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

by Tina Wainscott

  “You’re right, you do keep haunting me. But you’ve had your last escape. They’re all dead. Devlin doesn’t even know you’re alive.”

  The black clouds become a nasty gray as they started dumping water down on them. The wind picked up, whipping her hair around. They were the only insane ones out on the water that she could see through the black night.

  Jack pressed the button that released the anchor, then dragged her down to the kitchen. It was fit for luxury, but like the mansion, it had been neglected, too. A FOR SALE sign sat in the window. Her fingers clawed at the ropes binding her hands.

  He pushed her toward the table. “Sit. Don’t try anything funny.”

  She didn’t consider saving her life ‘funny’. She obeyed, still furiously working the rope behind her. Jack knelt down and searched the cabinets. One hand slipped free of the ropes. He eyed her, then went around the corner, pulling open doors down the hall.

  “Stay right there, Nikki,” he warned.

  She was already on her feet, reaching for the fire extinguisher. When he appeared in the doorway, she slammed it against his head and pushed him backward. His eyes rolled back, but she didn’t take a moment to see if he was unconscious. She turned the gas on all the burners with shaking fingers.

  She could hear her heart beating through her head as she ran up the stairs and onto the deck. Rain pounded against her and she grasped at the railing as she made her way to the Boston Whaler perched up high. The ocean was an alive and evil thing, clawing at the air, foaming at the tips of the waves. She didn’t even think about how the small dinghy would be tossed in those swells. All she thought about was the flare gun she would aim at the yacht once she was a safe distance away. She remembered how her father had lowered the dinghy so they could reach some island or another. The electric winch whirred to life, and the boat started lowering.

  As she was about to step inside, Jack’s voice bellowed out above the wind. “Nooooo!”

  He rushed at her, a wild gleam in his eye. The boat kept lowering. She’d never make it in before he reached her. Just before those hands shoved her out of the way, something moved between them.

  She screamed as Adrian knocked Jack off his feet. She didn’t want to die by Adrian’s hand. When she took a step toward the dinghy, she realized it was too low for her to even jump into without possibly getting knocked out of it.

  “You son of a bitch!” Jack screamed. “I can’t get rid of you either.”

  Jack’s voice was laced with violence, his expression sodden with hatred and rain as he glared at Adrian. Jack got to his feet and lunged. The whole boat tilted to the side in the swells, throwing both men onto the deck. Her thoughts were frantic.

  Find the flare kit.

  Radio for help.

  Get into that dinghy.

  Both men got to their feet, grabbing onto anything to keep their balance. Jack swung a kick at Adrian’s middle, knocking him against the side of the boat. Jack grabbed her arm and yanked her toward him. She struggled, pulling her weight down.

  Rain washed over her face, mixing with her tears. “Please, Jack, no!”

  He picked her up and threw her over the railing. Her stomach wrenched as she dropped down into the cold water. It swallowed her, washing up her nose, choking her. She reached the surface, searching for the dinghy. Safety and life banging against the side of the yacht. The current moved her farther away. She panted, swimming as hard as she could, using precious breath.

  A wave washed over her, making her cough up sea water. Her body shivered, her arms ached. She tried to doggie paddle, to keep her face above the surface. It wasn’t working. She sank, came up in a panicked rush. God, no. Please let me live. Blackness surrounded her, the black of the sea and the world.

  Weak. Tired. Another wave taking the fight out of her. More salt water in her gasping mouth, down her throat. She closed her eyes.

  So weak. Water all around. No more air.

  Oh, God.

  Adrian’s lungs constricted. The nightmare. No, not a nightmare. Nikki was dying. That terrifying panic seized him. Would he die with her now that their souls were connected? He sucked in a great breath, feeling the pressure ease. Or ... he sucked in again, filling his lungs. Could he save her? Breathe for her?

  Nikki. He could feel her heartbeat all around him.

  I’m dying. God, is that you?

  It’s Adrian. You’re not dying, baby. He took a deep breath, filling his body and soul with it. Her panic lessened. Let me breathe for you.

  Yes, I can feel it! I can breathe. How? How is this happening?

