Lucky's Woman

by Jones, Linda Winstead

  As she left the room she glanced over her shoulder. Those blue eyes were strong and calm, tearless but a little sad. “You’re wrong,” she said. “We had a lot more than sex going for us.”

  Annie shampooed her hair vigorously. Dammit. She’d known all along that Lucky wasn’t permanent, so it shouldn’t hurt this much. The moment she’d opened her eyes this morning, leaving behind perfectly lovely dreams, she’d known that he’d pulled away from her, and that as far as he was concerned their little fling was over.

  Tough as Lucky was, he was afraid of getting too close to anyone. He had huge trust issues, which was understandable given what his wife had done to him. He’d believed that he’d found a woman who would stand by him through thick and thin, and then she’d panicked and attacked him. He probably didn’t want to hear that his wife hadn’t been the sharpest knife in the drawer, and when she’d learned the truth she’d only been able to see the pain of her own childhood, not the brightness of her future away from that childhood. They’d both been so young…How could he allow anything that had happened then to stay with him?

  Maybe because it wasn’t the only rejection in his life. His father had rejected him before he was born, then his mother went and died on him. His grandparents, who had taken over parental duties after their daughter’s death, had twisted everything and blamed a child for all that had gone wrong in their carefully laid plans for their child. What he didn’t know was that the only way they could absolve themselves of their responsibility in their daughter’s death was to place the blame elsewhere…on an innocent child who’d needed their love and never received it.

  In a way, Annie hated Sadie McCain. Lucky might not love her, but he did trust her, and that was momentous, for him. Like it or not—love or not—Annie had put herself into the well-populated category of expendable women whose only purpose was to warm Lucky’s bed.

  When he’d told her so much about his mother and his childhood, she should’ve known he’d panic and step back. He likely wouldn’t agree that’s what he’d done, but she knew.

  She understood Lucky better than he understood himself.

  At the moment, Lucky considered their relationship, such as it was, done and over. But he still hadn’t come to her bed, and no matter what he had decided, she didn’t think of them as finished. Maybe it was wishful thinking on her part. Were her hopes for more getting in the way of what she knew to be true? It wasn’t as if her psychic abilities were flawless.

  She closed her eyes and rinsed the shampoo from her hair. Standing in the warm fall of water, she tried to let her heartbreak wash away. Her life had been good before Lucky came into it; it would be good again, one day.

  But until then…

  Pain sliced deeply into her back, in the exact same spot she’d felt that agony while standing on the Mercerville sidewalk days ago. She gasped, her knees buckled and she fell to her knees on the slick shower floor. The pain radiated from the point in her back all through her body. Her neck, her arms, her legs…The pain spread until she felt it everywhere. A dark fall of hair fell past her face, all but blinding her, and a trickle of blood swirled with the water from the shower, growing deeper and redder with every passing second. She smelled…she smelled something familiar that she couldn’t identify. How could she identify the smell when she was in such pain?

  The bathroom door swung open, and Lucky was there. He turned off the shower and reached for her, helping her to her feet and out of the shower, grabbing the fat white towel she’d placed nearby and wrapping her in it.

  Annie let herself lean into him. He held her, and would not allow her to fall. “How did you know I was in trouble?”

  He snorted. “The scream was a dead giveaway.”

  “I didn’t scream.”

  “Yes, you did. What happened?”

  Her panic began to fade, and she remembered. She had screamed, hadn’t she? And that fall of dark hair, and the smell…

  “It’s not me,” she whispered. “The stabbing, the knife…it’s Kristie. Oh my God, the killer’s been watching Kristie and Stu.”

  Lucky made her look at him. “Has the stabbing already happened or is it going to happen?”

  “I don’t know.”

  He led her from the bathroom and made her sit on her bed. Her bed. Overhead, the fan whirred gently. She trembled to the bone. Lucky grabbed her bedside phone, asked for the number of the bed-and-breakfast and dialed. When Kristie answered the phone, he ordered her to come to Annie’s cabin. Now.

