Fired Up (Dreamlight Trilogy #1)(64)
Author: Jayne Ann Krentz

“A limited liability corporation? Sounds promising.”

“I think so. Something else very interesting about this particular chain of fitness clubs.”

“What?” she asked, the investigator in her intrigued.

“Before they were acquired by the LLC, all three clubs catered to the Pilates and yoga crowd. But now the clientele seems to consist entirely of hard-core bodybuilders.”

“Like the pair that tried to take us out?”

“Right.”

She smiled. “You’re thinking like a detective.”

“I’m starting to realize that I always think like a detective. It’s just that, until recently, the only thing I’ve been detecting is how to turn a profit.”

“That’s useful, too.”

“Sure, but after a while it gets old. You know, the night they grabbed me I had been speculating to my friend Jerry about what it would be like if I woke up one morning and discovered that Winters Investments had folded.”

“Wondering if you could rebuild it?”

He nodded and ate some more of his taco.

“The answer is yes,” she said. “But you already knew that, didn’t you?”

“Jerry said I was having a midlife crisis minus the blonde and the ’Vette.”

“Instead you got me and a trip to Vegas.”

Sexy laughter gleamed in his eyes. “Worked for me.”

She finished her own taco and wiped her fingers on the napkin. “You like this, don’t you?”

“You and Vegas? Well, you’re a definite plus, but I could’ve skipped Vegas if I’d had to.”

“I’m not talking about me and Vegas. I meant working with Fallon Jones on this conspiracy he’s trying to shut down.”

“It’s interesting,” he admitted.

“You weren’t having a midlife crisis, Jack. You were just getting bored. You needed a challenge.”

“I was also getting hit with the Winters Curse.”

“It’s not a curse,” she said patiently.

He finished the taco. “I’m pretty sure that you were what I needed.”

She thought about what Fletcher had said concerning her intimacy issues. “Evidently we are therapeutic for each other.”

He looked amused. “Is that an academic way of saying the sex is good?”

No, she thought. It’s a roundabout way of saying that I love you. But if she said the words aloud she would put him in the position of having to declare his own feelings. That could only go one of two ways: Good or bad.

It dawned on her that after all these years of trying to be honest with men, of trying to explain the serial monogamy concept and the fact that all her relationships were destined to be short- lived, she had finally found Mr. Right and now she was scared to death it wouldn’t be permanent. Who would have thought that falling in love could be so terrifying?

44

CHLOE AND HECTOR WERE ON DAWN PATROL THE NEXT MORNING when Mountain Man emerged from his crib in the alley where he had spent the night. He adjusted the worn canvas duffel on his shoulder and leaned down to pat Hector.

“Hey, there, Big Guy,” Mountain Man said. “How’s it goin’? Looks like that wound is healing okay.”

“He’s feeling much better,” Chloe said. “How about you? Hector wants to know if you’re taking the meds they gave you at the clinic?”

“Yep. Right on schedule.” Mountain Man reached into the pocket of his old fatigues and produced a small bottle of tablets. “Got ’em right here. Supposed to take ’em all week and then report back to the clinic.”

“That’s great,” Chloe said. “Hector wants to buy you a cup of coffee. You got time?”

“Sure. Got nothin’ but time.”

They made their way to the coffeehouse on the corner. Chloe bought a cup of coffee and a breakfast pastry for Mountain Man. The barista gave Hector his usual day-old muffin. Chloe and Mountain Man sat at a table in the corner. Hector settled down beneath the table. Mountain Man liked having coffee with them, and it wasn’t just the fact that the coffee and pastry were free. Chloe knew that for him it was a way of slipping back into a half- remembered dream of a time when he had lived a normal life.

“Hector wants to know if you’ve had any more nightmares,” Chloe said.

“Last night was okay,” Mountain Man said to Hector. “No dreams.”

Her work was holding, Chloe thought, checking the psi prints on the coffee cup. Eventually the nightmares would return, but it looked like his dream spectrum was calm for now, or at least what passed for calm in Mountain Man’s badly damaged dream psi.

Afterward they went back out onto First Avenue. A blanket of fog had settled over the city, sending it into a cold, gray twilight zone.

“Thanks for the coffee, Big Guy,” Mountain Man said. He adjusted the heavy duffel that contained all his worldly possessions and gave Hector one last pat. “See ya.”

Hector licked Mountain Man’s hand.

“Good-bye,” Chloe said. “Hector says to tell you not to forget the rest of those pills.”

“I won’t,” Mountain Man assured Hector.

He turned and started off across the intersection, but he stopped midway and swung around. His weathered face was tightly knotted. Intelligence and a glittering urgency sparked briefly in his faded eyes.

“Hector,” Mountain Man said. But his voice was different. No longer a vague mumble, it crackled with command.

Hector pricked his ears in response.

“You tell her to be careful,” Mountain Man said, still speaking in that sharp, no-nonsense tone.

Chloe looked at him. “Hector wants to know why I should be careful.”

“This morning feels like it did that other time,” Mountain Man said. But the flicker of awareness was already fading from his eyes, and the military crispness in his voice was deteriorating back into a mumble. “At least I think it does.”

“What happened the last time?” Chloe said. “Hector wants to know.”

“Bastards were waitin’ for us. Ambush. I could feel it. Told the lieutenant. He wouldn’t listen. Said the intel was good. SOBs took him out first.”

An icy shiver ruffled her senses. “I’ll be careful.”

Satisfied, Mountain Man continued on across the intersection.

She looked at the glowing footprints on the pavement. Beneath the layers of the unwholesome energy generated by addiction and mental as well as physical illness was the thin, wispy light of a measure of talent. It was no doubt one of the things that had kept Mountain Man alive when he and the others walked into that ambush in the desert. One of the things that kept him alive on the streets.