Garden of Dreams (33 page)

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 technology—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.

Prying himself from the tree trunk, JD stepped into her path, grabbed her elbow before the flash of joy in her eyes unnerved him, and practically dragged her toward the hotel.

He'd have that talk with Miss Nina Toon in private.

Oh, God, he looked terrible. He looked glorious. He looked gloriously terrible.

Watching JD's unshaven face as he hauled her through the casino, Nina's heart thumped faster. Dark circles shadowed his eyes. His hair could use a good scrubbing. The set of his mouth made his nose look even longer. He appeared savage enough to melt a path through the rows of slot machines.

And her crazy heart sang a song of joy. JD was alive! She'd done it! She'd found him all by herself.

She must have been out of her mind even to look. This wasn't the gentle man who'd rocked her on the swing. This was the motorcycle hoodlum who looked capable of murder.

That's what she got for doing and not thinking. Aunt Hattie had been right all along. Men were dangerous and couldn't be trusted. Use extreme caution in their company.

That didn't keep Nina from leading JD straight to her room. If he meant to murder her, she wanted it done quietly.

When JD slammed the door behind them and they were alone at last, Nina couldn't stand it any longer. Wordlessly, she flung herself into his arms and covered his stubbly jaw with kisses.

He stiffened at first, but then a whoosh of air left him and he held her tight, hugging her so close she could scarcely breathe. She hadn't been wrong then. He did feel something for her. She would just have to pray it was more than lust.

“Dammit, Nina, you're gonna get us both killed. What the hell are you doing here?” JD demanded, dragging his hand through her hair and holding her still.

Her heart pounded in syncopation with his as they stood, clasped in each other's arms. Nina dug her fingers into JD's T-shirt and rested her head against his broad shoulder, letting the dangerous vibrations between them escalate a little further. She'd never felt anything like this in her life. She wouldn't let it go readily. She'd discovered she had a really nasty stubborn streak.

“Do you have any idea how many people you've terrified by disappearing like that?” she whispered against his neck.

“You and Jimmy,” he scoffed. “And you wouldn't have known if Jimmy had kept his mouth shut.”

“I knew.” Nina pushed gently away so she could see his face. She thought she saw sorrow and disbelief there, but she could never be sure with JD. “I just needed Jimmy's call to push me in the right direction. I talked to Nancy a little while ago, and she's worried frantic. Jackie's done nothing but talk about you since he came home. She doesn't want you disappearing from their lives again.”