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He dialed Komal’s number, explained the situation when the woman answered, was grateful when she said she’d leave now. He had the presence of mind to offer to send a cab for her, but was told she would drive her own vehicle because she could get to him faster.
He went back to Marguerite. When he relieved Sarah of her duty, he lay down on the bed, curled around Marguerite’s cold body and put his arm over her, twining his fingers in her hands, clasped up against her chest. He rested his head just above hers, felt the signs of life and closed his eyes. I don’t deserve her, but she deserves to know there’s more to life than this. Please bring her back to me and I’ll never take her for granted. I’ll make every day about loving her, pleasing her, being with her… The ache was unbearable and he had to cut the prayer short. He pressed his lips to her ear. “Come back to your Master.
He’s going to fall apart without you in his life. Don’t leave me, angel. ” He tucked himself more closely around her, tried to give her his heat and everything she needed to crave life, hunger for it again. Though he despairingly wondered if it would not be “again”, but for the very first time, if he succeeded at all.
Sarah’s hand on his shoulder told him when Komal had arrived. Rising, he kissed Marguerite’s temple and straightened his clothing. His hand lingered on her still hip.
She didn’t move and he had to force himself to turn away, to slide out the door where the quiet woman waited in the hall.
“I don’t know what to do for her. I don’t know what’s best. Please help us. Help her. ”
Komal listened as he answered her questions, then she nodded. “Why don’t you go eat the meal Sarah has laid out for you and I’ll join you in a while? I’ll send Sarah out. I need some time to observe her, check some things, focus on what’s happening. ” He couldn’t quite make it down the stairs. He paced, ended up at last sitting on the landing, his feet through the slats, head against the rail, half dozing. Listening to Komal’s murmuring voice, he strained to hear a response from Marguerite.
Sarah brought him out of his concentration with a touch on his elbow. She sat the tray containing a sandwich, iced tea and an attractive bowl of fruit salad next to him. It all looked fresh like summertime and it hurt him to look at it. It made him imagine walking down his back steps in the morning to see Marguerite in summer white cotton, her head bent in concentration over a book, considering her tea samples. He wanted her to move in with him. He wasn’t so far from her business at his Tampa home and he could renovate it, make it more like the Gulf home if she liked it better. He’d hire security to keep an eye on her park twenty-four hours a day. He simply could not countenance being without her, not having her body next to him while she slept. She’d never wake alone from nightmares, never have to go to sleep worried or without someone to talk about those worries with. He was moving far too fast, he knew. He was scaring her with how quickly he was moving into her life. But she’d kept the ring. She had. No matter what else had happened, she’d kept it.
He put his hand into his pocket, felt the smooth touch of it there. The bastard had taken it off her finger, died with it clutched in his filthy hands. Mac had retrieved it for him. He’d have it cleaned, the prongs retightened, make sure it was perfect before he put it on her finger again. He pulled it out, stared at it.
“You should put it back on her. ”
“He’s touched it. ”
“So have you. ” Sarah put the sandwich in his other hand. “Eat. ” She held up her ring hand. “It becomes a part of you and you feel its absence. Keenly. She’ll feel better with it on. ”
Tyler swallowed a bite that he was sure was as delicious as anything Sarah made, but it had no taste. “I can’t right now. He broke her fingers. The knuckle’s all swollen. ” She lifted her arms, unlatched the silver chain of the cross she always wore, held out her hand. Bemused, he put the ring in it and she strung it on the chain. Leaving the cross on the chain with it, she folded the necklace back in his hand. “Put that on her.
She’ll know it’s there. It will make a difference. ”
“I don’t know what religion she is. She’s never said and getting information out of her is like pulling teeth. Contrary woman. ”
Sarah smiled. “It doesn’t matter. The cross is a reminder of faith. We all have faith in something. Otherwise, we wouldn’t go on living. ” She rose, ruffled his hair and went back down the stairs.
He held the necklace in his hand, closed his fingers on it as if it were her. With gentle possession, fierce need. All-consuming love. He was a man who’d lived enough years to know what love was and what it wasn’t. He’d loved his wife. He loved the woman behind the door and would do all he could to keep her well and safe, if only she’d trust in him to do so and come from the place deep inside her where she now hid.
Well, whether the damsel was by his side or inside a fortress with him outside, she was still his to defend and he couldn’t let her down.
He made himself finish the meal, rose and splashed water on his face in the hall bathroom, got himself a clean shirt and was shrugging into it when Komal emerged.
“Let’s go downstairs and talk. ” She gestured to the open sitting room, which was clearly visible from the bedroom door.
He nodded. “Let me call Sarah to sit with her. ”
“I was going to suggest the same. ”
When they faced each other in the sitting room, Komal began without preamble, apparently recognizing from his expression he had no patience for any other approach.
“Everything looks fine. Normal. Remarkable, considering the physical feat she pulled off. Her body temperature is somewhat low. ”
“She’s always cold. Her skin’s always cold. ”
Komal put out her hand, her dark eyes warm with understanding. “I’m not a doctor but my gut and experience say she’s had a complete breakdown. She’s drained, so tired there’s nothing there. Exhaustion. Sheer and simple. She’s out there floating in the wreckage, the post-flood. I think she just needs time for the water to wash out and to feel the people who love her around her. You need to keep a close eye on her right now.
Very close. ”
He understood from the emphasis, the sudden sharpening of her eyes, what she meant. He’d known it, suspected it, but it was difficult to hear from someone who was trained to see it.
“But he’s gone. She faced him, annihilated him. ”
“The man who haunted her life is gone, but the evil that chose to manifest itself in the body of her father is not gone. It never is. Off to find another willing host, innocent prey. Will she ever annihilate the feeling of his hatred, his betrayal? His hands on her?
