Nina bit her lip across the table from him, still full from her breakfast at the hotel that morning. Arms crossed, she tilted her head and took him in, her lip coming in deeper and harder under her teeth as she watched him.
It wasn’t until several moments later, and tons more attention from his adoring waitress, that Jack looked up and caught Nina’s eyes.
“What?” he asked around the food in the corner of his mouth.
Nina noticed that even as he binged like a savage, the manner in which he held his knife and fork betrayed his Greenwich ways.
“You’re just…” She shrugged, eyes narrowing as she smiled. “You’re cute.”
“I’m cute.”
“You’re really, really cute.” She covered her mouth with her hand.
“I don’t think anyone has ever called me cute before.”
“Well, you work pretty hard at making that an impossible thing for people to do. I hadn’t even realized it myself until I saw you destroying all this food like a toddler who just tasted his first ho-ho or something.”
“You said it yourself; I haven’t eaten in two days.”
“Our waitress definitely, definitely thinks you’re cute too.” She cut a look across the busy diner where the waitress was tending to her other breakfast guests, all of whom were greasy, bill-capped, beer-bellied truckers who looked just as tired and famished as Jack. “In fact, if you gave her even a sliver of the attention she’s been working so hard to get out of you, we might be able to get this meal on the house.”
“So, not only are you the bane of my existence, but now you’re my pimp, as well?”
“You’re welcome for the food, you fucking lawyer.”
“I have earned every last damned bite of this food. If you’re waiting for a thank you, you’ll be waiting for the rest of your life. You nearly got me killed, twice. Hell, you should be over there fantasizing about how the hell you’re going to make this up to me.”
She hollered.
“You pulled me over the edge of a train,” he said. “We could’ve died back there, you know.”
“If you hadn’t tried to assault me with your lips we never would have fallen.”
Jack gritted his teeth and broke their eye contact, again. He shoved food into his mouth for several moments before his eyebrows rose. “I did not try to kiss you.”
Nina rolled her eyes and looked out of the window next to their booth.
“And even if I had…”
Her eyes flew back to his.
He paused, a glass of orange juice hovering inches next to his face. “It was simply a byproduct of the inevitable delirium that hits a man who hasn’t eaten in 72 hours.” He chugged his orange juice.
“Do you always play this hard to get, or am I just a special case?”
“Oh, you’re a case, alright. But I can’t play hard to get when there is nothing to be got.”
Her mouth fell open, and she scoffed, her eyes going back to the window again.
“Are you pouting now?” he asked.
Her eyes flew back to his and widened. She lifted an eyebrow. “Admit you tried to kiss me.”
“I’m good.”
They frowned at each other over the table just as the waitress came back around.
“Everything okay?” she asked.
“Everything’s great, this Aries lawyer over here is getting more Aries-y and lawyer-y by the second, now that he’s getting his strength back.”
“I’m glad to hear it.” The waitress put her hand on Jack for the millionth time. A hand that had already seen every part of his body that wouldn’t get her fired—his strong back, the wisps of hair at the base of his neck, his lower thigh, and now, his bicep, which she squeezed. “A lawyer, huh? What in the world brings you two around these parts?”
It was Jack’s turn to nod across the table.
Nina looked at the waitress. “We were in a plane crash yesterday. Trying like hell to get back to New York City, but the Gods seem to be working against us.”
Jack nodded at her again. “This one tried to kill me before the plane did.”
“Well, this one threw me over the edge of a moving train.”
Jack sputtered, gazing up at the waitress. “Alright, I did not throw her. She fell.” His eyes went back to Nina. “Because she is a curly headed natural disaster. My life has been in complete shambles since the moment I met this woman.”
The waitress, who was watching their exchange like a tennis match, could hardly keep up. “Good lord, wait a minute. Y’all were in that crash in Chicago? The one that’s all over the news?”
“That would be the one. Yep,” Nina nodded.
