The Law of Attraction (17 page)

A foul curse spewed out of Daniel's mouth, then another. He considered not answering it, but at this time of night it could be an emergency. Damn his job.

Keeping one arm beneath Alisha, he reached over and grabbed the receiver. “Fortune.”

“Hi, Danny.”

Another surprise among the many tonight. “Ryan?”

“Yeah. Sorry to bother you. I just wanted to check in.”

After giving Alisha an apologetic look, Daniel moved away from her and sat on the edge of the bed. “Sure. I'm glad you called. I've been busy, otherwise I would have called you.” But he hadn't, just one more thing to fuel his guilt. “I'm sorry.”

“It's okay, Danny. I…” Ryan hesitated, then said, “I need you to promise me something.”

“Sure, Ryan. Anything.”

“Promise me you'll make sure Jamison gets what he deserves.”

Daniel tightened his grip on the receiver. “You've gotten more threats.”

“A few.”

Damn Jamison straight to hell. “Do you have security in place?”

“Yeah. And there's something else. It's about Emmett Jamison. He's been out of touch with family for a while, so his father, Blake, tracked him down in New Mexico. You know he's former FBI, right?”

That was one of the few things he knew about Jason Jamison's brother. “Yeah. Why?”

“Blake told me Emmett's been out at the firing range every day. Blake's worried he's going to conduct his own search for Jason. He's a good guy and I don't want to see him get into trouble.”

That was the last thing the police needed—vigilante justice. “If you can confirm that's his intent, you might want to notify the authorities.”

“I'm hoping I don't have to. I'm also hoping they find Jason before the son of a bitch ruins more lives. Or kills someone else.”

“They'll find him, Ryan, and when they do, he'll be pun
ished to the fullest extent of the law.” Daniel displayed more confidence than he actually felt at the moment.

“I just hope I'm around to see that.”

“You will be.”

“I won't unless he's caught in the next three months or so.”

An eerie sense of foreboding settled over Daniel. “I'm not following you here, Ryan.”

“It's almost over for me, Danny. And I can't do anything to stop it.”

“You're not making any sense, Ryan.”

A long pause followed Ryan's rough sigh. “I've got to go, Danny. Lily's waiting.”

“Not until you stop speaking in riddles and tell me what's going on.”

“Okay, but what I say can't go any further until I'm ready to tell the family.”

“You can trust me, Ryan.”

“I'm about to do something. The hardest thing I've ever done.”

A sickening feeling settled in Daniel's gut. “What do you have to do?”

“In a few minutes I have to tell the woman I've loved for more years than I can count that I'm dying from a brain tumor and there's nothing anyone can do.”

“D
amn, Ryan. I can't believe this.”

The absolute helplessness in Daniel's voice sent Alisha up onto one arm. He kept his head lowered, the phone gripped in one hand as he forked the other through his hair.

“Are you sure nothing can be done?”

Alisha could only make out the muffled sound of a male voice, so she couldn't discern the content of the conversation. But it was bad, she decided. Very, very bad.

After a few agonizing moments Daniel said, “You let me know if you need anything. Anything at all.”

He replaced the phone on the charger, then cradled his head in his hands, his elbows on his thighs. With his back to her, Alisha couldn't see his face, but she sensed his distress. She rubbed his back, the only thing she could think to do. “Problems?” she asked softly.

“Yeah.”

“Want to talk about it?”

His weary sigh echoed in the room. “I just learned that the man who was more of a father to me than my own father is dying.”

Not just bad. Tragic. Alisha said the only thing that came to mind. “I'm so sorry, Daniel.”

“So am I. More than I can say.”

Alisha wished he would voice his sadness, use her as a sounding board. “I'm willing to listen.”

He remained silent for a moment, leading her to believe that he didn't want that at all, then suddenly sat up and turned a bit toward her. He said, “Back when I was a kid, we used to go to see my cousin Ryan on his ranch in the summer.”

She recalled what she knew about Ryan Fortune. He was a revered rancher and philanthropist whom Alisha knew only by reputation. A stellar reputation. “Good memories?”

“Yeah. My mom would pack us up and take us, until we'd get the call from
him,
demanding we come home.”

“Him?”

“My bastard of a father. He couldn't stand having my mother gone for more than a few days. He hated that she might be happy without him, which she was during those times. I never saw her smile all that much except at Ryan's. But then, she didn't have anything to smile about. None of us did.”

Finally the puzzle of Daniel's background was beginning to unfold. “I take it you didn't get along with your dad.”

His laugh was caustic. “That's an understatement. Kind of hard to get along with someone who pretends to be the consummate family man during the day, then comes home drunk and knocks his wife around at night.”

The truth was much worse than Alisha had thought, but it did explain the sadness and anger she'd seen in his eyes when he'd talked about his parents. “Did he hit you?”

