Descended (The Red Blindfold Book 4) (15 page)

“Karina, stop. Right
now. Let me in.”

Even when he was
shouting he sounded cool and in control, like nothing really affected
him. I gripped the wheel and stared straight ahead. “No.”

“I don’t know what
you think is going on, but you’re not leaving until we talk about
this.”

“The hell I’m not.”

I pressed hard on the
gas. David jumped out of the way as the car squealed away from the
curb.

I was going too fast.
The street was narrow and covered with wet leaves. I tried to brake
but the car was already fishtailing toward a streetlamp. I couldn’t
let it happen. I wasn’t even wearing a seatbelt.

I jerked the wheel hard
to the right and looked up just in time to see the tree.

The world went black.

An eternity later, I
saw a light far above me. I wanted to reach for it but I was
underwater. The light shimmered, and I knew it was the sun showing me
the way to the surface. All I had to do was swim. If I could.

I’d never been a good
swimmer. I was already out of breath.

I needed to breathe,
now.

My head was pounding,
dragging me toward the bottom. It would feel so good to close my eyes
and drift, but I needed air. Somehow, I’d have to swim to the
surface.

I pushed the water down
with my arms, one stroke after another, my vision getting dimmer as I
got closer. I wasn’t going to make it. It was too far and I wasn’t
strong enough. But the sun was getting brighter and suddenly it was
there, just outside of reach.

I broke the surface.

Gulping huge lungfuls
of air, I fought to keep from going under again. The water swept me
past rocks and sandbars and threw me down rapids. And then, like
magic, it deposited me on a sandy shore.

I lay there, eyes
closed, feeling the sun blazing on my skin. I was alive.

Any moment now, I would
know where to go and what to do, and my life would go on as before. I
slept, and when I woke up, it was dark.

The river had gone
silent. There was no moon. I stood and started walking down the
shore. I could hear the highway. If I could reach it, I could get a
ride. It didn’t matter where I went. I wanted to be anywhere but
here, alone in the dark.

I walked up the steep
bank and stood by the road, thumb out, my hair blowing in the warm
night air. After a while I saw something a few feet away, and I
realized it was a person sitting in a chair.

My mother.

“Karina?” she said,
getting up.

“Mom? Where am I?”

“You’re in the
hospital. You had a car accident and hit your head, but you’re
okay.”

I reached up and felt
the bandage across my forehead. My neck throbbed and I squinted
against the light by my bed.

“How are you
feeling?” my mother asked, stroking my hair.

My
mother.
Her voice was familiar, her face something I’d
been seeing all my life.

I knew her. I knew what
she’d looked like when she was younger, and where she’d grown up,
and how she’d worked so hard after my father died.

Staring at the ceiling,
I shuffled through memories, some sharp and vivid, others blurry. But
they were all there, just waiting to be reclaimed.

“David’s here,”
my mother said. “He went out to get coffee.”

I swallowed. My throat
was dry and sore. “Did he tell you what happened?”

“Yes. Karina, you
know I’m on your side. But following him to someone’s house and
standing in their yard…maybe David’s right. We’ve been
expecting too much from you, too soon, and –”

“Mom.”

“It’s not your
fault. It’s probably a phase of the healing process. Considering
what’s happened, it’s no wonder you’re not acting like
yourself.”

I tried to sit up but
pain arced across the front of my head. “Wait a minute –
I’m
not acting like myself?”

“Don’t you think
it’s a little…odd to loiter outside someone’s window and
eavesdrop? David says you’ve been saying crazy things about people
trying to hurt you.”

“They are.” A tear
trickled from the corner of my eye. I was not making this up. I was a
lot of things, but I was not crazy.

“Who is?” my mother
asked. “You’re not making any sense.”

“It makes perfect
sense,” I whispered. “Something about this damn bump on my head
is helping me remember a whole lot, including what she did to me.”

My mother stared at me
as if I were speaking in tongues. “What are you saying,
sweetheart?”

