MemoriesofParadise (14 page)

Why does it sound like our angel has been sexually abused?
Clay looked at Gunter, his fists clenching at his sides.

If she was a young female in Paradise prior to Adam taking over, she was most likely abused repeatedly.
Gunter sat down, put his head in his hands, and scrubbed his face.
We should have been there for her.

Yes, they should have been there. However, Clay had been serving as a Ranger and Gunter had been helping Adam make plans to take control of Paradise.
Perhaps we should concentrate on protecting her now that she’s returned.
If she even
was
a shifter from Paradise.

“Mom!” Holly stood and trotted over to her mother when the bathroom door opened. “We’re safe here…for now.”

“I—I know, sweetheart.” She hugged Holly and kissed her on the forehead. “I do feel safe here. I wish we could stay.”

Clay looked at the bag of pastries they’d gotten at the diner along with the glass of chocolate milk and three cups of coffee. “Why don’t we get moving and eat breakfast on the way to Mason?” If they stayed here in this room, with her scent surrounding them, both of them would have a difficult time staying away from her, daughter or no.

Chapter Twenty-four

Riana frowned on their way back to the lodge. Mason wasn’t what she expected at all. She’d expected to get the same feelings of déjà vu there that she’d gotten in Paradise, but she hadn’t.

“It looks like we’re going to get back in time to take you to Spring Fest,” Gunter said from the front seat.

“Spring fest?” Holly asked, leaning forward in her seat.

“It’s a carnival we have every spring to celebrate the return of the sun and rebirth of the growing season.” Clay turned to face them with a smile. “The entire town will be there most of the day and half of the evening.”

“Can we go?” Holly practically bounced in her seat.

Riana tried not to smile at her antics. It had been years since she took her daughter anywhere even resembling a carnival or amusement park.

“Can we, Mom?”

“I suppose,” Riana said with a sigh, pretending that she didn’t really want to go. What else could she do? For the last several years, she had been less than fair with her daughter, dragging her from one town to the next on little more than a whim. “It’s about time you got to have some fun for a change.” She squeezed her daughter’s hand.

Since the men insisted on paying for their new wardrobes, she would use some of the money she should have spent on making a few of her daughter’s dreams come true today.

“Awesome!” Holly continued to bounce up and down. “I’ve never been to a carnival before.”

“Then it’s good that this is your first.” Clay grinned back at them. “It’s the largest carnival I’ve ever been to and I’ve been all over the world. It will stay in town for three days, but today is the day when everyone from the town will attend. The…mayor will be there with his family to welcome all of the newcomers to Paradise.”

“Do you get a lot of newcomers?” Riana shifted her gaze from Gunter to Clay.

“Not a lot, but we’ve had several over the last year. We might even see the other woman from the plane there, depending on the speed of her recovery.”

The two men looked at each other. It was almost as though they could speak to each other without words.

Riana had heard about things like that—how people who knew each other well could seem to communicate without speaking. She’d always wondered what it would be like to know someone like that, to be such good friends with somebody where she would know what they were thinking just by a look or expression.

Not long after they turned onto the road that led to Paradise, Riana felt strange. Her heart raced and her palms began to sweat. She wiped her hands on her jean-clad thighs and studied her daughter. Holly didn’t look the least uncomfortable, yet here she sat, fear gripping her as though monsters lurked in the woods waiting to devour them.

She took a deep breath and looked at the two men in the front seat and realized that they felt nothing either. Was she the only one?

Riana stared out through the window and tried to see what evil lurked in the forest, but could see nothing. If Holly felt nothing and the men didn’t react, perhaps this thing she felt was nothing more than her imagination.

Perhaps she should just ignore what she felt. Ever since she’d met the two men, she had the feeling of being cocooned in safety as though someone took a thick blanket of protection and wrapped it around her. Even with the feeling of evil bearing down on the SUV, she wasn’t terrified as she thought she should be.

A glance at Holly had her wondering how many more times her daughter would go with her when she got her feelings. In a few years, Holly would be an adult. A few years after that, she could have a career, or be married. Then what?

She stared down at the town gathered in a large field. Carnival rides and snack stands peppered several acres while the townsfolk and probably half of Mason socialized.

Paradise certainly appeared as though it could live up to its name. She returned her gaze to the two men in the front seat and wondered if they were as serious about her staying as they claimed.

Not once since she woke up all those years ago had she felt this safe. Not once had she ever felt the desire to stay in a town when her instincts screamed at her to run. If she didn’t want to leave Holly somewhere and never see her daughter again, perhaps it was time she settled down and grew some roots.

Closing her eyes, Riana wondered if she could stay here. Even if the two men would have her—and it was a decadent thought. Would the townsfolk welcome a threesome relationship as the men claimed they would?

Riana wrung her hands as she sat silently making her decision. Mason was larger than Paradise. Perhaps, if she could find someone to design a website for her, she could stay here and sell her potions and lotions via the internet.

Shaking her head, Riana wondered if she was even sane anymore or if she should have herself committed before she made a horrible mistake that would harm Holly. What was she thinking? Could she really stay in this town and have an affair with two men at the same time? Did she really have the guts for that? After running from some invisible terror all of these years, she would have to say no. Yet, the idea appealed to her.

She supposed it didn’t hurt that she literally burned for the two men in the front seat. Whatever was wrong with her, Riana felt it on a visceral level and she didn’t know how to make it stop.

Gunter parked the SUV in the field next to the carnival. They had to walk a bit because the carnival was apparently a huge deal. If she had to guess, Riana would say that a good portion of the residents of both towns were here having a blast.