The waitress gasped, louder this time, shaking Jack. “Hot damn, sugar, I knew you looked familiar! You’re the Runaway Groom!”
Jack paused in mid-bite, tossing her a look with one eyebrow raised high.
“The what?” Nina sat taller with a huge smile.
The waitress turned toward the bar and pointed at the flat screen TV hoisted in the corner. “Frankie!” she cried. “Turn to the news station.”
Jack and Nina’s eyes both searched the restaurant for “Frankie.” They couldn’t seem to locate a soul behind the bar, but someone in that place was turning the channels.
“Keep going,” the waitress demanded, hand still planted on Jack’s shoulder, wagging her finger through the air as the channels went from one news station to the other. “Nope, not that one. Try FOX!”
“Frankie” did try FOX.
And there it was.
Nina’s mouth dropped at the sight that awaited her on CNN, and her eyes flew to Jack just as he buried his head in his hands.
“Oh, I cannot believe this.” He groaned.
The waitress jabbed her finger toward the TV. “The Runaway Groom. Do you see?”
Nina’s eyes went aglow. “It’s like Christmas.”
A young blond man with worried green eyes came onto the screen. “We just want to know that Jack’s okay. He left the church and got on the plane. What’s it gonna take for the airline to release the passenger manifest? If he’s hurt, we’d like to know about it.”
“He just said your name.” Nina nudged Jack and pointed to the TV, waiting for him to look over his shoulder at the young man. “Do you know him?”
“Jesus Christ.” Jack breathed.
“I don’t give a damn if he’s dead or alive.” A pretty blonde woman came into frame, spitting into the microphone that had been shoved in her face, scowling in a wedding dress that had seen better days. Ice blue eyes riveted straight to the camera; her mascara stained cheeks tightened as she spoke through clenched teeth. “I hope Satan is welcoming him into the gates of hell right now. I hope he’s rotting right as we speak. Rot, Jack! Rot!”
“Wait,” Nina pointed to the screen. “Are they really talking about you? You’re The Runaway Groom? This is legit?”
The moment she asked the question, a camera phone photo of Jack barreling down a long flight of stairs—with a blurry church in the distance—filled the screen. In the photo, he was in the midst of ripping his bow tie from around his neck. As always, he looked like a model. The afternoon light had caught him at just the right angle as he squinted into the distance, the plethora of emotions that must’ve been raging inside of him splashed clear across his eyes.
“Holy God, Aries, that’s you.” Nina covered her mouth with her hands in an attempt to stifle her laughter.
Jack’s forehead hit the table.
The newscaster’s voiceover chimed in. “This photo, taken yesterday, captures The Runaway Groom just moments after he fled the church and purchased himself a ticket on the, now ill-fated, Delta Air Lines Flight 167. His friends and family have not heard from him since.”
“I’d just like to know if my grandson is alive.” An elderly woman came onto the screen. “He ran out of here so gosh darn quickly. One moment he was here, and the next… ah…” She held her hands out with a bewildered look on her aging face before looking
into the camera and taking tight hold of the microphone with both hands. “Jack? Baby? We’re not mad, baby. And we don’t want you to rot in hell. We just want to know if you’re okay. Please pick up your phone.”
They cut back to the photo of Jack on the church’s steps with a newscaster speaking over. “While Delta Airlines has yet to release an official list of survivors, we can only hope that the Runaway Groom is alive and well, back to you, Steve.”
“Why would they do this?” Jack moaned into his hands. “Why, why, why?”
“Sensationalism. They want to know if you’re okay, and the airline won’t give them an answer. And you refuse to pick up your phone. Your family knew the fastest way to get the news to say your name was to give them your story. It’s actually pretty brilliant that they thought of it.” Nina slammed her palm on the table as FOX cut to a different story. “So, that’s why you were so dressed up and smashing bourbon left and right.” She whooped. “I could say it would’ve been nice to hear that story from you and not Fox News, but I’d be lying, because that was hilarious.” She pointed to the TV. “Be prepared to look over your shoulder for the rest of your life, because that blonde bride of yours has clearly come unglued, and she will not sleep until you’re six feet under. Why was she still wearing her wedding dress a day later? She gives me all kinds of Glenn Close, Fatal Attraction vibes.”
