Touched by Lightning [Dreams of You] (Romantic Suspense) (23 page)

Even cradled in Adrian’s arms, Nikki couldn’t fall asleep. He was up to something. “Trust me,” he’d asked. How could she trust him when their whole relationship had started out with a lie? He was gone all day from a job he seemed dedicated to, and all he said was that he was taking care of business.

It was more than that vague answer. He had been quiet all night, avoiding her eyes. It wasn’t like him, or at least like the man she had come to know this past week. He had moved away from her that night, not physically, but emotionally. Could it be that he was getting tired of her?

Well, what did she have to offer him, anyway? A woman who was hiding for her life, living on the streets by day, sneaking back to his place at night to make love and have dinner. He would have to leave soon, and the pain that rumbled through her already would rip her heart in half when he left. She was falling more in love with him every day, and he was falling out of love with her.

Nikki thought of the reflection she’d seen in the mirror that night before getting into bed. No makeup, no fancy hairdo. He was used to beautiful women posing on beaches in bikinis, not street urchins.

A sob caught in her throat, and she swallowed it back. She didn’t regret a moment with Adrian, not even the ones where she was uncertain of him. Most of all, she didn’t regret giving him her most precious gift. He had been tender, loving, passionate. A tear slid down to the pillow. She could feel his heartbeat against her bare back. When he breathed, she moved with him. Saying goodbye was inevitable, and every night she spent in his rented house put her in danger. She had to let him go. Maybe he would stay around another few days, or a week. She would be more in love with him, and he would be glad to be rid of her. No, she had to be the one to say goodbye, and soon.

Adrian was determined to get to the bottom of Nikki’s mother’s death. More determined to free her from this two-year sentence she’d imposed on herself. If she doubted him now, someday she would thank him. He’d bid her goodbye that morning, making a plan to meet her for lunch.

He walked into the LandCorp offices and told the receptionist he was expected. Jack seemed different at this meeting, not quite as charming. Was he suspicious of good old Uncle Carlo, or of Adrian himself?

“Hello, Mr. Santucci. I have to apologize. When I called you yesterday, I thought I’d be able to spend the whole night working on these numbers. Unfortunately, something came up that prevented me from completing them. Then I realized I’d left your number at work, and by the time I got here, well, you were pulling in. How about tomorrow morning? I promise I’ll have them done.”

“I understand. Tomorrow’s fine.”

They shook hands. Adrian noticed that Devlin wasn’t in this meeting and seemed to be nowhere around. No matter. Jack seemed the mastermind behind LandCorp now that Devlin had given him control.

Nikki pulled up to the shelter, sitting in her van for a few minutes. Adrian hadn’t gotten to the shelter until nine o’clock, and he’d been dressed in nice pants and shirt. Maybe he would tell her what was going on at lunch. Her heart ached at the thought of losing him, but there wasn’t any choice. Adrian was still keeping secrets from her. She had to be strong and walk away, and she had to do it before it was too late.

A knock on the glass beside her jarred her. Adrian leaned against the door, a sweet smile on his face. She opened the door and stepped out, slipping so easily into his arms. He stooped to her level, not letting her look away.

“You looked deep in thought. Is everything all right?”

“I’m fine.”

They walked around to the van’s side door and sat on the bed eating egg salad sandwiches. Adrian had once mentioned that he liked them. While he ate, he talked about how close they were to finishing.

“I can’t wait to see that inspector’s face when he returns, ready to shut us down.”

Us.
Adrian had taken a real interest in the shelter. Soon it would be done, and then what?

“All the homeless people keep coming by every night to see if we’re open yet. It’s sad. The blanket collection’s been going well, though, so at least we can give them something to keep them warm.” At her wan nod, he asked, “Are you all right? You’ve been awfully quiet.”

Putting on a casual face, she said, “I stopped by earlier, but your car wasn’t here.”

Instead of looking uncomfortable, he reached out and touched her chin. “Didn’t I ask you to trust me? Can you do that?”

She nodded again but couldn’t quite meet his eyes. Trust didn’t come easily to her, especially with Adrian. Every time he touched her, every time he looked into her eyes, her heart shattered a little more. She couldn’t take anymore of this. Not another night with him, not making love with him. It hurt too much.

