I Follow You by Peter James

Author:Peter James [James, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781509816293
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

53

Wednesday 16 January

With a chastened Robert Resmes in tow, Marcus strode along to the ICU.

Georgie was seated by Roger’s bedside. He was asleep, and she was texting.

Not another man, I hope, Valentine wondered, with a sudden pang of jealousy. He approached quietly until he was standing almost behind her, looking down, trying to read her phone. The text was too small, but he could make out the name Margot at the top. Relieved, he glanced at each of the monitors, reading the digital displays.

And was unhappy with what he saw.

Roger’s condition should have started to deteriorate a lot more by now, but instead all the indications were that he was fairly stable. Blood pressure wasn’t great, nor was his heart rate. But neither of them was in any danger zone.

Resmes was looking at them, too.

‘He’s stable,’ Marcus said, pointedly, to his student.

The Romanian nodded, staring at the displays, looking thoughtful.

Marcus comforted himself that this stability would not last. It could not. Roger was like a ship that had an undetected leak deep in its bowels, and eventually the weight of water would cause it to start listing, he thought. He smiled approvingly, liking the analogy that had just popped into his head.

Bowels!

He nearly turned to his student to share the joke with him. Before remembering that it wasn’t appropriate, particularly bearing in mind Resmes’s concerns.

Stuff was popping into Marcus’s head all the time since he had met Georgie. She was attached to every thought he had, like protons attached to a nucleus; she had become part of the fabric of his DNA. Another analogy. He liked that one, too.

He liked the way she smelled, also. Very much. A faint musky tang of scent rising from her skin. It aroused him.

‘Hello, Georgie!’ he said quietly, laying on the deepest sympathy in his tone.

She turned around, looking startled. ‘Oh, hi! You gave me a fright!’

‘Am I that frightening?’ he smiled, locking eyes, connecting, until she glanced away, looking embarrassed. ‘No,’ she said. ‘Not at all. I – I just didn’t hear you. How – how is he doing?’

Without introducing his student, he stared down at Roger for some while, in silence. She waited for him to say something. But he continued to just stare at him. Studying the monitors, she thought. Checking all was OK, she assumed gratefully.

But he was only glancing at them cursorily. What he was really doing was thinking about time. And dates.

And breathing in her intoxicating scent.

One month – almost – to Valentine’s Day.

My special day!

Are you going to be my Valentine, Georgie?

Perhaps an anonymous card. Something neutral and tasteful. From a secret admirer letting her know there was life beyond Roger – regardless of whether he survived or died.

S.W.A.L.K!

This was a bum deal for Roger, wasn’t it? His friend, Roger. Do it, don’t do it. Those decisions constantly rattling through his head. It was getting out of his control, and Roger really was getting in the way of his Georgie now. This was his lucky chance and he wasn’t going to let it pass him by.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.