Second Sight (5 page)

“For starters, when my sight was taken from me, my other senses became heightened.”

“Like what?”

“Well, for instance, I can feel the change in one room to the other in this house, and the air fluctuates significantly while on your side of the house as compared to this side.”

He inhaled deeply. “You smell like lilacs, and I wonder if that’s your natural scent, or a lotion.”

A beat of silence ensued.

“Well? ” he asked. “Aren’t you going to tell me?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Zach. I don’t have any lilac lotion.”

He grinned. “Then it must be your natural scent.”

“I don’t see how—”

“It doesn’t matter. Anyway, my hearing is also far stronger than it used to be. Did you hear that dog barking last night?”

“N-no.”

“Such a shame its owners don’t have a little sympathy for their neighbors.”

“There aren’t any dogs on this cul-de-sac.”

“Oh, I know. This took place a couple blocks away.”

She sipped her coffee again, and he wished he could see her face.

“That’s it?” she asked.

He grinned. “Not quite. In the mornings after I get up, if I stand in front of a mirror, visions come to me.”

“Like what?”

He shrugged. “Like snippets of things. Perhaps they’re in the future; perhaps they’ll happen today.”

“That could easily be like a daydream or something like that. Your brain could be overcompensating for—”

He shook his head. “No, Ella. My apologies for interrupting you, but these are true visions I see in the mirror.”

“If you were in front of one now, what would you see?”

“Nothing. It only happens in the mornings. It only happens once throughout the day.”

“Fascinating.”

For a reason he couldn’t pinpoint, he liked that she found him interesting.  “Yes. Needless to say, I have to pay close attention to what I see. I only get one run at it.”

“What did you see this morning?”

“A gun, a computer, gorgeous hands with slim fingers moving over a keyboard, Savannah swimming in a pool, and a beautiful woman with black hair, creamy white skin, and dark eyes. She wore her hair hanging over the left side of her face, as if she hid something.”

She gasped, and he heard the coffee cup being set down on the table.

“I take it that was you?”

The energy in the room morphed, into a conundrum of nervousness, sadness, and a blast of anger. He’d been right—it had been Ella he’d seen this morning.

“Your reaction says it all,” he murmured. “I can almost feel your emotions in the air; the atmosphere in this room has changed. You’re very beautiful, Ella.”

“You don’t know anything,” she whispered.

“Am I wrong? Wasn’t that you?”

“Yes. Yes, it was.” Her voice continued to be soft, just above a whisper.

He sat forward in his chair, confused. He’d obviously touched onto something very deep and personal for her, but he didn’t understand what in the world it could have been. He’d just told her she appeared beautiful to him. Perhaps she had been shocked by the fact that he saw images in the mirror?

“Ella?”

“I’m sorry. I need to get to work.”

She stood abruptly, making the table rattle, and the carpet muffled her footsteps as she left the room. He sat back in his chair, contemplating what had just happened.

One of two things just occurred—she’d been shocked by his ability, or he’d offended her by telling her she was beautiful.

His thoughts drifted back to the vision, and he thought again about her hair. He’d always appreciated women, and when he’d had his sight, he’d never hesitated to tell a woman he thought she was beautiful, no matter if he knew her or not. Never had one reacted in a negative way as Ella just had. When his unit had been stateside, they had teased him relentlessly about his metrosexual ways, and a few had even commented how he seemed to be able to connect with women in such an easy manner. He’d always wanted to look his best, and he’d simply been forthright and complimentary to women while others tried to game them with dumb pick-up lines or being crude. Zach had found that these come-ons were more for the man’s friends’ entertainment, and never to get to know the woman.

He appreciated beauty in all forms, from clothes to art, to jewelry, and yes, women.

Unless Ella happened to be a type of woman he’d never met before—and he’d met and bedded a lot of women before his blindness—he had to believe she hid something.

Intriguing, indeed.

Chapter 7

Ella sat back and stared at her computer screen, the code running across it almost hypnotic.

She’d kept the door of her office closed almost the full day just so she wouldn’t have to encounter Zach again. The past firmly grasped her mind, making it difficult to concentrate on the task at hand.

It had been a long time since someone had used the word ‘beautiful’ to describe her. At one time, she had been, but no longer.

She traced her finger over the left side of her face, feeling the harsh scar that spanned from her temple, down her cheek, to her jawbone. Mottled skin surrounded the angry red welt. No one with a set of working eyes would ever describe her as beautiful. She’d even looked into plastic surgery and visited three different doctors. All agreed they would never be able to repair the keloid scar, and perhaps surgery would even make it worse.

The day she’d been scarred and Joe had been shot, they’d been AWOL from their base for a week. It had been scary as they moved from hotel to hotel, as well as exhilarating and exciting. Their lives had definitely been in danger, but Joe had told her again and again that they were the good guys fighting the bad guys, the government.

He’d lived on the Fort Benning base in Texas, while she had a small apartment about a half-mile away. Joe had been a Sergeant; she a corporal, and a nurse. When the time came for annual physicals, she’d been tasked with vaccinating those who needed them.