Riana slid out of the backseat when Clay opened her door. The scent of the carnival hit her like a thick wall of sounds and smells. The sickening sweet aroma of cotton candy reached her and had her wrinkling her nose. Other smells such as popcorn and Italian sausage with peppers and onions had her closing her eyes with something akin to bliss.

She’d always loved the smell of a fair. She smiled as she envisioned a tall man with a redheaded woman at his side. There were three girls with them…well, four including her. They stood near a small carnival, with the scent of sausage and pastries surrounding them. The three little girls laughed. One of them looked up at her and smiled.
“What do
you
want—”
Riana saw the little girl say a name. She was sure the girl said a name, but there was no volume. It was as though someone or something muted the girl’s voice. What name had she been about to say? Whatever it had been, it wasn’t Riana.

Holly bounced up to her, her face alight with happiness. “Can we get something to eat and then go on a few rides?”

It was too difficult and possibly too painful to ignore the pleading expression on her daughter’s face in the shadow of that familiar, yet painful, scene. It would do little good to remind Holly that they had eaten in Mason. Besides, she could feel her own stomach growling at the tantalizing aroma of carnival food. She had always loved carnival food when she went to one with her family her mom and dad had always—

“Damn!” Riana stopped walking and closed her eyes. She’d gotten another memory and lost it before she had a chance to learn anything of value. What was it about this town that made her remember things—or think she had remembered things? She was almost certain she had never been here before. She was from back east. There was no way a girl from Montana could end up in a ditch in Maine with no memory of how she got there.

People bustled by her as she stood still, staring at nothing in particular.

“What’s wrong?” Gunter asked as he grasped her elbow. “Are you okay?”

“Yes.” She nodded and looked around before adding. “I think I’ve had a memory.” She shook her head. “That’s not entirely true. I’ve had two memories just since we got to the carnival. I think they’re my childhood memories.” What else could they be?

“Hmm…” Gunter led the way through the crowd. “We need to stop by the…mayor’s table and say hello before they leave.”

“Yes. We should head over there now. They’ve been keeping early hours since Nina got pregnant again,” Clay added as he grasped Riana’s elbow when she stumbled over a thick extension cord. “Be careful, love. We don’t want you to get hurt.”

Love? When had he started to think of her as his love? Riana and looked around, nervous. What if these two men
were
the reason she’d been running all of these years? Riana dismissed the idea quickly. Not once had she felt threatened by either of the two men. If anything, they had made her feel cherished. Every moment they spent with her, they were attentive and gentle. Not once had they made her feel uncomfortable. She didn’t think she could say that about any man that she had ever met before. They
did
do one thing that she thought was strange. Why did they always pause before they said the word
mayor
as though they wanted to call the man something else? They continued to follow Gunter through the crowd as he made his way to the mayor’s table. As they approached the table, Riana watched the two strange men sitting on either side of a very beautiful, and pregnant, woman. Was this one of the triads Clay told her about?

Both of the men had dark hair, were handsome and looked very attentive and gentle to the woman who sat between them, wearing a serene expression. Every so often, one would lean over and kiss her cheek or neck. They would whisper in her ear, causing her to shiver and laugh.

The sound of her laughter brought another vision into Riana’s mind. It was so like another’s laugh. The woman with the red hair held her hand out to Riana.
Come along—
Again, silence cut off the sound of the name. What name did the people in her visions use?

Riana stopped, her knees buckling. Clay caught her up in his arms as the crowd parted before them. He carried her to the table where the triad sat.

“Alpha,” Clay began as he faced the three before them. He stood straight, his bearing as though he addressed a superior officer or someone of the nobility. “I would introduce you to Ms. O’Connor. She was on the plane that crashed yesterday.” He looked around as though nervous. He hiked her up in his arms, jostling her a bit.

“Will you please put me down?” Riana wiggled. “I’m fine. I just…I just had another memory and it startled me.” It wasn’t the whole truth, but it was enough.

With a small sigh, Clay bent and set her on her feet. “If you fall again, I will not set you anywhere but in a chair.”

Her face burning, Riana turned to face the two men and the woman. She didn’t know what to say to them. Her head spun, her heart pounded in her chest and for some reason, she felt as though these three had the power to turn her world upside down.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ms. O’Connor,” both of the men spoke at the same time as they stood to greet her. They were both tall, though not as tall as Gunter or Clay, but then Riana hadn’t seen many men as tall as the men who had sworn to protect her.

“Welcome to Paradise,” the thinner of the two said. He smiled, drawing attention to his slightly crooked nose. “I’m Adam Greer.” He gestured to the other man and the woman. “This is Nick Hill and my wife, Amenina.”

“Amenina?” Riana gripped the table when her knees turned to mush. “I know that name.” She turned to Gunter, meeting his gaze. As far as she knew, she had never heard that name before. It was an unusual name. She was sure she would remember…unless it was locked away in her lost memories. “Why do I know that name?”

Smiling, the woman stood and gestured to the end of the table where her twin sat. Both of the women were beautiful with hazel eyes. Their auburn hair was almost the same shade as Holly’s and Riana wondered if there was a correlation. “Perhaps you’ve met my twin. Her name is similar.” She turned to the woman and called, “Annamina. You’ve recently returned to Paradise, do you remember knowing a woman by the name of O’Connor?”

The woman glanced Riana’s way with a smile. “No. I’m sorry. I don’t know anyone by that name.” Her smile faded as their gazes met. “But she does look familiar.”

“Perhaps,” Amenina added, “if you don’t know my twin, you might know our other sister, Kaylana.” She pointed to a blonde at another table close by.