Page 28 of Fracture

Her dream.

There was a man. A man who beat her. He wanted information from her. But she played him.

Lorelei closed her eyes and tried to remember what he told her. It was there. Stuck in her mind. In her dream, she knew it. She knew all of it.

But awake, outside her dream, she still didn’t know anything.

Lorelei got out of bed and nearly fell on her face. “Crutches.” Tears sprang to her eyes. He stomped on her ankle to make sure she didn’t get help. But help came anyway. Vinnie found her.

But he wasn’t there now. He held her every night and kept the nightmares away. He protected her, kept her safe, made sure nothing hurt her, even her own broken mind.

But she was alone. Vinnie was only there when she didn’t know she needed him so much. Since he told her about the panic attacks, he hadn’t helped. He pulled back. He left her alone.

She hobbled to the bathroom and propped the crutches against the wall. She used the handicap rails to lower herself to the toilet and emptied her bladder, then pulled herself up and replaced her clothes. She hobbled to the sink and washed her hands, then went back to her bed.

She didn’t want to know what happened. She didn’t want to remember. She knew there was more, but it was too painful. Too hard. She wasn’t strong enough to face it.

Lorelei sat up in bed and stared at the walls. Going back to sleep would risk having another dream. Remembering more about what happened to her. She shook her head and pulled her good leg to her chest. She wrapped both arms around her knee and watched the door.

She wasn’t going to be caught off guard again. She couldn’t. She had to be strong and protect herself. Especially if Vinnie was done protecting her. She was on her own.

7

Vinnie woke up instantly. The sound of Lorelei crying out was already a part of him. A piece he both knew without thought and hated with every fiber of his soul. He ached to go to her, to hold her and soothe her and help her sleep once more.

But he couldn’t.

He promised himself he wouldn’t touch her again without her permission. She knew about the nightmares and panic attacks. He didn’t tell her the way he wanted to, but he told her. And she didn’t ask him to continue. So he wouldn’t.

But it still killed him to lie on the too small couch and listen to her fight the terror in her mind. A whimper and a gasp, a muffled cry.

He sat up and ran his hands through his short hair, tugging at the ends. He wanted to block the noise, but he couldn’t. He deserved to hear her suffer. She wasn’t alone, even if she didn’t know it.

Movement in the bedroom told him she was awake. A steady thump confirmed her crutches. The toilet flushed, water ran, then the thump led Lorelei back to her bed.

Vinnie didn’t move. He hated himself for sitting still as much as he hated himself for touching her in the first place. She deserved to be treated with respect and in a way she was comfortable with. He crossed that line.

When the noise in her room stopped, Vinnie forced himself to lie down again. He stared at the ceiling of the suite and wondered how he was going to survive weeks of Lorelei Sloane in his tiny apartment. He didn’t think through that part when he offered to let her stay. He lived in a one-bedroom apartment with one bed and one bathroom. It was tiny, almost too small for him alone sometimes. And he was going to be sharing it with a woman who drove him out of his mind crazy without even trying. A woman who tempted him with her every move.

A woman he had to resist, no matter what.

Lorelei Sloane was someone who mattered. She was going to stop the hell that ruled Niagara Falls. She was smart and strong and not looking to get tied down to a man who had nothing to offer her.

Vinnie needed to remember that. Her cousin was involved with a private investigator who could afford a suite without a second thought. Lorelei’s friends were cops and firefighters and not hurting for money. Karli casually mentioned Dawn Patterson had flown them out to Boston on her private plane.

Vinnie wasn’t at their level. He never would be. He was there to do his job, then leave her to do hers.

That was it.

A door opened at the front of the suite, and Vinnie sat up. He’d stripped off his shirt overnight, but he reached for it and tugged it over his head as the thud of crutches drew closer.

“Oh, sorry. I didn’t realize you were out here. Did I wake you up?” Lorelei asked.

Vinnie shook his head. “You’re good. How are you feeling? Can I get you anything?”

She kept going, making her way to the chair on the other side of the couch, closer to the balcony. She looked wistfully at the balcony, then sat. “I’m good. I just needed to get out of bed.”

“Did you… Um…”