Chapter 10 #2
Increasing my pace once again, I heft my black leather bag a little closer to my side in an attempt to steal my nerves.
I sense more than hear the man moving behind me, getting closer.
The night grows still, and it's then I hear his quickened footsteps, alternating with my own high-heeled boot steps.
The loud clang of a metal trash can lid sounds from a street somewhere close by and causes me to jump. I keep moving forward, however, silently sending a prayer up into the heavy rainclouds above.
Through the hammering of my heart, I hear quickening footsteps close in right behind me. Panic clenches in my gut. I inadvertently move toward the alleyway. It’s a dead end. I fight the urge to scream or break into a run.
Too late now to course correct. I slow, swiping up my maps app to dial 911.
But my hair is seized and my whole body yanked backwards.
Rough hands wrap around my throat, dragging me deeper into the alley.
I am thrown up against the cold brick wall.
The wind is knocked out of me. Desperately, I rasp for a breath, and hunch over.
Gulping in a lungful of the cold night air, I look into my attacker’s face.
Josh’s cold eyes stare back at me from underneath his dark hood.
“Dr. Pearson,” he growls out, “not so professional now… are you?” He pushes his palm up hard against my throat.
My eyes bulge. I want to call out for help, but I can’t. I choke and splutter, Josh’s fingers tightening around my neck.
Is this really happening right now?
With a savage jerk, he rips the bag off my shoulder. Then grabs at the belt of my black trench coat ripping it downward. My coat falls open and I finally manage to scream. Josh holds me in place by the throat, shoving his body against mine, his knee wrenching my thighs apart.
Reacting on instinct alone, the heel of my right hand slams into his nose. Josh’s head whips to the side. His grip loosens by a fraction. The look he gives me, slowly turning his head back, roots me to the spot.
“Big mistake, you fucking bitch,” he grinds out.
And then he lunges for me.
____________________
ZAYN
She still doesn’t remember that I exist. Not really. And it’s better this way. Safer… for her. Because I know exactly what I am. What I have become. Someone has to watch over her. And I had made a promise, after all.
Kat’s slender form leaves the bar and I notice her wobble slightly on the sidewalk.
Jesus, is she drunk? I immediately leave my post leaning up against the streetlamp and follow her as she makes her way down the street.
After a minute or two, a slender guy in a hoodie emerges from a hidden corner and falls in step behind Katherine.
I pause as I watch him, watch her. He matches her pace a hundred yards back.
Close enough to absolutely be following her.
Not close enough to send her into a panic.
Not yet, anyway. This guy knows what he’s doing. He’s done this before.
The fuck? What is this, some kind of stalker inception?
I shake my head, quickening my pace. Whatever this fucker thinks is about to happen—he’s wrong.
They both suddenly pick up pace, and I momentarily lose sight of the man’s back as he rounds a corner. I break into a run and rounding the same corner, look left and right. Peering through the night, I see the man closing in on Kat down a grimy dark alleyway.
Fuck.
Her high-pitched scream wrenches out into the night, and bile surges up the back of my throat. I’m going to be too late.
I break into a full-on sprint now, just feet away from the mouth of the alley.
Rounding the corner at breakneck speed, I see a man pressed over Kat’s body, pinning her up against the filthy brick wall.
I hear her whimper echo down the narrow way, and my heart gives a painful throb. In mere steps, I’m upon them.
My hands seize the scruff of the man’s neck and I yank him back, hard. I cock my fist and slam it into his jaw. His body flies into the opposite wall, doubling over in pain.
Rage surges through me. I advance and strike him again across the mouth. A gush of hot crimson spurts across his face. The man’s head snaps to the side, and he spits a tooth out onto the ground, groaning. Recoiling again, this time I split open his lip and cheek.
I hear a shaky gasp from behind me, and I turn, just in time to see Kat faltering against the wall.
She’s about to pass out, I think.
I abandon my prey to rush to her just as she falls into my arms. I constrict around her like two steel bands, and at the last second, I move my hand to the back of her head to stop her skull from hitting the wet concrete.
“I’ve got you, Doc,” I murmur, watching her hands shake.
Looking down, I spot her trench coat ripped open, and the top button of her black slacks are undone. The zipper of her pants is partially down, and I catch a glimpse of smooth, black satin underneath. Fuck.
Quick footsteps sound on the pavement behind us. Whipping my head around, I see the motherfucker hunched over, and hauling ass down the long alleyway. I continue to hold Kat as his figure rounds the corner, and then he’s gone.
You can run… I think, savagely.
The heavy rain pelts down now, and in my periphery, I spot a small pool of dark blood on the ground from where I struck him. A shining white tooth floats in the middle of it.
Turning back to Kat, I brush her hair from her face and peer down at her. She stares up at me for a long moment, a look of incredulity in her eyes. Rain soaks her beautiful face, wetting her raven hair as she blinks up at me through her glasses.
Then, she breathes out one simple word. “You.”
Me, I think.
“Are you okay, Katherine?” I ask.
Her eyes close momentarily, then her dark lashes flutter open. She nods her head, yes.
Relief floods through me. And I realize that this is the first time I feel her name in my mouth, spoken aloud. Katherine. Katherine. I revel in it. I eat it up in all of its dark deliciousness.
Katherine.
Then, another even more delicious word crosses unbidden into my head: Mine.
And as for that fucking patient of hers… Josh?
Well, he was a dead man walking.