She cringed as she remembered sliding a needle into the soldiers’ arms, not knowing she hadn’t been immunizing them, but instead, giving them horrible diseases like polio and infecting them with viruses such as the chicken pox and the flu. In a week’s time, she had noted that those she had inoculated came back to the infirmary very, very sick. She and Joe had been dating for about a year, and she’d spoken to him about it. They’d formed their hypothesis, although she had a very hard time believing the government would do such a thing to their own troops.

Over the next few days, she’d kept her own records, writing down the vial numbers of the medicine she’d been instructed to give the troops who came to see her.

Late one night, they’d snuck into the infirmary and she’d compared the records. What had been written down in the log did not match the vial numbers she had jotted down.

Someone had doctored the formal records.

They’d had their answer.

They’d debated going to the press with their findings, the idea scaring them. If the government could run such horrible experiments on their own troops, surely, they wouldn’t think twice of making their accusers disappear. However, maybe being in the public spotlight would save them.

Ella had felt it a crapshoot. What if the press didn’t believe them? They really had no hard proof except her own handwritten notes. Would they believe a military nurse? If they did, an investigation would be launched, and the people responsible for the experiments would know they’d been found out. She didn’t see a way for them to protect themselves.

“We need to run,” Joe had said one night as they’d lain in her bed in her small apartment off base. “Maybe then, we can figure out who to go to, who will believe us and offer us protection.”

They’d taken off the next day, simply throwing a suitcase in her car and leaving. Because hindsight happened to always be twenty-twenty, she now saw that they should have realized the government had already been on to them. Who ran a highly illegal experiment without having security measures in place?

She’d never know for sure, but she guessed they’d tripped a secret camera when they’d broken into the infirmary that night.

On the run for a week, she’d almost felt as if she resided in another dimension. Fear had gripped; yet, Joe had always soothed her, making her feel like they could topple a government, or at least, the evil that resided in it.

Her computer beeped, bringing her back to the present. She shook her head to clear her thoughts and studied her screen. The virus had made a bit of progress, but not enough to actually break into the Group Nine mainframe.

She stood and stretched her hands over her head, feeling exhausted and much older than her thirty-four years. Days when the past consumed her thoughts did that to her. On the run with Joe, she’d felt alive and free, although scared to death, and her existence now seemed more like a prison sentence. Joe had abandoned her emotionally, and she’d become so angry about everything in her life. The man she’d given her heart to no longer wanted her, her horrible scar, her loneliness. She lived day after day alone, except for the people Joe dumped at her doorstep until he could find a place for them. Yes, she often took her anger out on her guests, but really, she had no other outlet.

She had no friends, no lover. Besides, who would want to have sex with a woman like her, one with such terrible scars, both inside and out?

Glancing at the clock which read 6:00 p.m., she moved and her stomach growled loudly. She’d had nothing to eat or drink since her coffee that morning.

Zach had rattled her.

Taking a deep breath, she promised herself she wouldn’t let that happen again. Yes, she’d make both of them turkey sandwiches for dinner. She would also partake in a couple large glasses of wine.

Opening the office door, she heard classical music, and the smell of oregano, basil, and other spices assaulted her nose, making her stomach growl even louder.

What had he done?

She went to the kitchen. Zach stood over the sink, his back to her and he moved his arm, but his wide shoulders hid what he did.

Glancing at the countertop, she saw two plates, each with a piece of garlic bread, and two glasses filled with red wine, the bottle standing next to them.

“Hello, Ella,” he said, keeping his back to her.

“H-hi,” she stammered, surprise rolling through her at the scene.

Slowly, he turned. He carried a pot full of spaghetti and sauce. It looked delicious, and her stomach howled.

He grinned and set down the pot next to the plates. “I’m guessing you’re hungry?”

As he slowly dished out the spaghetti, tears welled in her eyes. This must have been so difficult for him to do, and she tried to remember when someone had put in so much effort into something for her, and been so kind.

“Yes,” she whispered.

“Good, because I think I made enough spaghetti to feed an army.”

She wiped her eyes. “That was very sweet of you. Thank you.”

He looked her way for a moment, and then slightly bowed his head. “You’re very welcome. It’s my pleasure.”

He picked up one plate and began making his way to the dining room.

“Let me help you. It’s the least I can do after you put in all this effort. This must have been difficult for you.”

He stopped in his tracks, his smile fading. “I prefer not to use that word, if you don’t mind. Since the explosion, my life has become
challenging
.  Referring to something as difficult signals that it’s hard to do. I would rather rise to a challenge.”

She nodded, not sure what to say.

“However, just because I take on a challenge doesn’t mean I wouldn’t appreciate a little help at the finish line.”

He set the plate down on the island and pushed it toward her. Picking it up, she also reached for the second plate. “If you could get the wine …”

“Of course,” he said. “Should I grab the bottle, as well?”

“Yes, please.”

