Touched by Lightning [Dreams of You] (Romantic Suspense) Page 14

  “Three years ago…it seems like yesterday when it all happened. My life seemed to be going okay for the first time. It wasn’t what you would think, with the money and the mansion on the beach. I didn’t fit into all that, and I knew I let my mother down because I was different. I tried, for most of my young life, to fit her mold. She set a great example: beautiful, active in the social and charity thing, but it just wasn’t me.

  “Much to her chagrin, I hadn’t planned on marrying one of her friends’ sons and settling down. I got interested into photography and wanted to travel and take pictures of real life. No one knew that I took photographs of the homeless. I was happy with who I was and what I was doing with my life. I was dating a handsome man who wanted to marry me.

  “There was never peace in my family, between me, Devlin, and my mother. You see, Dad left us each four million dollars in trust funds, which we would inherit when we turned twenty-eight. Even with two years to go, Devlin was impatient, so he kept borrowing money from Mother, promising to pay her back when he inherited. He figured that since she had plenty of her own money, she would give him whatever he wanted, so he kept investing in all these business ventures that flopped.

  “Mother would get angry at him for squandering the money he’d be inheriting. They would go on for hours sometimes. He was under a lot of pressure to fill Dad’s shoes, but he didn’t have the business sense. The worst part was he kept trying.

  “I know he resented the fact that even though he was twenty-six, she controlled the money. That’s why he was so desperate to get out from under that control.” Nikki turned to him. “Mother was a good woman, but she liked to control her children. We were all she had, and she reminded us of that often. She controlled me with guilt, but even she couldn’t make me live the kind of life she thought I should. She controlled my brother with money. She was his sole source of income, and if he did something that displeased her, she cut him off. He’d get back in her good graces, then search for some way to get some money of his own so he could do what he wanted.”

  She took a drink of the glass of water she’d poured earlier. Adrian’s posture was relaxed, but his eyes were focused on her every move and word. She continued.

  “It was a grand day, and Jack, my boyfriend, had invited all of us to a big fair in Miami. It sounded like fun, and I hadn’t spent much time with him lately because of my photography. He was supposed to meet us at the house, and then he and I would ride together. Except he was late, as usual. Devlin said I should teach him a lesson and be gone when he got there, so he would have to meet us at the fair. I was kind of irked about it, so I agreed. We gave him fifteen minutes, then we decided to leave him a note and go.

  “I got in the back, Mother got in the passenger seat, and Devlin got in the driver’s side. Just before he started the car, he said he forgot his sunglasses and got out. It was a hot day, so he tossed the keys at Mother and told her to start the car to get the air cooling down.” Nikki squeezed her eyes shut, knowing the pain that would come in telling the next part.

  Adrian touched her hand, giving her strength. “If it’s too hard to talk about, you don’t have to finish. I might expire from suspense, but I won’t mind.”

  “I talked about it so much to the police and then in court, but I haven’t said anything about it since then. Maybe it’ll be good to talk about it again.” She took a deep breath. “I remembered that I left my dream journal on the table. I’d planned to take it to the fair with me.”

  “What’s a dream journal?”

  “It’s a journal that I logged my dreams in. I learned how to dream lucidly and recorded the stranger ones. So I started to get out of the car just as Mother was starting it. I almost yelled for Devlin to grab my journal for me, but I figured he’d be too nosy to resist reading it. Thank you, God, that I didn’t ask him. I would have stayed in the car. And I would have died.

  “I thought the car was really loud when it started. There was a roar and suddenly this hot orange cloud surrounded me, pushing me back.” She looked at him. “I remember thinking that I had to get out and save Mother.” Just as he’d said.

  She wrapped her arms around herself, trying to protect herself from the viciousness of the memory. “I could hardly breath, and the air seared my lungs. I crawled out of the car, and realized that my right side was on fire. I dropped down into a bed of petunias and rubbed out the flames. I didn’t see Mother in the car, which was totally engulfed in flames. I made my way around to the passenger side of the car.

