Garden of Dreams (40 page)

So much for damned technology.

The sound she'd feared most rattled the night silence. Gunfire.

Oh, God. Oh, God, don't let it be JD. Not JD. It wouldn't be fair.

Nina floored the accelerator.

The Rolls didn't precisely roar. It glided. It glided faster. It rolled at warp speed directly toward the low-slung Porsche driving toward the house.

Hair-raising sirens screamed, cutting through the night air like silver swords. Alarm bells clamored. Floodlights swept the gardens like a prison security system. And dogs howled.

Dogs? Nina didn't remember any dogs.

She couldn't worry about them now. The Rolls had taken on a mind of its own. Taking her foot off the accelerator hadn't helped. The huge machine rolled determinedly forward. The Porsche screeched to a halt, hesitated, and inched into reverse.

Silhouetted against the night sky, two men struggled on the wall. One had the very distinct physique she recognized as JD's. The other had a gun.

Helpless, Nina pounded the steering wheel until she located the horn and leaned against it as the car moved forward.

The Porsche hurtled backward faster. The security gates slowly swung closed.

***

From his vantage point on top of the wall, JD saw the behemoth car illuminated in the floodlights. Like the Silver Shadow it was, the car drifted majestically forward all on its own. He couldn't see Nina anywhere. JD prayed she had made it to the house, but even in his prayers he couldn't believe she'd found the alarm system and set it off. Nina wouldn't even know what an alarm system was.

He had both fists wrapped soundly around the barrel of the weapon that had threatened him earlier. The man holding it equally tightly had the advantage of height and weight, but he didn't possess JD's fury and fear. The idea of any of these goons laying hands on Nina gave him an impetus nothing else could have generated. With a cold-minded kick, JD's foot shot up under his opponent's guard, hurling him backward with a howl of agony.

He hadn't been a marine for nothing. Breaking open the weapon, he emptied the cartridges in the mud and sand of the garden below, then flung it toward the cascading fountain. Terrible thing to use combat training defending a damned computer program. JD regretted not using the weapon as a club against the other man's jaw, but he didn't have time for additional violence.

Leaping down from the wall, he landed just in time to see the gate swing closed as the Porsche geared into reverse. The gate screeched like a cyclops in pain. The Porsche hit it with a clash of metal on metal. The Rolls continued moving forward, slowly crumpling inch after inch of the small car's low-slung hood.

“Nina!” JD screamed, understanding now the source of the ghostly driver. “Hit reverse!”

Running, not bothering to dodge the streams of water shooting through the ground beneath him, JD lunged at the shadowy figure lurching from the driver's seat of the Porsche.

They toppled into the mud not inches from the wheels of the Rolls. JD grabbed the driver's wrist, knowing instinctively what he'd find there. The cold metal of the revolver brushed his fingers, but he couldn't quite grip it as he struggled with the man beneath him.

In the distance, sirens screamed. Outside the gates, the Mercedes frantically blew its horn, then roared to life. The man beneath JD fought for freedom.

In horror, JD watched as slender ankles raced toward him instead of away. He couldn't look up. Despite the man's smaller size, he fought like a demon. Terrified the gun would go off, he concentrated all his attention on keeping that one hand pinned to the ground. He couldn't get his knee into a position to do any good.

Damn Nina, she was running right for them. Was the woman insane?

Of course she was. Stupid question. Only an insane woman would have followed him into this mess.

A hard object whistled past JD's nose, hitting with a hideous thud and exploding mud in his face. Cursing, he tightened his grip, but the man beneath him collapsed and stilled.

Grabbing the gun from lax fingers, JD shook his head and finally dared to look up.

The remains of a potted cactus sat on his assailant's head, tilting dangerously to one side as the dirt from the broken pot washed away in the water from the sprinkler. JD's gaze followed the slender legs upward until his battered concentration reached the edge of trim blue shorts. With a sigh of exasperation, he wrapped a muddy hand around her ankle and pulled himself up.