  Our connection. Stay with me, Nikki.

  Hands wrenched at his collar, jarring Adrian from the trance. He found Jack in front of him, a wild gleam in his eyes. Panic assailed him. Adrian sucked in another breath, getting to his feet, pretending to be groggy from the kick to his gut. Jack was trying to maneuver him to the railing. Another deep breath.

  Hang in there, Nikki. I’m coming for you.

  What’s happening? I keep losing you.

  When Jack tried to lift him over the railing, Adrian shoved him backward with every ounce of energy he possessed. Another deep breath. The porthole behind Jack’s head cracked beneath the force. Adrian kept pounding his head against the glass, giving Jack no time to regain his senses. Blood smeared the shattered glass.

  Adrian let him drop to the deck and climbed over the railing. He took a deep breath, scanning the roiling seas for her. The sight of her chilled his heart. She floated face down a distance away.

  Nikki!

  I’m so tired. Let me sleep, just for a little while.

  No, you can’t sleep. Stay with me. Breathe with me.

  Something shimmied through him at the thought that he could breathe for her. He slid down the rope to the dinghy and tried to start it.

  “Dammit, start already!”

  The engine turned, died. He cranked the key, keeping his eye on her. One more time, and then he’d jump in. The engine cranked, sputtered. Held on. He headed to where she floated.

  Nikki.

  No answer. He searched for her as a wave lifted him on its crest. His heart pounded, harder than the rain and thunder. He cut the engine and nearly tipped the boat over reaching for her, pulling her into the boat. She felt limp and cold in his arms.

  He could feel her heartbeat, inside him. His lips covered hers, wet and salty, and he pushed breath into her lungs. With a gasp, she sat up and pushed him away, sucking in breath after breath, coughing harshly in between. Her fingers still clenched his shirt. After a minute, she looked at him with widened eyes.

  He smiled, sure his heart would burst inside him. “You’re okay.” She had to be okay.

  Her breathing still came heavy, but the fear remained in her eyes. She glanced at the yacht, drifting farther away. The rain had lightened to a drizzle. He started the outboard and put more distance between them.

  “How did you get on the boat?” Her voice was scratchy.

  “I climbed back on the dock and jumped on the boat as it left the slip. It took me a while to actually climb aboard, but nothing was going to stop me from getting to you.”

  She stared at him, seeing the fire in his brown eyes. Was it really over? What was Adrian’s role in all this? Was he going to pretend he’d never consorted with Jack? Had he? The questions came at her, and she desperately wanted answers. She knew she couldn’t believe him.

  Yet, she had breathed his breath. Down there in the water, when death beckoned her, Adrian’s voice called her back. Somehow, with water all around her, she could breathe. She shivered, overwhelmed by what he called their connection.

  He reached his hand out to her. “Come here. I want to hold you, to know you’re really here.”

  Nikki drew herself into a tight ball. The wind whipped her hair around her face, but she didn’t move her hand to push it away.

  His hand remained suspended for a long minute before he let it drop. “Nikki, what’s wrong?”

  The hurt she s
aw in those eyes pierced her heart, and she buried her face in her arms so she wouldn’t see him. At the far end of the boat, he couldn’t reach her without letting go of the tiller. He didn’t try, but he continued talking to her.

  “Don’t be afraid of our connection. I used to think it was weird, but I got used to it. Remember I told you about getting hit by lightning and dying, seeing your life, and then going into your soul.”

  They heard a far off scream. Jack stood at the boat’s railing, something orange in his hand. “The flare gun!” she said in a rush of breath. He was going to shoot at them.

  He pulled her behind him as they heard the hiss of the flare. She couldn’t stop watching the spectacle of horror. Not the flare itself, but the source. A spark jumped from the gun, catching the gas released from the doorway next to Jack. The tiny spark grew as it swallowed up the gas on its way into the cabin.

  Jack turned toward it and issued a scream of agony before the boat shattered in a burst of flames. Adrian covered her with his body, but she could hear flaming bits of wood sizzle as they hit the cold water around them. A second, smaller explosion sounded, and their bodies reacted in unison, cringing. More shrapnel flew through the air, landing close to the boat. A piece of splintered wood landed at Adrian’s feet, smoking, but not aflame.

