Lightning Strikes (The Almeida Brothers Trilogy #3)

by Trevion Burns

She moved across the parking lot toward the bus, the rain pattering her skin and pasting her curls to her forehead.

  It wasn’t until Nina was at the rear wheel of the bus that she finally exploded, kicking the tire with all her might, over and over, until she was too out of breath to continue. Hearing Jack’s shoes clicking in close behind her, she turned to him with a smile.

  “Are you this much of a coward?” Her heated eyes searched his as he came to a sudden stop in front of her. “What kind of grown ass man can’t even face his own family? What kind of grown ass man would rather hide a bunch of casino chips in his pocket than man up and talk about how he really feels? I need to go home, Jack.”

  “We are going home.”

  “I need to be home right now.”

  “Since when?”

  “God.” She threw her head back. “Oh my God, Jack…” She reclaimed his eyes. “This is so sad; I could almost cry. I want to cry for you right now. You actually think this is real.” She held her arms out and spun around, motioning to the mountains around them, the rain falling harder by the second. “You think all of this bullshit is real.”

  Jack lifted his chin high, squinting at her.

  She pointed at him. “I don’t know you, Jack. You don’t know me. We don’t know a damn thing about each other. It’s been fun disappearing from the real world for a little while. Drowning our problems away in this… this fantasy we’ve created between each other. But the real world never went away, Jack, and it never will, no matter how badly we want it to. Eventually, we’re going to have to wake up from this fairytale and get back to reality, and I need to get back to reality tonight. So will you please, for once, face up to the problems you created for yourself, call your family, and end this charade for good?”

  Jack let her words sink in, doing nothing to try to hide the rapid reddening of his eyes or the tremor to his voice when he spoke. “That’s what this is? A charade?”

  “Yes.”

  “It’s a charade, Nina?”

  “Yes, Jack. A charade. A mockery. A couple of deeply insane people, masquerading as carefree drifters. The truth is that neither of us is really carefree, Jack. Neither of us is really happy. Both of us are running, but I can’t run anymore.” She took a deep breath. “Now will you call your family? Please?” When he didn’t answer, she cursed under her breath and turned away from him again, digging her hands into her hair.

  “You know, I thought I was angry,” Jack said, the rain slicking his hair to his skin. He felt his clothes being pasted to his skin, as well, but couldn’t make himself seek shelter as he looked across the lot at her. Her hair was pasted to her skin, too, the gentle ringlets growing longer with each passing second as the rain wet them and stretched them. They curled around her glistening breasts, dripping tiny droplets into the deep v of her top. His breathing picked up. “But you. You are really, really angry, Nina.”

  She cut her eyes at him, pushing her hair out of them. “That’s rich coming from you.”

  “At least I have to balls to embrace it. I’m not in denial about it. It’s just my fucking reality, and I accept it. But you… you work so fucking hard!” His voice rose. “Trying to pretend it isn’t there. But I see it.” He pointed at her. “I see you. You’ll rake me over the coals about my secrets until you make yourself sick, but goddamn if you’ll ever acknowledge your own.”

  She turned and stomped away, moving toward the piano bar.

  Jack jolted, and his body was moving his legs before his mind could think to stop them. Her arms were under his hold in an instant, and his eyes shrunk when she tried to reclaim them, to claw them out of his hold. She turned to him while trying to pull out of his grasp, her eyes rising to his.

  “Let go of me,” she demanded. “Let go of me, Jack. Fuck! You wanted to be away from me so badly—from the moment we met; you’ve been trying to get away. Here’s your chance. Call your family. Call your family so we can go home and be out of each other’s lives for good.”

  “No.”

  She shook her head, giving up the fight to reclaim her arms while shaking her head at him. “I can’t fix you,” she whispered. “And you sure as hell can’t fix me.”

  “Why does anyone need to be fixed?” he demanded, shaking her. “Why can’t we just be, Nina?”

  She laughed, blinking against the rain falling from her eyelashes.

  “Don’t laugh at me,” Jack said. “Don’t laugh at me for giving a damn about you.”