  “That’s when I saw Devlin. He was just standing there on the front walk. I screamed for him to help, but he kept standing there. So I walked around, and that’s when I saw her lying on the driveway.”

  Adrian wiped the tear away with his thumb, roughened from his work on the shelter. “You don’t have to tell me about your mother.”

  She nodded. “I do. Because I keep seeing her there, just like she was that day. She was completely covered in flames, but she wasn’t trying to extinguish them. The police said later that she was already dead. I didn’t know what to do to help her, so I started throwing dirt on her body to put out the flames. When I had the flames out, I dropped down next to her and tried to shake her, begged and pleaded for her to be alive. I couldn’t see the huge gash in her back. When I looked up, Devlin was still standing there with his mouth open. I screamed at him to call 911 and he finally went inside and called an ambulance.

  “I could feel myself fainting, but something told me not to lose consciousness until help came. By then, Jack pulled up and some of the neighbors had come running over. A huge black cloud filled the sky. The car was still burning, but it was already destroyed. Then I heard the ambulance, and everything went black.”

  “God, Nikki. I knew you were hurt and scared, but I never imagined it was that bad.” He reached for that scarred hand and pressed it to his lips. She shivered from his touch but didn’t move away.

  “If I hadn’t been half out of the car, the police said I would have been killed, too. I went through four operations for my burns.”

  “Do you remember the date the explosion happened?”

  “Are you kidding? I’ll never forget September twentieth. Why?”

  He looked thoughtful for a moment. “Yeah, that’s the same day I was struck by lightning. So I did actually experience the explosion the moment you did. At least I got to return to my life. You had to live through hell, the burns, losing your mother.”

  “That wasn’t the worst of it. The police suspected Devlin and started investigating him. He had all the motive and opportunity they needed. Mother had finally cut him off financially, and he was furious about that. Jack had some kind of business offer, and Devlin couldn’t raise the money to take advantage of it. With Mother gone, he was due to inherit over eight million dollars in two years. And he would get a regular living allowance that her will stipulated if she were to die before we turned twenty-eight.

  “I didn’t want to believe that my own brother could kill our mother, but the evidence kept piling up. The police told me that pipe bombs are the weapons of cowards; my brother is the biggest coward I know. He had also dabbled with explosives when he was a teenager. Nothing serious, just rockets and stuff. The police were sure he would be convicted.

  “I was devastated that he had killed our mother for money. I hated him, and I still do. But he and his top-notch defense team painted him as a mama’s boy who lived for his mother. Witnesses corroborated their story, neighbors and friends who’d seen Devlin kowtowing to please Mother so she’d give him a loan. Sure, there were witnesses who’d seen the fights between them, but the defense lawyer explained them away. The prosecution couldn’t prove Devlin had bought the pipe. Otherwise I think they would have convicted him.

  “When it was over, he told me, ‘I plan to straighten this out between us.’ I was terrified. Still, the District Attorney believed that if they found the right kind of evidence, they could bring a civil case against him. That could get him twenty-five yea
rs for each offense, plus state charges of handling explosives. They thought it would only be a couple of months before that happened.

  “I took what he said to me as a threat on my life, though I couldn’t prove it. I didn’t think he’d really try anything, especially since the trial had put the whole ordeal in the spotlight. Jack wanted me to move in with him so he could take care of me. He told me that he wasn’t sure if Devlin was responsible and tried to convince me to see what the jury saw. I knew Jack and Devlin were friends, but I still resented the fact that he took Devlin’s side once the trial was over. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust him, but with Devlin’s threat, I didn’t want to be connected with anything from my life. So I moved to another part of town, trying to work it all out in my head. That’s when I found out I was wrong.”

  Adrian leaned closer. “Wrong about what?”