  A few seconds later, they could only hear the roar of fire. Adrian let her up, and they both looked at the portion of boat that still remained, burning in flames. Oh, God, like those other explosions that had taken so much from her. This time there was no one to mourn for. Nikki could feel nothing but a sense of justice as she thought of Jack dying by his own hand. They both stared at the wreckage for a long time, and the anger and fear within her turned to numbness. Even with the occasional wave of heat drifting toward them on the wind, she shivered.

  Adrian pulled her close, his face only inches from hers. Like so many times, his fingers encircled her face. She wanted to move away, but her body wouldn’t cooperate. It sagged in his arms.

  His eyes searched hers. “Nikki, tell me why you’re afraid of me?”

  Everything inside her ached. The warmth of his body enveloped her, and it took all her strength not to move into his embrace.

  “I—” A sob tore through her, unexpected in its depth. “I don’t know who to trust anymore.” Her body shook, and she wrapped her arms around herself.

  “Why don’t you trust me?”

  That voice was so silky smooth, and yet she heard the pain that roared through it. She couldn’t meet his gaze, staring at the black smoke billowing up into the dark sky that matched the way she felt.

  She asked, “Did you meet with Jack and Devlin b-before the explosion?”

  He released a breath. “Yes. I was going to tell you, but I didn’t want to say anything until I had an idea of what we were up against with them. I realized that I needed to come straight with you, because you had insight into these two men. I just wanted to free you. And find out who had tried to kill you.”

  She sniffed loudly but still didn’t meet his gaze. Her voice was so thick with tears, it was hardly intelligible. “Jack said you came to him with a proposal ... to kill me for part of the building deal.”

  Adrian turned her chin so she couldn’t look anywhere else but at his face. “I felt I had to lie to you, but I never meant to harm you.” His voice cracked. “Jack must have followed me after that second meeting. Then he must have seen you. When I thought you were dead, I wanted to be dead, too. Then the police thought I killed you.”

  “They said you had bomb making materials at your house.”

  He closed his eyes for a moment before meeting her gaze again. “It was a set up. Jack must have planted it there. When I was in the hospital, I had another vision. You were in the parking lot, and Jack and Devlin kidnapped you. I knew I had to get to you.”

  “Is that why you took a nurse hostage?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did you hurt her?”

  His expression hardened. “I would have done anything to get to you. But I didn’t have to. She believed me. Heck, she even gave me money and her Hurricanes cap. I didn’t want to take her off the hospital grounds, but she insisted.”

  “It wasn’t Devlin who kidnapped me. I don’t think he had anything to do with it.”

  “I wasn’t sure. He seemed like Jack’s puppet.”

  “Devlin came to the mansion while I was in the wine cellar, and Jack hit him over the head and dragged him in there. I’ve got to let someone know he’s in there.”

  “We will, as soon as we can.”

  She nodded, feeling helpless to send him help. “Jack admitted that Devlin knew nothing about either explosion.” Her heart stopped for a moment. “Is Ulyssis all right?” She remembered the blood when Jack had knifed him.

  “I don’t know. I pulled him out of the water, but I couldn’t get help for him without losing you. He was conscious.”

  “And what about you? Jack shot into the water.”

  “I was already swimming under the dock, intending to climb up on the other side and surprise him.”

  The sound of a boat engine penetrated the air and wind, and they turned to see the Coast Guard approaching. Adrian raised his hand to make sure they saw the dinghy.

  She moved out of his warm embrace but waved, too. She needed desperately to be alone and sort out her feelings and doubts, truth from lies. Too much had happened to fall back into Adrian’s arms. Even if they had shared the same breath. Adrian didn’t touch her again, except to help her onto the large Coast Guard boat.

  “How did you find us?” she asked, nearly sagging into the neutral stranger’s arms.

  “A Ulyssis Garcia called us from the marina.”

  “Is he all right?” both Nikki and Adrian asked simultaneously.

  “We radioed the hospital to pick him up.”

