Chasing Memories: The Forevermore Series, Book 2 (13 page)

Chapter Twenty-One

Lucas knocked at the front door and waited. An eternity seemed to pass before anyone came to answer. He wanted—no, needed—to find out what India remembered. Finally, the door opened, and a tall, middle-aged, slender woman with short, curly blonde hair stood before them.

“Lucas!” The woman reached out and threw her arms around him.

He smiled. “Hello, Alaina. It’s good to see you again.”

“You, too. It’s been much too long. Oh, just look at you. You’re as handsome as ever, I must say.” She ran a soft hand over his five o’clock shadow—after a day of traveling he needed a shave—then eased away and gestured for them to come in.

He lifted the suitcases and walked into the entryway. For a moment he only stood there, then he looked around. Nothing had changed since he’d been here last. The same abstract painting hung on the same white, sterile wall to the left of the front door with a decorative ebony chest of drawers placed below it. A matching bench stood against the opposite wall, and the same tan, oval carpet sat in the center of the gleaming marble floor.

He remembered the last time he’d stood in this very spot. Edward was furious with him for his antics during spring break of his senior year of college. This after one of the entertainment shows had shown a clip on national television from one of the more outrageous parties he’d thrown.

Edward threatened to cut him off if Lucas didn’t clean up his act. Lucas told him to stuff his money up his narrow-minded ass and stormed off. He didn’t want or need his father’s money. As far as he was concerned Edward had never been much of a father to him. He’d been too busy wallowing in misery over losing his wife and had all but ignored the son who’d lost his mother. Edward didn’t have the right to tell him how to live.

Lucas shuddered. He peered over at India. She gave him a reassuring smile, and he relaxed.
It doesn’t matter.
Not anymore. He was a grown man and didn’t need a father, and he sure as hell didn’t need any of Edward’s billions. Lucas had made it on his own.

He didn’t speak to Edward after that defiant act until last night. Not even at Grams’s funeral, and nothing had changed between the two over the last eight years. Edward still viewed Lucas as the insolent party animal he’d been in his youth, at least as far as Lucas could tell, and Lucas still believed Edward didn’t have the right to pass judgment on the way he lived.

But he didn’t want to think about the past anymore. Only one thing mattered right now, and that was keeping India safe. He’d deal with the rest later. “Alaina, I’d like you to meet India Leone.”

Alaina flashed a warm smile and gave India a welcoming hug. “It’s so nice to meet you, India.”

A stunned India offered a tentative smile. “It’s nice to meet you, too.”

“Alaina is my father’s assistant. Has been for the last twenty-five years.” Why she hung around, he wasn’t sure, but Edward was damned lucky she did.

“Do you live here, too?” India asked.

“Not a chance. I have a life outside of work.”

“Much to my father’s chagrin,” Lucas muttered.

“Now, Lucas,” Alaina admonished.

He let out a harsh breath. Why she continued to defend Edward, he didn’t know.

“He’s not the same person he was when you last saw him. He’s changed,” she said.

Not from where Lucas stood. He’d been the same obstinate, distant, inflexible…no.
Not going there.
And he wouldn’t argue with Alaina, either. They’d never agreed on anything when it came to his father. Right now, he needed to talk to India and find out what she’d remembered. “I’d like to get settled and then show India around. I assume we’ll be staying in the guest quarters?”

Alaina shook her head. “You’re not a guest, Lucas. You’re family, and you have a suite of rooms in the family section of the house. You’ll stay there.”

He gave a curt nod and jerked his attention to India. “Follow me.” They took a few steps down the hall, and then Alaina spoke again.

“Will you be joining us for dinner tonight?”

Us?
He stopped and pivoted to face Alaina again. “You and Edward?”

Alaina gave a nervous laugh. “Of course. Who else would I mean?”

His father and Alaina had dinner together? When the hell had that started? As long as Lucas could remember, Edward had been a complete recluse. “My father wants me to join you this evening?” A tiny glimmer of hope beamed inside him.

He snuffed it out. No way could it be true. The Edward he’d spoken to on the phone last night had been remote, aloof, and shown no interest in his son. Hell freezing over seemed a more likely scenario than Edward sharing a table with him.

Color invaded her cheeks. “Um, well…
I
want you to join us.”

Edward wasn’t interested. His stomach clenched, and bile rose in his gut.
No, damn it.
None of it mattered anymore, so why the hell had he let her words get to him? It wasn’t as if he didn’t already know the truth. He straightened his shoulders and looked Alaina in the eye. “We’ll pass, thank you.”

Alaina’s shoulders sagged. “I’ll ask the cook to prepare a meal for you and send it up to your suite.”

“Thank you.” He grabbed India’s hand and strode out of the entryway.

“Are you all right?” India asked in a quiet voice when they reached his suite a few minutes later.

His gaze flew to hers. “I’m fine.”
Damned straight.

She peered up at him, care and concern etched in those gorgeous sapphire eyes. “Talk to me, Lucas.”

“There’s nothing to talk about.” He opened the door and gestured for India to precede him. She brushed by, and he followed her in. “The living room is at the other end of the hallway in front of us. The master is the door halfway down the passage on the right. We’ll put our things in there.”

India nodded but said nothing.

The door to his bedroom stood slightly ajar and he pushed it until it sat wide open. Walking in, he strode to the closet and left the suitcases beside it, then turned to face India. She sat on the edge of the bed, a contemplative expression on her face. “We can unpack later. Right now, I want to talk about what happened outside. You remembered something, didn’t you?”

