He refocused on the road. “That obvious, huh?”
“It was in your aura. An aura is a person’s energy, that’s all. Most people can feel it. And you can train yourself to see it, as well.” She shrugged again. “I have a talent for it.”
“What other talents do you have?” He didn’t mean for the question to sound seductive, but it did, hanging in the air between them like a cloud of rousing perfume and strains of soft music.
Sabina hesitated before answering, as if she, too, felt the tension in the air. Finally she raised a hand and smoothed a strand of hair back from her cheek. “My family has many talents,” she said, although it wasn’t her family he’d asked about. “My sister can read the future. My cousin Andrei is empathic and telekinetic. And my aunt Valonia can cast spells…and curses.”
Thankfully, it didn’t seem that reading minds was one of her talents. If it had been, she would know he didn’t give a flying fig about her family’s talents. He wanted to know about hers. Like how her body moved when she danced and what kind of feelings those lips could arouse moving across bare skin.
He mentally shook himself. There was only one place these thoughts could lead, and it wasn’t a place he could go. No matter that the air between them sizzled with electricity.
He scoured his mind for a way to steer their conversation back to its original path and away from the course his body wanted to take. “So you saw in Leon Thibault’s aura that he was lying?”
“Yes.”
“What part of his story was he lying about?” Garner struggled to keep his mind on Leon, but found himself watching her out of the corner of his eye. The strong lift of her chin. The way the sun glinted off her hair and highlighted the curves of her breasts under the gauzy top.
“I don’t know. I couldn’t tell that much from his aura. Only that something he told us was a lie. I can only interpret a person’s energy. I can’t read minds.”
Garner expelled a relieved breath. Thank God for small favors.
He forcefully pulled his mind from the landscape of her body and paid full attention to the flat ribbons of road and water ahead and the shadow of a truck in the rearview mirror behind. “Well, lying or not, unless we can find some evidence disputing Leon’s story, we aren’t going to get very far.”
“We? Does that mean you’ll work with me on Carlo’s case?”
If only it could be that easy. If only he could help her, work side by side with her to save her cousin. But he knew damn well he couldn’t. Her presence was like a drug to him, each dose increasing his addiction. And if he was foolhardy enough to help her, to spend more time with her, to get to know her, God knows what state he’d be in. Even now the need to run his fingers along her cheek, to taste her lips, to draw some of her color, her life into his soul was eating him up inside. “I can’t, Sabina. I’m sorry.”
She pursed her lips and nodded slowly, as if she’d been bracing herself for his answer, as if she’d expected it. Shadows settled, dark as bruises in those beautiful green eyes.
He tore his gaze away. He couldn’t look at her, couldn’t witness the sense of rejection creasing her forehead and tightening her lips. He’d done his best. Given what he could. And he couldn’t give any more. Not without endangering his heart. And hers.
He glanced into the rearview mirror. The pickup truck had caught up to them and followed close behind. The hot sun beat off the truck’s tinted windshield and glared in his eyes. Damn truck was following too close. Much too close.
The palms of his hands broke out in a sweat. His pulse picked up its pace. He tried inhaling slowly in an attempt to ward off the fears. The memories of crushing metal. Of pain. Of loss.
First the excruciating desire to feel Sabina’s touch, to smell her scent, to get to know her much better. And now this. He couldn’t escape the memories. They were closing in on him. The sweetness he missed, and the tragedy that had stolen it all away.
Garner pulled well to the side of his lane to let the truck pass. But instead of swinging out into the oncoming lane, the pickup drew closer, its bumper nearly riding on the tail of Garner’s car.
“What the hell?” Garner stepped on the gas, putting a few inches between them.
The truck roared ahead. Its bumper connected with his.
Garner’s head snapped back against the seat. The steering wheel jumped in his hands. He clutched the wheel and struggled to regain control. “Hold on, Sabina.”
The truck loomed, filling the rearview mirror. It withdrew a few inches and then rammed them again.