  During the ride back to shore, the authorities kept them both busy questioning them and checking their health. She told them to radio to the police that Devlin was in the wine cellar as they listened to her breathing. They couldn’t hear any water in her lungs; she didn’t tell them she’d been face down in the water for more than ten minutes. She could still feel that tingly connection when Adrian had spoken to her as she was about to die, and the way his breath filled her lungs.

  She took a breath, grateful to breathe, to be alive. She couldn’t bring herself to meet Adrian’s eyes from across the room, the man who had saved her life. Her heart felt as if it had shattered into a thousand pieces.

  The last person on earth Adrian wanted to see when the Coast Guard docked stood waiting for them: Detective Sloan. Ulyssis had explained what he could, but Sloan still regarded Adrian with suspicion. Adrian didn’t care at the moment. He couldn’t take his eyes off Nikki as Sloan pressed forward and asked her questions. Her arms were wrapped around herself, and she was shivering beneath the brown blankets the Coast Guard had given them.

  More than anything, Adrian wanted to pull her into his arms and comfort her, but she had already stabbed him in the heart when she’d moved out of his embrace on the dinghy. She didn’t know who to trust anymore. Jack had made her doubt, and Adrian's own lies sure hadn’t helped.

  “Please come with me, Mr. Wilde,” a young, uniformed man said, nodding toward the barrage of flashing red and blue lights beyond.

  Adrian numbly complied. He couldn’t be under suspicion of murder anymore, but he had fled the authorities and taken a hostage.

  The police station was a mass of confusion. Reporters clamored like ants all over the entrance, but the officers pushed their special party right through.

  One man shouted, “Mr. Wilde, did you have anything to do with the explosions?”

  A woman called out, “Were you after Nikki Madsen’s money?”

  When they walked into the bright lights of the station, Adrian turned to the man at his right. “How is Ulyssis Garcia?”

  “He’ll be okay. The knife went into his shoulder. He’ll be in pain for a while, but he’ll li
ve.”

  Adrian watched Sloan usher Nikki into his office and close the glass door behind him. She looked like a rag doll, her long hair tangled about her face. Maybe she was just in shock. Maybe—Adrian shook his head. No, it wasn’t anything like that. She didn’t trust him. Yet, no anger bubbled to the surface, no regrets.

  The young officer led Adrian to another room, one without windows. “Detective Sloan will be in to speak with you in a few minutes. Can I get you anything? Coffee? Soda?”

  “How about a cigarette?”

  “Sure.”

  The man disappeared for a moment before returning with one cigarette and a pack of matches, then left Adrian alone. He rolled the cigarette in his fingers, then raised it to nose. It didn’t appeal to him anymore. He dropped it and watched it roll off the edge of the table. A few minutes later, Sloan walked in. Adrian noticed a trace of smugness on the man’s face, but he was too numb to let it bother him.

  Sloan took a seat across from Adrian. “So why don’t you tell us your version of the story, Wilde?”

  Adrian leaned back, crossing his arms in front of him. The jacket one of the cops had loaned him only kept in the dampness that emanated from the sweater, but he wasn’t cold anymore. Not on the outside, anyway.

  “You want me to start at the beginning, or after I left you at the hospital?”

  Sloan’s lips curved upward. “Why don’t you start at the beginning?”

  Adrian didn’t relish telling this man about his visions, but he supposed Nikki probably had already mentioned them. What did it matter anyway? He started with the visions, then the photograph, and moved forward from there, omitting the intimate details.

  When Adrian was finished, he asked, “Disappointed I didn’t do it?”

  Sloan crossed one leg over the other, smoothing out the cuff of his pants. “I wanted the find the murderer, Wilde. It was nothing personal. There’s still the issue of taking the nurse hostage. Not to mention assaulting two officers.”

  Adrian stiffened. “I’d do it again if I had to.”

  “Yeah, well. She’s not pressing charges. In fact, she even confessed that she helped you out.” Sloan’s mouth twisted into what could almost be considered a smile. “As it’s my discretion on whether to charge you with that, I’ve decided not to pursue it.” Sloan stood, and Adrian knew that was as close as the man was going to get to apologizing. “You’re free to go.”