Nina practically collapsed in his arms.

Exhausted, exhilarated, JD held her tightly and let someone else fight with the wayward security gate as the blue lights of the police cars spilled into the drive.

***

“Trespassing and assault charges should hold DiFrancesco's thugs for a little while.” Newly showered and dressed in clean jeans, JD shoved his wet hair from his face and kept a close eye on Nina as she wandered the far side of the kitchen. She'd stayed a safe distance from him ever since the police had arrived. He couldn't blame her. She'd lived a sheltered life, and the instant he'd dropped into it, she'd been bombarded with reckless vans, dead bodies, and terrorist attacks. Her aunt Hattie would have shipped her off to an island somewhere if she'd been around.

JD felt like a dog begging for a bone as he followed her progress around the kitchen, but he couldn't tear his gaze away. She'd already told the police she was leaving in the morning and given them her home address. He didn't want her to go.

That was nonsense. He knew that. She'd hung in there through more than most women would have. But now she was leaving like all the others. The Marshall luck hadn't changed any, then. He'd hoped, but that had only been his own wishful thinking.

She looked so damned good, like the ice cream cone with sprinkles he could never have when he was a kid. All that vanilla hair stood on end from being washed without drying.

Flushed slightly by these last days under a desert sun, Nina's pale cheeks glowed, accenting the glitter of green eyes. She had on those blasted white leggings again, and JD could see every well-shaped curve as she polished china and neatly put it away. She'd made an accordion of a Porsche and turned a desert into a swamp, but she stood here neatly returning the kitchen to rights. Fool woman. Why did fearing he'd lost her hurt so?

“Did the police find the murder weapon?” Jimmy munched on cold pizza while Nancy poured him a drink from the remains of the bottle of Coke from the carry-out they'd ordered after the police left.

“DiFrancesco collected guns. It will take them a while.” JD shrugged and looked at his own soft drink with distaste. He needed something stronger.

“Is he Mafia?” Nancy inquired uncertainly.

JD noticed Nina didn't say a thing. She just polished china until she should have rubbed the design right off. He shrugged again. “The police haven't found any connection. The other members of his consortium are squealing like pigs. They all swear they know nothing about theft or guns or murder. Maybe they don't.”

“And maybe pigs fly.” Jimmy washed the rest of the pizza down with a swig from his glass. “The mob mentality lingers in this town. Your uncle Harry had weird friends.”

“Yeah, I know. He liked the casinos too well. And not the ritzy ones either. But DiFrancesco probably appeared legit to him. He did own a large hunk of Astro and probably half a dozen other businesses. Harry just thought he was a businessman.”.

Uncomfortably, JD thought of what else the police had told him. He'd never given his uncle enough credit. He didn't entirely know how to deal with that realization yet.

Nina darted him a look and finally spoke. “Why was your uncle Harry in Kentucky?”

Leave it to Nina. JD sighed and swirled the drink in his glass. “DiFrancesco or our burglar tapped company phone lines. And one of his goons followed me across the country. They planned on stealing the program and doing heaven knows what with it at first, but when they ran the truck off the road, things started getting dirty. One of Harry's buddies in the consortium must have warned Harry of his suspicions. The cops traced Harry from the Vegas airport to Nashville, where he rented a car. Harry was trying to save me.”

Silence descended on the kitchen. Nina looked as if she wanted to say something. She held her hand out, then dropped it and turned away. That's when JD knew it was over.

Jimmy snorted but didn't comment further. JD was grateful for that. So, the Marshall bad luck didn't stop at women. It extended in every direction. What else was new? He could thank God he had brains and could worm his way out of anything. Unfortunately, right now his brain was telling him the Marshall bad luck could just possibly be the result of the Marshall tendency to leap before looking. Harry's end certainly gave evidence of that.

