“I don’t know what you’re talking about. There’s been a misunderstanding. Tell me what you think I did.”
Dave crossed his arms over his chest. “You know perfectly well.”
Adrian realized he would get nowhere with this man. “Okay, fine. Just tell me if you’ve seen Nikki since yesterday. I’m worried about her.”
“Oh, I’m sure you are. She’s gone.”
“Gone?”
“Left. Something about going north. She didn’t explain, that’s all she said.”
Dave closed the large wooden door, and Adrian was too confused to even stop him. Not that it mattered. He obviously wasn’t going to tell him a thing. But why the change? It was as if everyone knew he wasn’t what he pretended to be. How could they know? Had Nikki heard whatever they had heard?
Adrian walked around for another two hours before giving up on the area. She could be anywhere, but she wasn’t here. He drove around, combing the area surrounding West Palm Beach until late that night, but there was no sign of her van. Frustration mounted inside him; he hated feeling helpless.
He was pretty sure Dave had been lying about Nikki going north. It was obvious that she had gone somewhere, though. Why couldn’t he just go back to New York and get on with his life? Sounded easy enough. He pulled into the garage, pounding on the steering wheel. If he’d only told her the truth earlier. She might have run away then, too. But he had to talk to her, at least one more time.
By noon the next day, Adrian knew Nikki wasn’t going to be making an appearance in her area. She and Crackers had virtually disappeared. Tired from another night of tossing and turning and worrying, he returned to the house and had lunch.
He had ended up talking to the Calvin Klein people himself yesterday, explaining Stanley’s tendency to firm up assignments before consulting with him. They were understanding, if only a little irritated about the whole matter. They’d ended up brainstorming a few ideas on the phone, and they were so impressed, they agreed to wait another week until their meeting. Adrian had let Stanley sweat it out until that morning before telling him everything was still on.
Now, as Adrian sat at the table with his feet propped up on the edge, he wondered if he should give up on Nikki and go home. It was a thought that continually came to mind, but there was some other part of him that wouldn’t buy into it. He leaned his head back, letting out a long sigh.
“Nikki, where are you?” Before he’d had the photographs to clue him in on her whereabouts. Now he had nothing. He lifted his head. Or did he? He had the visions, didn’t he? It had never occurred to him to actually try bringing a vision on. Usually they just happened, once in a while. It was his last hope, unless he wanted to stay in the area indefinitely, which he didn’t.
He closed his eyes and concentrated on Nikki. It was surprising how easily he could conjure her smells, the sound of her voice. But those were only memories. He tried harder, picturing her clearly in his mind, feeling her skin and the way she felt in his arms. Still, nothing came. He rested his head on the table, feeling the cool smoothness of the wood against his forehead. His hands clenched as they lay on his thighs, trying to force something. Nothing.
It was when he gave up and started to stand that it happened the way it usually did. First the emotion, this time confusion. It always seemed that a strong emotion connected them. Then a smell that didn’t belong in his kitchen filled with the aroma of coffee: salty ocean air. Through her eyes, for an instant, he saw the waves lapping on the shore and the sound of a gull screeching indignantly.
His gaze rested on the photograph he’d taken of her. He could never see her in these visions, because he saw through her eyes, but he was sure she stood just like that, arms crossed in front of her, hands up by her throat. He put on his faded clothes in the chance that she hadn’t heard anything to make her doubt his story, at least until he told her the truth.
She wasn’t at the beach they had gone to, the beach where they’d shared that first kiss. Nor was she at any of the beaches nearby. He kept stopping at every pass, even illegally parking to get to the private beaches used only by the people who lived near them.
Adrian had found an empty lot where a house had recently stood. The churned up dirt held chunks of old concrete. The gate was closed, but there was enough room to park his car and climb through a small section that had been knocked down during the destruction.
He enjoyed his two customary drags of his cigarette before stepping from the car. There was no way he was cutting down to one drag now. It was everything he could do to keep from increasing to fifteen.