  Annie could tell that Kristie tried to argue, but of course Lucky wouldn’t have any of that. Very soon, Kristie agreed to obey his command. Annie suspected curiosity was the reason more than anything else.

  Lucky hung up the phone and turned to stare at Annie with cold, strong amber eyes. “She’s on her way.”

  “What about Stu?”

  “Can you assure me that Stu wasn’t the one doing the stabbing?”

  “No, but…”

  “That’s why.” He headed from the room with purpose in his step. “Get dressed. You’ve got some explaining to do.”

  She wanted to argue, but didn’t. If it meant saving Kristie’s life, then what choice did she have?

  For a long moment after Lucky closed the door behind him, Annie remained on the bed, motionless. For the first time, tears stung her eyes. She was going to lose everything all over again. The guy, her friends…her home.

  Love.

  Chapter 14

  “You’re a…what?” Kristie perched on the edge of Annie’s couch, and cocked her head to one side like a confused puppy.

  “Psychic,” Annie said in a flat, emotionless voice. “I have prophetic dreams, I sometimes know what people are thinking and every now and then I can catch a glimpse of the future. Psychic,” she said again.

  After a stunned moment of complete silence, Kristie grinned widely. “Okay, I get it. This is a joke, right?” She glanced at Lucky, looking for confirmation.

  Lucky shook his head crisply, and there must’ve been something about his expression that convinced her that this was no joke. The grin disappeared and a new light came into the young woman’s eyes. Fear.

  There was more, and it had to be said, like it or not. When Annie faltered, Lucky jumped in and told the story—in as few words as possible and without getting into anything too personal. He told Annie’s friend about her dreams, the Huffs’ deaths looking suspicious, their attempt to draw out the killer and finally, Annie’s visions of being stabbed and her belief that Kristie was the intended victim.

  Kristie jumped up off the couch. “I have to call Stu. Did you call him on his cell when you called me? He went to town to pick up some—”

  Lucky laid a hand on the woman’s shoulder. “Sit down. We haven’t called Stu, and until he’s eliminated as a suspect, we can’t.”

  Until that moment Kristie had been stunned, confused and even frightened. The mention of her husband’s name as a murder suspect brought anger to the surface.

  “Stu wouldn’t hurt a fly!” She had to look up to stare into Lucky’s eyes, but she did just that. She didn’t flinch or back down an inch. “How dare you? Just because we haven’t been in town that long, you think you can accuse him of murder? What kind of investigation is this?” Her anger grew. “Psychic my…my butt. Annie, you’ve let this guy snow you, I can tell. You had some bad dreams and he convinced you that they’re more than dreams for some reason I don’t understand. How could you possibly think…?”

  “Calm down,” Annie said gently. “Getting all riled up isn’t good for the baby.”

  Kristie turned to face Annie, who remained seated on the sofa, and her face paled considerably. “How do you know about the baby? We haven’t told anyone, I haven’t even seen a doctor yet. I sent Stu to the next county over to get the pregnancy test so there wouldn’t be any gossip! So, how do you know?”

  Annie remained calm. Too calm. “I told you how I know.” She remained very still, waiting for her worst fear to come true. Sh
e waited for her friend to turn on her, to reject her, to be appalled by what she could do.

  Kristie walked away from Lucky, all of her attention focused on the woman seated on the couch. Lucky wanted to yank her back, to make sure that she didn’t have a chance to hurt Annie with her anger and her fear.

  The dark-haired girl sat beside Annie, and after a moment she slipped her arm around Annie’s stiff shoulder. “Oh, honey,” she said tenderly, dismissing her own problems for a moment. She placed her head on Annie’s shoulder. “What a mess. Well, hell, what are we going to do now?”

  Lucky left the women alone, stepping onto the porch and flipping his cell phone open. He found Sadie on speed dial and made the call.

  “Hi,” Sadie said as she answered, knowing from the caller ID that he was on the line. “What’s up?”

  “Stu Bentley,” Lucky said without preamble. “Drop everything and concentrate on him.”

