“Exactly what I had in mind,” he said.
It was much later when Karen awakened and found herself wrapped in Niko’s arms. Where would they go from here? Did they even have a future? She felt as if her life had begun when she opened her eyes and saw Nikolai Sandor. But it hadn’t. There’d been another whole existence before, back in a place called Silver Lake, Minnesota.
And no matter how much she wanted the man holding her, or how much he might want her, she couldn’t give herself completely until she knew what she’d left behind.
She watched as the flames burned the logs and turned into orange coals. Suddenly she could see the wisps of red-orange reach out the window and lick at the trellis along the side of a house. The dead clematis vines burst into flames and raced up the wall, snapping and crackling like the sound of a witch’s cauldron on Halloween.
Not only did she remember, but she was there. It was no longer just a fire. It was Halloween, the night of spirits and goblins. She always helped operate the town’s annual “haunted house.” The candles, the smell of dust and candy, had given her a headache. Finally, as the last of the crowds had entered the house, she’d stepped outside to catch a breath of fresh air beneath a tree in the far corner of the yard.
She saw the figure creep around the corner of the house and push up the window. Seconds later she watched dumbfounded as he lit a match, touched it to a piece of material, and tossed it inside. That’s when it happened. The fire started with a flare of light in the window, then caught the black gauze closing out the light.
She was paralyzed for a moment, watching the man as he moved back toward the spot where she stood. He deliberately set the house on fire with people inside.
It all came rushing back, the smoke, the screams, the man who turned to flee. He was wearing a ghostly mask.
“You—you set the house on fire!”
“Aren’t you going to save them?” the specter said, then laughed and ran away.
“Help. Fire!” Karen screamed, catching the attention of a father leaving the house with two little boys.
“Take my children to safety.” The father thrust the toddlers’ hands into Karen’s. “And call 911.”
“What is it?” Somewhere outside of her vision Karen heard Niko’s voice, but now that the final black hole of horror had been penetrated, she couldn’t hold back the flood of memories.
With the children crying in fear, she’d run to her car phone and placed the emergency call. As the phone rang she watched a red car pull out and drive rapidly away, tires squealing. In the streetlight she caught the first two numbers of the license plate, but the remainder were covered with a slash of mud.
“What are you seeing?” Niko demanded, turning her to face him.
“The fire department and the police were there. People were burned. Nobody died, but he got away.”
“Who got away?”
“The arsonist. He set the house on fire. I was there. Oh, Niko, I remember!”
“Good. Then you remember that they arrested him,” Niko said calmly, leading her further into what she’d blanked out.
“They did?”
“Yes, you gave them the tag number to his car.”
She’d thought she knew it all, but that last elusive memory remained beyond her recall. The last thing she saw was the fire and the burned-out house. “No.”
“They took him in for questioning and your testimony would have convicted him.”
“No. There’s more, there has to be. Otherwise, why would I have come to New York?” She was almost angry as she asked, “Why would someone have followed me?”
“We don’t know yet. Mac is checking with the librarian and the hospital staff.”
She raised her eyebrows, studying him carefully. “Mac? Is he your friend with the newspaper?”
“No, that’s Sam Wade. Lincoln MacAllister is the man who sent me to help you.”
“Someone in the hospital?”
“No, a … a friend.”
She frowned. “Do I know him?”
“No, but you will one day, when this is over.”
“I look forward to that, to it being over, anyway.”
“Mac runs an organization he calls Shangrila, Inc. Those of us who have crossed his path have another name for it. We call it Angel Central. Once we get you through this mess, he’ll enter your name in his ‘angel book’ and one day you’ll get a call asking you to help someone else.”
“Angel Central. I like that. So that’s how you came to be my knight in shining armor.” Instead of being a disappointment, the knowledge that someone had valued her enough to recruit Niko as her rescuing angel was a comforting thought.
“Mac sent me, but I’m the one who brought you out here. I should have left you back in the hospital. You were awake. That’s all I was supposed to do.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“You were scared and I wanted to help you. I never expected that we’d become lovers. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that to sound so callous.”
“I understand. I knew you were a fantasy and I welcomed it. You made my dream real. But the time for make-believe is over. It’s time for me to go back and put my life in order.”
“No, you can’t go home yet.”
“I feel like a broken record. It seems that every other thing I say to you is why?”
“Because we don’t know everything yet. You led the authorities to Miles Lambert through his car. Because of his past record, they believed he was the arsonist.”
“But he says he didn’t do it?”
“You got it.”
“Then why was he arrested?”
“Because they found the milk jug that had contained the gas on the front seat of his car. And he had no alibi. He’d spent the evening drinking in one of the local bars, but he said he wasn’t driving his car. Said somebody stole it and abandoned it along a nearby side street.”
“But I must have recognized him. Wasn’t that enough?”
“The district attorney thought so. Then, two days before the trial, you disappeared. Without your testimony they had no case.”
“I did what?”
“You honestly don’t remember leaving?”
She stared at him in shock. “Why would I have done that? I saw someone set the fire. I saw the smoke and the roof of the building fall in. Why would I have disappeared?”