The car jolted and swerved to the shoulder. Garner fought with the wheel. He stomped on the brake, but it was no use. Gravel skidded beneath the tires. The edge of the water-filled ditch rushed to meet them. Just like before. Just like—
Sabina’s scream rent the air.
The car hit the water nose first, burying itself in mud and sharp stalks of cane. Garner’s head snapped forward and then back against the headrest. Then there was no sound but the lap of water seeping into the car, and the smell of the swamp clogged Garner’s throat, thick as blood.
Chapter Three
“Sabina, please. Can you hear me?”
Sabina squeezed her eyes closed. She didn’t want to open them. The light filtering through her lids was too bright. Her head hurt too much.
“Sabina, please. This can’t happen again. Please.” The voice cut through her foggy mind. A voice so full of desperation, so full of fear. Garner’s voice.
She forced her eyes to open and focus on his face.
Garner was leaning over her, cradling her head in his hands. He was worried. Upset.
“What’s wrong, Garner? Are you okay?”
A sound of relief whooshed from his lips. “It’s you I’m worried about.”
“Me?” The pungent scent of swamp hung in the air. Water seeped into the front of the car and inched toward her feet. Stalks of cane and cattails speared the sky. The gleam of water surrounded the car on every side.
She remembered…she remembered.
The truck that was following too close. The truck that rammed their car and pushed them off the road. Pushed them into the water-filled ditch.
“You were so still. I couldn’t tell if you were breathing at first.” Garner smoothed her hair back off her face, his fingers trembling. “I thought I’d lost you. Like Mary Ann. I thought you were dead.”
“I’m fine, Garner. Really.” She wasn’t sure if she was fine or not, but she needed to say something, anything to reassure him. The alarm ringing in his voice and pulsing in his aura were almost painful. “Nothing broken. Just a little headache.”
“Can you move?”
She sat forward in the seat. Her head spun as if she’d just spent the entire day on Andrei’s Tilt-a-Whirl. Forcing herself to stay steady, she looked at the encroaching water. “I’m fine. Let’s get out of here.”
Clutching the dashboard with one hand, Garner pressed the seat-belt release and popped her belt free. “The ditch is deeper on your side, so you’ll have to crawl across the seat to my side. Do you think you can manage?”
Sabina forced a smile to her lips, despite the timpani thundering in her head. “No problem.”
He grasped her hand, helping her across the seat and out the driver’s door. The water rose nearly to her waist, making her long skirt cling and tangle with her legs as she tried to wade to shore. Mud sucked at her sandals with each step.
Garner slipped his arm around her and pulled her close. The heat of his body seeped into her like warm rain after a long drought. And with it came a sense of strength. Of safety. Safety she had no business feeling after just being run off the road. And especially while wading through a ditch that served as home to alligators and snakes. “Did you get a look at the driver of that truck?”
“No. I didn’t get the license, either.” He helped her up the bank to the shoulder of the road. “By the time I really paid attention to the truck, it was too close to see the plate.”
A
bad feeling swirled inside her. First the man who attacked Wyatt, then the fire in Alessandra’s trailer, and now this. Was the truck driver part of the pattern? Did someone know she was now pursuing Carlo’s case? And was that someone set on keeping the truth under wraps?
As they stood on the side of the road, she began to fill Garner in on her worries. The more she told him, the more his alarm grew.
“Did you report the attack and the fire to the police?”
“Yes. They wrote reports, and that’s about all that happened.”
He nodded as if he’d expected her answer. “When I report this, I’ll see if I can give Les Baux’s finest a little jump start.”
Garner groped his pockets and cursed.
“What is it?”
“My cell phone is sleeping with the gators. The carnival isn’t far. I’ll call from there. Do you think you can manage the walk?”
Sabina nodded, the movement sending pain shooting down her neck.
Concern pinched Garner’s brow. “Are you sure?”
