Cristiana
Waking up in the hospital, surrounded by strangers, hadn’t been my preferred wake-up call.
However, when I anxiously asked for Reuben, my nurse was quick to assure me that a man by that name was waiting for me in the waiting area.
Relief had filled me when I heard that. I had no idea how he knew where I was, or how long I’d been here, but I was thankful he was with me.
I insisted on seeing Reuben before they could run their tests.
The most I allowed them to do before getting Reuben was for the doctor to shine his penlight into my eyes, listen to my chest, and palpate various areas of my body.
The touch that made me yell in pain the most was on my left arm.
I vaguely recalled landing on it when I fell from the window.
Once Dr. Lawson was finished, he permitted my nurse, Chad, to bring Reuben to see me.
The sight of him made my inner shakiness subside a little.
I soaked up his essence and the comfort and security his mere presence brought me, while he spoke with my doctor and nurse.
I wasn’t thrilled to be separated from him so quickly after my short explanation, then our swift kiss before I left.
I wanted to know how he knew where I was. However, I knew it had to wait.
As I got my X-ray, which resulted in me screaming in pain, and then the CT scan, which wasn’t any better with how they positioned my left arm, I thought about what Reuben said about Fisher—the part about telling the police that a stranger entered my apartment.
I wasn’t supposed to tell them a name or anything.
Reuben’s expression and the tone of his voice when he said Fisher would be dealt with in a way that would keep me safe permanently clearly implied what he meant.
Reuben wasn’t a man to tolerate someone he cared about being hurt or terrorized.
When he found out the details of what Fisher had done to me back home and what Fisher had done to me today, there would be no saving my stalker.
Reuben was undoubtedly a dangerous man on his own.
Add to it his friendship with Mikhail and Mikhail’s familial connection to the Bratva, and I knew what he meant to do.
Was I able to live with him and others, more than likely ending Fisher’s life?
Before this past year, I would’ve said absolutely not.
I believed that our legal system would take care of people like Fisher.
However, I recently found that I was wrong.
I’d gone to the police in Memphis more than a couple of times about Fisher.
I reported that he was stalking me. They responded that even if I could prove he was, the most I could do was ask a judge to issue an order of protection, also known as a restraining order.
The officers then told me that a restraining order was just a piece of paper.
For the truly determined, it wouldn’t do a thing to protect me.
And the police couldn’t arrest him unless he trespassed or harmed me in some way, and I had proof.
I’d lived in fear for months before making the move to Nashville.
I refused to tell my family about Fisher.
It wasn’t so much that my secret life would be revealed as it was their response.
Without a doubt, I knew they’d go after him.
I didn’t want any of my family to be harmed or end up in jail because of me.
The solution I came up with was moving. It was an idea I’d toyed with for a few years.
I timed it so I could do it when I knew Fisher wouldn’t be lurking around my home.
The fact that I’d been here for so long attests to the success of my plan.
But how had he found me after this long?
Regardless of how he found me, the way Fisher looked at me and the sound of his voice today told me that he was further along in his obsession or madness than ever. There was no telling what he would do to me or anyone trying to keep us apart. Rape and beatings were the least of my worries.
Knowing this and how law enforcement left me on my own, plus the news articles I’d read over the last year about cases of stalkers never being locked away or getting off with a hand slap or after a few months in jail, only to rape or kill the objects of their obsession, had made me see the other side.
Would I be able to permit Reuben and others to kill Fisher? The answer was yes.
It was these thoughts that helped to occupy my mind throughout my tests.
When I was rolled back into my room, I sagged in relief to see Reuben was still there.
Although I had no idea why, I had doubted he would be.
Nothing short of a horrific emergency would have him leaving me.
As soon as Chad parked my bed, he left us alone.
Reuben came to my bedside. He lowered the bedrail on my right side and sat on the edge of the mattress.
“Nina, how are you feeling? Is your pain terrible? You look pale,” he murmured.
“I feel like I went ten rounds with a champion boxer and he or she landed every hit. My whole body aches and throbs, but my left arm shrieks at me,” I confessed.
“Then they need to give you more pain medicine. Let me call Chad’s ass back here,” he muttered.
I shook my head and grabbed his hand as he raised it to push the call light. “No, don’t do that. It’s too early for more. Have the cops been here?”
“Are you sure?” Reuben asked.
“I’m sure. Talk to me.” If he occupied my mind, maybe I’d be able to ignore the pain.
“No one has said that any cops are here to speak to us. Remember what I said when they do come.”
“I remember and I will. Reuben, how did you get here?”
“What do you mean?”
“How did you know I was hurt and taken to this hospital?”
“Because I arrived right after you fell out of the damn window. I saw people running to the side of the building, so I went to see what was going on. You have no idea how scared I was when I saw you lying unmoving on the ground. I tried to wake you up, but you were out. I was afraid to touch or move you, in case it would harm you more. One of the men in your building called 911 for me. They heard shouting and your scream. That’s why they were out there.
One of the women told me that when she came to see what was going on, a man ran by her. ”
“Did she say what he looked like?” I asked.
“Not to me, but when I left, the cops were questioning those three bystanders and were planning to inspect your apartment. Christ, you could’ve been killed falling from that high.”
“I know, but I had no choice. He broke in one door and was pounding on the other. It was only a matter of moments before he would break through it. I had no idea if you were even coming yet, and there was no guarantee that any neighbors were home or would hear me. I would rather be dead than allow him to do what he had planned.”
Reuben’s face was dark with suppressed emotion. Through gritted teeth, he asked, “What did he threaten to do to you?”
“It wasn’t what he said. It was the way he looked at me and the tone of his voice.
He believed I had been playing a game with him all this time.
He said he was over it and that he was taking me back home, where I belonged.
I saw in his eyes that he was going to rape me, and since I would fight him, he would beat me.
I don’t think it would’ve stopped there.
Eventually, I’d force him to snap, and I’d be dead.
The question was how much abuse and torture I would have to endure first. Dying by my hand was better than that fate. ”
The snarl that came out of Reuben made me jump. I wasn’t afraid for myself. But I saw that feral beast he could be. His teeth were bared. Wanting to calm him and comfort me, I reached my good hand up and grabbed the back of his neck. A tug had him bending, allowing me to bring his mouth to mine.
I teased his mouth open with my tongue so I could slip mine inside. I was hungry to taste and feel him. Our kiss was passionate and grew stronger. His hands cupped my face, so Reuben was able to tilt my head whichever way he preferred. Despite how badly I felt, desire coursed through my body.
I had no idea how long we kissed or would’ve before we were interrupted by his phone buzzing to tell him that he had a call. The buzz reminded me that Reuben had to work tonight. I eased back, releasing our mouths.
“Give me a second,” he murmured as he took out his phone.
I relaxed as much as possible as he answered.
“Hey, is everything alright?” he asked, then paused to listen before saying more.
“Thanks, man. But they didn’t have to come.”
Another pause.
“Okay, I’ll shut up and accept it. We’re waiting for them to receive all the results from her various tests and inform us of what they show.
Her left arm is the worst. Not sure if it’s broken.
The rest of her is bruised and aching, plus she has scrapes.
She fell at least eight feet onto fucking rocks. ”
There was a longer pause before Reuben continued.
“I do know, and we’ll be talking about it soon, but not here. That conversation will require outside assistance, I believe—maybe the family and friends’ kind.”
The growl in his voice made me shiver inside. I wouldn’t want to be the one on the receiving end of his anger. Reuben listened a bit longer before he ended the call. When he disconnected, I asked the first question that had been burning in my mind.
“What time is it? You have to work tonight. You should be going.”
He gave me an incredulous look as he leaned closer.