  “I never asked you to give a damn. I never wanted you to give a damn.” She laughed, again. “I chose you, Jack…”

  His eyes grew ripe, shrinking into a confused squint.

  “I chose you because you’re empty.” She pounded her fists into his chest. “Because you can’t feel. Don’t go changing on me now, alright? Don’t fuck it up now.”

  “I care about you,” Jack whispered. “I feel… for you.”

  She froze, the rain meeting the tears on her face, erasing them completely. But she couldn’t erase the pain in her eyes. “No, you don’t.”

  He swallowed, and when he nodded, the rainwater saturated his hair, dripping down his face in rivers. “I feel for you. And I’m not going to let you do to yourself what I’ve been doing to myself for years. What I’ve been doing to myself up until the moment I laid eyes on you. I knew the moment I saw you, Nina, and I was stupid enough to try to run from it. I ran hard, and I understand so succinctly why you’re trying to run right now, but I’m not going to let you.”

  “We fucked,” she screamed, crying out when the words caused him to release her arms. She held them out at her sides. “I sat down next to you on that plane, and I thought you were smoking hot. I thought, ‘wouldn’t mind a couple of rolls in the sack with that one.’ That was it, Jack. God, if I had known it would make you latch on like an infant…” She didn’t finish.

  His teeth chattered as his clothes and skin joined. A chill raced through his body. “Don’t do this.”

  “You were just a hard dick. You don’t care about me because you have no fucking idea how to do that. Just like you didn’t know how to do it with the bride you abandoned in Cambridge, just like you don’t know how to do it with the family you’re too chicken shit to call because God forbid you set yourself up to love somebody who just might love you back.” She went to turn away but froze when he spoke again.

  “It won’t work on me, Nina.”

  Her head fell.

  “This thing you’re doing right now? I invented it. I invented this, and it won’t work on me.”

  “Don’t go pulling the good guy card on me now.” She faced him, motioning to him. The strap of her top had lost its elasticity in the rain, making it fall off her shoulder. “You’re the kind of man who leaves his blushing bride at the altar. The kind of man who’d rather die alone in an empty brownstone than risk playing and losing. The kind of man that can fuck and forget. That is who I sat down next to. That is who I chose. That is who you are. Be that guy. Be that guy who waits until the very last fucking second, until he’s standing across the altar from the starry-eyed “love of his life”, in front of all her friends and family, to decide he doesn’t want her anymore.”

  “I already told you.” He chuckled. “I didn’t leave the love of my life at the altar. The woman I thought I loved was sitting in the pews, and I left her. I left a woman who couldn’t love me back. A woman who loved my brother more. Who couldn’t decide which of us she loved more until she’d finally fucked us both. I left her in those pews, believing that I loved her… and I believed it with every fiber of me. But now I know what’s real. I know the truth.”

  Nina’s breathing eased, arms lifeless at her sides.

  Jack stepped closer, looking down at her, his heaving chest rising and falling in time with hers. “I left her… because I could.”

  Nina’s eyes jammed shut.

  “But for the goddamn life of me, Nina, I cannot…” He laughed, slicing his hands into his hair with a bewildered shake of his head.
“I cannot leave you. I cannot walk away from you.”

  Her eyes opened slowly, filled with grief.

  “I can’t do it. I don’t know how.” This time, when he took her arms, she didn’t pull away. “Now, I don’t know what it is about this bus breaking down that has you this upset—after all the shit we’ve been through, but I think if we’ve learned anything from this experience… it is that there will always be another train. There will always be another plane. There will always, always, always be another automobile.” When she didn’t smile, his own grin wavered. “It’s going to be fine.”

  “No.” She yanked her arms from his grasp, cringing. “It’s not going to be fine, Jack. I have to be in New York.”

  “We will be.”

  “Right now!” her voice rose to ear-splitting levels. “Right now…” She brought her fisted hands onto the top of her head.

  Jack’s breathing picked up as she threw her fists through the air, stunned at the sight. In seconds, she gave up the fight, her shoulders collapsing and eyes going glassy.