He leaned over and kissed her. His mouth caressed hers before his tongue slipped inside hers. She didn’t want him to think anything was wrong, so she kissed him back. It was a sweet kiss, filled with the promise of much more later. But she had already made a decision. She could not tell him in person. No, he wouldn’t let her leave. Adrian had already told her he’d almost pack her up and ship her back to New York to get her away from there. He wasn’t going to let her slip off into the night. She had to write him a letter.

“Are you going to tell me what’s bothering you?” he asked in that intimate tone that sent shivers up her spine.

“I’m all right, really. Maybe I’m coming down with something.”

“The last time you said that, you stood me up.” He smiled, but his words made her heart stop beating. “Why don’t you go back to the house and get some sleep? I’ll nurse you back to health when I get home.”

“Okay.” Her hand reached up to touch his cheek, already a little rough with stubble. “See you later.” She hoped he didn’t hear the thickness that had overtaken her voice.

She drove to the house, composing the goodbye letter in her mind. She was also trying to figure out where she would go for a while. Last time Adrian had stuck around town when she had disappeared, but it would be different this time. She would explain to him that there simply was no other way, with no mention of his so-called business. She didn’t want him to think he had to explain anything to her. She wanted to make it all perfectly clear that it was hopeless and for him to leave.

Nikki parked the van behind the house, not taking any chances even though this would be her last visit. She walked in, greeting Crackers as he nearly ran to the door. He was only a couple of days away from getting his cast off. She knelt down, and the pup tried to jump onto the shelf her legs made. She giggled as he licked her face and tickled her chin with his whiskers.

After trying to keep herself balanced, she toppled down to the tile. Crackers’s tail zipped through the air as he nuzzled her. She rested her cheek against the soft fur of his back.

“What am I going to do with you?” Nikki had thought about it all the way home. She couldn’t, wouldn’t, take him to the dog pound. He deserved better than that. But she couldn’t keep him in her van, as much as she had come to love his company.

She held the puppy’s face in her hands, looking at him. “Do you think Adrian loves you enough to take you home with him? If I ask him real nice in my letter, maybe? I know he cares about you, probably as much as I do. He’s already taken in some cat.” A weight lifted from her shoulders as searched for the notepad she knew Adrian kept around.

When she found it, she sat down at the table and took a deep breath. This was the coward’s way out, butt it was the only way. She didn’t think about the bleak future ahead of her without Adrian in it. She’d have two long years to wonder about him, who he was with, if he had fallen in love with someone yet. Two lonely years.

With a sigh, she started the letter:

Dear Adrian,

Please try not to hate me. I know you have to go back to New York soon; you can’t stay here for the next two years trying to protect me. I can’t keep putting myself in danger by coming here either. Even if I went to New York with you, I’d never feel safe. That leaves me with only one alternative: get out of here before I become too attached to you.

Okay, it’s too late for that. I have to leave before I stop being careful because I want to be with you. I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you in person, but it’s hard enough to just write this letter. I hope you understand why I’m doing this.

Don’t get mad at me for leaving Crackers here. I can’t take care of him, and I can’t bear to leave him at the pound or put him back on the streets. Next time there might not be anyone so kind as to carry him ten blocks to the vet. I leave him in your capable hands, hoping that you’ll take him back with you. If you don’t want him, please find him a good home. I know you care about him, and if you ever cared about me, you’ll do this one thing for me.

I’ve never loved anyone the way I do you. Adrian, you’ve given me hope for the future and courage to face the world again in two years. I hope we can at least be friends when that time comes. I know where to find you. How could I ever forget? “Visions, Inc.” Please don’t try to find me. It’ll just make this harder for both of us.

Nikki.

She folded the note and left it tucked beneath one of her framed pictures in the center of the table. Tears filled her eyes, and when she blinked, they spilled down her cheeks. She could almost picture Adrian wiping them away with his hand. Although he would never understand, she was doing this for him, too. If Devlin found her with Adrian, he might kill them both. It was best for everyone. Now if she could only convince her heart of that, she’d be fine. She gave Crackers a kiss on his forehead and slipped out the back door.