Jack lifted his heated eyes to hers.
“This is…” Nina met eyes with the waitress, who seemed just as excited as she was but—taking her cues from Jack—was making an attempt to hide it. “Miss, you have no idea how hard I’ve been working to get anything, and I mean anything, out of this man that was even remotely personal. If I’d known all I had to do was switch on Fox News, I could’ve saved myself a lot of wasted energy.”
“Well, you know what?” The waitress squeezed Jack’s arm, whose forehead had reclaimed its spot on the table. “I think ya’ll have been through quite enough, and we rarely get celebrities in here…”
“Celebrities!” Nina roared with laughter.
The waitress winked. “So this one’s on me, y’all.”
Nina and Jack met eyes across the table.
“Matter of fact.” The waitress pulled a pad from her apron, looking back and forth between them. “I’m off in about an hour. The closest airport is three hours out, but I’d be happy to give y’all a lift to the train. ‘Bout a half hour from here.”
Nina’s eyes brightened. “That would be incredibl—”
“No thank you.”
Nina gaped at Jack in shock.
“Well, Runaway.” The waitress squeezed his arm, again. “If you change your mind…”
“Thank you.” Nina watched her go; her eyes solemn, and then kicked her leg out at Jack under the table. “Are you crazy, Runaway?”
“Don’t call me Runaway.”
“She just offered us a free ride, and I didn’t even have to offer her your Runaway Groom body. What the hell’s wrong with you?”
“I’m not going anywhere with that woman.”
“What is it with your aversion to kindness? Pretty soon, not even I’m going to be able to save you from yourself, Runaway.”
Jack looked up at her from under his eyes. “Fine.”
Nina’s face lit up, thrilled that he’d caved so easily, and she straightened in her seat before waving the waitress over with a bright smile.
“Now,” she said, eyes widening. “You know that we’re going to have to talk about what the hell I just saw on that television.”
Jack sighed.
Nina blinked rapidly. “You know this, right?”
***
Of course, Nina wasn’t able to claw any information out of Jack. She had been tossing enough questions across the table at him to land her a seat on 60 Minutes, and Jack had yet to give her a real answer. He just watched her with his eyebrows raised high, as if he were wondering when she’d have the sense to throw in the towel.
His phone buzzed on the table between them.
“And your phone is ringing,” Nina said. “Again.” When Jack didn’t even look up from his drink she brought the phone’s display closer, her eyebrows lifted. “Surprisingly enough, it is not Kelly, or Chase—the two people that call you the most obsessively—whoever they are…”
Jack still didn’t look up, moving from one plate of food to the next.
Nina’s eyebrows pulled as the caller ID kicked in. “Don’t tell me you work for Jones Day Law Firm?”
This time, Jack’s head did shoot up, and his big eyes met hers.
Nina’s eyes grew larger, as well, in direct response to the shock on his face. “Well, well… looks who’s suddenly at full attention—” Her mouth fell open when Jack snatched the phone from her hand, dropped his fork, and left the table completely.
As she watched him cross the restaurant and blast through the front door, she still couldn’t clap her mouth closed.
“What just happened?” she asked, looking around in awe.
***
“Stop calling me,” Jack spat into the phone once he’d made it outside. He paced back and forth on the dirt road, the dust making a quick mess of his leather shoes as he scowled into the distance. “Stop goddamn calling me, Kyle.”
“We just thought you’d want an update.”
“The hell you did.”
A long pause followed, and then Kyle’s voice went high, confirming Jack was right. “We just need you on the stand one time, Jack. Just one. That’s it, and it will seal this win for us.”