  “Do you think he’s the one?” A trace of crisp excitement entered her voice.

  “No,” Lucky said, “I don’t. I want him cleared ASAP.”

  “I’ll do my best,” she said, the excitement gone as quickly as it had appeared. Sadie might be a wife and mother these days, but Lucky knew there were times when she missed her old job. This was apparently one of those times.

  Lucky slipped his phone into his pocket, but he didn’t go back into the cabin. He heard muffled tears from beyond the front door. He hated tears.

  For a few long moments he leaned against the post by the front steps, looking at nothing, doing his best to feel nothing. He barely knew Kristie Bentley. He didn’t even like her much.

  But man, he didn’t want her child to grow up with a murderer for a father. He didn’t want the people of Mercerville to look at the kid years from now and whisper about the time Stu Bentley had committed murder. He didn’t want them to talk about how the apple didn’t fall far from the tree, and he didn’t want them to talk about how “blood will tell.”

  As if this job hadn’t been personal enough already…

  Annie waited for Kristie to realize what was happening and draw away in horror, but for now the two women cried and hugged and cried some more. Annie didn’t cry easily, but Kristie’s tears were contagious. Kristie, whose life was in danger, whose husband had just been named as a murder suspect, had reason to cry.

  As for Annie…it took her a moment to realize that the tears were for everything she was about to lose. Lucky, most of all. Maybe this was her curse. Maybe she was destined to lose every man she ever loved. Why could she only have love for a short while? Why couldn’t it last?

  Eventually the tears dried. Kristie sniffled and drew away, and Annie waited for the questions and the accusations to start.

  Instead of tossing out accusations, Kristie sighed and placed a comforting hand on Annie’s arm. “Oh, honey. This must be so difficult for you.”

  Obviously she didn’t yet understand. “Lucky’s not conning me. Everything I’ve told you is true.”

  “I know,” Kristie said reluctantly. “As soon as you told me about the baby, I knew it wasn’t a joke or a scam.” She cocked her head to one side. “You really can see things, huh?”

  “Sometimes. The ability has been quiet for a while, but the dreams about the Huffs’ murders brought it back. It comes and goes, and I have no control, but to be honest, it’s stronger than it’s ever been.”

  “Are you getting any rest at all, with these terrible dreams disturbing your sleep?”

  Annie started slightly. She had been prepared for a strong reaction, but not concern for her well-being. “Some. You’re not…scared of me?”

  Kristie gave Annie a wan smile. “Of course not. Why should I be scared of you?”

  “Some people are, when they find out what I can do.”

  Again Kristie sighed. “Some people are idiots.” She leaned against the back of the sofa and laid one hand over her still-flat belly. “When I found out I was pregnant, I smelled my mother’s favorite perfume. Just for a second, but I definitely smelled it.”

  Annie knew that Kristie’s mother had been dead three years.

  The mention of phantom smells reminded Annie that she’d smelled something during her painful vision in the shower. She couldn’t remember what, exactly, since she’d been entirely focused on the pain. But there had been a familiar odor…

  “I smelled that perfume during the wedding ceremony, when Stu and I got married, and there are times when I just feel like she’s there. Even if I don’t smell or see anything, I just know she’s standing with me. I’ve never told anyone about that, because I figure they’ll think I’m nuts.” She managed a smile. “I know what’s happening to you isn’t the same thing, but the world is filled with things we don’t understand. All I know is that my mother visits me, and she comes from a good place. What’s happening to you, it comes from a good place, too. There’s no reason for me, or anyone else, to be afraid of you.”

  Annie relaxed. She felt it in her entire body, as if tension in her muscles and her skin and her very blood released. “Thank you,” she said softly, her voice almost breaking. Lucky and Kristie both accepted what she could do. Lucky had a logical explanation for how her brain worked, and Kristie believed the ability came from “a good place.” Whatever their rationale might be, they didn’t hate her. They weren’t afraid of her.

  “No reason to thank me,” Kristie said, her voice turning slightly more pragmatic. “We have work to do apparently.”

