Summer Rain (Lightning Strikes Book 3) (9 page)

"I have a condo there, but I spend a fair amount of time in New York and other places. I go where the research takes me."

"It must be nice to be able to call the shots and to be so free."

"It took some time to get here, but I like being my own boss."

"Not that much time. Didn't I read that you just turned thirty?"

"I did," he admitted. "Where did you read that?"

"I think it was on a celebrity news site. You were at a restaurant in Los Angeles with some actress."

"Oh, right. That was not a great night."

"Why not?" she asked curiously. "The woman was beautiful."

"A guy I went to college with lives in LA. He set me up with the friend of this woman he's dating. She was pretty, but she was boring as well. She could not talk about anything but plastic surgery and who was sleeping with who on the film set she was on."

Dani smiled. "It can't have been that bad."

"Trust me, it was. Have you ever been to LA?"

"Not LA, but I've done Disneyland and San Diego; those were pretty fun."

"How do you like living in DC? It's a big change from Corpus Christi."

"I love it. There's energy and excitement, and I feel like anything can happen."

He smiled as he glanced over at her. "My mom liked DC, too. You remind me a little of her. She was ambitious and she fought hard for what she wanted. She was always in pursuit of justice and truth, but it didn't come easy."

"It's never easy. Joe used to tell me that democracy is about compromise. To get one thing you want, sometimes you have to give up six other things that are also great. But you can't think about what you lost; only what you've gained. Otherwise, you'll lose your mind."

"Sounds like good advice, but I didn't think anyone was compromising these days."

"It's a tough climate. Did you ever consider following your mother into politics?"

"Nope. It didn't appeal to me in any way."

"But you did inherit your mother's passion for justice and truth-telling. You just do it through your writing. How did you get into journalism?"

"I studied it in college. When I left school, I got some reporting and editing jobs at various papers and online magazines, and I even worked in TV news for a while, but I really enjoy writing. Some stories just can't be told in an article or a sound bite. You need more pages."

"Will you stick with books now?"

"I'll mix it up depending on the topic. Fortunately, with the success of the book and the movie option, I have some time to work on things I really want to work on."

"Lucky guy."

He glanced over at her, curious to know more about her. "What about you, Dani? Do you take after your mother or your father?"

"Not my dad. I probably have some of my mother in me, although I hate to admit that, because she can drive me crazy. I love her, but she can be very critical."

"You mentioned siblings earlier…"

"Yes. I have an older brother Jake and a younger sister Alicia. I'm the middle child."

"Ah, so that's why you try harder," he said with a laugh.

She smiled, and he liked seeing the humor in her eyes, the more relaxed gleam in her eyes. It was a nice change from her constant wariness.

"It's probably part of it," she admitted. "I've always wanted to stand out."

"You definitely don't fade into the woodwork," he said, his gut clenching again as her pretty green eyes met his.

Something passed between them, that inexplicable acknowledgement of attraction. Then Dani looked away, turning her gaze on the passing scenery.

He felt a sense of loss…which was odd and unnerving, and he couldn’t help wanting to get her attention back, so he launched into conversation again. "What was your dad like?"

"He was…a lot of things," she said vaguely.

"Like…" he pressed.

She turned her gaze back to him. "He was a pilot. He started out in the Navy. Then he flew private planes." Her eyes turned reflective and a little sad. "He was a bigger-than-life kind of man. Everyone in Corpus Christi knew him. Some thought he was nuts, especially in the last year before his death."

"Why? What happened then?"

"He claimed that he saw things in the sky—lightning bolts and dancing sprites and stuff like that. And he was obsessed with storms, especially electrical storms. Some of his family members were of Mayan descent. They lived in the Southern Yucatan in Mexico. He spent some time there as a child, and he was raised with some of their beliefs."

"That's interesting."

"My dad was caught between science and magic, because the paternal side of his family was made up of a lot of Texas engineers. So combine that with Mayan magic, and…well, I don't know what you get…but that's my family."

