted. There would be people to reassure, Kelly for one, and the rest of the Sweet Seduction gang. Wayne and Edward would be worried and I really wanted to talk to Katie. Until I heard her voice, I just couldn't completely believe she was all right. I needed reassurance too.

Plus I wanted to check up on Jason. I was worried, although quite sure Nick and ASI would be working with him, he was my brother and he was chasing after my clearly mentally unstable and outrageously dangerous ex-boyfriend. As well as skiving off from his duties as the nation's elite secret soldier man. I really wanted to know what that involved, but Jason had remained tight-lipped from the moment he entered the SAS.

Finally my phone finished its warm up and I was immediately assailed with multiple buzzes and chiming indicating a fair few messages waiting to be cleared.

"Looks like you're going to be busy, Genny-Benny," Dad commented. "We'll go grab some coffees and get you something nice to eat from the café, while you catch up with your friends."

"We will?" Mum asked, clearly not liking that idea. "What if the hunk comes back?" Oh God, she did
not
just call Dominic a hunk.

"Then Gen's in good hands, I think." Dad winked at me. Somehow in the brief amount of time Dominic was here, he'd won my father over. My mother may have appreciated his good looks, but she wasn't entirely convinced just yet.

"What changed your mind, Dad?" I asked out of curiosity, expecting it to be the kiss on the temple - my favourite part - or maybe just Dominic's gentle manner and caring touch.

"The fact that he still came to sit with you despite the obstacles we put in his path."

I smiled, my face managed to accommodate the action without too much discomfort. Maybe practice was helping with that.

"We'll see you in a little while, Genny-Benny," Dad said, grabbing Mum's hand and tugging her towards the door. "Come on, Cheryl, let the girl phone her friends."

Mum grumbled the entire way out the door and I could still hear her as they walked down the hall. I returned my attention to the phone in my hand. Flicking through Kelly's many messages, Jane's, Lucas's and Karla's, then several from Wayne and Edward, two this morning alone from Katie, and one from my brother, telling me he had things in hand and was working closely with ASI. Always aware of how my mind operated, Jason was keen to settle my worries right off the bat.

I smiled at his message and flicked on to the next. Then froze. It was from Brett, or at least from his phone. A picture/text message, not voice mail, so I couldn't be sure. But the tone of the text and subject matter led me to believe it was him, because Lofty sure as hell wouldn't have given such a damn.

So, he was alive. That was my first thought, accompanied with a plethora of mixed emotions. I quashed them all, deciding he didn't deserve the effort required, and then opened up the attached photo.

My breath left me in a rush, my hand started shaking making the image on the screen blur. I rested the phone down on my lap and stared at the two people embracing in the picture. Dominic, in the same suit, shirt and tie he was wearing today and a woman. Blonde, long slim legs, thin to the point of being heroin chic, large breasts straining through a tight fitting red blouse, that couldn't possible be natural considering her slight frame. And an adoring look on her face as she stared into Dominic's eyes from inches away.

She loved him. It was clear from the pose to the love-sick puppy look on her face. She adored him. But then who wouldn't, I thought on a sob. And Dominic? His arms were around her slim waist, his hips flush against hers, his face dipped down as if he was about to kiss her. And the killer? His face was soft, caring, compassionate. He adored her too.

I felt crushed by the image alone, but the text Brett had sent with the picture sealed the deal and shattered my heart.

You should know what he's been doing while you've been unconscious in bed. Three times since Tuesday. Three times wrapped up in her arms. He's using you, baby. You're just one of many, nothing special, nothing unique. Phone me.

I stared mutely at the text message, unable to face the picture again, but knowing I wouldn't delete it. That I'd go back to it time and again. Because if I ever needed discouragement, that anything with Dominic could be long term, that picture would remind me.

Not only did my body feel abused and battered because of Brett, now my heart felt ten times worse, because of Dominic Anscombe.

With a body shuddering hitched sob, I curled into a ball, ignoring the stabbing pain it caused through my entire body, and cried my tears into the bed.

"Fuck!" The words were muttered above me and broke through my numbed state.

I'm not sure if I had fallen asleep or simply ceased to exist, but Dominic's muttered curse made it through whatever fog I'd hidden in, but still didn't register completely. I curled a little further in on myself, relishing the pain shooting through my hip and across my left side and let the tears continue to fall.

"Sweetheart," he whispered in my ear. I burrowed my face deeper into the hospital sheets, smelling the disinfectant, through the weave, that had been used on the plastic mattress beneath.

The bed dipped, heat wrapped around me from behind and Dominic's face nestled into the curve of my neck. His arm draped over my stomach, carefully placed not to cause pressure on my bruised hip and side.

"Lovely, talk to me," he encouraged against my ear. "I know you've seen the picture. Talk to me."

I shook my head, then bit my lip and frowned at myself for having given anything at all away. I should just ignore him, pretend he isn't there, that he no longer exists for me. It would be easier that way. Still painful, but the sooner I got that and behaved like this time with him had never happened, the sooner I'd walk out of this pit of despair.

I felt him settle in further behind me, his hand at my waist began to gently stroke across the material of the hospital gown under my breast. I wanted to pull away, to throw my shoulder into him, elbow to his guts, but movement of any sort would hurt and didn't support the pretend-he's-not-there plan.

"Her name is Caroline," he started in a low voice. I sucked in breath and squeezed my eyes shut. I didn't and I did want to hear this, but I knew either option was going to hurt. "I dated her for three months at the end of last year. It started out OK, she was fun, intelligent, available." He let a breath out on that last word as though a little disgusted at himself. For me, I was now barely breathing at all. "Then things changed and she became demanding, clingy."

My frown deepened. Was I clingy? I'd practically admitted to the nurse how much I needed him and within seconds of waking his name was on my lips to my folks. Dominic didn't do clingy and I had definitely begun to cling.

"Then the demanding became invasive, she'd turn up at work and throw a fit in reception if Cathy told her I was busy. Which nine times out of ten I was. At first, I hadn't been trying to avoid her. Towards the end, I avoided her like the plague. The invasive became dangerous when she started to act out in public, placing herself in ridiculously hazardous positions to gain my attention. I was called to bring her down from the first high-rise ledge two months into the relationship."

Oh. OK, so maybe a little more unstable than me. I let a breath out on that thought, but my stomach roiled thinking how desperate she must have been and how hard it must have been for him too.

"My tyres were slashed one week afterwards, couldn't pin it on her, but it meant I was unable to leave her house unless I called a taxi and made a fuss. I stayed, it was a mistake. It rewarded her behaviour. She started to think up better and bigger scenarios to keep me at her side. Threw herself in front of a taxi." My entire frame stiffened at the image that evoked. "Her Yorkshire terrier was found dead in her back yard, when I was due at a business meeting. Poison, again I couldn't be sure she did it. Who kills their own dog to stop someone from leaving their house?"