“Us, us, us. What aren’t you understanding, Kyle? I don’t work for you animals anymore.” Jack lowered his voice as a passerby scuttled past, waiting until they’d entered the restaurant to resume. “I’m not interested in updates, and I’m sure as hell not interested in sitting on a stand and talking about what a wonderful guy that man was when we both know that’s a goddamn lie. I’ve…” Jack swept his hand through the air, turning back toward the restaurant. He stalled when he saw Nina watching him pointedly through the window of their booth, squinting with her chin cradled in her hand. “I’ve wiped my hands of this. I don’t want anything to do with it. I just want to be left alone. I want to be alone. Why the hell can’t anyone accept that?” He spat those words at Nina as if she could hear him through the glass, and her squint deepened. She even threw in a confused tilt of her head, which made Jack turn his back to her, walking further down the dirt road.
“You want to be left alone in the brownstone that will be seized? Left alone with an inheritance that’ll be drained bone dry? You will lose every penny you have if you don’t testify, Jack, and so will Chase.”
Jack froze in mid-step and breathed in, eyes flying shut. “The prosecution is only after half the estate, and I fully intend to have every penny siphoned from my half, not his. Try again.”
“And what happens when they decide to come after you for the lawyer fees? Where does the money come from then?”
Jack gnawed his teeth.
“Maybe if I give Chase a call he’ll have a different idea,” Kyle said.
Jack laughed. “If you want to seal your loss, go ahead and put Chase on the stand. I might’ve been willing to lie for that son of a bitch, but I promise you my brother will not.”
A long silence passed down the other line, telling Jack that Kyle already knew, very well, that going to Chase was a waste of time.
“He was your father, Jack.” Kyle gave it one last-ditch effort. “Six years ago, you defended this case tooth and nail. What changed?”
Jack took a deep breath, shaking his head when he saw Nina had all but jammed her forehead and her lips onto the dirty glass, watching him with wide, curious eyes, as if pressing her entire face against that glass would help her hear through it.
“I woke up,” Jack answered.
He ended the call before Kyle could respond.
***
When Jack sat down across the booth from her and resumed his breakfast like nothing was out of the ordi
nary, Nina only made it about half a minute before she was leaning forward on her elbows while tapping her boots anxiously onto the checked tile floor.
“Are you really just going to sit back down and act like that wasn’t the most alive you’ve ever been in your life out there?”
Jack shoved a forkful of scrambled eggs passed his lips, chewed languidly, and then raised his hooded eyes to hers.
Unmoved by his annoyed gaze, Nina clasped her hands together. “Pacing, frowning, looking at anyone who walked passed you suspiciously—like you were on the phone with the Secretary of Defense or something. You still can’t work the frown off your face, even now. Who’s this angry at breakfast? You are, Jack.”
Jack sighed, shaking his head as he resumed his meal.
“The question is…” She tapped her chin. “Why? And what is it about Jones Day Law Firm that’s got you so incredibly riled up?”
“You know, life is so much easier, Nina.” He lifted his eyes to hers. “When you mind your own damn business. You should try it sometime.”
“Whether or not either of us likes it, we’re in each other’s lives. We have shared something together that we will never share with another human being for as long as we live. I know that you’re a lawyer, so spirituality of any kind escapes you… but it doesn’t escape me.”
“Good orange juice,” Jack mumbled holding up his glass as if she didn’t have a half-chugged glass of her own. “What do you think? Sunny D?”
“We were meant to meet, you and I. We were meant to be in each other’s lives. The universe is working overtime to keep us all tangled up in one another.” She laughed. “So we might as well stop fighting the universe… and just tell each other stuff. Maybe once we stop fighting it, the universe will get bored of us and release us from this web.”
“Fine.” Jack slammed down his orange juice, motioning across the table. “Why are you divorcing your husband? Better yet, which one of you was the first to draw up the papers? Who got served? Who got blindsided?”
Lightning Strikes (The Almeida Brothers Trilogy #3) Page 8