  “That Devlin wouldn’t try anything. Three weeks after I’d moved in, I found a rattlesnake in my bedroom. The police thought I was paranoid, that it had gotten in somehow on its own. The following week I was nearly hit by a car. There were no witnesses, but the police took me more seriously that time. They checked with Devlin, even with Jack since they were friends, but Jack had been on the phone and Devlin was at a bar when the car tried to run me down. The police offered to protect me, but for how long? I couldn’t hide out in my room wondering when the force couldn’t provide protection anymore. So I hid in the one place no one knew about—the streets.

  “I had already been taking photographs for months, working on a project I kept secret from my family, even from Jack. I knew they wouldn’t understand. So that’s where I went, thinking it would only be for a few months while the District Attorney dug up more evidence. I’ve called several times in the last two years, but they tell me that there are just too many crimes in the city to devote time to this one. The further away we get from the case, the harder it is to find evidence. So here I am, waiting until I turn twenty-eight so I can claim my inheritance and give it to charity.

  “If I die before I inherit, Devlin gets my half. I won’t let him take my life, or my mother’s money. They found a twenty-four pound pipe bomb wedged inside the console. Whoever planted it had no mercy or compassion. I’m not going to give him the chance to do it again.”

  Adrian looked mesmerized and angry at the same time. She didn’t want to drag him into her problems, yet she felt hundreds of pounds lighter for telling him. He still held her hand, stroking the back of it with his thumb. Her heart wanted to trust him, but it was so hard to trust anyone.

  “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I’m sorry I couldn’t have somehow found you then. I wasn’t even sure it was real.”

  “The saddest part was that Mother and I had been arguing a lot before then.” She smiled faintly. “It seemed we were always disagreeing about something. I just wish I could have said, ‘I’m sorry.’”

  “Everyone argues sometimes.”

  She shook her head. “Not for arguing. For not living up to her expectations.”

  “How many people live up to their parents’ expectations?”

  “I felt as if I was the only one in the world who didn’t.”

  He touched her cheek. “And who says we have to live up to their expectations, anyway? Only you can set your goals and dreams.”

  “That’s easy for you to say, Mr. Bigshot Photographer. I’m sure you didn’t have that problem.”

  His expression shadowed, but he lightened it with a soft smile. “My father died before he could even have hopes for his son. My mother and I grew apart after she married an abusive tyrant. I don’t even know if she expected more than for me to just survive. I never got to make peace with her either. She died from cancer three days before my stepfather bothered to find me in New York and tell me. I don’t know what I would have said to her anyway.” His smile deepened when he pinched her cheek. “And I’m not a big shot. Yet.”

  “Close enough. I wanted to be a professional photographer, but more for the artistic end.”

  “And what did you mother want for you?”

  “To marry some rich guy, have his babies, do the social thing. I couldn’t imagine settling for that.”

  “I’ll bet she was proud of you, even if she didn’t tell you. You’re an excellent photographer. She could hardly deny that.”

  Nikki smiled. “Thank you. She did grudgingly admit that my work was good; what I showed her of it, anyway. But she thought it should be directed to babies and glamorous vacations, not ordinary strangers in sad or touching circumstances. And that’s all your fault, you know.”

  “My fault?”

  “Yes. That jazz singer photograph that took first place in PHOTOgraphic Magazine.”

  His baffled expression took on incredulity. “From ten years ago?”

  “Yep. There was nothing elegant or beautiful about that picture, but I was so touched by what you captured that I started looking for that kind of soul in my shots. That’s how I came to photograph the homeless.”

  “I can’t believe you remember that photograph.”

  “Remember it? I’ve still got it. When I found out your real name, I went on a hunch and looked in my file. There you were. The funny part was, I wrote to the magazine to get your address. They wouldn’t send it to me, but if they had, I would have written you. We almost connected all those years ago.”

  He covered his mouth with his hand, an incredulous look on his face. “That’s incredible.”

  “Or fate. Or destiny.”

  A pressure was slowly building inside her as she looked into his eyes filled with compassion and something else, too. Something she couldn’t identify.