“Yeah, but not to the degree he hit her.” He sent a quick glance back at her, then turned away again, but not before she
witnessed the fury in his eyes. “Remember when I told you she wasn't always available to cook?”

“Yes.”

“That wasn't because she was at a PTA meeting or bible study. She was in bed, nursing her wounds.”

A marriage like that was totally beyond Alisha's comprehension. Her father never raised a hand to her mother. Or to her, for that matter. “No one did anything to stop him?”

“We called the police a couple of times, but my mother wouldn't press charges. And my father was a local banker, well respected. No one knew the real Leonard Fortune.”

But Daniel had, and he'd suffered for it. “Your mother never left him?”

“No. My brother, Vincent, the oldest, stuck around until my little sister was gone. I left as soon as I could get out of there. And sometimes I regret it. Sometimes I wonder if I could have talked her into leaving.”

“Daniel, you can't blame yourself. You can't force someone to do something she doesn't want to do.”

“Probably so, but as it turned out, her husband eventually killed her anyway.”

It took all of Alisha's strength not to gasp. “I thought you said it was—”

“A wreck. It was. No one knows for certain if he was drunk, because they were both killed instantly in a single-vehicle accident. But I know. He might as well have put a gun to her head and pulled the trigger. Same thing.”

He remained silent for a long time before he said, “That's why I appreciate Ryan as much as I do. He provided an escape, even though he never knew it. But it didn't last. One day—I think I was about ten—I begged my mother to let us stay with him for good, but she took us home anyway. We never went back as a family, and that was the last time I cried. I shut down after that out of self-preservation. I stopped feeling altogether, or at least tried. And I swore I would never be like him.”

Now it all made sense—Daniel's refusal to drink, his determination to prosecute criminals. His pain. Alisha wanted to reach out to him, but she realized he would have to invite it. “I'm sorry you had to live with that. It's not something anyone could easily forget.”

“I forgave my mother, but I've never forgotten, even though I now know the dynamics of domestic violence. And the two times I've had to try a case where a battered woman was involved in the killing of her partner, it's been tough. I might have argued the murder, but I was thinking justification.”

“You didn't request to be removed for those cases?”

“I couldn't. No one knows about my sorry situation outside of my immediate family. No one but you.”

Alisha wasn't sure which was more shocking—that he'd gone through his life never revealing his horrible past or that he'd chosen to tell her. She scooted up on her knees and wrapped her arms around his neck from behind. “Thank you for trusting me enough to tell me. I only wish I could do something to help.”

He took her hand and kissed her palm. “You can. Just be with me.”

She could do that without any reservation. She could help him forget, if only for a while.

Daniel took her back onto the bed in his arms and kissed her. A kiss that seemed almost desperate in its intensity. He pulled back to study her face, to touch her mouth, to stroke her cheek, before kissing her again.

She truly wanted to alleviate his pain, to make him forget. Nudging him onto his back, she kissed his face, his shadowed jaw, and then slid her lips down his chest. When she kept going, he tangled his hands in her hair. When she moved beyond the hard plane of his belly, he released a harsh breath. And when she took him into her mouth, he muttered a soft curse followed by her name.

She explored without hesitation, using her lips and hands,
engaging in more intimacy than she had with any man before him. Her ministrations were working, she realized, when she noticed the sound of his ragged breathing and the tautness of his muscles where her palm rested on his thigh.

Suddenly he sat up and bent forward, taking her by the arms and pulling her up. “Not this way,” he murmured as he laid her back onto the bed again. “I want to be inside you.”

With his solid thigh he parted her legs and fulfilled his desire, as well as hers. He moved hard, moved deep, holding her tightly as he whispered her name. She didn't complain when he cuffed her wrists in one hand and held her arms above her head while he kept his other hand in motion over her body. She didn't worry when the tempo turned wilder, more frantic, because she intuitively knew this was what he needed. She wanted to be the woman he needed. The woman he loved.

Alisha didn't have time to analyze that thought because her own needs took over as Daniel continued to touch her and kiss her. She climaxed with a moan against his mouth. He wasn't far behind her, his body racked with a fierce shudder as he continued to look into her eyes before he buckled against her.

They stayed that way, holding each other, their breathing returning to normal in slow increments. He rested his cheek against her breasts while she smoothed her hand over his hair. She cherished the absolute contentment she experienced in that moment, until she felt the warmth and dampness against her skin.

Alisha moved her hand down to Daniel's face and confirmed what she already knew. She stroked his hair and whispered, “It's okay. I'm here. It's okay….”

She felt his sorrow as keenly as if it was hers, and she cried for him, as well. She let the tears fall silently as she mourned for the little boy whose life had been shattered by violence, and fell totally in love with the man who had taken that tattered past and built something solid from the ruins with his undying pursuit of justice.