  “Is it your husband?” Jack took a deep breath, preparing himself. “You’re still in love with him?”

  “No.” She made claws with her hands. “This has nothing to do with Anthony.”

  “But it is the divorce trial, right? That’s what’s got you over the rails right now? That’s why you’re crying?” Jack sighed. “You want him back?”

  “No.”

  “Then why are you this upset? Why?”

  “It’s none of your business. Isn’t that your motto? Your favorite thing to say to me every time I tried to talk to you? ”

  Jack licked his lips. He reached for her.

  She stepped away. “Don’t do me any favors. You don’t want to make small talk, right? You don’t want friends. You don’t want marriage. You don’t want kids. You don’t want anything but to be left the fuck alone, right?”

  “All I want right now…” Jack took her arms, tightening his hold when she immediately tried to pull away from him. “Is for you to talk to me.”

  Jack jolted when she snatched her arms out of his grasp, watching her stumble away, the strap of her top falling farther down her arm. He ached to lick her glistening skin and tear it to shreds all at once. He couldn’t decide which side of him was stronger, so he just stood in a stupor, watching her walk away, and dying to figure out why the hell he couldn’t just let her.

  He saw her bring the back of her hand to her lips from behind, lingering alongside the bus before sending the toe of her sneaker barreling into the tire.

  “You’re right. It’s not fair for me to even try.” He began moving in behind her. “I just…”

  “What?” She turned to him, trying to smile, but the pain in her eyes wouldn’t allow that smile to bloom, not even ironically. “You just what?”

  Jack sputtered, held her eyes, and then looked away.

  She scoffed with a roll of her eyes. “Three hundred missed calls from an army of people who could have real cash in your hands in minutes. You’re so full of shit. God.” She pushed past him.

  “I’m full of shit.” Jack’s voice rose, following her as she walked away. “What about you, huh?”

  When she didn’t stop moving, he sped up, closing in behind her.

  “What about all the shit you’re running from, Nina? What about that photo in your back pocket?” he countered. “That photo of your “cousin”.”

  She turned to him just in time to see his fingers curled into air quotes, and her entire face changed. “I’ll kill you, Jack,” she whispered. “If you ever bring him up again, I’ll kill you.”

  “He’s your son.” Jack nodded. “Isn’t he?”

  Her lips curled and her eyes reddened.

  “Is that why this trial is so important to you? Is it about your kid? About custody?” When she didn’t answer, Jack held his arms out. “Tell me that’s what it’s about… and I’ll call my family right now. I’ll make the call, and I’ll get the money. I’m sorry that I didn’t do it sooner. Maybe some part of me…” He looked away, cursing under his breath, struggling. “Maybe some part of me wanted you to miss the trial. I wanted your marriage to end. As quickly as possible.” When she shot him a horrified look, he shrugged. “Maybe I really am the empty man you think I am. Maybe I really am an Aries. Selfish as hell, only out for myself because I selfishly wanted you to be single again. But if I’d have known it was about your kid… If you tell me it’s about your kid, and not about sticking it to your husband, then I’ll make the phone call right now. Because while I’ll never support keeping your marriage alive, I won’t hesitate to support your son.”

  The wind picked up her soaked curls, making them fly and stick to her lips just as she brought her fists to her eyes and crouched down, weeping into her palms.

  Jack was on her in seconds, leaning down in front of her. She tried to rear away when he cupped her shoulders, but he wouldn’t let her.

  “Tell me what he needs,” he said. “And I’ll take care of it. Is he unsafe? Is he a ward of the state? Is your husband after full custody? What? What is it?”

  Her cries intensified, and Jack’s hold on her shoulders lightened. He sat down on the asphalt completely, stretching his long legs out on either side of her body and pulling her into the warm concave of his chest, shaking her gently once she was encircled in his arms.

  She sniffled.

  “I can help you get him back,” he said.

  She peeked up at him from behind her clenched fists, cheeks stained with mascara. The moment her eyes hit his, she looked away, toward the stalled bus, sniffling again.

  “How old is he?” Jack whispered, pushing her hair away from her face. A long silence passed.

