“It’s ringing, buddy. They’ll be here in a flash.”
Nori touched Margot’s face gently. She lay so still. What the hell was he going to do if something happened to her? Nothing could happen to her.
He was going to have that bastard ex-husband of hers killed. The piece of shit. He hadn’t seen the man who’d hit her clearly, but he’d bet money it was George; he recognized the bastard’s build as he ran away like a fucking coward.
“Here,” Lado took off his jacket. “Put this under her head. Wait, do you think we can move her that much?”
Nori had been running his fingers over her head, looking for the reason she was unconscious. He found a lump the size of a quail’s egg at the back of her skull. There was blood, warm and slick, coating his fingers. His guts churned with anger. If he had a gun that prick would be lying dead at their feet. “I think it’ll be all right. We’ll just slide it under her head to keep her off the ground.”
They heard the ambulance in the distance.
“Thank God,” he breathed, and was comforted by the reassuring clap of his friends hand on his back.
“Don’t worry,” Lado ordered. “Breathe, man. We got here before he could do any real damage. Fucking psycho. What the hell was he playing at?”
Nori had no idea. But he was sure as hell going to find out.
Chapter fourteen
Margot came to in the ambulance.
“Shhh,” Nori crooned when her eyes met his. “Your ex hit you on the head. We’re on our way to the hospital.”
“He wanted money,” she whispered, hand searching for and finding his. “I told his bitch ass no, and he went crazy. Swung on me. I ducked, and when I turned to run back to the house he hit me in the back, and I fell and conked my head.”
“I got you. And as soon as you’re feeling better we’re going to press charges, and I’ll make sure that mother fucker never gets near you again.”
“Sir.”
Nori moved aside to let the EMT do his work, his eyes never leaving Margot’s face. He smiled reassuringly, blew her a kiss.
She smiled, and he smiled bigger, refusing to let her see the anger and fear that were quietly ripping his insides apart.
“Are you all right, sir?”
The EMT noticed his hands shaking.
“Fine. Adrenaline. I wasn’t involved. How is she?”
“Vitals are good. The lump doesn’t seem too bad, despite the blood. Scalp wounds tend to bleed a lot. There are no signs of concussion. She’s probably just sleepy from all the excitement. The body tends to want to sleep after any traumatic event.”
Nori blew out a relieved breath, but he wouldn’t feel completely comfortable until she’d been looked at by his doctor.
Anything could have happened to her. It was too close a call. Something would have to be done.
“Nori, my house,” she whispered, and he cringed at the pain in her voice. “I left the front door unlocked. My jewelry.”
“Don’t worry,” he ordered, pulling out his phone. “I’ll have Lado go back and lock up for us.” His friend answered on the first ring and agreed to go back to make sure things were okay. “There. He’s on his way. Nothing to worry about, okay?”
“Thank you,” she whispered, eyes closing.
He had his personal physician meet them at the hospital. Dr. Tomas Taylor was gentle as he examined Margot. Nori released a breath when he echoed the hospital physician’s prognosis. He didn’t think an overnight stay was necessary, but he told Nori to be alert for a list of symptoms because head injuries could be tricky. He was to bring her back to the hospital immediately if there were any signs of concussion.
Tommy burst in as the doctor was leaving.
“That needle dick, low life, mother fuckin’ asshole!”
Margot laughed softly, then winced, touching her sore head.
Tears fell as Tommy rushed to her side. “Are you dying? Jesus, look at that ugly white bandage, and you’re wearing a hospital gown!”
Nori rolled his eyes.
“Well,” Margot said cheerfully. “At least I have an excuse for not combing my hair now.”
Tommy burst out crying.
Nori stood back while Margot soothed her friend. “How did you know to come?” he asked.
“I went by Margot’s to borrow some baubles,” she said, wiping her eyes and giving herself a raccoon look as her mascara smudged. “I was going out, but I saw Lado when I got there, and he told me what happened. Have you called the police?”
“Not tonight,” Margot refused. “I’m too tired for all that shit. Tomorrow’s soon enough.”
“You’ll tell me what happened tomorrow?”
Margot nodded.
Nori was surprised Tommy seemed satisfied with that. “How long are they holding you?”
“They’re not. Well, just a little longer while we wait for some test results. Then I’m taking her home,” he said.
“Good. I’ll go and get you some things. Food and such, so you don’t have to worry about cooking.”
“You don’t have to do that,” Nori began. He’d planned to call in his assistant.
Tommy waved a hand. “No problem. I need to do something, and hospitals give me the creeps. I’ll check on you periodically, girl.” She kissed Margot’s cheek, touched Nori’s hand, and was gone.
“That was abrupt.”
“Her husband lingered in hospital before he died, and so did her father. She can’t bear them now.”
“Oh, I see.”
Margot stroked his hand. He gripped hers tight in his. Too tight, but she just smiled. “Do hospitals give you the creeps?” she teased.
He nodded. “Yep. I’m about to roll out of here after her like my hair’s on fire.” He sat down on the side of her bed and laid his head on her belly. “Thank God you’re alright, darling.”
She stroked his hair, smiled when he pushed his face into her neck and held it there.
