Sea Haven 01 - Water Bound

spilled into the middle of his forehead. She brushed it back with gentle fingers. “I trusted you, bringing you home, going down for the uni and leaving you alone in my boat. I left the keys in my truck. I know you noticed them. I gave you back your weapons.”
    “You didn’t trust me when the woman came tonight.”
    “Blythe. Her name is Blythe and I owe her everything. I can take a chance with my life, but not with hers. All I’m saying is, you came home with me. Let me watch over you tonight, and then tomorrow you can go back to being whoever you want to be.”
    His blue eyes moved over her face as if memorizing every detail and looking deeper, under her skin, behind her eyes, deeper still, as if he might judge the truth of what she was saying.
    “How will you sleep?”
    Her fingers reluctantly left his face. “You’re in my house. In my bed.
    It’s safer that I be out of the house and stay awake, and I can’t explain to you why.”
    It was his turn to frown. “But you’ll talk about this with me tomorrow.”
    She shrugged, not committing to anything and unwilling to lie. What would she say? I might be a psycho? But then, he thought he was one as well. “Good night, Lev. If you need me, I’ll have the kitchen door open.”
    Rikki snapped off the bedroom light and left him. Either he’d drift off or he wouldn’t, but at least he could rest. She dragged a spare blanket from the linen closet and made a fresh pot of coffee for herself before going out onto the porch and settling into the hammock swing. It was her most comfortable chair and she planned to spend the night there.
    It was always cold in the evening and already the fog blanketed the trees and gardens, snaking its way into the yard so she could barely make out her sleepy flowers and shrubbery. She loved the feel of the fog on her skin, those drops of mist that shrouded the night in a wet veil of silver. She snuggled beneath the blanket, pulling in her feet, a little uneasy.
    She put her apprehension down to having a stranger in her house, but still, she couldn’t settle. Twice she walked around the house, wishing she could make up her mind whether or not to get a dog. Airiana loved animals and was always bugging Rikki, and all the others, about getting dogs for 75

    protection. A dog was one more thing for her to worry about if a fire started in the night.
    She sipped at her coffee and looked at all the places she’d studied a thousand times. Vantage points where someone might be able to hide in concealment and spy on her home and family. How paranoid did it make her that she scouted all the areas and visited them regularly to check for signs someone had been watching her? She sighed and kicked at the railing with her bare foot. Very paranoid, but she wasn’t ever going to stop. It was the only way she ever managed to sleep at night.
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Chapter 5
    FLAMES raced up the walls and poured across the ceiling, liquid fire, running like rivers through the house, consuming everything in sight. The roar was loud, angry, and the flames reared back, looking—seeking. The orange and red inferno rolled into giant fiery balls, while wind rushed from wall to wall, fanning the conflagration. Heat filled the rooms, and great black gaping holes appeared in the walls. Chunks fell from the ceiling while the inferno blazed hotter.
    Water! Come to me! Help me. Water!
    Lev woke, gun in his fist, heart pounding, head throbbing, but most of all, his left palm was so painful, it felt like someone had shoved a knife through it. He could hear the sound of water all around him, in the bathroom, the kitchen, outside, even on the roof. He forced himself into a sitting position, wiping at the beads of sweat dotting his forehead with his arm.
    What the hell was going on? The echo of that frightened female voice still reverberated through his mind.
    His brain didn’t feel as fuzzy. He had a whale of a headache, but he could think. His dream . . . No, her dream. Rikki. She was dreaming or, more precisely, having a nightmare, and somehow she was projecting her nightmare to him. He pressed his palm to his leg while he breathed away the last remnants of heat and fire surrounding him.
    Struggling to his feet, he managed to stagger into the bathroom and turn off both the shower and the sink. The basin had filled up, and water had run onto the floor, so he dropped a towel on the mess and went on through toward the kitchen. The sound of water pulled at him again as he went