  “He was six.”

  His eyes slammed closed.

  Was.

  Jack’s eyebrows flew up high, and he had to take a deep breath as realization thundered in all around him, and he yanked her closer, deeper into the warmth of his chest when her quiet cries exploded into sobs.

  Her fists found solace slamming into his chest as he pulled her in tighter. She pushed against his pull, and he took every blow that she delivered, knowing that he’d pushed her too far with his questions, and it was his fault that she’d just spiraled into a place he hadn’t known existed.

  “I’m sorry, Nina. I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.” When she kept trying to push away, he met her eyes. “I didn’t know.”

  Nina cringed. “They were supposed to… to fix him.” Unable to shoulder both the pain and anger, she gave in, collapsing into his chest.

  Jack exhaled when she gave herself to him, cuddling her close while his wide eyes danced over her head. This time, he didn’t dare push her for more.

  Her hoarse voice rang out again. “Doctors are supposed to fix people…”

  He pressed his chin to the top of her head, eyes widening and dancing back and forth as her cries eased. This time, it was Jack’s eyes that filled with tears. His heart, which was already shattered on the street at their feet, seemed to incinerate and sink into the Earth, and he was sure he’d never find it again.

  “He killed my baby,” she wheezed.

  His hand disappeared into her hair, but Jack didn’t enjoy it like he usually did. He couldn’t. Not when the truth was hitting him like a rocket.

  “Who?” he whispered, already terrified to hear the answer.

  She breathed in deep. He couldn’t see her face, but assumed her tears must have dried, because she was no longer crying. The anger, it seemed, wouldn’t allow another tear to hit her eyes.

  “Dominic Octavio,” she spat. “All the kids in the Peds ward called him Dr. Dom. They loved him.”

  The color drained from Jack’s face. His breathing grew labored. “Oh, Nina…”

  “He killed my baby, and I need the money from my…” She hiccupped. “From my divorce… to keep the malpractice suit going. Most of the other mothers have already let it go. It was getting too expensive. They wanted to move on with th
eir lives. To let go. But I can’t… I won’t…”

  Jack ran his hands over his wide eyes, passed his flared nostrils and over his trembling lips; hardly able to accept the words he was hearing.

  “He killed my… my son,” she wheezed. “And after he killed himself, his son spent the next six years making it his mission to defend him in court. To protect every dollar he made on the backs of the kids he slaughtered.”

  To anyone else, her words would be nothing but gibberish. The rantings of a deeply wounded woman. But Jack understood her. He heard her, loud and clear, but he wished to God he didn’t. He wished to God that every word she was saying didn’t ring so true, so deep, so close to home, that it brought tears to his own eyes.

  He wished to God… he begged to God, not to be this cruel.

  With every word she said, Jack’s eyes grew wider, more frantic. “You don’t have to talk about this…”

  “He defended him. For six years. Stretching the trial, on and on, for years and years, waiting for the moment when I finally gave up. Until the moment I couldn’t afford it anymore. He’ll stretch it until the day I die to protect his precious inheritance. But I’ll never give up. I have to get back to New York, Jack. I have to do it for my baby…”

  Jack shushed her, wrapping his fingers up in her hair before collapsing back onto one hand, hardly able to process what he’d just been blasted with.

  ***

  “Noah was born with a bad kidney,” Nina said, squinting at the orange cast the rain had left behind on the mountain range in the distance. “But every doctor told us it wasn’t a death sentence. Said Noah could live a healthy life with just one. So we didn’t worry ourselves about it. Not until the second kidney went to hell.” Nina shifted from where she and Jack were leaning up against the giant wheel of the truck. The rain had passed, and Nina’s tears had tried, but her heart was still as shredded. She couldn’t make sense of the change that had occurred in Jack, but could only assume he felt sorry for her. She was clearly completely insane. She stretched her legs out, amused at how short they looked next to Jack’s never-ending ones, breathing deep. “Luckily, I was a match. I used every penny of my student loans to pay for the best surgeon in the city. That’s why I had to drop out of law school…”