“I’m sure.”
“I’ll help you. Lean on me.”
Sabina did as he ordered, reveling in the feel of his body against hers, his arm protectively around her shoulders. Ironically, even though he was taking care of her, she felt stronger than she’d felt in years. And more sure of herself. It was as if the touch of Garner’s hand, the warmth of his body, brought out strength hidden even from her.
She only wished she could bring out the same strength in him.
Garner’s face was pinched. And though his hands no longer trembled, Sabina could see the anguish in his aura. The words he spoke after the crash echoed through her mind.
“Who’s Mary Ann?”
His arm tightened around her shoulders.
“You said her name. You said you thought you’d lost me. Like Mary Ann.”
He didn’t reply, just kept walking, the soles of his shoes grinding on the gravel.
Sabina knew she should let it go, that he obviously didn’t want to talk about it. But somehow, she had to know. “Is this what the D.A. referred to? What you’ve been through? It might help to talk.”
“Mary Ann was my wife.”
A throb deep in Sabina’s chest answered the pain in his eyes. “Did she die in a car accident?”
Garner’s gaze dropped to the gravel shoulder. “Yes.”
Sabina swallowed into a dry throat. He’d lost his wife. His wife whom he obviously loved. How could he bear it?
“You don’t have to talk about it. I’m sorry I pushed.”
“No, it’s all right.”
“You’re sure?”
He nodded.
“When did it happen?”
“Six years ago. I still dream about the accident sometimes. Still try to make it turn out differently. Of course, it never does.”
Sabina wanted to say something, anything to make him feel less alone. But she sensed there was nothing to say, so she stayed quiet and let him continue at his own pace.
“I was making a left turn into the funeral home and the semi driver behind us wasn’t paying attention. He never saw my signal. He never saw our car until he hit us and sent us across the road and into the drainage ditch.”
Sabina’s mind caught. “The funeral home? You were turning into the funeral home?”
“My mother had just died. A heart attack. We were scheduled to meet with the funeral director. To make plans.”
Sabina’s heart clutched. Valonia’s curse rang in her ears. Justice is blind. Love is death. The law is impotent. “First your mother, then your wife?”
“And now my father. That makes everyone. Except me, that is.” His mouth pressed into a bitter line.
Love is death. Was that the part of the curse that had befallen Garner? Had his wife and his mother died as a result of Valonia’s curse? And though he’d clearly had big problems with his father, she’d never seen hatred in Garner’s aura when he talked about Claude Rousseau. Garner must have loved him. At least in some way. And now he was dead, too.
“My mother didn’t trust doctors. She always said she couldn’t stand them poking around. We didn’t even know she had a heart condition. I keep thinking that if I’d forced her to have a checkup, she might still be here.”
“You can’t blame yourself. You couldn’t possibly have known.”
“Maybe not. But that’s what we do after a tragedy, don’t we? We go back and relive everything we did wrong. Every bad decision or little bit of neglect that led up to the moment.” He turned his head to look at her. A smile curled his lips, a smile that held no humor, only sadness and pain. “I guess I’ve just had more opportunities to second-guess myself than a lot of people.”
“But none of it was your fault.”
“My mother’s death, maybe not. And my father’s death. But Mary Ann’s…” He shook his head and pulled his tortured gaze away. “I was driving.”
Sabina shook her head. He couldn’t blame himself. She wouldn’t let him. The cause wasn’t what he’d done or failed to do. The cause had been dictated long ago by his father’s actions and Valonia’s revenge.
“None of it was your fault, Garner. I know why everyone in your family died. Everyone you loved.”
He let out a bitter laugh. “Because God has a sick sense of humor? There was no reason. I stopped looking for one long ago. Now I just want to find peace.”
“There was a reason. Remember when I told you my aunt can cast spells and render curses?”
Garner frowned. “Yes.”