This time his recklessness could have cost him everything he'd ever wanted out of life. JD just wished his brains would figure some way to get Nina back over here again.

“It's late. There's not a thing we can do right now but wait and see what happens when the stock market opens in the morning. Why don't we turn in?”

Nancy's request caught JD by surprise. She'd scarcely said a thing all evening. She sent him a pointed look he couldn't interpret now. Damn, but he'd never understand women. He wondered if this meant she wouldn't trust him with Jackie anymore. Jackie. A great grinding ache dug into his soul. How could he get Jackie back and still have time to salvage his business and take over another? He had to put his son even before Nina. Damn. People demanded a hell of a lot more from him than machines did. He was afraid he didn't have what it took.

Jimmy obediently unfolded his lanky body from the chair and followed Nancy from the room with a minimum of “good nights.”

That left Nina clearing the table and finishing up the rest of the dishes.

“Nina?” Tentatively, JD stepped forward. She retreated to the sink.

“Will you take me to the airport?” she asked in a monotone.

She kept her back turned toward him. JD ground his teeth and clenched his fingers into fists, not knowing how else to keep a grip on his temper. “Now? There's nothing going out now.”

“There's a flight out first thing in the morning. I don't want to miss it.”

“Nina, I...”

She turned, and JD flinched at the tears in her eyes. He couldn't handle tears. Not from Nina. They broke his heart in two. He could feel himself internally hemorrhaging.

“Please, JD. I want to go home.”

He understood. He understood only too well. Nodding his head, not letting her see his agony, JD headed for the door. “I can get the bike past the wreck in the driveway. Is your bag packed?”

He walked out into the now-quiet desert night while his soul crumbled into ashes. She didn't want him. He couldn't argue with that. No one else ever had either. He wasn't even certain he liked himself very much, not after he'd let Harry down like that. His recklessness had cost one life already, and nearly cost the lives of the only other people he cared about.

Nina would be much better off in the safety of her own world, without him.

The excruciating heat and humidity of August had all but decimated the roses. Nina pinched off several black-spotted leaves and a heat-shattered bloom. No amount of tender loving care could produce lovely roses in this weather. But if she took good care of them, they'd come back in September and bloom for a couple of months more. A pity she couldn't salvage people the same way.

The bittersweet memory of her last conversation with Hattie echoed through her thoughts as she clipped the roses. “Nina takes after me,” Hattie had said with pride. “I want my granddaughter to have the roses. Hank would have loved her.” Tears stung Nina's eyes as she broke off another spent bloom. Why, Hattie? she cried inside, but she was past regrets now. Now that she knew some of the truth, she knew Hattie had loved her in her own way. JD had taught her that.

Even though she wore a wide-brimmed hat, the hot sun made her dizzy. Pulling off her gloves, Nina flung them in the basket she used to carry her gardening tools. Looking out over the flat bean fields and calm lake from her vantage point on Hattie's Hill, Nina experienced a modicum of satisfaction. Maybe, with time, she could again accept this land as a substitute for the life she would never have, a life she had glimpsed briefly through JD.

Pushing that thought aside, Nina picked up her basket and started down the hill. In the distance, she could hear the muted roar of a bulldozer leveling some of the scrub brush in the back field. The donations JD had solicited had been generous. The corporation could now afford to reimburse Tom for his labor. Already, outside money flowed into Madrid's coffers. Come winter, the men would begin building the boardwalk through the wildlife habitat—income they wouldn't have had otherwise. Even the governor had heard of the project and had visited with his entourage of reporters. His blessings had generated more donations. Through the magic of JD's confidence, her dreams were well on their way to becoming reality.

Some of them, anyway. Setting her basket in the toolshed, Nina wiped her brow with the back of her arm. JD had taught her to dream big and take action, but she hadn't quite got the knack of it yet. All the details bogged her down, but without those details, she'd spend her days moping and her nights without sleep. She would find her pace eventually, she figured.