The grey clouds above looked pregnant with rain. Adrian drove through the streets of Palm Beach, thinking of what he would say to Nikki. He was determined to solve this murder of her mother, but he needed Nikki’s help. That meant coming clean about his visit to LandCorp. No more lies. All he had to do was convince her that together they could solve this and free her. He was as obsessed with that as he had been about finding Nikki.

The house was empty, a strange letdown with the electricity shooting through his veins. Crackers greeted him, and Adrian petted him as he scanned the public areas of the house. Maybe she was asleep in his bed. That thought kindled a warm feeling inside him.

He tossed his keys on the table and headed for the bedroom. The bed was empty, sheets and blankets still rumpled from that morning. The bathroom was dark and quiet.

“Nikki. Are you here?”

Only the sound of Crackers’s tail thumping against the wall. A thread of panic snaked through him, but he attributed it to his thoughts about Devlin. If he hadn’t found her after all this time, chances are he wouldn’t find her now. Then why did a panicky feeling pound in his heart?

“Nikki!” he shouted louder, but there was no response.

He grabbed his keys off the table and started to turn toward the door when the note caught his eye. A heaviness settled in his chest as he pulled it from beneath one of Nikki’s pictures. When he read the note, the heaviness crushed him. She was gone. That’s why she’d looked so sad when she met him for lunch. He slammed his fist on the table, sending the frame popping up in the air. He jumped into his car and headed back to the city where he had first found Nikki.

Adrian didn’t know why, but he had a bad feeling about this whole situation. Logically, she should be as safe as she had always been. That didn’t exactly comfort him. Nothing about his and Nikki’s relationship had been logical.

CHAPTER 15

Adrian had played his part perfectly, if unwittingly. And he’d buried himself. Sometimes people got in the way, like Blossom Madsen that Sunday afternoon three years ago. After all this time, he had Nikki within his grasp again. He wouldn’t let her get away.

He cracked his knuckles while he waited for her to come out of the house, then tailed her as she drove out of the city. If she had noticed him following, she’d given no indication of it. Finally, she pulled into an alcove between shopping centers and turned off the van.

Finding Nikki had been an unexpected surprise. He’d hardly had time to pull something together. No mistakes this time. He guessed that she’d been hiding out among the homeless. Probably thought she was clever. He’d hardly recognized her, what with all that drab clothing and her hair tucked beneath that god-awful hooded coat. But, son of a cocked gun, it was her.

The black clouds had long ago obliterated the sun, making it look like midnight instead of five. The sky shuddered with light and sound before the sudden onslaught of rain dumped from the heavens. Forty-five minutes since Nikki had parked. With the pouring rain, she wouldn’t be going anywhere. Good. He had some things to take care of, and he couldn’t afford to lose her in the meantime.

An hour later he returned, breathing a sigh of relief to find the van still in place. The thumping of his heartbeat, loud and steady in his ears, annoyed the hell out of him. Her being in the van would certainly pose a challenge, but the storm would keep any potential witnesses from straying by, as well as cover any noise he made.

Holding the twenty-three pound pipe inside his black raincoat, he walked across the street and around the back of the shopping center. A couple of bums huddled in a store’s entrance, but he knew they’d never recognize some guy hunkered down in the rain.

He peered cautiously around the corner where the van would be faced. The driver’s area looked dark. Only a dim light showed through the black curtain that separated the front from the body of the van. He could hear the faint sound of music but nothing else. Thunder ripped the sky apart, but he was too focused to hardly notice. The lightning bothered him only because it showcased his presence for all to see.

He slid the metal bar beneath the hood latch, listening for the telltale click indicating he’d popped it. Just as he heard it, another sound sent him to his knees in front of the van. The sound of the side door sliding open. Why the heck was she going out in this weather? It wasn’t safe. He grinned at the irony of that thought, but waited for her to walk around and find him hunched there. Then he’d have to kill her face to face, and he didn’t want to watch her die. He much preferred to miss the bloodshed and have death happen without witnessing it.