Garden of Dreams

by Patricia Rice

  “It’s one of the best on the strip, with a four-star rating. You might end up in a back room with a view of the roof, but it’s in the center of everything.”

  The center of everything. Las Vegas wasn’t Madrid. She couldn’t stand in the center of the street and yell for JD to come out and play as the kids did here. How the hell would she find him in a place like Vegas? She didn’t even know if he was there. She had definitely lost her marbles.

  But she couldn’t stay here and listen to Helen’s plans for selling her dream. She couldn’t play hide- and-seek with a mysterious Mercedes forever. And she couldn’t bear doing nothing when, for all she knew, JD had disappeared into cyberspace.

  She could be sensible, though. She would call Jimmy MacTavish and tell him where she would be. Maybe by the time she arrived, he’d have some word of JD, and she could just have the best and only vacation of her life instead.

  Maybe she would play the slot machines and make her fortune.

  Maybe she should just buy a lottery ticket and stay home.

  Chapter 26

  The dry, hot air of Vegas didn’t faze Nina as she rolled her one suitcase through the sliding glass doors and out to the taxi stand. Even the airport hadn’t been the hectic, crowded experience she’d feared. The rather laid-back atmosphere had given her time to look around and adapt to her surroundings.

  The taxis, however, terrified her. She’d heard all the horror stories about taxis. Admittedly, most of them had been about New York taxis, but the same rules could apply. She had little experience in dealing with rude people.

  Taking a deep breath, she threw her suitcase into the first cab in line and named her hotel.

  “Hey, I heard they got a great show in there,” the driver informed her as the car squealed away from the curb. “You ain’t one of the new performers, are ya? Ya look like one. A dancer, I bet. How do ya balance the fancy headdresses with all the feathers?”

  Nina let out her breath and laughed at her silly fears. A dancer! A taxi driver thought she was a dancer and not some poky schoolteacher from the outback of nowhere. Marvelous! Maybe she’d take on a new persona. The foolishness hid some of her anxiety.

  With the same kind of questions she used to draw out her students, Nina had the talkative driver telling her everything he knew about Las Vegas. He told her who owned which hotels, which ones were reportedly Mafia, the best places to eat, the best shows to see, and how to increase her odds on the slots.

  The wealth of information she acquired was cheaper than a guidebook, Nina decided as she handed the driver some of her few precious twenties when they reached the hotel. Julia had advised her not to bother with travelers’ checks and to carry plenty of ones. If she thought of spending them as buying information instead of the exorbitant cost of traveling a few miles, she might not expire at the extravagance.

  Palm trees and vivid gardens held Nina’s attention as the taxi drove off, but before she’d looked her fill, a bellhop ran to claim her suitcase. Unwilling to lose sight of her bag, she chased after it—straight into the first circles of hell.

  Bells clamored. Sirens screamed. Red, blue, and green lights flashed blindingly through a smoky dusk. Disoriented by the sensory bombardment, Nina staggered onward. Cascades of coins jangled into metal trays. Zombies in shorts and sequins manipulated flashing machines that whizzed and whirled so fast, her eyes crossed just watching. Surely this was hell. These people couldn’t really want to live like this.

  She couldn’t stand it. Panicking, Nina searched wildly for the bellhop, the lobby, any island of sanity in this swirl of sensation. Surely she’d landed in the devil’s hands.

  The bellhop led her to a room fastidiously decorated in southwestern colors. With the draperies closed against the afternoon sun and the air-conditioning blasting out cold air, it had the effect of an icy desert. Nina dug in her purse and handed the bellhop a dollar and breathed a sigh of relief as the door closed behind him. She needed time to reorient herself again.

  She flipped a switch that lit the shiny chrome and tile bathroom. The huge mirror encompassing the wall over the sink reflected her haggard image, and she grimaced before surveying the counter. Hair dryer, coffeepot, a basket of little coffee, sugar, and creamer packets. What would they think of next? Everything glass-enclosed and hermetically sealed and electronically wired. Scary.

