Healer (The Healer Series) (28 page)

Lying in bed, drowning in sheer boredom, I
drift off to sleep and seem to be lost in darkness. I try to focus and create my lake, but it doesn’t appear. I start to walk when voices surround me. I walk towards the sound, trying to make out the words. Finally, I get close enough to make out the conversation.

“What do we do?” Whit asks.

“It’s up to you,” Rhett replies.

“
Do you think she can handle it?”

“I don’t know
, Whit. She doesn’t seem to want to accept the truth.”

“Then tell her.”

“Are you sure?” Rhett’s voice fills with uncertainty.

“
I guess it’s now or never. I mean, is there any other way?” Whit asks.

“I still think I can
with more time, but Sarah has decided to do things her way.”

“I miss her,
” Whit admits, and I feel a pang in my heart.

I miss him too.

“You know this could end badly, right?”

“I trust you
, man.”

Why is
my subconscious creating a conversation between my brother and Rhett? Is it trying to compare my past with my present?

“Whit!”
I yell, but they continue to speak as if they can’t hear me. I yell his name over and over again. After many useless attempts, I yell, “Rhett!” No response. I muster up what’s left of my voice and scream as loud as I can, “Rhett!”

“Did she just say your name?” Whit asks
with disbelief in his voice.

“She did. Aldo, I’m here.”

“Where is here?”

He keeps speaking as if he didn’t hear my question.
“Hudson, she’s speaking,” I hear Whit yell from a distance.

“Aldo, say something,
” Whit begs me.

“Where are you?” I yell, but they s
till don’t answer my question. “Rhett!” I yell, my voice becoming hoarse.

“I’m here Aldo,” h
e says again, but his voice seems distant. “Aldo….” His voice trails off as I snap awake. I sit up and try to get my wits about me. It felt so real. I lay back down, hugging my pillow, trying to console myself as tears stream down my face. I miss my brothers. I miss Lucy. But mostly, I miss Rhett.

.

seventeen

Days pass without a sign of Rhett. To say his presence has been missed would be an understatement. My days have been filled with chores and dealing with Sarah’s delightful personality.

Most nights after dinner, I walk the property hoping to exhaust myself so I can sleep. Tonight
is no different, but I head towards the lake where Rhett and I skinny dipped. The smell of tall grass, fresh dirt, and must fill the air. The sun has just dipped below the tree line, making way for lightening bugs to pierce the evening air with their flicks of light.

I walk into the barn and pet each horse before grabbing the bottle of Jack Daniels that Rhett and I were drinking from nights before. Bottle in hand, I continue my journey to the lake, while I sip the bourbon.
Throughout the mindless chores Sarah’s had me doing the last few days, my mind has remained focused on Rhett, Lucy, and Thomas. I haven’t been able to think of anything else. Where did Rhett go? I’m starting to go stir crazy wondering if he will return. I take the last sip of whiskey from the bottle as I reach the bank of the lake, and sit it by my feet. I stare at the massive oak tree a moment and try to remember happier times. Times I shared with Thomas and my brothers; fishing and laughing. I scratch my arm. Another mosquito bite. I sigh. If only Rhett were here to heal it.

I close my eyes an
d try to remember the sensations his energy sends through me. I may be confused about many things, but at this moment, I want Rhett. He is dangerous and forbidden, but kind and gentle, too. Images of him play in my mind, his smile, his hair when it’s loose, his naked body.
Oh God, his body.
I’m getting worked up, going into full blast fantasy mode. Maybe a swim will calm me down.

I strip down and
wade ankle deep through the water for a few moments while I tie my hair up, then slowly make my way into the water trying to enjoy this moment of real relaxation. But my mind returns to the numbers from the bank account. It keeps nagging me because the numbers make no sense.

“Mind if I join you?”
Rhett calls from the bank.

I
jump, surprised by his arrival. “No. Not at all.” When he pulls his shirt over his head, all of the air in my body escapes in one slow whoosh. I close my eyes and turn to give him some privacy. The water splashes as he makes his way in and my stomach knots.

“You can look now.
”

I
turn slowly and meet his gaze. “Hi.” I smile nervously.

“Hi
yourself.” He grins back, and my stomach flutters with butterflies. “Miss me?” He swims backwards in front of me.

