Knight In Black Leather Gail Dayton (classic books for 12 year olds .TXT) 📖

sleep here tonight, but tomorrow, if everything's still okay, we can bring her home."

"Promise?" Pete whispered.

Eli knelt beside his son. "No, I don't promise. It might not be tomorrow. Might be the next day. The doctors don't know for sure." He wished he could promise. His son didn't need any more heartache. Hell, neither did he.

"Want me to take the guys home?" Joey said.

"Yeah." Eli looked at Pete. "You okay with that, squirt? Staying with Joey? I promised Marilyn I'd stay with her, but if you're scared, we can work something else out."

"No, it's okay." Pete touched Marilyn's hand with a forefinger. "I didn't get hurt."

Eli looked up at the other person in the room. The older boy still hadn't spoken except to answer direct questions as briefly as possible and ask, once, how Marilyn was. He now wore a set of purple hospital scrubs under Marilyn's coat and a pair of slippers over bare feet. His eyes were moving uncertainly from Eli to Joey.

"Go home with Pete and Joey, okay, Slugger?" Eli slung an arm around the boy's shoulders. "Get some sleep. Come back in the morning and we can work stuff out."

Joey settled a hand on the back of Pete's neck. "Let's go home, huh? I'm tired and I didn't do squat."

"You're staying?" The older boy's voice cracked.

"I promised I would. I don't break promises." Eli held his gaze until he nodded and left the room with Marilyn's brother.

The high-backed visitor's chair wasn't what kept Eli jerking awake all night. Nor was it his need to make sure she was still breathing. It was the guilt.

Dwayne Gardner had entered her life, he had kidnapped her, beaten her, come within seconds of raping her, because Eli Court put him there.

What else would Eli do to her if he stayed in her life? It didn't matter that he'd never intended to do her harm. Trouble followed him.

He knew that, knew he was no good for her, no good for anybody, not even himself. But he'd let himself get talked into staying. Hell, he'd promised to stay. He had been stupid enough to let himself think maybe he could be a part of something good, be a father to his son, love a woman.

Eli sat straight up in his chair, staring through the dim nightlights at Marilyn as she slept, pale and bruised, in the hospital bed. Did he love her?

Was that why it hurt so much to see her lying there? Why he felt better being in the same room with her, even if she was asleep and injured? Was that love?

Probably so. Eli slumped back in the chair, marveling at the discovery. He'd never believed he was capable of such a thing, and here he was, in love. If he'd realized what was happening, he could have stopped it.

Or maybe not. "The heart finds its own way," all the stories said. Like you couldn't decide who to fall in love with or even whether to love at all. That seemed to be true from Eli's experience. He wouldn't have done it if he'd had any choice. So the next question was: What was he going to do about it?

The answer: Nothing.

If he let Marilyn know, she'd feel sorry for him, probably feel guilty for not loving him back. He couldn't take that. He never wanted her to feel one minute of sadness or regret. He didn't. As much as it hurt, knowing he loved alone, Eli would never regret loving Marilyn.

He still needed to get out of her life. He couldn't live like regular people, couldn't have the things others had. Because what he touched, he tarnished.

He'd been stupid to think things had changed, because he hadn't changed. He still carried the same dark rot around inside himself. He had to protect Pete and Marilyn from it.

Marilyn's head ached with a constant, dull pain, punctuated by the occasional piercing stab of agony when she thought about moving it. And some torture chamber attendant with cold hands was making her do more than just think about it. She was insisting that Marilyn open her eyes. Then she shone a spotlight in them.

"You feeling okay, babe?" Eli's voice spoke and Eli's hand curled around hers.

She blinked away the spots still dancing in her eyes and focused on his face. He hadn't shaved in a while, dark shadows circled his eyes and his caramel-colored hair stuck out in more directions than usual. He was the most beautiful thing she'd seen in forever.

"Hi." Marilyn smiled. Eli smiled back and the world stopped whirling around her. "You saved me."

Color rose above the stubble on his cheeks. "No, I just--"

"Shut up and accept the fact that you're a hero, okay?" She squeezed his hand.

Eli clasped hers in both of his and lifted it to his mouth, leaning forward in the chair where he sat beside her bed. "How do you feel?"

"Worst headache I ever had, but it's not too bad." She struggled to sit up and the nurse, still in the room doing nurse things, punched the button to raise the head of the bed.

A knock sounded on the door and Joey put his head into the room. "Okay to come in? I got some guys who want to see for themselves how you are."

Marilyn beckoned and seconds later, Pete hurtled across the room, hauling up short just before he touched the bed. "Guess what? Slug stayed over last night. Can he come back?"

She looked at the older boy hovering near the door in his purple hospital scrubs, her coat folded over his arms. Something about the way he hovered, as if longing to join in but not sure of his welcome, brought tears to her eyes. "Sure, if he wants to. If they'll let him. There's probably some paperwork."

"I can do that," Eli offered. "If you're sure it's okay." He paused. "He's really the one who saved you."

"I know." She held her hand out to the boy, beckoning. "But I'm not having