Page 56 of Dangerously Tempting

“You said you would keep her safe,” she bites out around her tears, and the words hit me like a knife to the chest.

I take her words, apologizing. She’s right. This is because of me and no matter what comes of this I will carry that weight with me forever.

31

Amelia

Playlist: "Journey (Ready to Fly)," Natasha Blume

I wake up to a cloying, sterile smell in my nose and an incessant beeping in my ears. It takes several tries to blink my eyes open against the harsh lights overhead, and I want to close them again as soon as my vision swims into focus. I’m in a hospital room, one of my arms held by a sling. My whole body aches and my mouth tastes like I’ve been sucking on pennies. I’m confused, because I thought for sure I was dead. I’m not sure why I feel that way, but I could swear that was the case.

Before I can think too deeply about it, the door flings open, and a woman in scrubs steps into the room. Her hair is a vibrant pink and is pulled back into space buns. Her scrubs are nearly the same shade of pink as her hair, and she’s rocking a pair of sparkly black crocs that have charms I can’t distinguish from this distance.

“Ah, there she is,” she says as she walks farther into the room. “We’ve all been waiting for you to wake up.” The smile she offers me is warm, and I can’t help but return with one of my own. She turns to check one of the machines by my bed, squeezing whatever liquid they’re pumping into me through my IV, and I notice that her hair is French braided up the back of her head all the way up to her space buns. I envy her the ability to rock the fun hairstyle. I can’t even imagine the reaction I’d get if I tried to wear my hair like that to work.

“My name is Gabby,” she says as she turns back to me, “and I’ll be your nurse this morning.” I glance at her nametag, reading ‘Gabriella’ but don’t dare question her allowing me to use a nickname for her as she said it in a very ‘this is not to be questioned’ sort of way. “You’ve been out for a couple of days. Do you remember what happened?”

I shake my head and she sits on the edge of my bed, squeezing my hand. “It’ll slowly come back to you, I’m sure. I think the police will want to speak with you soon.” She crosses her foot nearest to me up onto her opposite knee and my eyes instantly pull towards her croc charms. Is that… ? I squint. Yup, I’m almost certain that’s a peen made out of flowers. Another is a book with How To Kill A Mockingbird written across the cover.

“The police,” I ask, trying to focus on what she said. “Why do the police want to speak to me?”

“Things weren’t very clear for the police when they got to the scene, so they want to clear everything up.”

“The scene?” I question, completely confused now.

“I’m sorry,” she says softly. “I shouldn’t have assumed your memories weren’t fuzzy after everything you went through. You were attacked while leaving your office from what I’ve been told.”

I blink a few times, and the feeling that she’s telling the truth is there, yet the memories themselves are not. How the hell could that have happened and I have no memory of it at all? My face must reflect how much this is messing with my head because she squeezes my hand again in reassurance.

“The timing is different for everyone. Don’t stress about it too much.”

She doesn’t get to finish the sentence before the door opens again, this time flung with such force it smacks back against the wall. Kat barrels into the room, climbing onto the other side of the bed from Gabby and throwing her arms around my neck. I cringe as she squishes my arm between our bodies, but she doesn’t let up and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Oh, I’m so glad you’re awake,” she says between sniffles. “You scared me half to death!”

Gabby releases my hand, standing to give us some space. “I’ll let the doc know you’re awake. I’m sure he’ll be in here within the next half hour or so. I’ll be in and out but your call button is on that remote there if you need anything,” she says, and then leaves the room.

I cling to the back of Kat’s shirt with my uninjured arm, her touch both comforting and unsettling at the same time. She doles out love freely, but I’ve never had her embrace me like this, with so much emotion behind it, and it paints a very detailed picture of how close I was to not being here anymore.

“I’m so glad that you’re finally awake to talk to the police. They’ve been holding Jameson, stupidly thinking he did this to you and he’s threatening to kick the ass of anyone who wastes money on bailing him out,” she says this into my hair like she can’t say it while looking into my eyes. My body goes stiff as I realize he’s been in jail the few days the nurse said I’ve been out. I pull away from her to look into her eyes.

“Why the hell would they think that he did this to me?” I ask, my anger rising quickly at the assumption. I may not clearly remember what happened, but I damn well know that he would never have hurt me like this.

“He found you before the cops did, they walked in on him giving you CPR and made assumptions because Tori had taken off.”

My jaw drops at her words. “Tori?” I ask, and it’s like the memories are a wave that crash over me and it all falls together. “That fucking psycho bitch!” I push at Kat, making her stand from the bed. “Get them in here. Right now! I’m ready to talk and get Jameson the hell out of there.”

Kat smiles widely, squeezing my hand. “You don’t have to tell me twice. I’ll do what I can to get them here as quickly as possible!”

Thankfully they show up within the next hour and I manage to tell them everything that happened in as much detail as possible while Kat sniffles as she listens from her seat in the corner. I even tell them about how Tori was following Jameson around at the business convention and all the situations we thought were her, following that. Afterward, they apologize profusely, trying to reassure me that they were just thinking of my safety when they arrested him.

I want to ask them how fucking stupid they are, assuming someone performing CPR is the same person to try and kill the person they’re performing it on. I’m sure a killer will occasionally feel regret, but I’m willing to bet it’s not to that extent. Instead, I force a smile. “I just want him here with me, please. I don’t exactly feel safe with her free with no one knowing where she is.”

“Of course. We’ll process him out as quickly as possible, and with any luck we’ll have Tori behind bars by the end of the day. Should be a very cut-and-dry case, but I won’t give you false hope that it will process through the court quickly.”

I thank him for his honesty and both officers leave the room. Kat crawls into the hospital bed with me as soon as they’re gone and cuddles against my side, holding me tightly. I welcome the hold, even though it’s a tight fit on this hospital bed. I wasn’t lying when I said that I didn’t feel safe with Tori running around free.

There’s no telling where she is right now, or if she has any intentions of coming after me again, or even Jameson. I don’t for a moment doubt that she’s off her rocker enough to think that what she did was okay, and even get ideas of making another attempt. Jameson is what she wants, and at this point, she thinks that I’m the only thing standing between her and taking that place.

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