He puts the gun away. “Oh, shit.”
His partner requests medical assistance on the radio, and I do the only thing I can—I resume CPR.
Please breathe, Belle. You have to breathe!
Every second that passes is like a knife slicing me open, but I continue compressing her chest and giving her the breaths she desperately needs.
Suddenly Belle coughs up water and curls up to her side, wheezing roughly. Oh thank god.
“Hey, beautiful, I got you. You’re safe.” I pull her into my arms, my hands shaking. She’s going to be okay. She’s coughing and breathing, and doctors can fix everything else. I’ll make sure of it.
One of the cops gestures at Dennis, who’s dragged himself over to the edge of the pool. “Who’s that?” he says at the same time his partner asks, “What should we do with him?”
I open my mouth to answer, but it’s my wife who rasps out, “You can take him straight to hell.”
Chapter Thirty
Annabelle
It takes two days before I feel well enough to get out of bed. It doesn’t help that my period started right as the hospital was running tests to make sure no permanent damage had been done, although the bit of embarrassment and cramping were the least of my problems. The head injury worried my doctor and Elliot, but it didn’t turn out to be anything serious. It just looked bad because of the blood.
Nonny was inconsolable when she learned about the attack. “I should’ve been home on Friday,” she sobbed at the hospital. “Then maybe he wouldn’t have done it.”
I squeezed her hand. “If you’d been here, you would’ve been hurt too. I’m just glad you were away and safe.”
It took some convincing before she calmed down, and I specifically instructed her to go on like nothing had happened. “Otherwise you’re letting Dennis win. You don’t want that, do you?”
Her face set stubbornly. “Hell no!”
I grinned. That’s my sister.
Our bedroom at home—I refused to spend a second more than I had to at the hospital—is full of flowers from my in-laws, except Julian and his wife, and my coworkers from OWM. Gavin, his wife Amandine and Jana all come by on Monday to see me, and I assure them I’m fine and will be back at work soon.
“Make her listen to reason,” Elliot complains. There are dark circles around his eyes, and he hasn’t shaved since Friday. “I’m trying to get her to take a month off, but I might as well be talking to a piece of cookware. Teflon cookware.”
Jana raises an eyebrow.
“A month is ridiculous!” I say. “I’m going to go stir crazy.”
Jana turns to me. “Point taken. But if you don’t take at least two weeks off, you’re fired. I heard you cut your feet. It’s going to hurt to walk.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I answer meekly, and Elliot relaxes…a little, and shoots a look of gratitude her way.
She glances at her watch. “I have to get going. Take care of yourself and don’t come back until you feel not just fine, but great.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I say again to her retreating back. Jana has that effect.
“Traci’s fired,” Gavin says after Jana’s gone. “She’s also under investigation for her role in Dennis’s attack.”
I gape at him. “Traci? No way.” I didn’t catch every detail about what prompted Dennis to attack and who helped him. At first I was too happy to be alive, then the doctors were busy poking and stitching me up…and then I was just too exhausted. But Traci…?
Gavin nods. “Unfortunately, it’s true.”
“She’s the one who helped Dennis get hired, and she’s been keeping tabs on you,” Elliot adds. “Apparently she’s always liked him.”
“But I thought… She had such a huge crush on Gavin.”
Gavin stares at me, dumbfounded. “She did?”