  She picked through the basket of amenities, latching onto one called “aloe skin refresher.” She was paying for all this luxury. She might as well take advantage of it. Patting the moisturizer on her face, she searched for the thermostat. A person could become a Popsicle in here.

  She couldn’t find the thermostat, but she found the room service menu. It fell open to a page listing the various wines and champagnes available. Just what she needed right now: a bucket of ice and champagne. Maybe she could add to her list of new experiences and get bombed. The idea almost appealed.

  The telephone had enough buttons to fly an airplane. Discouraged, Nina flopped backward on the king-size bed, testing it for bounce. It had none. A flickering memory of JD leaning over her on a bed half this size drove her back to her feet again. JD would know how to use that phone to full effect. JD would know how to use the damned bed even better.

  Damn, but she didn’t want to think about that.

  She escaped to the bathroom to make some sense of her image, but she wasn’t certain it was worth the effort once she got there. She rested her forehead against the cool glass of the bathroom mirror and tried assembling the scattered remains of her brain. The exhausting cross-country flight, the sensory assault of the casino, and the strain of coping with so many new experiences had drained and exhausted her.

  For the life of her, she couldn’t remember why she’d come. She must have suffered a temporary bout of insanity. Was there any way she could scream “Stop the train, I want to get off”?

  Maybe if she went back outside among the palm trees and the flowers, she could get her head back together again.

  That idea brought a new spurt of energy. A vacation. She just had to look at this as a vacation. She needed to throw off the shell of the woman she had been and return as the woman she wanted to be, as soon as she figured out who she wanted to be. A vacation was a good start. One step at a time.

  Not acknowledging the myriad worries chasing through her overworked mind, Nina hurriedly discarded the wraparound skirt and blouse she’d traveled in. Julia had advised shorts and casual clothes. Nina didn’t own many, and she figured her favorite bib jean shorts wouldn’t look right in a city. So she’d packed a pretty pair of pastel blue cuffed shorts and a matching T-shirt she’d bought for the Opryland trip and hadn’t worn since. Aunt Hattie had thought they looked nice.

  The little frill at the neckline looked childish, and she didn’t like exposing her legs so much in front of strangers, but Nina was beyond caring at the moment. She needed to be outside in the sun and out of the hellish gloom of the hotel. Hell wouldn’t be fire. It would be the dark cold gloom of air-conditioned rooms without windows.

  Outside by the pool, Nina took a deep breath of hot desert air and let the sun fry her head for a while. She’d forgotten her hat. She supposed she could charge one. It would make a nice souvenir. She’d be happier if she could take JD home as a souvenir.

  There weren’t sufficient trees and flowers around the pool to satisfy her craving for nature. She needed to brave the casino again so she could reach the oasis out front. She’d seen waterfalls and a lagoon when she arrived. They struck her as fairly incongruous on a city street, but she’d take what she could get.

  She almost got lost in the casino again. The place was a giant maze built to suck in the unwary, and she feared being gobbled by giants if she didn’t find the right path. She couldn’t go anywhere without traversing the casino, and she couldn’t escape the casino without fighting glittering one-armed bandits and their zombie attendants. Maybe she could suggest a new computer game for JD.

  She might concede that some tech
nology—like computers—had some useful purpose. She would never admit that the artificial environment of this hell served any purpose whatsoever.

  Nina finally escaped the maze and walked out the glass doors into the sunshine of the parking lot She didn’t see any benches or walkways through the palm trees on the other side, but she would sit on the grass, if necessary.

  In late afternoon, the area was relatively deserted. Nina perched on a wall beneath the shade of a palm and concentrated on ignoring the street traffic beyond the lagoon. Begonias and impatiens spilled over walls and out of containers everywhere she looked. Evidently the heat and lack of water made it difficult to grow much else.

  In these more relaxed surroundings, she could think again. She’d called Jimmy before she’d left. He still hadn’t heard from JD, but he’d been out to his house. Someone had broken in and ransacked the place. JD’s partner hadn’t been able to keep the worry out of his voice. So she wasn’t the only one who saw disaster ahead.