The sun was trying to peek through the hazy cover of clouds, but it was still overcast. The wind blew in off the water, chilling him even through his jacket.
As soon as he stepped onto the beach, he saw Nikki in her usual stance, watching the waves crash in. His heart tightened, and he told himself it was only because he didn’t know what to expect. Would she let him explain?
She saw him before he reached her and glanced nervously behind her. She was obviously judging whether she could outrun him back to wherever she had parked her van. Then she turned to face him as he neared her, standing tall. He felt disheartened that she should take such a defensive posture toward him. The anger in her green eyes almost made him wince. Something had happened.
“Nikki, why did you stand me up? Did I do something to make you angry?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Let’s see.” Sarcasm dripped from her voice. “You came here looking for me, hunted me down, lied to me about who you were. You ...” Her eyes grew misty for a second, and she swiped angrily at them. “You kissed me, made me trust you.”
That’s when he saw it. The shell necklace peeking out of the collar of her coat. His heart started moving up toward his throat as he walked closer to her. It all made sense suddenly: the open door, the missing necklace.
His voice seemed suspended in his throat, but he forced the words out. “You’ve been at my house.” It wasn’t a question.
“Yes, Adrian Wilde, I have been at your house only blocks from the beach. Not bad for a guy down on his luck. Or did that nice guy who’s been letting you bartend for him offer you his place, too?”
Adrian dropped his head, cursing himself for not telling her the truth earlier. “Let me explain.”
“Just tell me one thing. You owe me one bit of truth. Did Devlin send you?”
“Who?”
She studied him, as if weighing the truth of his words. “Damn you, Adrian, don’t lie to me about this. My life depends on it.”
“I don’t know any Devlin. Nikki, I wanted to tell you the truth, but you wouldn’t have come near me if I’d told you who I really was and why I came here looking for you. That three years ago I was struck by lightning and died for a few minutes, and during that time it was your life I saw, not mine. That our souls connected, that I experienced that explosion with you, the fire and smoke and fear. I came here to see if you really existed when I found you in the background of one of my shots. You hardly trusted me with a believable story.”
The red of her anger disappeared as he spoke, leaving her face pale. “What do you mean, you saw my life?”
“You know the old saying that when you die, your whole life flashes before you. It was your life flashing by. I saw you building a sandcastle when you were a girl, and a boy kicked it in, and you cried. I saw you walking on a seawall behind a huge mansion, driving your Mercedes convertible. And then…I don’t know how to describe it, but it felt like I was going into you, right before you experienced whatever put those scars on you. I was there with you. I felt everything you felt.”
“You were feeling the lightning,” she said, her eyes wide.
He shook his head. “I know it sounds crazy. After the explosion you kept thinking that you had to get to your mother. Everything was orange around you, hot and burning, and you couldn’t breathe because of the heat searing your lungs. Then I came back to my body. But there’s more.” He had to keep talking t
o her, make her believe. “Since then, I’ve been connected to you. I call them visions, and they’ve happened a dozen times. When I have these visions, it’s through your eyes. I feel what you’re feeling, see what you’re seeing. Sometimes it’s the ocean you’re looking at, and you’re afraid and angry at the same time. Once you were lying on the ground, watching a man run away with something that belonged to you. You felt violated and vulnerable.”
She backed away from him, shaking her head. “No. No, it can’t be. You just know these things; someone told you.”
“I saw you going to the art gallery. That’s how I found your photographs. I knew you’d taken them, even though the owner tried to tell me otherwise. I’ve been there with you. Let me help you.” He held his hand out to her. “Trust me.”
Her lips trembled as she shook her head. Her voice stretched thin with impending tears. “You hit Crackers.”
He dropped his head, that tormenting guilt washing over him again. “I didn’t mean to. He was suddenly there in front of the car.”
“And you couldn’t tell me, because you were lying to me!”
