They didn’t seem interested in leaving either, instead being more concerned about her welfare. God, what a fraud she was. She was three-quarters of the way through the bottle of water when she had to go to the bathroom. She could make it to her hotel if she hurried.
“Thanks so much, and I’m so sorry I’ve made you late for closing.” Rising from the chair, she cradled her purse and the nearly finished bottle of water in her arms.
They all looked at the bottle as if it held magic water and if she didn’t drink all of it, she’d pass out again.
“Are you sure you’ll be all right?” the man asked, his hand outstretched in rescue mode.
“Oh, yes. I’m feeling so much better.” She started to move toward the door.
“Could one of us drive you home?” the man asked. “One of us could follow behind.”
“No, no, I’ll be fine.”
“Do you need one of us to follow you home?” Mary asked, clutching the framed photograph in her arms.
“No, really. I’m all right now.”
“All right. Well, I’ll walk with you out to your car,” Mary said.
The man and other woman did also, and when Alicia had settled herself behind the steering wheel, Mary handed her the wrapped, framed photograph of the wood lilies, casting her another look of sympathy while the man and woman watched her gravely. Alicia thanked them all profusely.
When she drove out of the parking space, Alicia noted in her rearview mirror that they were still watching her. Mary shook her head.
Poor Jake when he returned to the gallery. What if they made him remove his photographs? They wouldn’t do that to him. They couldn’t do that. Alicia let out her breath. She could write and tell them how much she loved their gallery and that when she had more money, she’d buy another one of his photos. That would work, wouldn’t it?
Either that, or they’d think she was in love with Jake and pining over him but he was trying to call it quits with her. She felt bad all over again. She hoped she hadn’t ruined his reputation with the art gallery.
A car’s headlights followed her through town, and she had the creepy feeling the vehicle was following her. Call it woman’s intuition, a sixth sense, wolf wariness. She’d considered leaving without her bags, but she couldn’t. Besides, she was dying to go to the bathroom.
She pulled into her parking lot, hurried out of the car, used the bathroom, and then grabbed her bags to leave the hotel she’d already paid for. With every intention of leaving Breckenridge for good, she returned to the car, dumped her bags in the trunk, and headed out of town.
Again, she felt as though she was being followed, but when she left town, the car turned off down a rural road. Relieved, she figured she’d stay in the next town of Crestview. But the concern lingered—what if Mario could still pull strings and send men after her even from prison? Or what if the men who’d killed Ferdinand Massaro in his townhouse had somehow learned she’d witnessed his death? Although she couldn’t know who they were, they wouldn’t know that. And she would be a loose end easily tied up.
Chapter 9
She was his obsession. An aphrodisiac Jake Silver had little control over. The dark-haired siren of his dreams. Alicia Greiston.
And just as with last night and every night for the past seven weeks since she’d first appeared to him in his dreams, seducing him with her mouth, her eyes, her touch, he sought her out. In his nighttime fantasies. Because, as real as she was, he knew the visions of her were only dreams. But she had been real, and he wanted the real woman again. He’d hoped and prayed she’d go to the art gallery and get the envelope he’d left for her, then call. But she hadn’t yet.
As much as he hated to admit it, he was ready to turn in for the night just to be with her. But as soon as it was light out, he was returning to Breckenridge to search for her again. She hadn’t even returned to the florist shop to leave wreaths in memory of her mother. That would have worried him more if he didn’t keep dreaming of her. She had to still be alive.
Tired and out of sorts, Jake was ready to skip dinner. The questioning sidelong glances his younger triplet brother, Tom, gave him, plus the more openly concerned looks his older brother, Darien, cast at him were enough to curb his appetite. As pack leader of Silver Town, Colorado, Darien was always concerned about the pack members’ well-being. And since he was Jake’s brother, Darien’s concern about him was heightened. Added to that, Darien’s mate, Lelandi, was analyzing Jake’s behavior based on the psychology courses she was taking. Jake felt as if he was a proverbial open book for everyone to read.
Except he would not let them know why he wasn’t sleeping. Hell, at the very least, if he died from lack of sleep, it would be with a smile on his face.
What gnawed at him most was that Darien had said the dream mating that had occurred between him and Lelandi before they had met was fate and that their family had a history of such occurrences. Which Jake couldn’t believe in.