“I’m saying that
Lily –”

Just then, David walked
into the room carrying two Styrofoam cups. He handed one to my mother
before noticing that I was awake. Though the room was dim, I saw an
uncomfortable look of surprise on his face.

“Karina,” he said,
rushing to my bedside. “Thank God.”

“She woke up a few
minutes ago,” my mother told him. “The doctor’s on her way.”

David set down his
coffee and grabbed my hands. “How are you? Do you remember
anything?”

I shook my head slowly.
“Come closer.”

He gave me a strange
smile. “Why? Can’t you hear me?”

“Please,” I said.
“Closer.”

He bent his head toward
me.

“Closer than that,”
I said.

“But I’m fine
here.”

Though I had no
strength at all, I managed to reach up and slip my hand around the
back of his neck. I pulled his head toward me so that my mouth was an
inch from his ear.

“I remember, David.”

There was a long pause.
“You’re injured,” he said under his breath. “Whatever you
think you heard –”

“I remember our
wedding day. You do, too. I cried that morning because I was having
second thoughts. I told you it was because I so happy.”

His head jerked up.
Cold panic filled his eyes, along with regret for things he could
never take back.

“That’s right,” I
said. “I remember everything. And I’ll tell anyone who will
listen.”

I racked the balls up
on the pool table in my living room for, what, the tenth time?

Who gave a shit. I’d
play against myself all night if it distracted me from the truth
ricocheting inside my brain.

Jane was gone. I’d
lost her. I would never get her back.

In an hour I had a
business dinner with Brooke, the closest thing to a date I’d have
anytime soon. Yup, I’d given up hope that I would ever have Jane or
a woman of her caliber again.

I’d be fine living
the rest of my life alone. At least that’s what I told myself as I
sent the nine-ball careening into the side pocket with a loud crack.

It had been ten days
since I’d seen Jane, but it felt like ten life sentences.

Scott hadn’t told
Brooke about our blow-up at the opening, and I knew why. He’d move
mountains to spare her feelings and save her job. Though I’d drawn
a very aggressive line with him, he hadn’t pulled out his remaining
investment because he didn’t want to make her suspicious.

Not that I needed his
money anymore. The New York investors had come through with terms
very favorable to me, and I had the upper hand. It was my way or the
highway from now on.

Diesel’s nails
clicked across the floor as she came up behind me. “Hey, girl,” I
said, and reached for her head.

She put her nose in my
hand before flopping to the floor at my feet. This was one rescue
that had worked out, bad as it had looked at the start. She responded
well to training and routine, and I did everything I could to make
her feel secure.

It was time to count my
blessings. Sure, I’d lost Jane, and my father was as out of control
as ever, but I had a booming business, a good dog, and a life most
men would envy.

Still, there were guys
with a fraction of my money and success who were a lot happier. They
had the woman they loved, the woman they couldn’t keep their hands
off of. I had a pile of money in the bank and an ex-girlfriend I
wanted no part of. She was beautiful, devoted to me, and lately she’d
been working hard, doing her best to prove she wasn’t a spoiled
prima donna.

Though I was glad she
was finally trying to earn her title, we’d never had chemistry and
never would. My connection with Jane was a drug, and I was going
through permanent withdrawal.

I met Brooke in the
private dining room of Houston’s best steakhouse. I didn’t give a
shit if tongues wagged and we showed up on the gossip sites, but I
didn’t want Jane to see even one photograph of us together. At
least Brooke had gotten the point – I was firmly unavailable, not
just now, but forever. She was back with her pretty-boy, ex-model
boyfriend, and I hoped to hell she married him.

“Everything is going
exactly as you planned,” she said, picking up her glass of Pinot
Noir. “Two openings in Florida this month, your personal life is
out of the news, and the New York investors came through. I know how
you feel about depending on my father’s money, and now you won’t
have to.”

I stitched on a smile.
“Wild, huh? Smooth sailing all the way.”

“Now, if you could
just get Elijah to come home and keep a low profile, you’d have
everything under control.”

