Stay with it. Don’t lose it now.
He turned her over. The world came back into focus. His face flushed with rage. Behind him…the pot handle hanging over the edge of the stove.
“All right,” she managed in a muffled voice. “Just don’t hurt me.”
“Like I think you’re going to play nice now.” He yanked her to her feet.
The ropes were just loose enough so she could turn and grab the pot handle. She flicked her wrist and sent hot, melted chocolate spewing across his face. Boiling water from the pot beneath it scalded his arms. He screamed and wiped at his eyes.
She turned her body to pull open the oven door. He blindly reached for her. She ran. He stumbled over the door and fell onto it, and his garbled scream was even louder this time. With the gag she couldn’t yell loud enough to alert the neighbors, but he was making plenty of noise.
She ran to the front door and turned her body around to fumble with the lock. Facing the kitchen, she saw him writhing in pain. He rubbed the backs of his hands over his eyes to clear away the chocolate. His arms and palms were red and blistered. He looked at her with a kind of hatred she had never seen before. “I’m going to kill you, bitch!” He came at her.
She turned the dead bolt and twisted the doorknob. Pulled the door open. And screamed at the sight of a bloody man reaching for her.
“Adrian!”
A gash on his head was bleeding down into his eyes and over his face. He was weaving back and forth. “Are you all right?”
One of the neighbors opened her door, then a second door opened. An older woman gasped.
Adrian grabbed her and pulled her to the right. She turned to see Dale, blistered and covered in chocolate, grabbing for her.
The neighbor woman said, “See, Frank, I told you this neighborhood was going down the tubes.”
“Hold it!”
Two police officers ran up the stairs, guns pointed. One of them took in the scene, and said, “What the hell?”
She pointed to Dale. “He’s Kiss and Kill Cupid! He tried to kill me.”
Though both cops pointed their guns at him, the expressions on their faces were confused and wary.
“I’m Adrian Kruger. I called you.”
“You’re under arrest,” one officer said. When he reached over to cuff Dale, he screamed in pain.
“She’s the one who tried to kill me!”
The officer cuffed him anyway, careful of the burns. “We’ll get it all sorted out at the station.”
The other officer radioed a coded message to someone, then looked at Adrian. “The medics are coming in now.” He looked at her. “Are you all right, ma’am?”
She nodded but was more worried about Adrian. His heart was pounding fast. Too fast. She pulled away to look at him. His face was the color of white chocolate.
He touched her mouth, her cheeks, wonder on his face. “You’re all right. You’re alive.”
She nodded, her eyes tearing up. “So are you.” But she wasn’t so sure of that, not yet.
The medics came running up the stairs. Adrian said, “Check her first.”
“No, I’m fine. He needs attention now.”
One checked his pulse and blood pressure, and the other checked the gash on his head. “We’d better take you in.”
“I’m fine—”
She squeezed his arm. “Go. I’ll take the car and meet you there.”
That he didn’t argue spoke volumes about his condition. The two medics helped him down the stairs.
One of them turned to her once Adrian was inside the ambulance. “You have a head injury, too.”
She touched her forehead and winced in pain. “Just a knot.”
“We’ll take her to the hospital,” one of the officers said. “Another unit is on the way.”
She watched the ambulance take Adrian away, her heart both heavy and light. He was alive. But she so wanted to be with him.
Another police car arrived, and the female officer introduced herself and escorted Kristy to the car. She felt light-headed, either from her forehead whack or the adrenaline draining out of her body. By the time she reached the hospital, she was chilled and trembling.
There would be questions. The officer had said something about each of them being interviewed separately. She and Adrian would have to tell the police everything, including his visions and her ability to hear people’s thoughts. It would all have to come out. But if Adrian was all right, she could handle everything else.
Epilogue
Kristy snuggled with Adrian on his leather couch. Since he’d been released from the hospital the day before, she’d been taking care of him.
“I could get used to this,” she said.
“What, living here?”