mother again. When she compared what she’d known about her mother then and the knowledge she held now? She'd been a fool, a child throwing a tantrum, and her mother had given her a time out. But the man in the cell had given her purpose, and the information she'd compiled could easily land her in a cell or, more likely, a grave.
The strains of Für Elise filled the air one moment, and the next, the room fell into silent darkness. Pilar rose from the lounger and peered through the window, straining to see if the neighbors had power. The silence and complete darkness of the area meant another power outage. The generators would be flickering on as soon as the security guard out front made it to the shed and flipped the breaker. The manual switching could take time, depending on how familiar the guard was with the system start-up. She'd weathered tropical storms and Category One and Two hurricanes in this house. Power outages were nothing new.
The benefit of living in one space for years was you knew where the furniture was and could make it into the bathroom even in the dark. Damn it! "Shit, shit, shit!"
She dropped onto the arm of the couch and grabbed her foot. She'd jammed her little toe against the coffee table. "Man, I think I broke it." She ran her hand along the side of her foot. Yep, the toe was pointed out, not up like the other four. "Great. How am I going to wear heels now?"
She'd experienced this level of hell before when she'd broken the little toe of her other foot while attending college. It had hurt for weeks, even in tennis shoes. There was nothing to do but... She slid her hand along the side of her foot and pushed the toe back into place. The sharp pain was nothing like the initial break had been. Maybe because she'd maxed out her pain receptors. She wiped at her tears and groaned. She wasn't taking a step further until the guard at the front of the house turned the damn electricity on. She needed to tape it and ice it. Elevate it, too.
What was the acronym? RICE? Damn. R... rest, out of the question. Next was I... ice, yeah, yeah, except she had to get up and walk to get it and excuse the French, but fuck that. C... oh, man what the hell was C for? Whatever, she'd figure it out later. E was elevation. Okay she could do two of the four. "As soon as the lights come back on!" she screamed to the ceiling, as if anyone was going to hear her.
She was a klutz. Leave it to her to break her toe in the middle of a blackout. She dropped her head to her knee and held her foot. The throb of her heartbeat swelled and centered itself at the base of her little toe. Oh, this was bad. She had a full calendar tomorrow and Friday. Well, she'd have to tell Carol to reschedule, at least until Monday. By then she should be able to walk. Maybe.
The lights flickered back on, and she glanced down at her foot. A dark green and blue bruise had formed on the side of her foot and stretched to the base of her toe, already swollen to twice the size it should be. Perfect. Just... perfect. "I'd like to kick the ass of whoever caused the damn blackout."
"That would be me."
Pilar spun and lost her balance, crashing down onto the coffee table, which tipped sending her to the ground. She popped back up and shoved the damn table away from her. The man, her man was next to her, his hand on her forearm. "Are you all right?"
"All right? No, I'm not all right! I have a broken toe and... how did you get in here?" She pushed back and sucked in a gasp when her wrist crumpled under her. "Oh, damn it."
"Hold still." The man... her man's arms tightened, and the muscles of his chest bulged as he moved the mahogany table to the side. With a single motion, his arms burrowed under her and lifted her from the floor. She clutched at his neck and shoulders and hissed when she moved her injured wrist. With a gentleness at odds with his massive physique, he lowered her to the couch. "Let's see the damage."
His scent, a wonderful combination of soap and male musk filled her pained