“Life would be
perfect,” I said, not meaning a word of it.

For the next two hours,
we talked business. I sketched out a short-term East Coast expansion
plan and discussed the extensive marketing that would be required. I
was pleasantly surprised that Brooke had done her homework. She’d
even started taking classes at one of the universities, and
eventually planned to get her Master’s degree. Now that Scott had
less influence over my company, his daughter had to step up to the
plate. Ruby was still snapping at her heels, but I’d give her a
little more time to prove herself.

The waiter was reciting
every painfully detailed ingredient of the desserts when my phone
buzzed.

I took it out of my
jacket pocket and stared at the screen. Obviously, I was
hallucinating.

Could craving an
unattainable woman make me see things? Things I’d been wanting to
see for weeks?

It was a text from
Jane. The woman who’d always had very interesting timing.

I
need to talk to you. My memory is back, and that’s just the start.

“Holy shit,” I
said, rudely interrupting the description of a warm chocolate
something-or-other.

“What is it?”
Brooke asked. “You look like somebody died.”

“Quite the opposite,”
I said, and drained the last of my wine.

She frowned. “A birth
announcement?”

“Something like
that.”

“Well, aren’t you
mysterious tonight.”

Yeah, maybe, but not for long. If I
had my way, pretty soon the whole world would know.

A text came in at 6:30
am.

I still had a week of
medical leave, so I knew it wasn’t anyone from my office. It wasn’t
David, who’d been holed up at a corporate apartment since his
excuses ran out and I changed the locks on the doors. I should have
known who it was by the area code, but I was too afraid to hope. Too
afraid I’d stamped out the spark by trying to be someone I wasn’t.

Drex was here. A mile
away, at the Mandarin Oriental hotel.

I hadn’t expected him
to get on a plane. The most I’d hoped for was a phone call,
probably a short and terse one after the way I’d left his opening
in Houston.

I had so much to tell
him. So much he wasn’t prepared for.

At the thought of him
just down the street, my body responded on cue. Flushed, feverish,
racing heart, wet, excited – what physical response did Drex
not
inspire?

I’ll
be there in an hour
, I texted back.

Good.
Breakfast will be waiting
.

I showered and put on a
pink halter-neck slip dress. I’d bought it yesterday after packing
up my practical skirts and pants and donating them to a second-hand
store. I had my most of my memory back, but the old me, the faculty
wife who dressed conservatively to please her husband, was gone for
good.

My co-workers would
have to get used to an edgier Karina. Higher heels, shorter skirts,
colors and patterns. Maybe even a little Boho on Fridays.

I slipped into a new
pair of high-heeled suede sandals and went out the back door to my
car. No reporters – yet.

It was only a matter of
time before someone in the police department leaked the sordid
details about Lily, or somebody saw David leaving his apartment. This
time, I’d know what to expect. But would Drex be able to handle
that kind of attention again? Would he want anything to do with my TV
movie-worthy baggage?

Memory lost, memory
restored. Married, in the process of getting rapidly divorced. My
soon-to-be ex-husband’s lover about to be charged with attempted
second-degree murder. But all of it paled in comparison to what I’d
found out two days ago.

I parked a block from
the hotel and went inside, my stomach a swirl of excitement, fear,
and dread. I was finally free. But along with that freedom came
complications Drex couldn’t even imagine.

I took the elevator up
to the penthouse suite and knocked, two quiet raps.

The five seconds before
he answered were the longest of my life. Then the door opened and he
stood in front of me, wearing faded jeans and nothing else. He was
lean and tall and hard-muscled, and his gorgeous face was darkly
dangerous. I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing came out.
All I could do was stare.

“So things have
changed, have they?” he asked.

“You could say that,”
I said.

He stood aside to let
me in. When I brushed past him he grabbed my hips, pulling my back
against his chest. I gasped, my blood rushing with molten hot
arousal. My hands shook as I clenched his wrists and leaned my head
back against his shoulder.