Silent Awakening. Elaine Barbieri

he slipped up behind Natalie in the crowd. Nor did anyone notice when, in a flash of movement too quick to perceive, he pressed the flat of his hands into the curve of her back and shoved her into the street.

      He had been euphoric. Yet his euphoria came to an abrupt end only seconds later when two fellows managed to jerk her out of the limo’s path. She struck her head on the curb as they did.

      He supposed that was why neither of the men had waited around after the ambulance arrived. But by that time the situation had slipped beyond his control. He’d had no recourse but to follow the ambulance in a cab in order to find out the result of his effort.

      And now here he was…determined to finish what he had started.

      Hadden neared Natalie’s hospital room, his heart pounding. He was about to step inside when the unexpected sight of Detective Tomasini of the NYPD dozing in a chair beside her bed halted him.

      Damn the man! What was he doing here?

      Hadden pulled back without being seen, then stared at Natalie lying so still in the hospital bed. Her long, dark hair was stretched across the pillow in sharp contrast with the stark white of the bed linens and the bandage she wore on her forehead. She was petite, silent, her small features delicately composed, the long, black fans of her eyelashes lying like lush crescent moons against her pale cheeks. Surrounded in immaculate white, the pale beam of light shining down on her in the semidarkness forming a gleaming halo around her head, she looked like a celestial being—innocent and so completely pure that she stole his breath.

      He paused at that thought.

      But Natalie Patterson wasn’t pure, and she wasn’t celestial. She was the lab technician who had foiled his perfect revenge and because of her, the entire NYPD would soon be out searching for him.

      Hatred surged hotly through him as Hadden turned abruptly and started back down the hallway.

      He’d be back.