  He squeezed her hand. “A photograph almost brought us together ten years ago. This time it worked. I wasn’t sure you were even real until I saw you in the background of one of my shots. Even then, I couldn’t be completely sure I wasn’t losing my mind. But I had to find out.”

  She held her lower lip between her teeth. “You came here because of a picture? That picture of me on the table, the one you told me about on the beach?” She nodded toward the kitchen.

  “I know, it sounds crazy. That’s why I couldn’t tell you the truth when I first found you.” His smile made her heart melt. “Do you believe me, or do you think I’m a kook?”

  “Both,” she said with a grin. Her hand felt hot where he held it with his large hand. “So what are you doing down at the shelter?”

  “We’ve been working to get it up to the city’s standards so they won’t shut it down. I started helping out in the kitchen because I hoped you would come in again.”

  “I did.”

  His eyebrow raised. “I didn’t see you.”

  “I saw you first and left. All I knew was that you had lied to me, that you weren’t what you said. The only man I ever really trusted died. My father,” she clarified. “Devlin I could never depend on, and then he committed the ultimate act of betrayal. I have trust issues.”

  He touched her chin. “Do you know now? Do you trust me?”

  The pressure inside her grew with every touch, with every word he uttered in that velvety voice. She closed her eyes, wanting to trust him completely. Her life for the last two years had been a lie, yet she couldn’t lie now. Not even to the man who had deceived her. “I want to, Adrian. I’m not sure if I know how.”

  His fingers tightened on her chin, then he let his hand drop. “I understand. You need to know something, because I want no more secrets between us. Not on my side, anyway. I’ve lied to you enough already, but there’s no need to lie anymore. I went to see Devlin after I saw you at the beach.”

  She sucked in a quick breath. “Are you crazy?”

  His hand gripped hers, assuring her that he wouldn’t let her move away.

  “I went there because that’s all I had, his name. I found the mansion and walked up to the door. I told him I met you four years ago while on vacation. He said you were gone, and that he didn’t know where you were. He looked rather sad, empty. I
wanted to see what I could find out about you.”

  Her muscles relaxed a bit, but she shook her head. “He’s probably sad because he can’t find me anywhere. Don’t let him fool you. He’s a killer. You should have seen him at the trial, bereft, crying over Mother’s death. Three weeks later he tried to kill me.”

  He took the shell necklace she had returned and put it over her head. “Nikki, you’re the bravest woman I’ve ever known.”

  She knew he meant those words. The pressure inside her kept building, leaving a tingling trail of anticipation in its wake as it traveled to her extremities. Anticipation of what? The answer to that made her heartbeat quicken. She wanted him to kiss her again, to hold her in that strong embrace, but other feelings raced inside her, too. Feelings she was afraid to even think about.

  She was no longer afraid of Adrian, though, of his presence or his intentions. Here was a man who had come for her because of visions. The warmth and fire in his eyes comforted and teased at the same time.

  He turned her hand and fitted his palm against hers. A small tremor moved down her arm and into her fingertips. She looked at their hands, his so much larger than hers, his fingers extending far beyond her own. Her gaze traveled up his arms, to his shoulders. For the first time in so long, she could let herself feel delicate and feminine.

  Adrian entwined their fingers and pulled her gently toward him. She freed her fingers and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. The cotton T-shirt felt soft against her arms. He framed her face with his hands and just looked at her, as though he couldn’t believe she was really there.

  He pulled her close and pressed his mouth against hers, tasting, tugging her lower lip between his. Then his tongue tickled along her lip, leaving a warm, moist trail. She felt her breath catch and fought to keep the trembling at bay. His tongue teased, flicking in and out, touching her front teeth. When she couldn’t stand it anymore, she opened her mouth and kissed him fully. His sigh seemed to emanate from deep within his soul as he pulled her tighter against him. His thumbs stroked her cheeks, close to her lips, and then his fingers moved through her hair.