“I leave you alone for five minutes, and –”
“Don’t even start, buddy.”
He huffed irritably, and leaned back to give her the stink eye. “My fucking life flashed before my eyes when I saw you laying in the street, and you almost gave poor Lado a coronary.”
“Well, I’ll have to apologize to him after they spring me. I never meant for my attack to discomfit him.”
“Not funny. I’m going to hang that prick George up by his balls when I find him.”
Margot waved a hand. “Let the police deal with that loser. He’s not worth your time.”
“How the hell are you so calm about all this? He bloody well –”
“Shhh. My head hurts, remember?”
“Oh, of course, I’m sorry darling. It was just so –” he shuddered.
“You are acting so French right now.”
“Stop teasing. I’m serious. He’s got to be stopped. He’s escalating. He’s appeared twice in how many years? And both times he’s physically attacked you. He’s unhinged.”
“I love you.”
He pushed his face back into her neck again and held her tight. “I love you too, and I’m never letting you out of my sight again. You’ll have a tether. And if you get too far away bells will sound and a tiny pulley will start reeling you in until I can grab you.”
Margot laughed, then winced, and fell silent, a smile on her Madonna face, and her brown eyes twinkling.
Nori stared, struck as ever by her beauty and spirit. “You amaze me,” he whispered. “I just don’t get how you can be so calm, so accepting. This lowlife hurt you, and you just bounce back like nothing happened!”
“And not for the first time,” she said. “Look, baby. I’m just glad I’m okay. I’m not upset because despite where I am right now, he really can’t hurt me anymore. He did enough of that a very long time ago. Then I suffered. A lot. Physically, to the point where I was bruised head to toe, and I had a tooth replaced that he knocked out. Emotionally, to the point where I couldn’t be alone. I was scared of every
thing. I could barely function, and for a while I didn’t even live. I just, survived. He hurt me most mentally. I lost all faith in myself. I doubted my worth. I let other people abuse me too because my judgment was impaired, and I was worn down from all the other wounds that prick inflicted.
“But I’m good now,” she smiled, stroking the side of his face, and accepting his kiss on her palm. “I’m great. I’m a hit. I got friends, money, I’m healthy, cute,” she winked at him, and laughed softly at his grudging smile. “And I got you. A man I can trust. Someone I can lean on, who would never even think to hurt me.”
“No.”
“I can’t let George hurt me anymore, baby. I can’t even let me phase me. I won’t let him back into my life for any reason. But please believe, this was his last time fuckin’ with me. He does it again, I’ma teach his ass a lesson he’ll never forget,” she promised.
“Should I ask what you mean by that?”
“No.”
Nori sighed. “And I have to accept that.”
“Yes.”
“I love you.”
“Good.” She closed her eyes with a yawn.
“Rest.”
“Go home. You don’t have to sit here.”
“No,” he said again, and made himself comfortable in a chair next to her bed. He rested his hand on hers, his head by hers on the pillow, and they both dozed.
“I think we should get married.”
Margot’s spoon froze en route to her mouth, cinnamon oatmeal landing back in the bowl with a soft plop.
“Are you freaking out because I had to go to the hospital?”
It was day two after the incident, and Nori had yet to allow her to leave the house. She’d only been allowed out of bed for a few hours each day to visit with Reiko and Steele and all of her other friends who dropped by to see how she was.
“Yes and no.”
She waited, but he just stared at her.
“Okay, tell me the no.”
“No, because I was already thinking of marriage, and yes, because it needs to happen now. So I’ll have certain rights over you if something goes wrong.”
Margot laughed softly. “You say that like I should have known it.”
“Well?”
“Yes.”
His brows shot toward his hairline. “Yes?”
“Yes.”
“Yes,” he repeated, satisfied. “When?”
“Let me talk to my wedding planner and let you know. When were you thinking?”
“As soon as possible.”
“What’s the rush?”
“Will you take my name?” he asked, avoiding her question.
“Yes and no.”
Nori burst out laughing. “What am I getting into? What the hell does yes and no mean?”
“It means you can get a hyphen, but I gotta keep Temple for business. My brand’s already established.”
“Okay, that’s fair. Do you want a big wedding?”
“I thought you said you wanted to get married as soon as possible?”
“I do.”
“Then a big wedding isn’t possible.”
“I can wait if that’s what you want.”
“It isn’t. Too much trouble. I’m gonna have enough trouble keeping Tommy and Lani reigned in as it is.”
He groaned. “Christ, I hadn’t thought about that. You realize they could ruin everything.”
“Hey, take it easy on my girls,” she laughed. “Their hearts are in the right place.”
“Say that to me again this time next week.”
She just smirked.
He pulled out a ring box and set it down before her.
Until he produced it she’d forgotten about the ring part of the whole engaged to be married thing – ridiculous since she made them for a living. She opened the box.
“Jesus Christ.”
It was stunning. Absolutely unutterably beautiful. Four carats, maybe a bit more, princess cut yellow diamond, stark white gold, she began to cry. No fool, Nori took the ring from the box and slipped it on her finger.
“I love you, Margot,” he said formally. “I can’t wait to marry you and formally start our lives together.”