“Haven’t given you a single thought,” I shrug casually.

“Is that so?” He splashes at me.

“Where were you?”

“I went to see a friend.”

“I didn’t
think you were coming back.”

“I said I would be back.”

For some reason my eyes tear up. I turn and try to hide my emotion. “I know.”

He must have noted something in my expression because he says, “Hey.” H
e tries to swim in front of me, but I keep turning. “Stop.” He grabs my arms.

My body sags as his energy consumes me
. Relief washes over me. I have gotten my fix, my addiction satisfied.

“
Aldo, I’m here.” He stares into my eyes, and his words echo in my mind. “
Aldo,
I’m here.”
The exact words he said in my dream several nights ago. That can’t be a coincidence. I pull away from him. “Rhett, is there something you’re not telling me?”

The
water line rides right beneath his defined chest. He exhales and runs a hand through his hair. “I think it’s time to tell you, but can we just enjoy this for a few more minutes?”

“Do you promise to tell me everything?”

“I promise.”

“Okay.” I smile, knowing I won’
t be able to think of anything else.

“What have you
and Sarah been up to while I’ve been gone?”

“Oh you know; doing each other’s hair, painting each ot
her’s nails, talking about boys,” I jive.

“Did you give each other facials?”

“That was like the first thing we did.” I nod enthusiastically. He laughs and runs a hand through his hair.

After a moment, I add, “Actually, Sarah let me check on my brothers.” I keep my voice casual, trying to gauge his reaction.

“She did?” He looks
more angry than surprised.

I swim backwards away from him. “You
told her about our code system, so she let me check the accounts.”

“And what did you find?”

“There were weird numbers. The checking account had more money in it than usual and the savings account was way low. The savings is what we use for codes, but the numbers don’t match any of our agreed codes.”

“Maybe there isn’t a code.”

“I keep trying to tell myself that, but I can’t stop thinking about it.”

“Maybe the numbers are letters.” His voice has a
strange tone, and he looks away from me.

“What?”

“Like each number represents a letter in the alphabet.”

I think about this for a minut
e.
Why didn’t I think of that?
“Yeah, but what would twenty-one sixteen mean?”

He stares into the sky a
s if thinking. “Well the twenty-first letter of the alphabet is U and the sixteenth would be.”

“P” I interrupt
him. “Up?” What would that mean?

He rolls his eyes and the muscles in his jaw tighten.
“Let’s go up to the house where we can write it all out. Ladies first.” He motions towards the bank.

As I leave the water, Rhett faces away from me. I retie my hair and in the limited light of the moon, I search the bank for my panties and jump.

Rhett stands right behind me. Where did he come from? His breath brushes my skin. We both remain still, our heavy breathing the only sound that breaks the silence.

I freeze
, wanting to run and wanting to melt into his body all at once. I feel weak. Is it his presence or the bourbon I’m buzzed from? Or both? I turn slowly and stare at his chest where droplets of water rest on tight skin. My body trembles as I force my eyes up to meet his. Drops of water fall from the locks of his dark hair on to his face and shoulders. I lick my lips and swallow, waiting for him to say something. We’re naked, standing only inches apart, but neither of us moves, yet my body is reacting to the sexual tension. My nipples are hard and my core is tense with anticipation. His body language reveals nothing and with no words, I can only look into his eyes for answers. His eyes tell me what he won’t—the windows to his soul. His lips are flat, pressed in a thin line, his jaw tight, his body straight and still, but his eyes say everything. There’s a wanting there, a need. A hunger that burns inside him.

H
e gently takes my face in his hands and presses his lips to mine.

Immediately
, his energy overtakes me, and I surrender to him. Our bodies press together, and I am shot into a world where people who have lost all concept of their better senses go. There is nothing, but want and desire here. The kiss lasts seconds, minutes…, I don’t really know, but when I come to, I’m torn between wanting it to last forever and wanting to escape.

When Rhett
pulls away, I stare back, speechless. I fight the pull of gravity and force my body away from his as he releases me. He searches the bank while I stand in a trance, unable to move, then he hands me my clothes and walks two feet away to dress. I fumble, my hands shaking as I dress, in part because I’m buzzed and in part because I am flabbergasted by his kiss. When he finishes dressing, Rhett faces the water and stares up at the moon.