"What exactly do you mean by magic?"

"They don't call it that, but my great-grandmother, who we called Mamich, believed in layers within the universe. She thought there were different realms between the living and the dead. And there's some sort of spiritual journey that souls take after they die. That's why they built so many pyramids and underground caves that would take the souls on the next part of their journey."

"It sounds like you know a lot about it."

She shook her head in denial. "No. We're quickly coming to the end of what I know, but it will put into context why my dad talked about lightning so much. In the Mayan culture, lightning is a god. It has supernatural power. According to my great-grandmother, lightning shows you what you need to see. It's silly, I know. But you asked."

"I wouldn't say it's silly. Who am I to question someone's beliefs? The truth is that none of us really knows the story of the universe or what happens after death."

"That's true. Anyway, in the last year of his life, my father became obsessed with lightning. Every time he flew, he seemed to come back with a new story. And he wouldn't just tell the family; he'd talk about it all over town. The locals began to call him
lightning man
. He became a joke. My mother tried to talk sense into him, but she got nowhere. She hated that her Navy hero of a husband was now the object of ridicule. They fought a lot the last few years of his life. I don't know if they would have stayed together if he'd lived. She hasn't talked about him in years. If his name comes up at a family gathering, she'll often leave the room."

"Maybe that's from pain as much as from anger. She might have some unresolved guilt."

"If she does, she won't talk about it, but I'm sure it's complicated for her. I do remember times when I was a kid when they were happy, when he would make her laugh. I don't know if she remembers, though."

He thought about her story, one point sticking in his head. "Wait a second. Your father was called
lightning man
, and he died in a lightning storm?"

"Yes, I know. It's ironic."

"It's more than ironic—it's weird," he said bluntly.

"Which adds to the mystery of his death. Alicia is obsessed with not only my dad's death but also with lightning. Because no one ever found my dad's plane or his body, she's never had any kind of closure. I can accept that we'll just never know, but she can't. She's channeled her desire for enlightenment into her work. She's a photographer, and she's really good at it. Her specialty is lightning storms. She chases storms wherever she can find them. In fact, she moved to Florida, just so she'd find more lightning. Apparently, there wasn't enough in Texas. She's come up with some amazing photos, but she's also gotten herself into some bad situations."

"How so?"

Dani hesitated. "It doesn't matter."

"Come on, we still have some time to go on this trip. Tell me about Alicia's trouble."

"Last year, right before I came to DC, Alicia went out to an island to take storm photos, and in a flash of lightning, she thought she saw someone getting hurt. When she got to the spot of the assault, she didn't find anyone, but she did find a military ID on the ground. That led her to a missing woman. It's a long story, but she ended up uncovering a couple of murders and a surprising link to my father."

"Your father was linked to murders in Miami?" he asked in amazement.

"No, the murders took place in Texas, and the man who was responsible for them turned out to be one of my father's friends from his Navy days. Right before he died, he told Alicia that there was more to know about our father's death. Of course, that set her off. Now she's even more convinced there's something to find."

"I can see why that would enhance the mystery." He thought for a moment. Dani's story seemed familiar to him. "Hold on. I think I read about this. Was the person you're talking about an employee at Mission Defense Technology?"

"Jerry had been an MDT employee, and, yes, he was selling classified secrets. My sister almost lost her life at his hands."

"That's quite a story." Seeing the tension in her face, he had a feeling that the tale wasn't over. "What else happened?"

"I don't know why we're talking about all this."

"Because we have a long car ride, and I'm interested. Something else occurred, didn't it?"

"Yes. A month after all the stuff with Alicia, my brother's ex-girlfriend came to him for help. Her brother, TJ, who also happened to work for MDT, had gone missing. My brother Jake is a pilot and flies charters out of Corpus Christi. He flew Katherine down to Mexico in search of her brother, and they ran into a monster storm and crash-landed. They weren't hurt, but they later ended up in the middle of more MDT trouble."