“Yes,” she whispered.
He opened his arms, sighed contentedly when she walked into them and he could wrap her up close.
“Do you think we’re doing this too fast?”
“Do you?”
She shrugged. “I never put much stock in that sort of thing.”
“What sort of thing?”
“You know. Doing things by a certain time table, or not doing things by a certain timetable.”
“Is marrying me right for you at this time?”
She nodded.
“Why?”
“I love you.”
“And?”
“You’re a gentleman, good with money, health conscious, smart, funny, I like sleeping with you.”
“Well, thank God for that,” he teased. “So we on, then?”
She nodded. “I’se gettin’ married.”
He burst out laughing. “What’s that from?”
“Look it up.”
Chapter fifteen
By threat of being uninvited, Margot managed to keep Tommy and Lani on a tight leash. Nori got a special license, they did the necessary paperwork, and less than two weeks later, her wedding day dawned foggy and wet. A smoke grey veil hung over the city. Though technically it hadn’t rained, the streets were dark with moisture, and everything smelt faintly damp. Margot felt wonderful.
“The rain means good luck,” Lani grinned, setting breakfast in front of her.
Margot looked down and raised a brow. No wonder her girl maintained that perfect figure. There were two hardboiled eggs on her plate, sans yellow center, one piece of jam sodden toast and some fresh squeezed, watered down, orange juice.
“It’s best to eat light before a big event,” she said. “We don’t want any last minute boo boos with the dress, now do we?”
Margot shook her head no and meant it. If that dress didn’t fit it wasn’t worth her life. Tommy’s offering was a bit more welcome. She cracked open a bottle of champagne to mix with the orange juice and lit a fat ass joint.
“I’m supposed to celebrate at the reception,” Margot teased. “You know, after the wedding?”
“Bitch, please.”
Margot just laughed. She laughed constantly as her girls dressed her and teased her, and myriad people called to wish her well and say they couldn’t wait for the reception. The one person who didn’t call was Nori, which surprised her.
She sent him a text saying a simple, I love you. She thought she might get a call then, but he was apparently taking the whole bad luck for the bride to see the groom before the ceremony thing very seriously.
She thought she might be nervous as the driver pulled Tommy’s Bentley up in front of the courthouse, but she wasn’t. A smile hadn’t left her face since she woke this morning. She was looking forward to this.
She and Nori had promised each other that nothing would change between them. They wouldn’t expect anything of each other after the wedding they hadn’t expected before it, and though they both knew that was bullshit, they were determined to cleave together.
“All this will do,” he told her when he was packing the night before for Lado’s apartment where he’d stay his last night as a single man, “Is cement what we already know. I love you. You love me. And now everyone in the world will know it.”
“And we’ll cash in on a few tax breaks.”
He burst out laughing, swung her into the air and kissed her until she was breathless.
“The next time I see you, you’ll be mine,” he said, glee in his deep voice, then he blew her a kiss and was gone.
Tommy and Lani descended on her not long after that. The rest of the girls were busy with their allotted portions of the wedding and would convene at the reception. Besides Aro, her bridesmaid and maid of honor would be the only ones in attendance f
or their courthouse nuptials.
She and Nori wanted things uber private and both warned Tommy not to post any pictures form the wedding on social media without their express approval. She’d grudgingly agreed. Lado had also been disappointed he was to be bilked out of his best man duties; there would be no bachelor or bachelorette parties. But then Nori reminded him that he was still the best man at the reception.
“And there’s always our vow renewal ceremony,” Margot offered.
Lado’s eyes lit up, and Nori kissed her and whispered, “That was the perfect thing to say.”
Now, as Tommy and Lani preceded her into the staid room where her nuptials would take place, she expected to see her man standing there with a huge grin on his face, but when her girls parted there was no one there but the justice of the peace.
“He must be running late,” said Lani, and she and Tommy surrounded her, making last minute adjustments to her veil, hair and the dress, an elegant, winter white beauty with a tight sweetheart neckline that showcased her bosom to advantage and a narrow hem that hit her perfectly just below the knee.
She could feel Lani painstakingly arranging the little pleats in the bustle in the back, lightly crushed on the car ride over. But as she looked up at the clock and saw the hour come and go, she knew it wasn’t going to happen.
Nori was never late. If anything he was usually early. He’d been known to dismiss drivers who arrived late to pick him up, berating them before hopping into a taxi right in front of them and taking off. He said it was the principal of the thing. That to waste anyone’s time was one of the most disrespectful things anyone could do.
Her girls were getting agitated too. They knew as well as she did that Nori was always punctual. When Tommy’s cell buzzed she pounced on her purse, snatching it out and not even noticing the $2,700 clutch fall to the ground as she walked a few steps away to read the text.
Well, Margot thought, that confirms it. She knew it before Tommy turned around. It was there in the taut lines of her friend’s Celine covered back, the droop of her head, as though it was too heavy to hold at its usual proud angle.
When their eyes met she saw that Tommy’s were wet. They glistened like the crystals she’d sewn onto her veil. The crystals Nori sat and watched her painstakingly attach by hand for days with a smug look on his treacherous fucking face.
Ineffable Page 20