Yet the truth of the matter was that he felt as though he was linked with Alicia through his nighttime fantasies, which couldn’t be. She was human. The lack of sleep was driving him slowly mad.
Except for the clinking of forks as Tom and Darien scooped up their mashed potatoes and gravy, the dining room was silent. Then Lelandi spoke up. “Everything’s fine at the leather-goods factory, right?” She had asked Darien, but her gaze again slid to Jake, as if she thought something was bothering him about some trouble with the factory.
“Everything’s fine,” Darien said, “Everywhere. No pack problems at present, no problems with the mine. The town is running without any difficulties, and the factory’s doing well. Just as everything should be.”
Lelandi set her half-eaten slice of bread on her plate and rubbed her belly. She was due this fall; another month and she would have the triplets. That was making Jake antsy. And he felt guilty about it. All pack members revered the pack leaders’ offspring. They took care of them and provided for them, just as they did other pack members’ children. Yet, as much as he hated himself for it, he felt twinges of jealousy for his older brother when he’d never felt that way before.
Normally, Lelandi was beautiful and glowed with motherhood, her red hair spilling over her shoulders, her green eyes bright with laughter. But now, she seemed just as concerned as his brothers. They wouldn’t prod him too hard. But Lelandi? She was bound to ask him before long what was wrong. And he didn’t want to lie. But he wasn’t telling her the truth, either.
He respected her for bringing Darien out of the deep pit of despair he’d been wallowing in. And with the impending birth of their children, she certainly didn’t need to be worrying about Jake.
But then she smiled a little as if she’d figured out what was bothering him. Maybe she’d been able to work out the mystery intuitively, or maybe he’d given himself away. Or maybe it was something altogether different. He still couldn’t read her like he could his brothers and they, him. Although he was certain they couldn’t figure out his behavior right now.
Lelandi turned her attention to Tom and lifted her bread from her plate again. “Woman trouble?”
Tom immediately glanced at Jake. Hell, Jake didn’t have woman problems, except in the form of a damned beguiling woman who continued to appear to him in his dreams, and who in the worst-case scenario had gotten into trouble with the Mob. Lesser worst-case scenario, she’d just stood him up. Jake scowled further.
Tom gave a small smile. “Can’t have any woman trouble if there’s no one around to give me difficulty.”
Lelandi looked at Jake, but she didn’t repeat the question, although it lingered in the air as if it hung invisibly between them, begging to be answered. He imagined his expression said she’d better not pose the question.
But damned if both of his brothers didn’t look to him to answer her query as if she’d blatantly asked him. He finished his meal, not intending to be drawn into this, took the plate to the kitchen, rinsed it off, put it in the dishwasher, and then returned to the dining room.
All three watched him.
He paused, thinking to ask them about dream mating—could it involve a human woman? But not wanting to get into a discussion about this when he was dog tired, he said instead, “I’ll see you in the morning.”
The looks they all gave him showed surprise. If they’d worn watches, which as lupus garous they didn’t, he figured they’d all be glancing at them now to determine just how late it was. And see that it was way too early for him to retire when he normally didn’t hit the sack until midnight. Unless he went for a midnight run as a wolf in the woods. Then it was even later.
Darien cleared his throat. “Do you want to talk to me privately about something?”
“No. And there’s no sense in putting this off any longer,” Jake remarked, not intending to mention it again, but it was time. He’d been renovating their grandfather’s home, which was situated farther from town than Darien’s house. The renovations were complete, and it was past time to settle in there.
Tom cast a glance at Lelandi. She’d been the one attempting all along to convince him to change his mind. Darien and Tom knew better than to try.
“I told you and Tom, both, you don’t need to leave. Just because the babies are coming, I don’t want you feeling like they’re pushing you out of your own home,” Lelandi said softly, her eyes welling up with tears, her throat choked with emotion.
Hell. She wasn’t often emotional, but with being pregnant, she’d had unnatural bouts of weepiness, which was another reason he couldn’t stay. He hated to see her cry—especially when he had anything to do with it.
Darien reached over and took her hand and squeezed.
“The cabin is so… isolated. It has electricity and running water, but no television or telephone service. It’s so primitive. What if you run into trouble out there?” she asked, quickly dabbing with a napkin at tears trailing down her cheeks.