Dream Weaver (Dream Weaver #1) (12 page)

             
“How do you know? Look at my room. He went through my drawers. He touched my stuff.” The idea of that bastard’s hands on my things terrified me nearly as much as his hands on me. “How did he find me?”

             
“Emari,” he took my face between his hands, forced me to look at him. “It wasn’t him, I promise you.”

             
“How do you know?” How could he possibly know when he’d been with me all afternoon?

             
“I just do. Trust me? Please? It wasn’t him.”

             
I leaned into him, and squished the puppy between us. Eddyson protested with a tiny squeak. I set him down and returned to the safety and comfort of Nick’s arms. “But how?”

             
“Trust me. Please. I will tell you as soon as I know for sure, I promise. Okay?”

             
I nodded against his chest. Nick had given me no reason to distrust him, but I felt blind, unable to see the safety and security of the whole picture. Perhaps this was what people meant by blind trust. “You won’t leave, though? There
was
someone here.” Of this, I had no doubt. Eddyson definitely hadn’t made this mess; he only got the blame for it.

             
“I won’t leave you.” He petted my hair and pressed my head to his chest. “I don’t know for sure who, but I will find out. Okay?”

             
“’kay,” I mumbled into his shirt.

             
A quiet rap at the door made me jump as if it were a clash of thunder. Nick hushed me. “I’ll get it. Okay?” I simply nodded and followed him toward the door. Through the leaded glass, another Trooper stood surveying the porch. Nick opened the door. “Can I help you, officer?”

             
“Uh, yeah. Is Emari here?” I recognized the familiar female voice.

             
“Molly?” I peered around Nick’s arm.

             
“Hey, girl. I heard your address over the radio. I wanted to come by and check on you. Make sure everything was okay.”

             
“Yeah. Yeah. It's fine,” I lied, trying to trust Nick.

              Her academy training kicked in and her eyes drifted to Nick. She scanned him from head to toe, and glanced back at me as she assessed the situation. She shifted her weight and narrowed her eyes, unconvinced. No doubt due to the way Nick had angled himself protectively between us, looking suspicious and unfriendly himself. He lifted his hand as though he were going to reach out and touch her, but he pulled it back to scratch his head to cover the movement. He struggled against every muscle in his body, leery of this woman he didn’t know from Eve. Of course, he was in protect-mode. I placed my hand lightly on his arm.

              “I’m so sorry. Molly, this is my, um…this is Nick. Nick, this is Officer Molly, I told you about.”

             
Molly smiled and extended her hand. “Nice to meet you, Nick…” she fished for more info as he took her hand.

             
The tension in his muscles drained away with the touch of her hand. “Benedetti,” he offered politely.

             
“Molly Elliot,” she smiled, and blushed as Nick slipped his other hand over hers.

             
“It's very nice to meet you, Officer Elliot. Thank you for taking such good care of Emari.” Nick released her hand—and whatever memories he had captured to identify her.

             
“Just Molly is fine.” She finally broke free of the captivity of his eyes and turned to me. “So, is everything okay? I heard the alarm went off.”

             
“Yeah, it's fine.” That seemed like the easiest fib to get away with.

             
Nick slipped away to give us some privacy, and scooped Eddy up off the floor. “They think Eddyson got out of his crate somehow and triggered a motion detector.” It wasn’t necessary to concern her with the mail and the condition of my drawers.

             
“Eddyson?”

             
Nick passed the puppy into my waiting arms and I held him out to her. “Eddyson. He’s my new, vicious guard dog.” I caught Nick’s smirk out of the corner of my eye and I shot him a playfully glare. Molly stroked the pup’s warm head and soft floppy ears.

             
“He’s adorable.”

             
“Yeah. Totally vicious.”

             
Molly laughed, her off-duty laugh, not so serious. She stepped closer, and whispered conspiratorially. “Wow! So Nick?” I knew what she was getting at. He was absolutely, undeniably gorgeous.

             
“We’re friends, I guess.”

             
“Friends?” she eyed me. “Since when?”

             
“Slightly longer than you and me,” I smiled, and reached out to squeeze her hand, hoping she would understand the fondness I’d developed for her in this short time.

             
She stepped back, an off-duty grin stretched on her lips. “That was really nice of you to say.”

             
I smiled back at her. “You’ve been a great help, Molly. I really appreciate everything you’ve done for me.” She returned the pressure on my hand. “Can I ask you something?”

             
“Sure. Whatever you like.”

             
“You’re brave. I could ask you anything.” She laughed and I continued. “Um, how old are you, anyway?”

             
“I’ll be twenty-three on Christmas. Why?”

             
“I was just curious. I didn’t think you were much older than me,” I explained.

              Molly and I continued to chat, and I discovered she graduated from Shadle Park High School. Nick wandered around the house, and picked up the mail scattered like fall leaves across the living room. He stopped, completely immobile occasionally to examine an envelope or piece of paper.

             
“So, you’re sure everything’s okay?” Molly asked, after she received a radio call to an accident.

             
“Yeah. It's all good. Nick’s gonna hang with me tonight.” I didn’t think her smile could get any bigger, but it did.

             
“All right, then. You still have my number if you need anything, right?” She slid effortlessly back into cop mode.

             
“Yeah. Like I said, it's all good.”

             
“All right. Take care. Nice to meet you, Nick,” she called over my shoulder and Nick drifted back to my side.

