The Pharaoh's Kiss (Reincarnation Romance Chronicles Book 3) (9 page)

Chapter Twenty

It was as if I was floating somewhere overhead and looking down at myself. I saw Jeremy’s limp body on the floor, surround by the broken piece of the lamp, but it didn’t seem possible that it was really me that took him by the legs and dragged him into the bathroom. I didn’t look at the thin trail of blood that followed. I didn’t think about the loud thud his body made when I hoisted him into the tub.

I backed away, shutting the door and wedging the chair from the desk under the knob. I watched the door for a moment, expecting at any second to hear the sound of him moving or to see the knob turning.

Going to the room door, I peeked out the peephole, all I could see was an empty hall. Was it possible no one heard the lamp break or the sound of me moving the body?

I went back to the closet, but my purse and wallet Jeremy had shown Alex were gone. I searched through the pockets of the clothes hanging and the bags in the bottom, managing to find a few bills.

I shoved them into my pocket and went back to the door, peeking out again. The hallway was still empty. I paused for just a moment, asking myself if I could really leave an injured man helpless and possibly dying in a bathtub. Once again, I saw Ay’s face...The necklace...And Jeremy...

Yes I can...

I opened the door and slipped out into the hall. I placed the DO NOT DISTURB sign on the knob and closed the door. I hurried to the elevator and pushed the button, watching the needle above the doors.

I felt vulnerable standing outside the door of a possible dying man’s room. What if I was seen?

Suddenly, I was filled with panic. What if Jeremy did die? Did I really want to ride the elevator with someone that could place me at the scene of the crime?

I wasn’t even thinking that because I had already been seen with him earlier, that I would be the first suspect. I was barely thinking rationally at all. Instead, I looked around, and I saw the stairwell door at the end of the hall. I ran to it and sprinted down the stairs.

I had to get out...I had to get to Alex...He would know what to do...

I reached the ground floor, and peeked out the window of the stairway access door. I waited until there were several people in the lobby coming back from tours of the Valley or of the Gaza Pyramids. I slipped out of the door and mixed with the crowd until I could slip out the lobby doors without drawing anyone’s attention. .

Several cars were lined up, dropping off their tourist fares. I hailed the first empty one and gave him the name of Alex’s hotel.

As we drove off, I begged him to hurry. The driver looked at me curiously, but he didn’t ask any questions. I kept looking back behind us, expecting to see Jeremy following us at any moment. I should have stayed and made sure he was dead...

I caught myself. Who thinks like that? Is that who I was? Someone that could consider the death of another person so easily?

My mind went back to the sight of Tutankhamun washing his bloodied hands in the basin. I remembered feeling not sadness, but relief that Akhenaten was gone.

I’m exactly that sort of person...I didn’t cry for Akhenaten and I won’t shed a tear for Jeremy...

It was a short drive back to Alex’s hotel. I barely waited for the car to stop before I had the door open over the protests of the driver. I handed him the wad of bills from my pocket.

“Forget you ever saw me,” I said and shut the door.

I ran inside, ready to hurry up to Alex’s room, but I saw him coming out of the restaurant bar almost immediately. I slid to a stop and scrambled over to him.

“Alex,” I panted. “Alex, oh thank God!”

He turned to me, something in my face must’ve spoke to him. Immediately, he was at my side, taking my hands in his.

“What are you doing here?” He asked, “I thought you—”

I fell into his arms, clutching at the front of his shirt. “It’s Jeremy... He tried to kill me... That’s why lost my memory...”

“What?” Alex demanded, “I’ll kill him!”

“No,” I panted, holding onto his arm. “I think I already did.”

“What?”

“There’s more. He had a necklace... It was Ankhesenamun’s. I don’t know where he got it, but when I found it, he tried to kill me and that’s what started everything.”

“Where is he how?” Alex demanded.

I began to shake so even my teeth started to chatter, “I...I really think I killed him.”

“What?”

“I didn’t mean to! I told him I knew what he did and he slapped me...I thought he was going to hurt me again...So I hit him over the head with a lap and then I put him in the bathtub. I put a chair under the doorknob and then I ran away.”

I was sobbing uncontrollably at that point. Alex pulled me to him and rested my head on his shoulder, running his hands over my hair and back.

“Okay,” he said softly. “It’s going to be okay.”

I cried against his chest, “I had to get away. He was going to make me go back to America because I knew. I remembered everything and then –”

“Okay... You’re safe now.”

“But I’m not!” I said, “What if he’s
not
dead? He’s going to be looking for me and this is the first place he’ll come.”