“I know. I had no choice. Would you have given me the time of day if I’d come up to you and said, ‘Hey, our souls have been connected since that terrible explosion three years ago. Can we talk?’”
She walked farther away, never taking her eyes from him. “I can’t trust you. Not with my life. If you want to help me, go away. If you’re working for Devlin, go back and tell him you couldn’t find me.” She shook her head, sending a tear trailing down her cheek, and ran up the beach.
He couldn’t chase her; it would only scare her more. What would he do, pin her down until he could convince her he meant her no harm. And it seemed that he couldn’t help her. Celine was right; she was in danger. But from what? And who was Devlin?
Nikki’s retreating figure disappeared. Now she knew the truth about him. She probably thought he was a kook. The expression on her face indicated she didn’t believe in things like visions and souls being connected. He might lose what could be the most lucrative contract in his career. It didn’t matter, because he was a man sinking in quicksand. All the money, his reputation, his fancy apartment—none of it mattered if he returned to it knowing Nikki was in danger.
He turned around to head back to the car. A skinny young man was clipping hedges in the back yard of the mansion behind him. Adrian watched him, remembering the mansion he’d seen Nikki standing behind. He had tried to find the mansion before but not hard enough. Holding the memory of it, he started walking down the beach, stopping at each mansion and comparing it.
He paid for his venture with chapped lips and chafed skin, but it was well worth it when he found Nikki’s old home. It was less majestic now. He couldn’t tell whether someone was home, and didn’t even know what he intended to say when he knocked on the door. All he knew was that he had to get another angle on Nikki, see if her family still lived there.
As he started up the incline toward the stone steps, he caught sight of his shabby sweatshirt. He looked like some derelict looking for a handout. This would never work. Taking note of the house’s characteristics, he walked back to the car and changed into the sweater he kept in the back seat. The jeans would have to do. He drove down the road, trying to find the place from the front.
The ornate, faded sign at the entrance of the house he thought was the one said MADSEN. Next to it another sign read, NO TRESPASSERS. When he pulled around the driveway, he knew he’d seen this place before. Nikki had walked out of that front door right before the explosion.
After parking, Adrian pulled the tarnished brass knocker and let it slam back against the door. After another try, the door opened. A man about his age stood there, looking somewhat annoyed and curious at the same time. He had slick, black hair and wore glasses.
“Can I help you?”
“I hope so.” Adrian put on his most charming smile. He hoped the line worked better than it had last time he used it. “I was vacationing here about four years ago and met a lovely young lady named Nikki. I’m back in town and wondered if she still lived here.”
The man’s face paled even more than it already was. “My sister,” he said on a quick breath. “She doesn’t live here anymore.”
Adrian knew the man would have left it at that, but he couldn’t let it go now that he had a lead. “Does she still live in the area? I’d like to give her a call and take her to lunch.”
The man’s dark brown eyes seemed focused on something behind Adrian. His voice was thin. “I don’t know where she lives. She left a few years ago.” He shrugged, bringing his focus back to Adrian. “Sorry, I can’t help you.”
Adrian wanted to ask about the explosion, but the man was already taking a step back into the house. “I’m sorry, too. She was a sweet lady. I do remember her talking about you. You’re…” He snapped his fingers, as though the man’s name was on the tip of his tongue.
“Devlin,” he supplied, taking another step back and holding the door’s edge. “Goodbye.”
The name stuck Adrian like a knife. The man Nikki thought had hired Adrian to find her. He seemed harmless enough, and none too happy. Could the man be hunting his sister down?
Adrian returned to his house, dumping the homeless garb by the door for the last time. He stood there in his briefs, staring at the pitiful pile. Now what? He hadn’t come all this way to find his BlueFire alive and in danger, just to go back home. He was going to help her, whether she liked it or not. Now all he had to do was keep his heart out of it. This was enough of a mess as it was.
