Dark Destiny: Book One of the Destiny Novella Series (Destiny Novellas 1) (2 page)

“Who
is
a good match for me, Lil?” He rubbed his thumb across her fingers where the bandage began.

She looked at him for one heartbeat, two, wishing she didn’t feel so fuzzy. She wasn’t entirely sure what he was asking, realizing it was a loaded question but not really knowing why.

He finally smiled at her and the mood lifted. “And how’s Darren?”

“Fine, last I heard.”

He chuckled. “I actually already know. I ran into Michelle a couple months ago and she told me.”

Lily cocked a brow. “Michelle does like to yak, doesn’t she.”

“Well truth be told, I was curious—I asked about you.”

Lily blinked. “You did?”

“I did.” He paused. “How are you feeling? Much pain?”

Lily frowned. “No, which is kind of funny. I hurt a lot earlier.”

“You’re pretty loaded up with pain meds—you oughtta be feeling like a champ.”

Lily bit her lip and felt a twinge of discomfort. She wrinkled her brow, sticking her tongue along her swollen lower lip and feeling a ridge. “Am I cut?” The words sounded funny with her tongue sticking halfway out.

This time he laughed outright and he sounded so much like the Bennett she used to know that her heart did a funny little flip.

“My girl, you are cut, concussed, bruised, battered, and in the case of a few ribs, broken. And tough as hell, which I always knew.” He rubbed her hand between his, sobering. “Do you have any idea who could have done this?”

Lily lifted her left hand to her forehead, bringing with it the needle that connected her to an IV. She tried to rub her temple, only to find a bandage around her head. His words suddenly sunk in and she froze. “
Who
could have done this? I was hoping it was maybe a gas line leak or something…”

He shook his head, the lines around his mouth again pronounced, but his eyes tender. “Friend of mine is a detective, he found bomb fragments in the back of the shop. Do you have any enemies these days? Does Veronique, maybe?”

Lily stared at him, her head spinning again. “Who would want us dead?”

He lifted one shoulder, his eyes still carefully studying her. After a long pause, he patted her hand. “We’ll figure it out. You need to rest now.”

Lily bit down on her lip again, hating the confused muddle her brain had morphed into. She blinked long and slowly. She wasn’t usually so out of it. Was she? She looked at Bennett and her befuddlement must have been clear on her face. He smiled at her and she rested her head back against the pillow, glad to see him again, to have him close.

She was so tired, and her head weighed about seven hundred pounds. Someone wanted her and her aunt dead, and she couldn’t seem to summon the energy to care. “You know what we used to say?”

“What’s that?”

“We used to say that because the universe needs to stay in balance, there are five men somewhere out there with faces only a mother could love because you’re so hot.”

His eyes widened and he coughed a little, and it turned into a full laugh that had her smiling.

“Who?” He was still laughing. “Who used to say that?”

“Well, I came up with it, but we all agreed. All of us—especially Steph.” Lily paused. “And the the rest is history. You two started dating and women everywhere cried themselves to sleep at night. And probably several men, too.”

He laughed again and winked at her. “I’m glad to know you were affected. Makes me feel good about myself.” He stood and gently placed his hand on top of her head, leaning down to drop the lightest of kisses on her forehead.

“You’re such a good friend, Bennett. Always were. I’ve missed you.”

He pulled back slightly and caught her gaze with his. “And I’ve missed you, Lily Bordeaux. ‘Bordeaux like the wine.’”

“I’m not caring too much about anything right now, and that’s not normal for me. I think something’s wrong.”

His face went in and out of focus. The corner of his mouth quirked in a little smile which somehow seemed at odds with the concern evident on the rest of his face. “You’re pretty drugged up, baby doll. My guess is you won’t remember much of this when you wake up again.”

“I’ll remember you.”

“One can hope.” He paused, opened his mouth and closed it again. He finally straightened and stood, looking down at her, hands in his pockets.

Sexy as hell…

“I’m sorry?” he said, tipping his head to one side.

“Did I say that out loud?” Her eyes were drifting shut and she tried to keep them open, to keep him in focus. She thought she heard him chuckle.

“Lil, I’m going home to shower and change. I need to stop by work for a minute and then I’ll be back. Ok?”

“Right. You’ll be back.”

“Yes, I definitely will.”

CHAPTER THREE

Lily stood next to her aunt’s bed the following evening, leaning against the bed rail for support. Veronique Dubois was the very image of Lily’s late mother, and thereby the very image of Lily, herself. The same long, dark hair that curled in humidity, the same facial features, the same hazel eyes. Even their body types were similar. Trim, fit, curved in all the right places.

“Ronnie,” Lily whispered and reached for her aunt’s hand which lay altogether too still on the white hospital sheet. “Please be ok.” Tears clogged Lily’s throat and she swallowed hard. “I need you to be ok.” Lily’s parents had been killed when Lily was ten, and her memories of them were fading. Veronique was her link to them, and the thought of her death made Lily feel sick. A vague image of her mother, of talking to her recently, hovered at the edges of Lily’s memory and then faded. She frowned, wanting desperately to bring it back.

Lily was still at a loss as to who would have blown up the Bohemian Boutique. The shop was a part of Lily’s childhood; she and her two younger sisters had visited Veronique during their summer vacations for weeks at a time. New Orleans was their second home, and Lily had known from an early age that she would someday live there and open a shop of her own.

She frowned at her aunt, who looked as battered and bruised as Lily did. Now that she was no longer in a drugged fog, Lily’s mind was sharper and she felt more herself. And in a whole bunch of pain. Earlier that morning when her nurse had brought in a cup full of narcotics, she’d insisted she didn’t want anything stronger than ibuprofen. She’d then taken stock of her condition in the bathroom mirror and groaned aloud. She was a mess: cut lip, bruised cheek bone, cut and bandaged temple and a line of scratches down the side of her face that looked like she’d skidded to a stop on her head.

