Limitless Love (Lotus House #4)(4)

I’m so sorry, baby. Sorry to leave you.

“I’m already there,” he mocked as he sliced the knife along my neck.

Pain shot through my system like a lightning bolt.

“Hey! You! Get the fuck off her!” I heard a voice yell out like an angel’s call.

The knife left my throat and Kyle’s weight floated off my back. My head felt so heavy I couldn’t hold it up. I rested it on the concrete beneath me. Fire rippled along my back and down my neck.

Two strong arms lifted me up and turned me over. “Dr. Holland. Dr. Holland. Help is on the way.” I vaguely recognized that voice.

I opened my eyes as much as I could and saw Dave, my client. “Call Mila…” I said on a whisper. “Call Mila.”

“Okay, okay. Just stay with me. The paramedics are going to be here soon. Jesus, there’s a lot of blood. Where is it all coming from?” His voice shook, and I closed my eyes. “No, no, no. They say on TV to keep the person awake. Dr. Holland. Stay awake. Dr. Holland.” He patted the side of my face. “Please, don’t die.”

I blinked a few times and gripped his wrist as best I could. “Call Mila.”

“I will. I promise,” he spoke fast and loud.

“Has my daughter,” I whispered.

He nodded. “Okay, yes.”

Just then his head snapped up, and for a moment, I worried Kyle was back to finish me off.

“Thank fuck. The cops and ambulance are here. They’re here,” he said with unrestricted enthusiasm.

He lifted one of his arms and waved it above his head, jarring my side painfully. “Over here!” he screamed.

The paramedics got to me, and at some point I was shifted onto my side, and I felt hands working on my back.

“Oh my God. What did that fucker do to her?” Dave said from somewhere behind me.

“Ma’am. Where else are you hurt?” an unfamiliar voice asked.

“Back and neck. Knife,” I mumbled before everything went black.



* * *



“Wildcat, you can’t stay here all night,” I heard Atlas murmur as if I was in a dream.

“Oh, yes, I can. You take Lily home. Put her in bed with you so she’s not scared. I’m not leaving until Moe wakes up.” Mila’s voice was stern and direct.

I blinked a few times but couldn’t open my eyes fully. A groan slipped from my throat as the pain in my back ricocheted down every nerve ending.

“Moe.” I felt Mila’s small hand run along my bicep. “Moe, wake up.”

Again with the blinking. Darn, my lids felt like they had two-ton weights on them. Once I got them open, I looked into the worried chocolate-brown eyes of my best friend.

“So tired,” I mumbled.

Mila grabbed a cup of water with a straw and held it to my lips.

I sipped until the dryness in my throat cleared. Absolute heaven. “Thank you.”

Mila placed her hand on the side of my head and caressed my temple and hair soothingly. “You gave us quite a scare, Moe. What happened? All we know is that someone attacked you in the garage at your work.” A tear slipped down her face. Atlas put his hand on her shoulder.

“It was Kyle,” I croaked.

Mila’s lips went white and flat. “Kyle?” she sneered.

I coughed. Sparks of pain slashed down my back as I adjusted to a more comfortable spot on my side. “Yeah, he had a mask on, but I could tell by his voice.”

She shook her head. “Why? I uh…”

“He said something about wanting me dead for the money.”

“Money? He tried to kill you for money?”

I swallowed, and the severity of what happened finally hit me. My entire body started to tremble, and tears fell down my cheeks like waterfalls.

“What did I ever do to him?” I focused on my best friend.

Mila put her face close to mine. “Nothing. You did absolutely nothing but give him everything a wife could ever give. He’s a bastard and a lunatic, and now a criminal. Moe, he hurt you so bad.”

“How bad?” I flinched and felt aches all over, realizing I’d been here sedated a while. I knew he’d cut me pretty bad, but I’d survived. I would live another day, and right then that was all that mattered.

“Don’t worry about that now. You’re fine. They were actually able to stop the bleeding pretty quickly. You were only in the OR for a little over two hours.” She stroked my cheek with her thumb and wiped away the tears as they fell. I couldn’t control them.

“Tell me everything now, Mila. Please.”

Mila let out a long breath.

“The doctor will go over it with you when he comes back. You had to have some internal stitches that will dissolve naturally, but, um, you have eighty or so in your back and another twelve in the wound on your neck. He didn’t hit any organs, but the slice up your back is pretty gnarly. If that client of yours hadn’t come upon you…” She choked on a sob. “Moe, you’re the only family I have besides Atlas. I can’t lose you.”

Mila pressed her forehead against mine, and together we cried. The evening’s events started coming to me in flashes of memory.

Kyle in a mask approaching me.

The light hitting the knife and reflecting off its shiny surface.