CHAPTER 10
“Visions, Inc. May I help you?”
Nikki cleared her throat. “I need to speak with Adrian Wilde, please. It’s rather urgent.”
“He’s out of town right now. I can take a message, or you can talk to his agent, Stanley Fisk.”
“I’ll talk to Stanley.” Nikki didn’t know what she would say when she wrote down the number on the phone booth wall. She didn’t even know what she was looking for exactly.
“This is Stanley,” a whiny voice answered a few minutes later.
“I’m looking for Adrian Wilde. It’s important that I speak with him right away.”
“Well, that’s two of us who feel that way, sweetheart. Unfortunately, the man has decided to take some emergency vacation. I don’t know when he’ll be back, though God willing, it’ll be soon. I can relay a message to him next time he calls.”
“Do you know where he is?”
“Somewhere in Palm Beach. On some mysterious mission. Don’t you think his agent should know about these things?” The exasperation in the man’s voice was clear.
Nikki shook her head. “I’m not sure.”
“You’re not a model, are you?”
“No, sir. Just an old friend. I’ll try to catch him later.”
She hung up, leaning her forehead against the phone. Adrian, who are you really? Why are you here? Nothing added up with him. He was a photographer from New York, that much was true. Then there were the visions he’d told her about. She shivered, still hearing his words as he told her about getting struck by lightning and seeing the images of her, and then going inside her. It sounded so bizarre, and yet, it could explain the pull she had felt for him even that first time she saw him.
She hurried back to her van parked in the Ft. Lauderdale Hilton’s lot. Devlin could have told Adrian about the sandcastle, though she couldn’t think of a reason he’d pick that particular incident. What about her loneliness? No one knew how lonely she had been in that wealthy, privileged world. Yet Adrian had.
She closed her eyes, feeling such an immense pain shiver through her body. He said he’d been there when the car exploded. Her fingers traced the network of scars on her shoulder that would forever remind her of that horrible day. She could still see Adrian touching her shoulder at the beach, kissing the scars on the back of her hand. That hand went to her mouth, to lips that could still feel his kisses. Her eyes widened.
<
br /> “Oh God, I’m in love with him. No, I can’t be.” Her heart told her differently. “No, I am not in love with him. He lied to me. No matter what he said about his visions, he still lied. I can’t trust him.”
At the sound of her voice, Crackers got up from the bed she’d made for him and hobbled over. When she started scratching his head, he curled up beside her and sighed contentedly.
“You’re the only male I can trust, besides Ulyssis. Even if you do like that…that man. At least I know you’re legit.”
The pup licked her finger, then closed his eyes. When she had walked him earlier, after her flight from Palm Beach, she’d noticed him looking for Adrian. She was searching for him, too, but for other reasons. He’d never find her here. Maybe after a few days of not seeing her, he’d give up and go back to New York and his cranky agent. Crackers was due back at the vet for a checkup in a day or so, but Nikki planned to wait another two days before returning to the area. She’d go to another vet, but she didn’t have the money; the checkup was included with the first visit.
Now that her suspicious mind was at work, she wondered if Adrian hadn’t paid for that bill. Probably out of guilt. As well he should, she thought, lifting her head. If he hadn’t been sneaking around, he wouldn’t have hit Crackers.
She stroked the pup’s soft fur, wondering how she was going to put him back out to the streets when he healed. Though her life was definitely not set up for having a dog, she had to admit she enjoyed his company. Especially during those lonely nights. Against her will, she thought of the time Adrian held her at the beach. She gave Crackers a squeeze. It wasn’t the same, but it would have to do. She couldn’t let Adrian near enough to do that again.
For two days Adrian pored over the entire Palm Beach area looking for Nikki. He decided that she had picked the best place to hide from her brother, even if he was only a few minutes from there. The people of the street blended into the background—because people wanted them to be invisible.
Touched by Lightning [Dreams of You] (Romantic Suspense) Page 12