  “We?”

  “Stu is not a killer. How can we prove it? Can you do your thing and see that he’s innocent?”

  “I haven’t been able to do that so far. I’m seeing into the killer’s brain, I’ve tapped into his thoughts a few times, but I don’t see anything around him.”

  “What if you, like, touched some of Stu’s things at the house. Would that help?”

  “Maybe.”

  “Well, then, let’s go.”

  Annie reached out a stilling hand as Kristie started to rise. “Wait. You stay here. I’ll get Lucky to take me to the house.”

  “No way. I’m going with you.”

  Too many people had already been hurt. Annie didn’t want Kristie, who knew her secret and didn’t despise her, to be next. “I know you think Stu is innocent, but are you willing to risk your life, and the life of your baby, in order to prove it?”

  “I don’t think Stu is innocent,” Kristie said calmly. “I know it. He would never hurt me, or anyone else.”

  Annie wanted to believe that was true, but she’d felt the pain. She’d wallowed in the violence of the killer’s insane thoughts. She believed that the killer was watching Kristie and Stu, but what if she was wrong? Could Stu pass for sane in Kristie’s presence for more than a year, while living a secret life filled with hate and violence?

  “Maybe if I touch some of his things, as you suggested, I can see more. I’d love to be able to eliminate him as a suspect.”

  Kristie breathed a sigh of relief. “Great. If you’re right about the man who murdered the Huffs watching us, then Stu is in danger, too. He needs to know what’s going on so he can protect himself, and us.” Again she placed a hand over her belly.

  The fact that Kristie was so accepting only made Annie want more fiercely to clear Stu’s name.

  Someone should be home! He lay on the chilled packed earth beneath the house and listened. The house was silent, and they weren’t in the bed-and-breakfast. The place was empty, at the moment. No, they should be here.

  He was about to slip out from beneath the house and go home, disappointed and very angry, when he heard a car approach. A smile crossed his face. At least one of them was home. Maybe both, but at least one. He hoped it was Kristie. Sometimes she’d hum as she cleaned the house, and she’d even been known to talk to herself. Sometimes he’d pretend that she was talking to him. That he was sitting on her sofa, eating cookies she’d made for him and watching her work. She flittered about, energetic and bright in a way that lit th
e emptiness inside him. She made the darkness go away, for a while.

  The Bentleys were not the first couple he had chosen, but he was beginning to think they were the best. Some couples disappointed him quickly, and he had to kill them before a month had passed. Some had lasted longer—as much as three months.

  The Bentleys might set a new record. They were so much in love, and there might be a future baby to consider. It would be like his own child, he imagined. Yes, he might watch the Bentleys for a long time to come.

  As long as they didn’t disappoint him.

  Kristie was not alone. He immediately recognized the other voice overhead as Annie Lockhart’s. He would prefer for Kristie to be his and his alone, for a while, but she was a sweet woman who needed her friends.

  But why did it have to be Annie? She and that nosy Santana made him nervous. They poked their noses where they did not belong.

  If he listened closely, he could hear the voices above his head. Footsteps echoed, and soft voices reached his ears.

  “What might work?” Kristie asked. “A toothbrush? Clothing? His favorite chair?”

  “I don’t know,” Annie said, and then she laughed. “Let’s save the toothbrush as a last resort.”

  “Start with clothing,” a third voice suggested.

  He’d thought the louder thud above was Annie’s boots, but apparently it was that bastard Santana. What was he doing here? Could he never let Annie out of his sight? And what did they want with Stu’s clothes?

  He listened to footsteps above. A few annoying words slipped past him, too soft to discern. And then everything grew quiet. Oh, what he wouldn’t give for a glimpse into the house! That would be next. He’d drill a few small holes in the floor one day while Stu and Kristie were not at home, and then he’d be able to see as well as hear.

  But now he could not see.

  It was Santana who spoke first. “What do you see?” he snapped.

  “Love,” Annie said, her voice just barely loud enough for him to hear. “Love and…some worry, about money and the new baby.”