My emotions are mixed.
Shouldn’t I be mad he kissed me?
I should slap him, but something else is alive in me. I only felt this once before.
I’m falling for him
. How could this be? I barely know him, and given our meeting, feeling this way about him seems wrong. Why am I here? What is he doing to me? I remember a moment like this when I approached Thomas in my dream, naked and determined, begging him, but he vanished before my eyes. I scold myself for allowing the memories of Thomas to play out in my mind after Rhett has just kissed me. Not just kissed me, but turned my soul inside out.

“Why did you do that?”
I ask, trying to tame the butterflies in my stomach.

“I don’t know.
I seldom do what I really want to,” he mumbles at me. “I won’t do it again.”

I follow him
towards the house, disappointed by his words. Why wouldn’t he do it again? In my twitterpated state, I can’t help but take in the property bathed in moonlight. It’s breathtaking. “I really like it here,” I say, not realizing I say it out loud.

“Yeah, it’s like a dream.” His voice holds an odd tone, almost like he’s joking.

My mind drifts
back to the bank accounts. The numbers in the savings account would say “UP” if I used Rhett’s decoding method. That doesn’t make any sense. And for the checking account, two thousand, three hundred and eleven dollars and fifteen cents, two would be B, three would be C and one would be A. That doesn’t spell anything. My brain aches, as I try to match letters with the numbers.

“Rhett, what if the total is 2,311.15? The first three numbers aren’t single digit.”

“So the first number would be twenty-three?” he asks.

“W. Right?” I verify.

“Yeah, so the second number is eleven and that would be K.”

“That doesn’t make any sense. Maybe the next number is meant to be s
ingle. So one would be A. W-A. The next two letters would be A if they were single digit. If the next number was a double digit it would be eleven and that makes it a K.” I continue sorting this out, not realizing Rhett has stopped assisting me.

“
Come on, let’s get to the house.” He rushes me, but I remain focused on my riddle of numbers.

“W-A-K,
” I spell out loud.

I continue to
work out the rest in my head while I try to keep up with Rhett, who is in a mad dash for the house. The last number is five and that would be an E. W-A-K-E. Wake? That makes no sense. Wake would be the first word. Wake up? The code was “
wake up
”?

A
popping sound fills my ears and a sharp pain stabs through my head, but it fades fast. I race the last few yards to the fence and I grab it to catch my balance.

Something
bright lights up the darkness, just above the ground, about fifty feet away in the pasture.

Rhett continues to walk
, not realizing I’ve stopped.

I can’
t tell what I’m seeing, so I slide through the beams of the fence and run softly towards it, like a moth to flame. I make it halfway there when Rhett yells my name.

“Hold on, I’m just
checking something out,” I yell back, now about five feet from the light.

“Wait
, Aldo!”

Up close
, the light looks like a hole in a wall with a light shining through it. I try to touch it, but my hand passes through. I bend down, looking inside of it, but the sharp pain returns. I close my eyes for a moment until it passes, then I touch the outside of the rigid hole again.

The edges are soft, like paper and
it tears at the slightest touch. I jerk back. “What the hell?” I grab the edge and rip it back. A large piece of thin material shreds away exposing more of the bright white room behind it.

Suddenly
, Rhett jerks me up by the arms, so hard and fast my teeth clink. “Aldo, listen,” his eyes are wide.

“What is this?”
Panic enthralls me as another pain shoots through my head, and I cry out.

“Aldo, j
ust stay calm.” Rhett’s voice is steady.

The pain subsides
, and I stare back at the hole while trying to fight my way out of his grip. “Let me go!” I yell.

“Please let me exp
lain.”

I continue to jerk
, and hit at him, trying to break away. When he finally lets me go, I grab more of the wall and rip at it. It tears like paper, sound and all. More and more of the white room is exposed until I stop tearing and step through the hole into the white room.

At
the snap of someone’s fingers, the entrance to the hole disappears, and I turn to see Rhett watching me, his face like stone.

We now stand in the white dome Rhett
created the first night he brought me to the farm. Nausea washes over me, and I lean over, dry heaving.

Rhett
gently rubs my back, but I jerk away from him.

“I’m dreaming?” I ask between heaves.