And Gregorio knew her well enough to know she was going to be one seriously angry Lia when she regained consciousness.
* * *
The voices were fading in and out of Lia’s consciousness, and the pain in her arm was making it impossible for her to make any sense of what was being said.
But she did recognise the three voices speaking. Cathy. Rick. And Gregorio.
Memory came rushing back to her.
David waiting for her outside her apartment... His threats...
Gregorio’s unexpected and physically violent arrival...
The snapping sound in her arm as David had pushed her away from him.
The pain.
Blackness.
And then the pain again, when she’d woken up in what she presumed was the A&E department at the local hospital, having her arm X-rayed. Despite the painkillers she had been given, she had passed out again when they’d reset the broken bone.
And throughout all that Gregorio had been at her side. Not speaking. Just there. His face had been set in grimly austere lines. The only words he’d spoken had been to the doctor as the other man had reset her arm. Before she’d blacked out again.
She had no idea when Cathy and Rick had arrived, but she realised Gregorio must have called them. There was no other way they could have known she was at the hospital.
Talking of which...
She opened her eyes to look at the three people sitting beside the gurney she was lying on, obviously all waiting for her to wake up. She seemed to be in some sort of curtained-off area—probably still in A&E. The cast felt like a heavy weight on her left arm.
‘At last the lady awakens.’ Cathy beamed her pleasure.
‘Thank goodness.’ Rick heaved a sigh of relief. ‘You had us worried for a while there, Lia.’
Only Gregorio remained silent, and a quick glance in his direction showed her that his expression was as grim as it had been earlier, his eyes a glittering black.
Lia turned away to moisten her lips before speaking. ‘Can I go home now?’
‘Of course.’
&nb
sp; ‘Yes.’
‘No!’
She winced as all three of them answered her at once. ‘Conflicting answers there, guys.’
‘You can go home...’ Cathy shot Gregorio a puzzled glance—his had been the negative answer.
‘But you aren’t going to.’ He spoke up firmly. ‘Not to your own apartment, anyway.’ He stood up restlessly and began to pace the confined area behind the curtains. ‘I have arranged for the lock to be repaired, but Richardson is still out there somewhere,’ he added grimly.
A nerve pulsed in Lia cheek before she spoke quietly. ‘He was threatening to kill me and make it look like suicide before you arrived,’ she told Gregorio.
‘God, no...’ Cathy gasped.
‘Bastard!’ Rick muttered furiously.
Lia moistened the dryness of her lips. ‘I don’t think he would have done it—Okay, maybe he would,’ she conceded heavily when Cathy gave a sceptical snort.