She had four broken ribs, a badly sprained right wrist, a bandaged cut up her left forearm and a stitched wound in her thigh where a large piece of glass had embedded itself. All things told, she looked awful. But she was alive. And scared.

“So somebody did this on purpose,” she murmured to Veronique, “and I’m completely confused. Do we have enemies, Ronnie? Do you?” Lily’s eyes burned as she examined her aunt’s pale, quiet face. “Was there something you weren’t telling me?” The thought that Ronnie might have been keeping something from her hurt almost more than the fear.

“Lil?”

Lily turned at the voice in the doorway and saw Bennett standing there, one shoulder braced against the frame. He took her breath away as much as he ever had, maybe now even more. He’d lost the younger look to his features that she’d remembered; his face was a tiny bit leaner, the angles and planes more defined, and if anything, he seemed taller, broader. When had that happened?

“Hey,” she said to him and tried to smile. Tears formed in her eyes instead and she pursed her lips, trying to hold them back.

He moved toward her, taking her shoulders in his hands. “It’ll be ok,” he murmured to her and thumbed away a tear that escaped and fell down her cheek. The tenderness opened the floodgates and she choked back a sob, wrapping an arm around her broken ribs and trying not to gasp in pain.

“Oh, Lil.” Bennett placed his hand over hers against her side and caught her eyes with his. “Why are you even out of bed?”

“I convinced the doctor to discharge me,” she said through her tears. “I need to think, I’ll get a hotel room and call Mimi, I just need to think.”

Bennett looked at her for a long moment. “You really need to stay here for at least one more day.”

She shook her head. “I have to figure this out. I can’t just lay here, Ben, someone tried to kill me. Or her.” She motioned miserably to Veronique. “And may have succeeded.”

“Hey now, none of that.” He lightly traced his knuckles against her cheek. “We’ll figure this out. Ok?”

Lily nodded.

“I’ve never seen you cry before, baby doll. You’re breaking my heart. Let me take you home, you can get some rest.”

“Ok.” Lily tried to take a deep, cleansing breath and winced. “I keep forgetting about my damn ribs,” she muttered. She reached for Veronique’s hand, placing a kiss on it. “I’ll find out who did this, Ronnie. And so help me, if you’ve been hiding something…”

“I like your scrubs,” Bennett said to her as they left the room.

Lily grimaced. “The nurse gave them to me since my other clothes were ripped to shreds.” She was glad he couldn’t see the serviceable underwear she wore beneath the scrubs—they were a far cry from her usual matched sets of bras and panties. “I need to do some shopping—at least I had my purse on me when the freaking shop blew up. Probably a good thing it was my turn to buy.”

Bennett laughed and grasped her hand, intertwining his fingers with hers as they made their way down the hall to the elevator. “Now there’s the practical Lily I remember.”

They reached the elevators and he glanced at her as he punched the button. “And just so you know, there’s no way in hell I’m taking you to a hotel.”

“Bennett, come on. You have a one bedroom condo.”

“I’m house sitting for my parents, they’re in Italy for the month,” he said and put his hand on her back as the doors opened and people filed out of the elevator. They entered and he pushed the main floor button and then took her hand again. “You know the house is huge—there’s plenty of room for you, even Mimi and Dahlia and Poppy if they come down.”

“You remember my sisters names,” she said with a smile. “A mind like a steel trap. That’s what your mom told me once. You never forget anything.”

He grinned at her and held their hands to his mouth, kissing the back of hers. “I never forget anything I want to remember.”

Her heart skipped a beat. He’d hugged her before, thrown a friendly arm around her shoulders, but had never kissed her, never laced his fingers with hers. “You want to remember my sisters’ names?”

“Anything connected to you.” He leaned against the back of the elevator and pulled her closer, rubbing his thumb along her hand. His brows drew together as he studied her face, making her breath hitch. Intense…everything about him was so much more intense. “Lil, when I saw you there on the ground, realized it was you, I—”

He cut himself off as the elevator doors dinged and opened. With a sigh, he straightened and guided her into the hallway. He clasped her hand again and her head spun, wondering when her world had flown so completely out of her control.

“Wait,” she said and stopped just inside the main doors. “I need to just sit for a minute, go somewhere…” She frowned and rubbed her aching head. “Bennett, I need to think.”

His face softened and he briefly closed his eyes. “I’m sorry,” he said, and the ghost of a smile hinted at the corners of his mouth. “I’m calling the shots for someone who likes to be in control.”

She scowled a little. “You say that like it’s a bad thing. And I need a Diet Coke.”

He nodded, his smile returning in force and then fading again. “Lily, I thought you were going to die. You have to let me—” He paused. “Please let me help you figure this out. The police want to talk to you—my friend, Jeremy Ambrose, is a detective. He came by earlier this morning but you were still out like a light. Let’s get some dinner and we can decide what you should do next. You can have your Diet Coke, and I can plead my case.”

“What case would that be?”

“The one that insists you stay with me instead of a hotel. Something’s going on, and I don’t like it.”

She glanced at him as he took her hand again. Gone was the grin, the familiar wink, and her heart beat a little faster in trepidation as fear snaked its way up her spine. She had a feeling her well-ordered days were behind her.

CHAPTER FOUR

Lily stirred her soup around in the bowl but couldn’t make herself take more than a few bites. It was a shame—she usually loved the Crab Hut’s clam chowder. The old restaurant had been one of their favorites in school, and not much had changed, right down to the live jazz band. It was familiar and comfortable—even the smells were reminiscent of a simpler time.