Jack and Djinn (The Houri Legends, #1)(27)
Ben stared at her, shaking his head as if in denial. Whether he was denying what he’d done, or what he’d just seen, she wasn’t sure. Both, maybe. She stood up and lurched toward him, glimpsing herself in the window of his car. She was unrecognizable, her face pummeled into a bloody pulp.
Ben threw himself into his car and tore out of the parking lot, sideswiping several other cars in the process. Miriam took another step forward toward the street, watching his taillights weaving through traffic. The sea of pain, momentarily pushed away by the ignition of flames, washed back through her, and she collapsed. She saw headlights sweep over her, heard voices speaking far away. Feet crunched in the gravel, and hands lifted her. The motion sent a lance of agony through her, and darkness devoured her.
*
She woke up to the smell of antiseptic. She felt an IV in her arm, and there were bandages on her face and wrapped around her skull. Hospital. Shit. Miriam hated hospitals. She had no health insurance, so this would ruin her financially. She moaned and tried to sit up. The attempt sent knives of pain throughout her body, and she slumped back to the bed.
“Don’t try to move,” a familiar and welcome voice said. Jack. She felt relief course through her at the sound of his voice.
She pried her eyes open, saw his face next to hers, worry etched on his features. “Is it really you?”
“Of course it’s me,” he said. He brushed her arm with his fingers, a touch gentle as a breath of wind.
“How are you here?”
“I went back to your apartment—I had a bad feeling. You weren’t there, so I talked to Larry. He said you’d been in an ‘accident.’” Jack made air quotes on the last word, rage in his eyes. “Apparently you have him listed as one of your emergency contacts, so the hospital called him when you were brought here.
“Jack, it’s okay—”
“The hell it is! It’s not okay! He nearly killed you, Miriam. What’s it going to take?”
“I was trying to break up with him, and this is what happened.”
“You did? You broke up with him?” Jack was holding her hand, fingers twined in hers, an intimate gesture that she found deeply comforting.
“I told him were done. He got pissed off, and then I got mad at him, and then he just…snapped.”
Jack didn’t seem to know how to respond. He let out a long breath, and then Miriam felt a finger brush away a tear. His lips touched hers, almost too gently to feel. She hesitated, confused, feeling the walls wavering, wanting to believe what she felt but unable to. His hand curled around the back of her neck, just below the bandage, pulling her to him, and she couldn’t help but kiss him back.
Jack broke away after a moment and his eyes pierced hers, full of understanding and something frighteningly like love.
“It’s not over, Jack.” She’d seen the flash of love in Jack’s eyes, and it scared her to death. She didn’t know how to deal with that. She wanted it, but felt terrified by it at the same time. Her fear spoke through her. “He’s going to come here. He’ll apologize and be all charming. And, besides, telling him I’m breaking up with him doesn’t mean he’ll just go away. It won’t be that easy.”
“So have him arrested! Tell the hospital he’s the one who beat the shit out of you and you don’t want him in here.”
“It’s not that simple, Jack. He’ll spend one night in jail, if that. Then he’ll be even more upset. And PPOs aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on when it comes to actual protection. I know, I’ve looked into it. And besides all that, I have to leave the hospital. Like, now. I don’t have health insurance, and every moment I sit here is costing me thousands of dollars I don’t have, and will never have. And he’ll find me, and…I don’t have anywhere to go, Jack. I have no family, no friends except you. If I move, he’ll find me. He’ll follow me, and it’ll start all over again.”
“So you’re just gonna stay with him? Just like that? You’ll just let him beat the shit out of you? He’s going to kill you eventually, Miriam. The beating he gave you last night should have killed you, according to the doctor.” Jack was pacing, frustration eating away at him.
“I know, Jack. I know. I wish I had the answers, believe me. You think I like getting the shit beat out of me? You think I don’t want—god, more than anything—to just run away with you? You’re amazing, and you…you deserve someone who can love you back. I don’t know if I can. Not with Ben in the way. And he’ll always be in the way.” She wanted to reach out to him, to touch him, but she didn’t. “There’s nothing you can do, Jack. This is my choice.”
“It’s the wrong choice!”
“I’m sorry, Jack. I really am.”
Jack slumped down to the chair, frustration coming off him in waves. He took her hands in his. “So let me protect you. I can, and I will. I can take care of Ben. He’s a bully, and he doesn’t scare me. I can take him.”
“No, Jack. I don’t doubt that you would, or could. But I won’t have you getting hurt over me.”
He hung his head, cursing in a stream of hissed words under his breath. “You’re determined to make this impossible, aren’t you? You’re afraid of what we could have, so you won’t even try.” The last was a statement, resigned and troubled. He met her gaze, squeezed her hands, kissed her lightly. “You can’t get rid of me that easily, Miriam. I’m not giving up. There is a way for this to work, I know there is. If you’d just give me a chance….” He was nearly pleading, but silently. His eyes were begging her to give him the answer he wanted.