He kissed my forehead, “It’s okay... I promise... Everything will be fine.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Jeremy said behind us.

Chapter Twenty-One

I turned to see Jeremy standing only a few feet away. His hair matted on one side with clotting blood  and his eyes glittering dangerously. He held up a single finger, “Shame, shame Samantha...I told you I was no one to toy with.”

The few people milling about the lobby seemed to sense the intensity of the situation and backed away, looking from Jeremy to Alex and back again. Alex pushed me protectively behind him.

“You need to just go before I call the police,” Alex threatened.

“Call them,” Jere said, raising his hand to touch the bloody gash to his head and then holding it up for Alex to see. “That little bitch tried to kill me.”

“Alex, don’t listen to him,” I begged. “I told you, I had to get away. He was going to kill me.”

Jeremy glared at me, “Samantha, you’re only making this worse.”

“Don’t you dare threaten her,” Alex hissed, his body tensing. “Now leave before I throw you out myself.”

“You won’t touch me,” Jeremy said with a knowing smile. “You’re too
civilized
for that.”

“Don’t be so sure.”

Jeremy sneered and pointed in my direction, “I’m not leaving without her.”

He reached for me then, but Alex was quicker. In one swift move he tackled Jeremy and forced him to the floor, both of them sliding across the smooth tiles.

Hotel guest scurried out of the way as they rolled about exchanging blows. I winced as Jeremy tangled his hands in Alex’s hair and banged his head down on the marble floor once...twice...three times.

In my mind’s eye, I was standing on the balcony at Thebes, looking down at Tutankhamun in his golden chariot. I was watching him going off to battle, fearing that he would never return. He reined his horses and our eyes had met.

“I love you,” he mouthed silently.

I had reached out my hand, wishing I could stop him somehow, but he turned and his chariot raced out of the palace gates.

No...No...

The vision shifted and I saw Ay overseeing the workers as they chiseled at the columns and removed Tutankhamun from history. He shifted from the advisor to Jeremy and back again. I saw myself kneeling to take a broken piece of the column from the ground. I looked down at one painted fragment, all that was left of the man that ruled all of Egypt.

Your legacy forgotten already...The reign that was supposed to last for all time...

It all turned once more, spinning in a sickening way. I saw Ay throwing me to the ground and then dragging me by the hair toward Tutankhamun’s tomb. His face shifted into Jeremy’s as he opened the tomb and shoved me inside.

I came back to the here and now, almost staggering from the force of the visions. I looked up to see Alex and Jeremy both on their feet and the metallic flash of a blade in Jeremy’s hand.

It all became a whirl them, the past and present mixing together. I saw the kohl rimmed eyes of Tutankhamun, Alex offering his hand to me that night in the tomb, the Pharaoh’s long hair brushing my naked skin as we made love, and Ay...Always Ay, waiting in the shadows to destroy it all.

I didn’t even think, I just leapt onto Jeremy’s back. I pulled at his hair and scratched at his eyes, screaming like a mad woman. I couldn’t let it all happen again...Not this time.

He tossed me off of his back as if I was merely a fly annoying him. I landed on the floor with a painful thump that vibrated through my body.

I struggled to my feet, my head still spinning, as four police officers rushed into the lobby and pulled Alex and Jeremy apart. I tried to make sense of what I was seeing as both of them were pushed up against the wall.

“Wait!” I cried out as I stumbled over to the officer handcuffing Alex, “He didn’t do anything.”

“Senna,” Alex pleaded. “You need to stay out of this.”

The officer ignored me, taking Alex by the arm and pushing him toward the door.

“Sir please,” I begged and pointed toward the other officers handcuffing Jeremy. “It was him. He followed me here and threatened me. Alex was only trying to protect me.”

I could hear Jeremy struggling behind me, “That bitch tried to kill me.”

The officer turned his eyes on me and arched his dark brows, “Is that true?”

“Sort of,” I mumbled, stepping aside as the other officers came through escorting Jeremy to their waiting car. “I came to Egypt with that man.”

I pointed out the door to Jeremy being placed in the car, “But I found a necklace he stole in the bottom of one of his bags.”

Alex cleared his throat, “It seems it could be one of the undocumented items from KV62.”

“Excuse me?” The officer asked.

Alex nodded, “KV62...The tomb of Tutankhamun.”

The officer’s dark eyes grew wider as he turned his attention back to me, “So, you saw this necklace? Where is it now?”

