Page 36 of The Doctor's Promise
Noemi winced, and he regretted his words.
“Oh, wow,” she said, her voice breaking, “that is so unfair.”
“I’m sorry, That came out wrong. But you did want us on the down low.”
“Because of this! First, I kill your fiancée, then I snag a billion-dollar donation for the hospital, and now I’m fucking you and carrying your child! How would that look to you?”
Rafa clenched his fists together and counted to ten. She was so screwed up. “Firstly, you did not kill Thomasina. I don’t know how many times you need to be told that. Secondly, the donation was all about me trying to make sense of Thomasina’s death and to show everyone that I, we, Bepi and me, we believed in you. Believe in you. Then we fell in love. To anyone else, that would seem a fairy tale, but to you…”
“Don’t patronize me!” Noemi snapped, suddenly. “I’m not a child.”
Rafa went very still. “Then stop behaving like one.” He turned around and walked into the bedroom, grabbing his jeans and putting them on. He stalked out to the deck.
This couldn’t go on. If Noemi couldn’t get over her guilt about Thomasina, her perceived paranoia about what people would think of their relationship… how did they stand a chance?
He could hear the shower running from inside the cabin, running far too long. He guessed she was crying but maybe that’s what she needed to do. She had lost so much, and Christ, the girl was only thirty years old. A baby. What she’d gone through…
He sat outside for an hour, trying to unravel his own thoughts. He heard the shower shut off and risked a quick glance through the large glass doors, but Noemi didn’t appear in the living room. She needed some space. Good. Maybe they both did for a few minutes.
When the cool breeze from the lake made him shiver, he went inside. Noemi, in a white fluffy robe, her long dark hair damp from the shower. He went to her and took her face in his hands. Her eyes were red-rimmed and her cheeks puffy from crying. He kissed her gently, then nuzzled her nose with his. “I’m sorry I yelled.”
Tears filled her eyes again, and she dashed them away impatiently. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” she said, her voice gravelly, “I can’t think straight.”
Rafa wrapped his arms around her, but she didn’t cry again. “Maybe it would help to talk to someone?”
He felt her nod. “Good. Then when we get back to Seattle, we’ll arrange it.”
“Okay.”
He cupped her face with his hand. “Are you tired?”
She nodded, looking exhausted. “Come on, let’s go to bed.”
Rafa found himself falling asleep almost as soon as Noemi did, exhausted by everything that had happened. He fell into a deep, dreamless sleep, only to wake with a start in the deep blue moonlight as Noemi shook his awake.
Her eyes were huge and frightened as she put her finger to her lips. Rafa sat up, confused, and she leaned in to whisper in his ear.
“There’s someone in the house.”
17
Chapter Seventeen
Noemi felt cold spikes of fear stabbing her body as Rafa told her to wait in the bedroom while he checked out the house. She had been awake, needing the bathroom, and when she was padding back to the bedroom, a shadow had passed the end of the hallway that led downstairs, and she almost shrieked with fright.
Instead she had clamped her hands over her mouth and listened. Had she imagined it? She reasoned it could have been something flying past one of the windows, causing a shadow from the bright moonlight, but then she heard a low voice, some barely audible cursing, and something shifting.
Now as she waited, she wished she had just yelled and scared the intruder off, instead of Rafa confronting who knows what. She stood at the door listening, her heart yammering away in her chest. She sneaked into the hallway, trying to see if he needed help—and a hand was clamped over her mouth.
Instantly her survival instinct kicked in, and she struggled with her captor, stomping on his instep. He released her with a roar, and Noemi screamed for Rafael.
“Noemi!” She heard his voice from downstairs followed by another sound as if he were being body slammed.
Noemi ran towards the stairs, but her attacker grabbed her again and threw her hard, down the shallow staircase. Noemi tumbled down, almost too shocked to feel the pain as her body crashed down the wooden stairwell.
She could hear sounds of fighting as she came to a stop, winded, but she didn’t feel as if any limbs were broken. She heard her attacker walking down the stairs behind her, chuckling, and she tried to drag herself out of the stairway.
“Where are you going, pretty little thing? We ain’t nearly done yet.”