The world was lucky to have Daniel Fortune, and she was so very lucky to know him. No matter what happened from this point forward, she would never regret having him in her life.

 

While one man let go of his past in the arms of a woman, another prepared to face his tenuous future in the arms of his beloved wife.

Ryan Fortune couldn't imagine his life without Lily. Couldn't imagine walking into the room where they had spent so many nights holding each other, loving each other, to tell her what he should have told her months ago. But he couldn't put off the inevitable any longer, especially now that Daniel knew the truth. He owed her that much. He owed her everything.

On leaden legs Ryan walked into the bedroom and paused at the open door. Lily sat up against the pillows, concentrating on whatever book she was reading, her routine for all the years they'd been together. He took a moment to study her, to record all the details of her face, before the tumor took total control, robbing him of the ability to remember at all.

At fifty-nine Lily was still incredibly beautiful, her hair still long and sleek and black, tinged with only a few strands of barely noticeable gray. He questioned what he had done right to deserve such a remarkable woman. He wondered how he would ever be able to tell her goodbye or if he would even be able to say the words when the time came. But the loss of his dignity could never compare to losing her.

When he stepped inside the bedroom, Lily set her reading glasses and the book on the nightstand, tossed back the sheets and patted the space beside her.

“Climb in, my love. You look exhausted.”

He was both tired and weary, burdened by his illness and the duty he must now undertake. “We need to talk.”

“Of course.” He saw the concern in her expression, heard it in her voice. She knew something was going on, had known
for a while. He just hadn't been able to find the strength to tell her. He prayed for strength now as he slid into the bed and pulled her against his side.

“We've had a good life, haven't we, Lily?”

She snuggled against his chest. “The best.”

“Have I made you happy?”

She raised her head and stared at him. “How could you ask me that? I love you more than I've ever loved anyone. I love you more every day.”

“I feel the same.”
Get on with it, Fortune.
“And that's why what I'm about to tell you is so damn hard.”

“Ryan, you're scaring me.” Her fear was reflected in her face.

Truth be known, he was scared, too. Not scared to die, but scared to leave her behind. Scared that she might get it in her fool head to stop living. “I'm sorry, honey. I don't want you to be scared. But I do need you to promise me something before I continue.”

He saw the first mist of tears in her eyes. “What?”

“That no matter what happens in the future, make sure the Fortune reunion happens in May. And never forget that you've been the best thing that's ever happened to me.”

“Ryan, please—”

“I'm sick, Lily. I have something growing in my head. It's going to keep growing until it sucks the life out of me.”

She straightened and touched her fingertips to her lips. “God, Ryan, no—”

He pulled her back into his arms. “I'm sorry. I should've told you a few months ago. I just didn't know how.”

The tortured sob she released cut Ryan straight to the heart. He held her close while she cried, fighting his own tears. He damned this disease. Damned his helplessness and the injustice of it all.

Without warning she sat up and returned to the Lily he knew and loved. “We're going to fight this, Ryan. I'm not
ready to lose you. We'll call Peter and Violet in the morning and ask them—”

“I've already talked to them.” He sat up with his back to the headboard. “Lily, I've seen plenty of doctors, and they've all said the same thing. Nothing can be done about it.”

“What about chemotherapy, radiation?”

“They only buy a little bit of time. I don't want to spend the last of my days being sicker than I have to be. I've accepted my fate, and you have to accept it, too. I swear to God, Lily, I can't have any peace unless I know you're going to be okay. I have to know that you'll go on without me and be happy.”

She threw her pillow across the room. “Happy? How can I be happy when I know you've given up?”

“I'm not giving up, honey. I've just decided to acknowledge the illness and go on from there.”

She stared at him blankly for a long moment. “I can't do this, Ryan. I can't even think about living without you.”

He took her hands into his. “You're going to have to think about it, but you also need to think about the good times. You need to think about all the years we've spent together and how lucky we've been. Some people spend a lifetime together and never have what we have.”

She collapsed against him, her tears bleeding through his pajama shirt. “I love you, Ryan. I love you so, so much. I won't be able to stand it if you're gone.”

He rocked her gently, held on to her tightly and finally let his own tears come. He wanted to freeze this moment in time. He wanted to wake up and realize his cancer had all been a nightmare. He wanted a miracle, knowing that a miracle wouldn't come. Besides, he'd already been blessed with one miracle, and she was in his arms.

 

Daniel couldn't seem to get close enough to Alisha, even now as they made love in the moments before dawn. She roved her hands over his back, soothed him with her touch as
they moved together. He held her face in his palms to watch her, filing the moments to memory—the pleasure in her eyes, the way her lips trembled when she neared a climax—until his own body's demand for release forced his eyes closed. The impact jolted him from the inside out, and he continued to shake long after it was over, his face buried in the softness of her neck.