They sat in silence as they ate.

“This is really good, Zach. Thanks so much.”

“My pleasure. I’m sorry I couldn’t make the sauce from scratch, but I couldn’t find the cumin in the cupboard, and I didn’t feel any hamburger in the freezer, or the fridge. In fact, I didn’t find any protein—chicken, fish … nothing. I did, however, find a jar of sauce. I added a few spices, so I hope it’s satisfactory.”

Ella shoved another huge bite into her mouth and thought it very well may the best spaghetti she’d ever tasted. “This is delicious, and no, you won’t find any fish in this house. I can’t stand it.””

“I’m so happy you like the spaghetti, and it’s too bad about the fish. I make a mean salmon fillet.”

“Sorry, but I’ll have to pass on that one.”

He delicately spun the noodles around his fork, sipped his wine, then wiped his mouth. Again, she thought of the other men who’d come through here. Rarely had she shared meals with them, but they reminded her of Rottweilers and a steak. Even with his disability, Zach exuded manners and class.

“Could you please pass me the wine, Ella?”

She placed the bottle in his outstretched hand and made sure he had a firm grip on it before letting go. He lifted his glass, and when he was certain the bottle met the lip of the glass, then he poured.

She almost called out when the wine was about to overflow, but he stopped pouring and set the bottle down.

“How did you know when to stop?” she asked.

He smiled. “I count. I learned early in my blindness that if I could count to five while pouring wine into a regular wine glass, it’s enough. I did go through much trial and error, though.”

She grinned, marveling at his methods of coping.

“What did you do today?” she asked after a beat.

He shrugged. “Savannah took a swim in the pool after a duck landed in it. She tried to chase it.”

“How did you know a duck was in the pool?”

“Because I heard him land. Quack, quack.”

“Oh.”

“Yes, well, then after I finally got her out of the water, the smell of chlorine on her was overpowering, and I know it’s not good for her skin. I had to wrangle her into the bath, which is a feat in itself.”

She noticed the crisp blue shirt he wore this morning had been replaced with a black t-shirt.

“It turned out to be a brutal battle, as it always is, but I emerged the victor.”

He grinned at her, and she looked around for Savannah. “Where is she?”

Zach chuckled. “She’s pouting somewhere. She hates baths, but maybe now, she’ll stay out of the pool.”

Ella tipped her head as she studied him. She ‘d never fully understood the bond between a human and a dog, and with Zach, the connection seemed quite intricate, almost as if Savannah was not only a trusted companion, but quite like a child to him, as well. He obviously deeply cared for her.

She glanced around the dining room and didn’t see Savannah anywher
e.
Looking over her shoulder, she peered into the kitchen, and the dog couldn’t be found. “She must be hiding well.”

“Yes. Baths are almost a fate worse than the vet for her.”

She laughed, then sipped her wine. As she watched the gorgeous man across from her, the wine seeped into her bones, and she felt more relaxed than she had in months. The food, the wine, the company … yes, it all soothed her. “Thank you again for dinner.”

He set down his fork and curled his hands together on the table surrounding his plate. “Ella, I’m sorry for whatever I said this morning that upset you. I wanted to do something to apologize, but I also realized you’d worked all day without a break, so you needed to be fed. It feels good to take care of another person, even if I’m the reason they need to be cared for.”

She sipped from her glass and sat back in her chair, reevaluating his words. He blamed himself for her self-imprisonment today. “Look, Zach, this morning, you just surprised me. It wasn’t anything you said.”

He shook his head. “I felt the air change when I told you that you were beautiful, Ella.”

The anger she felt surfaced again, but not as strong.

“Emotions are powerful,” he said, his voice low. “They can change the vibrations in a room. People feel it, but they aren’t cognizant of it. A negative person can bring down a room in minutes, and those around him or her don’t even know what happened to their happy moods. On the other hand, a happy person can lift everyone’s sprits. Anger radiates, slithering almost as a snake would, looking for its prey. I felt anger this morning, Ella.”

She hated that such an intuitive, polite man had invaded her space, and almost wished for the Neanderthals before him. They had been easy to ignore and scare away. Zach played on a whole different ball field, one that took her by surprise.

Taking a long sip of her wine, she looked over her cleaned plate and pulled the bowl over for seconds, deciding she owed him an explanation.

“When Joe and I found out what the government was doing, we ran. They came after us and put two bullets in Joe’s back, and then dragged a knife over my face. I’m no longer beautiful, Zach. When I pull my hair back, I see a long, nasty scar down the side of my face and the mottled skin around it. My beauty is gone, and when you said that, it shook me. I haven’t heard that word used to describe me in seven years. It was … upsetting. I reacted poorly.”

He stared in her direction for a few moments as he sipped his wine, unnerving her as she felt like he could see into her soul, even though he was blind. This man fascinated her, yet scared the hell out of her all at once.

“Well, from what I saw in my mirror this morning, you are still beautiful, Ella. But if you don’t think so, I completely understand. However, I can relate to your statement.”