             
“Nice to meet you, Molly. Thanks again for checking in on Em,” he smiled. As he shook her hand again, he lingered longer than normal. When he finally released her she blinked dazedly, but smiled, then turned on her heel with a final ‘good-bye’ and left.

             
“What did you just do?” I accused the moment Molly was out of earshot. Nick shrugged and smiled sheepishly. I glared at him.

             
“Okay. I just wanted to be sure she was who she said she was, that’s all,” he fibbed.

             
“Spit the rest of it, mister. You did something else. I could tell.”

             
“I just made sure she believed that everything was okay…”

             
Nick’s voice distorted and warbled in my head. His face and eyes turned dark and sinister. He stepped toward me, and crushed my arms in his grip. “And I certainly want
her
to believe everything is okay,” he said, his voice villainous and foreboding. The words didn’t compute as Nick’s in my brain. I was suddenly very frightened of my new friend and protector.

              “Em? Emari? Are you all right?” Nick’s voice overflowed with familiar gentleness and concern. His hands braced me as if I might crumple to the floor at any moment. My vision blurred and refocused on his worry-filled eyes. “Are you okay?”

             
I pushed away from him. “I…” I shook my head to clear the cobwebs. Part of me wanted to run screaming from his presence, and part of me knew that it was only my fear. Fear that, somehow, something would eventually take him from me. “It's nothing. I’m just tired. It's been a long day.”

             
“Emi,” he whispered. He pulled me to his chest and wrapped me in the strength and warmth of his arms. “Everything will be okay. I promise. I won’t let anyone hurt you.”

             
Anyone?
“Even you?” The words slipped out before I could stop them. Nick and I both caught our breath at the same moment. “I’m sorry. That was a horrible thing to say.” He was frozen. I grimaced at the wild thrashing of his heart against my cheek. I was so consumed with the fear of him hurting me, I ended up hurting him. I had hurt him so badly my own heart throbbed with self-inflicted wounds. “I’m sorry.” My tears soaked his shirt and I balled the fabric up in my fists, clung to him in case I’d managed to chase him away.

             
He slid away from me and cupped my face in his hands, his face hard with pain. “Emi,” he whispered again. I liked this new endearment. “Did I…”

             
“No. No. It's just me. I just saw—you were—different—in my head—like a dream—for a moment. I just…” I stuttered and stammered trying to explain but couldn’t.

             
“May I?” he asked. I nodded silently under his fingertips and closed my eyes. I felt the growing familiarity of his presence in my head. Then, his body went rigid like every muscle was on high alert. I felt him shift as though he was searching the room. His arms drew me close again, his heart still crashed against my cheek. His muscles quivered with tension.

             
“See? It's just me,” I reassured us both. Nick nodded and smiled, but remained silent, except for the thunderous gallop of his heart.

*              *              *

              Nick stayed with me the remainder of the evening, helped me clean up the rest of the mess. He was reticent and tense, and often glanced out the windows to scan the darkness. Just as often, I found him gazing inward, deep in thought.

             
I couldn’t bring myself to put on the pajamas from my disheveled drawer, not knowing whose hands had been on them. By my own admission, it was a little psychotic. Even so, I was grateful to find my laughing skull fuzzies in the dryer.

              Nick watched TV while I showered. When I was done, I blew dry my hair into spiky wisps, but when I turned off the blow dryer Nick’s voice boomed from the other room, loud and hostile. He was arguing adamantly with someone, perhaps his friend Sabre.

             
“What makes you think it’s
her
they’re after?”

             
“I’m sure!” he seethed. “I did a memoryprint. The signature’s all wrong, what tiny fragment he didn’t wipe.”

             
“I’m staying here. One way or the other, I’m not leaving her alone.”

             
When I opened the bathroom door, Nick quickly ended his call and snapped his phone shut. “Sabre?” I asked.

             
He rolled his eyes. “Yeah.”

             
“Everything okay?”

             
“Yeah.” He caught himself answering too quickly. “Yeah,” he began again with
a
strained smile. “He can just be a pain, sometimes.”

             
“So? You’re staying?” I didn’t really want him to go. Just being here calmed my frazzled nerves. And then there were the dreams.

             
Nick’s cheeks reddened. “Emari, it’s just…I’m sorry. I shouldn’t assume. I thought…whoever was here; you’d be safer if I was with you. Is it okay? If I stay? I’d feel better. I could help you sleep.”

             
I stared at him perplexed. Only last night I had stunned him nearly to death. But that seemed like days ago now. Already addicted to his drug of peace, I wanted him to stay, to bind the night terrors from my sleep.

             
“Can I sleep with my stun gun under my pillow?”

             
“No.”

             
I laughed. “Okay, fine. You can stay. No stun gun.”

             
Nick hardly said a word the rest of the evening. Maybe I wasn’t as forgiven as I hoped. Maybe I hurt him more than I knew—and more than he would admit. Maybe he was tired of me being such a basket case and just didn’t want to hurt my feelings. Maybe whoever had been in my house was far more dangerous than he was letting on. He’d given me his word I was safe, and I trusted him, or wanted to with every fiber of my being.

              When I yawned for the third time, he insisted it was my bedtime. He playfully tugged me off the couch and dragged me, whining in protest, to my room where he held up the covers for me to slide under, then tucked them around me like a child. He placed Eddy next to me, then kicked off his shoes and sat down by my side, leaning on the pillows. I put my head on his chest and closed my eyes. I felt his warm breath on the top of my head, as he nuzzled my hair. “Mmm. You smell good.”