“I don’t know,” I confessed. “When I found it, he flew into a rage. He hit me over the head and tried to smother me with a pillow. I somehow ended up at the Valley of the Kings, with no memory of who I was or what I had seen. Alex works at the Valley and has been trying to help me find out who I am, but Jeremy found me. I went with him, but when my memory came back and I confronted him about what he did, he attacked me again. I didn’t know where else to go so I came here to Alex.”

“But the other man says you were the one that tried to kill him...”

I nodded, “Because I remembered what he did to me before, when he threatened me, I hit him over the head with a lamp and locked him in the bathroom so I could get away, but he followed me here.”

“Is this true?” He asked, turning back to Alex.

“Yes sir.”

The officer looked from me to Alex and seemed to be considering my story. He held up his hand, “Wait here for moment.”

He walked out the door to where the other officers stood waiting by the cars, the second one with Jeremy glaring out from the back seat. The officer motioned from Jeremy to us, talking and gesturing.

Alex shrugged so he could wipe the blood from his lip onto the shoulder of his shirt, “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” I said as I watched the officers talk outside. “What about you?”

Before he could answer, the officer was walking back through the lobby doors. He took his keys from his pocket and removed Alex’s cuffs, “All right, you’re free to go for now, but we may need to talk to both of you at a later date.”

“Yes sir,” Alex said as he wiped the blood from his nose.

“Should I call a doctor for you?” The officer offered.

Alex shook his head, wincing some from the effort. I reached out and took his hand.

“No,” I said as I smiled up at him, “I’ll take care of him.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

It seemed strange to be back up in Alex’s hotel room, but yet somehow it just felt right. Despite everything, I felt a calmness drop down over me just by being in his presence. I worked slowly, cleaning the cut to Alex’s face.

His eyes followed my every movement. he said nothing, but he watched me with quiet expectation clear on his face.

I emptied the ice from the ice bucket into one of the bathroom towels and placed it on his knuckles. I bent down and kissed him softly, “I love you.”

He pulled away, silent for a moment.

I held my breath, hearing the clock ticking, and the sounds of my heart in my chest beating in a weird hollow way.

“Alex,” I pleaded. “Please say something.”

“Senna...”

“Samantha,” I corrected, “But it still doesn’t feel right.”

“Of course, Samantha I love you.” He said, “I love the way your eyes tilt up when you look at me. I love how you tremble when I touch you.”

With that, he reached up and stroked my cheek. I tried not to shiver, but even that slightest touch sent an electrical jolt pulsating through my body and down my thighs.

“And I love how easy it is for me to believe that there is this amazing past between us that is pulling us together.”

“You believe it?”

“I always believed you,” he said softly and then smiled. “You know, you said Tutankhamun killed his father to protect you.”

I bowed my head, “Yes, you—Yes, he did.”

“I think today you tried to return that favor.”

“No,” I shook my head. “I did that for me.”

“Still,” he said. “I can see the queen she must have been and why he loved her.”

I let out the breath I didn’t even know I was holding. I went to wrap my arms around him, but he held up his hand to stop me.

“It’s not that easy,” he said.

Oh no...

“What do you mean?” I asked in a shaky voice.

“I need to know something,” he said.

“What is it?”

“I need to know that you love me because of me. Not because I am some reincarnation of Tutankhamun or because you’re Ankhesenamun.”

“You know,” I said with a soft smile. “It was an amazing love story. Ankhesenamun loved him beyond reason.”

“I know,” he choked out as he watched my face, seeming to hang on my every word.

Was he seeing it? Was he remembering that other life?

“Did you know that she wanted to kill herself after Tutankhamun died?” I asked, stepping closer to him. “She couldn’t picture life without him. Ay got to her first and took her out into the desert and locked her in the tomb of Tutankhamun. I guess he went back later and removed her body... Such a sad end to their story.”

Alex looked up at me with pleading eyes, “You still haven’t answered me. Do you love me only because I was him?”

I smiled, “No, it’s not just that. You saw me when I didn’t even know who I was, but you saw me and somehow knew me. That made me love you. You knew my soul when I didn’t know me.”

“Samantha—”

“No listen,” I interrupted. “I know my parents died when I was a teenager. My dad had a heart attack and my mom died a few years later from breast cancer.”

“I’m so sorry.”

I shook my head, “It’s fine, just listen to me. I know I don’t like white wine. I know I have a sister, but we don’t talk and we haven’t seen each other in years. I know I can write with either hand and that I once broke my arm falling out of the treehouse... And I know that I love you. I love that you took in a stranger. I love that you took a chance on me. Who would want a king when a girl could have you?”

He reached up and pulled me down into his lap and brushed his lips across mine, “That’s what I needed to hear.”

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