“That’s what I’d hoped you’d remember. There has to be a reason for you to leave Silver Lake and come to New York.”
She frowned and tried to recapture the scene. “What else am I forgetting? Why would I leave? There has to be more. I saw the house catch fire and someone running. I remember the car driving away. The next thing I recall is waking up with you sitting on my hospital bed. It was Friday the thirteenth.”
Friday the 13th—plus three days—the return
The next morning the river was calm. Nikolai was the turbulent one. From the moment he awoke and understood what had happened between the two of them, he knew it was a mistake.
Still, he couldn’t regret what they’d shared. He’d thought of Karen as fire and ice. But when the ice melted, the fire had burned him. Even without knowing who she was, he’d fabricated a past life for them. What he hadn’t told her was that when he looked into her palm, he’d seen a future as well.
And it had scared him silly. She was too vulnerable, too trusting. He’d committed himself to protecting her, and that promise was tightening the connection between them. There was no room in his life for love. He’d come dangerously close to losing a part of his heart. Maybe he already had.
Niko had known from the beginning that he was fighting his past as well as Karen’s. Somehow fate had brought him back to the island where it had all started. Karen had become the key. But now Karen had become much more. He couldn’t use her and he was afraid that was just what he’d been doing. She’d forced him to feel things he’d thought he’d closed off completely. It was more than desire, it was belonging. It was being a part
of someone’s dreams. Now he’d have to redefine his life and rebuild the walls.
But Karen wasn’t totally back yet; the final piece of the puzzle that made up her memory was still missing. Keeping her on the island was only prolonging her problem, and by doing so he’d allowed himself to start down a road that he couldn’t follow.
He had to get Karen back to her world and end this uncertainty. His personal feelings were only delaying the inevitable. He looked down at her, his heart in his throat. Decision time had come. Though what he wanted most was to climb back into the tousled blankets and sheets that covered Karen’s naked body, he forced himself to wake her instead.
“Get up, princess.” He knelt down beside her. “We’re going back to town. Our taxi arrives at noon.”
“Taxi?” she asked sleepily, reaching up to touch his face. “Can’t we wait until tomorrow?”
“No, tonight we’re going to a party.”
Karen gasped. For most of the night they’d made love, reliving their fantasy in a place she never wanted to leave. She’d thought he was as stunned at what they’d found together as she. But when the memory of the Halloween party had come tumbling back, Niko had changed.
“A party?” It made no sense. “Why?”
“If the man who’s after you isn’t smart enough to find us here on the island, we’ll make it easier for him.”
Karen’s Gypsy lover was gone, replaced by the devil of the ninth floor, Dr. Nikolai Sandor. This man sizzled with danger. And she trembled as the current around him touched her.
“How do we know anybody is after me? Maybe I imagined the danger.”
“No, he’s out there. I feel him.”
“And we’re going to find him? How?”
“There’s a hospital fund-raiser tonight. I’ve made certain that everyone expects me to be there. Your reporter and the arsonist both know that I helped you escape. My appearance at a function free to the press ought to bring whoever is chasing you out into the open. You have to be there to identify him.”
“Niko, how did the reporter find me in the city?”
“I don’t know. Investigative reporters are a little like a research scientist. They’re very good at getting information. Perhaps you left a trail without realizing it. Perhaps the arsonist followed him. Maybe it’s the same person. We’ll soon find out.”
“But a party? I’m just a schoolteacher. I don’t know anything about going to that kind of party.”
“Just be yourself, princess.”
“I don’t even own a proper dress.”
“You will.”
Everything had changed. It was as if the island were behind them already. Fantasy time was over. She’d known the truth last night; she’d just been willing to delay it.
“You’re right, Niko. It’s time to go. You’ve helped me more than you’ll ever know. But I’ll take my life back now. You’ve accomplished your purpose, doctor.”
She knew the sadness was evident as she spoke. He might not have any regrets about leaving Slade Island, but she did. Leaving meant good-bye. It was the final page to their book.
“I am a doctor,” Niko said. “That’s what I do, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I’m a man too. We’re not on the Orient Express and we’re not two ships passing in the night. You must know how I feel. I wish there could be more.”
She knew this was hard for him. He’d allowed himself just for a time to be her lover. Their relationship had become intimate and she knew that wasn’t the way he normally solved his problems. Now he was clearly saying that he wouldn’t allow his personal feelings to interfere with his future or with his commitment to her as his patient.
“I realize,” she said, feeling a mental strength take over, “that I have to face whatever happened back in Silver Lake. The haunted house fire is only part of it. Something else made me leave, and I have to figure out what that was. Dream time is over. It’s time for Prince Charming to get on with running the kingdom and for Cinderella to turn back into an ordinary scullery maid.”
He stopped and turned to face her. “There’s nothing ordinary about you, Karen. You’re very special.”
She bit her lower lip, then smiled at him. “I’m not some lonely Scottish woman on the moors, Niko, and you don’t have a white horse.”