“My cousin Carlo is Valonia’s son. When he was convicted for murder and sentenced to death, she put a curse on those responsible—those with sons, just like Carlo was to her.”
Garner’s eyebrows crooked toward his hairline. “A curse?”
“Justice is blind. Love is death. The law is impotent.” Sabina stopped walking and turned to look directly into his eyes. “Don’t you see? Love is death. That is your curse. Those you love will die.”
Garner stared at her, his disbelief obvious.
“It’s true,” she said. “Believe it or not, but it’s true. None of it was your fault.”
He shook his head. Tightening his arm around her, he resumed walking along the highway’s gravel shoulder. Finally he let out a sigh. “Everyone loses people they love. If that’s a curse, then it’s a curse the entire human race shares. But I suppose I’m cursed in another way.”
“How?”
“When Mary Ann died, I felt my heart was cut from my chest. It was two years before I could go even an hour without thinking of her, without wishing I had been killed along with her.”
“You loved her very much.”
“Yes. And I can’t go through loving and losing again. Even if it means living alone for the rest of my life.”
“That’s so sad.”
Garner paused and looked at her, his gaze cutting through what few defenses she had left and penetrating her heart. “I’ve already experienced more love than most people do in their lifetimes. I’ve been fine with being alone. I never thought of it as a curse before. Not until I met you.”
Sabina’s throat constricted. Her eyes burned with tears.
They walked in silence, eyes joined. How long, Sabina wasn’t sure. Then Garner broke the connection and focused on the road ahead.
“We made it.”
The carnival loomed in front of them on the outskirts of Les Baux. The Ferris wheel glinted in the sun as it turned, filled with families enjoying the day, enjoying each other. Sabina’s heart ached at the sight.
Garner’s arm dropped from her shoulders, but he didn’t move away from her. He stood stock-still, looking out over the carnival. “I’ll report the accident to the police. And I’ll call a defense attorney I know who’s due for a little extra pro bono work. He’s good, and he owes me one. I’ll have him contact you. If there’s a way to help your cousin, he’ll find it.”
She nodded, her throat too tight to speak.
“I wish I co
uld do more. But I just can’t.”
Pain pulsed from Garner like blood from an artery. Pain Sabina was powerless to heal. She reached for his fingers, wanting to renew the contact between them, then stopped and let her hand fall to her side, useless as a rag. “I guess this is goodbye.”
“It has to be. I wish you luck, Sabina King.”
She beat back her tears and looked up at him, trying to meet his eyes. But he didn’t look at her. He kept his gaze on the Ferris wheel, as if turning his eyes on her one last time was too difficult.
“Thank you for your help, Garner Rousseau. I hope life gives you the good things you deserve from now on. You’re a good man.”
“Can you see that in my aura?”
She reached her hand toward him and rested it on his chest. He was so solid under her fingers. Yet so broken. “No, I can feel it in the beat of your heart.”
______
Garner wove and dodged his way through the late Friday-night crowd on the midway. Two days had passed since he’d said goodbye to Sabina. Two excruciating days of sitting alone at his father’s house, sorting through years of memories and thinking about the scent of Sabina’s hair, the tinkling of her earrings, and the spark of life burning deep in her jade eyes.
He’d done everything he’d promised to do when they’d parted. He’d reported the pickup truck to the police and done his best to convince them to devote some time and effort to the investigation. He’d called the attorney friend he’d told Sabina about and enlisted him to work on Carlo’s case. And he’d forced himself to stay away from Sabina, though nothing he could do would chase her from his thoughts.
He’d been over and over his decision to let someone else help Sabina with Carlo’s case. And each time he reviewed what he’d done, he knew he’d made the right choice. He’d only spent two days with Sabina. Not even a full two days, at that. And already she’d burrowed under his skin and was working her way dangerously close to his heart. Any more time with her and he didn’t know whether he could stand saying goodbye.
Under any circumstances.
He couldn’t let that happen. He had to watch out for himself this time. And for her.
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