Rafe would’ve paused too. While he waited for Dr. Malroy to arrive, he searched her tiny space, only taking a few minutes. Her fridge was pretty much empty, her cupboards bare, and her toiletries scarce. No wonder the woman was too skinny. She obviously didn’t know how to take care of herself. If anyone could benefit from being his mistress, it was her. She’d get a whole lot more out of their arrangement than he would. He couldn’t understand her repulsion to it.
At the very instant she agreed, he would move her into a beautiful condo, where she’d have plenty to eat and not have to worry about money – not even after he was done with her. He paid his mistresses a nice settlement when their services were no longer needed, making sure they were still taken care of long after he tired of them.
His second call was to his assistant who assured him he’d have her fridge and cupboards stalked within a couple of hours. Rafe wanted her to come to him – he just wasn’t going to leave her in her current conditions while he waited for the inevitable acceptance.
Rafe sighed in relief at the knock on her door. He opened it and let the doctor in, who raised his brows at Rafe in question. Rafe didn’t bother explaining, just led the man to the couch so he could examine Ari. It didn’t take Dr. Malroy long to diagnose the problem.
“I won’t know for sure until the tests are confirmed, but it looks to me like she received a dose of some kind of date rape drug. The person most likely slipped it in her drink, causing her exhaustion and hypnotic state. More often than not it causes an almost amnesiac effect, causing the victim to not remember anything from the night before.”
Rafe’s rage rose to dangerous levels. That man who’d had her in his arms had drugged her and planned on doing who knew what with her, before dumping her somewhere where she wouldn’t remember a thing.
Once Rafe was done assuring himself Ari would be okay, he planned on making a visit to the would-be attacker. He had many friends at the police station who wouldn’t have any problem turning their backs while Rafe got one good punch in – maybe two or three.
“Does she need to be admitted at the hospital?”
“It doesn’t look like she got a dangerously high level, but you need to keep an eye on her for the rest of the night. If she looks to have any trouble breathing then you need to rush her to the E.R., but they can’t really do any more than give her the same medications that I have with me. Some victims have been known to die from a bad reaction to the drugs, but she should be showing signs at this point.”
“I’ll take her there now.”
“I don’t see any allergic reactions. Honestly, I think she’ll be fine. I’ve been your doctor for a long time, and I’ve never steered you wrong. If I felt there was a need for her to go in, I’d tell you. She just needs fluids and rest right now.”
“If you think that’s what’s best, but if I get the slightest whim that she isn’t okay, I’ll rush her in.” With reluctance, Rafe took the doctor’s advice and saw him out. Afterward, he settled in for a very long night.
Chapter Twelve
Ari woke up to a pounding drum percussion in her head. She tried peeking through narrow slits in her eyelids, but the pain wouldn’t allow even that much movement. Her body twitched on the bed and she felt aches move from her head all the way to the ends of her toes.
“Take this, Ari. It will help.”
Ari froze at the sound of Rafe’s voice. What was he doing here? What was she doing in the same room as him? Where was she? For a moment, her mind was a complete blank, making the pain and panic escalate.
Searching her mind for the last thing she could remember was painful, but Ari tried to summon up her previous night’s memories. Slowly, through a thick veil of fog, memories started trickling back in.
She’d been at the bar with her friends. She knew she was drinking too much, but they were having a great time – laughing, flirting with the waiter, acting like any other twenty-three year old on a Friday night with no worries.
She wasn’t just a normal person, though. She had her mother to take care of, bills to pay, and stress beyond anything a single woman should be enduring. She’d just wanted one single night to not think about any of it. It seemed she wasn’t allowed even that.
No matter how much she searched her memory, she didn’t recall seeing Rafe anywhere at the bar. The very last thing she could remember was her friends encouraging her to dance with the waiter. She couldn’t even think of his name. Everything had started to go fuzzy.
“Come on, Ari. I’m going to sit you up now. I know you hurt at the moment, but if you take these pills you’ll start to feel better. I turned down the lights so you can open your eyes.”
The next minute was filled with excruciating pain as she felt Rafe’s hands beneath her body as he helped her sit up. Nausea rose in her throat as sharp arrows of discomfort tore into her.
She felt the edge of a glass against her bottom lip and she automatically opened her mouth, feeling a small token of relief as the icy cold liquid slid down her throat. She felt Rafe’s callused finger against her bottom lip, and she once again opened as she felt him place a pill on her tongue. She swallowed it down when he pressed the glass against her lip again.
She wasn’t brave enough to open her eyes just yet. She’d wait until the pounding in her head settled down first.
Over the next several minutes, she concentrated on taking deep breaths in and out as she started to feel the effects from the magic pill. Her pounding head and excruciating body aches didn’t cease, but began to ease to a bearable level.
Eventually, Ari braved cracking her eyes open. The room was dim, but it didn’t take her long to spot Rafe sitting next to the bed in one of her rickety kitchen chairs.
She was stunned to find the sophisticated man in her apartment. She never would’ve thought that day would come. He was far too polished to hang out in the slums of San Francisco.
She struggled to focus her eyes on his face, becoming more surprised by what she saw. Rafe had at least a full day’s growth of stubble coating his normally smooth skin, and the circles under his eyes attested to the fact that it didn’t look like he’d been sleeping much. Her curiosity spiked to find out what had happened.
“I’m glad to see you finally awake. You’ve been semi-conscious the last few hours, but only enough to allow me to get some liquids in you and take you to the bathroom. I was beginning to think the doctor was wrong. You slept all night and day, and were going for night number two before you finally woke up.”