  JD was in trouble, and she had to find him. How she thought she could do that was beyond imagining. She could check with Jimmy and find out where JD’s uncle Harry lived, but if JD was in trouble, he wouldn’t hide anywhere so obvious.

  Jimmy had mentioned some financier from Vegas who JD didn’t trust. If Vegas had a library, she could search the news files on him. But research didn’t hold her interest. She wanted to find JD.

  Emptiness yawned inside her. She could hear JD’s laughter as he called her a Ninatoon, see the set look on his face as he dumped cartons of beer cans in the lake, and feel the comfort of his arms around her as he swung her on the porch swing.

  She missed him.

  She had no business missing him. But he had helped her with the botanical garden, and she should return the favor. Maybe he didn’t need her. Maybe she was imagining the look she’d seen in his eyes. The possibility terrified her, but she couldn’t back down now. She’d take the risk of making a fool of herself. JD was more important than a blow to her barely existent self-esteem.

  As she watched the tourists stroll by, Nina realized she looked like a cabbage in a tulip bed. She must have hick written all over her. She might as well have worn her bib overalls.

  Perhaps for safety’s sake, she should blend in with the crowd more.

  The idea hit her then, sprang up full-blown from the deep dark recesses of her wayward mind.

  Ninatoons.

  It would work. If JD were still alive and in Vegas, it would work. It had to. Failure was not an option.

  ***

  Sitting on a cot in the garage garret he currently inhabited, JD shoved a stray hank of hair from his face and cursed an innocuous advertisement on the business page. Ninatoons are here! Call for an appointment.

  He didn’t recognize the phone number that followed, other than to know it was local.

  Nina was in Vegas.

  He would kill her.

  He stared at the small black-and-white ad a little longer. She’d had it framed and given enough white space to stand out. How many people besides him would notice it?

  Too damned many. Dropping the paper, JD paced the limited floor space of his hideaway, thinking furiously.

  Maybe it wasn’t her. Maybe everything just reminded him of her. He saw Nina’s face in his sleep, saw those huge eyes filled with concern as she leaned over him in his overturned truck, saw her grief at her aunt’s death, saw the lovely flush of her cheeks after he’d kissed her. Those wide innocent eyes of hers had drawn feelings out of him he hadn’t known existed. He just hadn’t been able to resist.

  And because he hadn’t resisted, she was here now. Dammit all to hell! Wasn’t it bad enough he’d left one woman raising a child alone, now he had to drag another into this dangerous fray he’d embarked on?

  He didn’t have to call that number.

  He couldn’t not call that number.

  Tearing at his hair, JD cursed. He didn’t have all the evidence he needed. He’d tapped DiFrancesco’s phone lines and burglarized his office. He’d found a trail leading back to Marshall Enterprises, but he hadn’t traced the trail to the name of the traitor in his own organization yet. And all the while he searched, Astrocomputer salesmen were combing the country, selling the promise of his banking program to banks nationwide.

  Unless they had the version he’d given Jimmy, they couldn’t have it in production yet. But if somehow—God forbid—they had the finished version, it was only a matter of time before the first test programs were produced. Sales up front counted the most because once the actual program was on the market, every computer company in the world would attempt to duplicate it. Astrocomputer was stealing those all-important first sales he needed to pay off the loan. He would be ruined.

  Unless he caught the culprit, hauled him before a judge, and returned those sales to Marshall Enterprises—before Harry’s killers found him.

  He didn’t have time for Miss Nina Toon.

  The thought of those big eyes taking in the decadent splendor of Las Vegas hit JD with the impact of a freight train. All the air went out of him.

  What if DiFrancesco saw her ad? Surely his goons would have found out her name by now.

  He couldn’t chance it. He had to get Nina out of here—immediately, if not sooner.

  Providing it was Nina and not his overactive paranoid imagination.

  Jerking his hair into a rubber band, JD grabbed his motorcycle keys and took the outside steps two at a time. He’d opened a bank account here using one of his Kentucky checks, then taken almost all of it out in cash to buy the motorcycle and pay living expenses.