Niko understood her strength of purpose, if not her choice of words. He’d known from the first that she wasn’t a quitter. She saw the arsonist and she was ready to testify. What in hell happened after that to make her leave? And when in hell had she ever gotten the idea that she was plain?
“Fine,” he answered, recognizing the futility of arguing. “After the party, I’ll go with you.”
She should have been grateful, but she knew once they left the island, their relationship, whatever it was, would end. It would be too painful to be with him and not touch him, love him.
“No, I don’t want you to go.”
“I think a red dress,” he said as if she hadn’t spoken. “We want to make a statement. Besides, the color red is symbolic, isn’t it?”
“You mean because of the fire?”
“No, I was thinking of the Gypsy in the red shirt.”
“And the white horse with the ribbons in his mane.”
He studied her for a moment with something like regret in his eyes, then turned and surveyed the lodge. “Let’s close up this place. We’ll get breakfast at Leo’s and we’ll be back in the city by early afternoon.”
Karen didn’t argue. While he cut off the generator and laid a fire for the next visitors, Karen packed her clothes and put their temporary beds back where they belonged. There was no more conversation and Karen refused to dwell on what they’d shared.
At the door she stopped and looked back. The lodge was cold and empty once again.
It was as if they’d never been there.
She was leaving the island, but she’d take her fantasy with her. And the memory of a dream lover who had come to life.
TEN
Friday the 13th—plus three days
Getting back to the marina was easier than their trip to the island. Karen was ready to return, but now she knew what that meant and she couldn’t feel anything but sadness.
Niko was piloting the boat, the wind catching his hair and whipping it behind him. She’d thought the night before, when she’d watched him in the firelight, that she’d always remember him that way. Then later, when she’d lain in his arms with her cheek against his chest, she’d drawn in the smell of him and tucked it into her memory. But now, watching him study the shore, his eyes wide with anticipation, every nuance of his body heightened with energy, she thought this might be the truest picture of Nikolai Sandor. He was a man with a purpose in life and he wouldn’t be denied.
And he’d been hers—for a while.
By noon Niko had docked the boat and was pacing back and forth in front of the marina building like a caged leopard.
“I wish they’d hurry. It’s too cold for you out here.”
“I’m fine,” Karen reassured him, tugging a long strand of hair away from her face. “Where is the party?” she asked as much to occupy his mind as for information.
“Oh, I don’t know, some trendy art gallery in SoHo if I remember correctly.”
“We’re going back to the city to buy a fancy dress for me to wear to a party in a warehouse in SoHo?”
She would have asked more, but at that moment a battered van with the Daily World logo on the side pulled into the parking area and a sandy-haired man got out, flapping his arms to ward off the cold.
“Sam, what are you doing here?” Niko moved toward the stranger and shook his hand enthusiastically.
“A very convincing man named Mac sent me. Said you two needed a ride. I had a hell of a time finding this place.”
“That’s why we picked it. Thanks for coming. Karen, meet Sam Wade. Sam, this is Karen Miller.”
“So you’re the mystery lady everybody is looking for,” Sam commented.
“
Yes,” Niko said sharply, letting Sam know that questions were unwelcome. “Couldn’t you find a less-conspicuous vehicle?”
“Sorry, I don’t have a car. This is the best I could do. Get in and tell me what in the world you’re doing out here?”
Niko helped Karen into the seat behind Sam. “Hiding,” he said, and crawled into the front.
Sam looked at him in surprise. “From whoever torched your condo?”
Karen gasped.
Niko frowned. “Thanks, Sam. Any news on who that was?”
“Not so far as I know.”
“How’d you find out?”
“I have a friend at the fire department. Gives me inside tips for tickets to sporting events.”
“Your apartment was set on fire?” Karen asked incredulously. “And you didn’t tell me?”
“Not much damage,” Niko explained. “And I didn’t want to worry you.”
She’d been worried before. Now she was angry. She might not remember everything, but she had the right to know, to decide what she was going to do. And going to a party was probably the last thing on her list.
“So, where am I driving you?” Sam asked, eyeing Karen curiously in his mirror.
“To a very expensive dress shop. We’re going shopping for a slinky red dress,” Niko answered. “Would you believe we’re going to a party?”
“After the last three days, I’d believe anything,” Sam said as he turned the van back toward the city. “The story being bandied about is that you ran off and got married.”
Niko laughed and glanced over the back of his seat at Karen. He didn’t like the stoic expression on her face. He might have expected her to be puzzled, even concerned, but what he saw was a quiet fury. She definitely didn’t look excited about going to a party.
Or maybe it was the story about their being married.
“Don’t worry, princess,” he said. “Anybody who knows me won’t believe that story.”
“Of course they won’t,” Sam agreed. “It’s just typical tabloid journalism. If they can’t find out the truth, they make up something juicy.”
Karen didn’t reply.
The dress-shop owner took one look at Niko and melted. “Of course, sir, just what did you have in mind?”
Mac's Angels : Sinner and Saint. a Loveswept Classic Romance (9780345541659) Page 13