"The stolen weapons found in Mexico," he said with a nod. "It was all over the news, and my father said the FBI was investigating for months. Some of his friends were afraid they were going to lose their jobs when the bad press put a halt to some lucrative contracts that would have come their way." He paused, thinking about what else she'd said. "What happened to the guy who was missing—you said his name was TJ?"

"He was rescued by Jake and Katherine. Everyone is safe now. Everything is over—at least that's what I think."

"But your siblings don't believe that?"

"No. While Jake was in Mexico, our great-grandmother told him that my father isn't resting in peace, or something to that effect. And Jake found a medallion at the ranch where the weapons were found. He and Alicia now think that my dad was at that ranch and that maybe he didn't die in the Gulf as we thought. We don't even know if his plane actually crashed."

"Seriously? Your dad's death might be tied to the MDT problems?"

"Maybe. The FBI has been investigating, and we've had many conversations. There aren't any links between my dad and anyone at MDT, except his former friend. And my dad died ten years ago, so what could he have been involved in? All this business was recent."

"Didn't Senator Dillon get involved in the Senate hearings where the head of MDT was called to testify?"

"Yes, he's on that committee. It was a complicated situation for him, because the Packer brothers, Alan and Reid, who run MDT, are also big contributors to his campaign."

"And what about the fact that your brother and sister were responsible for revealing some of the problems at the company? Did that make your relationship with the senator more awkward? Did he talk to your family about what they knew?"

"Not really. He spent a lot of time talking to me, but they were annoyed that he wasn't interested in talking to them. But I understood it, and I gave him the information that we had. He made sure that the committee was aware of everything that had gone on. In the end, MDT was forced to make some changes to clean up their act."

"What kind of changes?"

"Well, I don't know exactly, but they've certainly been under a lot of scrutiny."

"That's a really intriguing story, Dani."

She smiled and shook her head. "Don't get any ideas. It's not a movie in the making or a book; it's just my crazy life."

"I can see why your siblings are still stuck on finding your dad. Knowing that he had to be in Mexico at some point would raise a lot of questions, since I assume he never made plans to go there."

"He didn't, although, the ranch in Mexico was not far from my great-grandmother's home. The fire there killed several members of the cartel and the ranch burned to the ground. Alicia and Jake are still hoping to find someone who was at that ranch around the time my father died and see if they can pinpoint when he was actually there. But they don't really have any clues, and the investigator we hired has come up with nothing. It's also difficult to get any cooperation from the Mexican government. So that's where we are. My siblings continue to be somewhat frustrated by my lack of involvement, but honestly I don't see what more we can do."

He could hear the desperate note in her voice, and the way she was playing with the heavy ring on her finger showed more of her tension. "Does Senator Dillon's relationship with MDT and the Packer brothers contribute to your desire to not get any further involved?"

She shot him a dark look. "That's one of the reasons, but that wouldn't stop me if I thought there was something to find."

"Maybe you need a better investigator."

"Or maybe there is nothing more to discover," she countered.

"I don't know about that. There are a lot of loose ends."

"You don't have to know. It's not your business," she said sharply. "You have your own mystery to investigate, remember? Let's get back to that."

"Yours is sounding more interesting than mine," he muttered.

"I don't think so."

"Your ring," he said. "Why is it so important to you? You came back to the park to find it. You can't seem to stop playing with it."

Her hands stilled. "It's not important; it's a nuisance. I want to take it off, but my finger is swollen, and I can't get it over my knuckle."

"It looks very old."

"It is. My great-grandmother gave it to me. I didn't want it, but Alicia and Jake insisted that she wanted me to have it. I put it on for Alicia's wedding, because she really wanted me to wear it, but it's brought me nothing but trouble since."

"Well, it brought me good luck. It might be the reason I'm still alive." He paused. "Is the ring from the Mayan side of the family?"