  Damn Harry.

  The ache in the part of JD’s heart where his ne’er-do-well uncle had once resided hadn’t stopped hurting since the sheriff had shown him the grisly photo. Harry hadn’t deserved to die that way. Harry only wanted to be friends with everyone. Harry had chosen the wrong damned friends and discovered it a little too late.

  He’d get revenge for Harry’s death when this was done. He’d see DiFrancesco and his goons hung from the highest rafters. If JD believed in God, he’d believe He reserved a special place in hell for monsters who took advantage of another person’s goodness.

  Right now, he had to take care of a certain Miss Nina Toon.

  JD stopped at the nearest library branch, checked the city directory, and cursed at the address given for the phone number in the ad. Why hadn’t she just built a billboard that spelled out “Here I am”?

  He wished his veins didn’t thrum with anticipation as he wheeled his bike back on the highway. It would make life much easier if he could just dismiss Nina as a fool woman who couldn’t leave well enough alone.

  Unfortunately, JD knew better. The knowledge that Nina had come to his rescue made him twitch. He’d always taken care of himself. He didn’t need anyone else. Somehow, he would make that clear to Miss Nina. Then he’d send her back where she belonged, back to that safe little glass ball of a world that he could admire from afar, the kind of secure place he’d never known.

  JD parked his bike in the hotel’s side lot and made a quick reconnaissance of likely hiding places. He knew the desk wouldn’t give him Nina’s room number without calling her first. Now that she’d announced her presence to all Vegas, DiFrancesco’s men would probably be watching. Besides, he thought it a little too risky seeing Nina again in a room where the main piece of furniture was a bed.

  He chose the island of palm trees and flowers in the parking lot. He knew Nina well enough to know she couldn’t resist walking through here every time she went in and out. JD could just see her frowning up at that palm with a brown frond, wrinkling her nose, and taking the tree’s temperature to see if it was ill. She probably watered the impatiens when they wilted in the afternoon heat.

  He had plenty of time to sit here, watching the passersby for a shock of white-blond hair, and contemplate life with a woman like Nina. She’d want a house in a field of flowers. Dust might coat every stick of furniture, but the garden would be
spotless. Or bugless. Or whatever it was one did in gardens. A woman like Nina wouldn’t even notice if he didn’t come home on time. She would be so wrapped up in some project or another that she’d forget supper as often as he did.

  Why had his mind taken this circuitous path? He should be plotting ways of getting Nina the hell out of here instead of daydreaming fantasies of what he could never have. He was a practical man. He knew from experience that no female in her right mind could tolerate his habits for long.

  Nina had.

  He’d lived with her an entire month, and she’d not once commented on his habit of working all night or complained about his trail of peanut butter crackers across the floor. He’d ignored her, yelled at her, laughed at her, and generally been his usual rotten self, and she’d taken it all in stride—with unnerving complacence, actually. Only his kisses had left her flustered and uncertain.

  He caught the glimpse of white-blond hair through the trees with a rush of relief. He’d get this over with quickly and be on his way.

  JD nearly panicked at his first view of Nina strolling around the far end of the lagoon, swinging a shopping bag. He stared. His heart played a timpani against his chest wall. He caught the nearest tree to stop his knees from buckling.

  What the hell had she done to herself?

  She’d left her hair spiked and unruly as ever, but that’s all he recognized. JD rubbed his eyes to push them back into their sockets. Maybe he was just seeing Nina in some stranger with similar hair. Stupid thought. No one looked like Tinkerbelle but Nina.

  Some Tinkerbelle.

  Her gold lame knit top clung to every lovely curve, and the V neck provided views of a whale of a lot more. Shapely legs encased in skintight leggings were enhanced by the addition of three-inch spike-heeled sandals. As she drew closer, he could see she’d darkened her cinnamon lashes and done something to her eyes that made them look even bigger and more lustrous than ever. JD had never realized how sexy her walk was until he observed the full sway of her hips in those damned white pants. He had the urge to fling every man whose head swiveled at the sight into the lagoon.