She nodded, then averted her gaze.

“What did you recall?”

Blazing, weary eyes collided with his. “I had a flashback from the night of the accident.”

His heart started to thud. “Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

Finally, she’d remembered something concrete, a specific recollection tied to that evening. Adrenaline pumped through him, and his pulse rate kicked up a notch. “And?”

“I wasn’t driving.”

India hadn’t been driving. So, how had she wound up in the driver’s seat of Evelyn’s car? He walked over to the bed and knelt in front of her, then took her hands in his. “That’s a good thing, right?”

She wouldn’t look at him. Instead she stared at a spot on the plush taupe carpet below. “I suppose.” India drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I have to admit, a part of me wondered if I’d been responsible for Evelyn’s death.”

“But, you weren’t responsible.”

“No. I thought finally knowing the truth would give me some peace, but it doesn’t. Evelyn still died that night, and I still don’t know why.”

His stomach twisted. Yes, his grandmother had died that night, but the accident wasn’t India’s fault. Not if she wasn’t driving. Even if she was, the car had been forced off the road. He lifted her chin and waited for her gaze to meet his. “Did you cause the accident in any way?”

She shook her head.

“Then you shouldn’t feel guilty.” Lucas meant what he said. He didn’t want India beating herself up over something she had no control over. How could he make her understand? “Why don’t you tell me what you remember and maybe we can make some sense of it together.”

“We’d been forced off the exit by some car that’d been driving too fast.”

Lucas listened as she spoke. Tears leaked from her eyes and her voice shook as she relived the experience. He pulled her into his arms. “Stop. You don’t need to do this.”

She pulled back, swiped the back of her hand across her eyes. “It’s okay. I need to get this out and try to make sense of it.”

“Okay, so you skidded to a stop in the middle of the road. What happened next? How did the car end up over the embankment?”

“I don’t know. That’s the frustrating part. I can’t remember anything else, except Evelyn asking if I was okay.”

His mind whirled. The car stopped before going over the embankment, and Evelyn had been inside the vehicle with India and very much alive.

What the hell happened to change that?

Chapter Twenty-Two

India’s gaze darted around the space. Part of her brain, the half on autopilot that automatically assessed and analyzed an area from an interior designer point of view, took in the prominent masculine décor of the spacious room. Sage-colored walls and oak floors buffed to within an inch of their life. Area carpets lay scattered about the space, picking up the walnut brown of the Danish four-poster bed and dresser. The rest of her mind grappled with everything else.

Equal measures of relief and frustration flooded through her—satisfaction at not having caused the accident, and exasperation for not remembering what had happened to cause Evelyn’s death.

And then there was Lucas. Her heart ached for the little boy who’d lost his mother at such a young age. Worse, his father discarded him—sent him off to boarding school and made him live with his grandmother when classes ended. All these years later, Edward still wanted nothing to do with his only child. She couldn’t imagine how much Edward’s rejection must have hurt.

India threw her arms around him. He stiffened, then clutched at her like a drowning man clinging to a life preserver. His fingers dug into her. She didn’t care. Only wanted to hold him close.

He pulled away. Dropped down on the bed. “What was that for?”

Heat invaded her cheeks. She’d been caught up in the emotions swirling around inside her and had followed her heart. Only she hadn’t told Lucas she loved him, and she wouldn’t. Not now. It was too soon. They’d only just met. She needed time to get used to the idea. All excuses, her brain condemned. To avoid the truth. And the truth was a part of her feared his response to her declaration. If she confessed her love for him, and he didn’t feel the same way about her… India dropped her arms and moved away. “Sorry. I don’t know what came over me.”

She sat beside him on the edge of the bed, close but not touching for several minutes. Neither of them spoke. Finally, Lucas broke the silence. “What triggered your memory?”

“The rose you gave me.”

His brows furrowed. “How so?”

“The smell of the bloom, when I inhaled it. The same scent filled the car right after we hit the tree…Evelyn’s bouquet of roses,” she whispered.

“I don’t understand.”

She faced him and tucked one foot under her bottom while her other leg hung off the edge of the bed. “Evelyn brought a lovely bouquet of yellow roses with her when she arrived at the office on the day of the accident. I remember admiring them.” The scene floated into her mind. “I’d been waiting for her to arrive. She asked me to meet her that morning to do a final walk-through before the closing.”

Lucas drew in a sharp breath. “You were at the Young building on the day of the accident?”

She frowned. “Yes. Why do you ask?”

He shook his head. “Forget it. It’s not important.”

She cast a curious glance in his direction. Why would he ask the question, especially after she’d told him she was there? And why slough it off as unimportant when she called him on it? “Anyway, Evelyn arrived just before noon and had this lovely bouquet of roses with her. I asked where she’d gotten them, and she told me they were an unexpected gift. A congratulations present for closing the deal on the Young building that morning. She’d brought the bouquet with her when we left that evening.

“She offered to give me a ride home as my car was in the shop.” India drew in a breath as another piece of the puzzle fell into place. “That’s why I was with her. I dropped my car off for some repairs I needed to have done on my way into the city that morning. One of the employees gave me a ride to work and I’d planned to take a cab to pick it up on my way home, but the mechanic had to order a part and wouldn’t have it ready for a few days. Evelyn offered to give me a ride as it was on her way. She had plans to meet someone near where I lived.”

Lucas stared at her his eyes blazing. “I didn’t know Evelyn had been planning to sell the building. She never mentioned it.”

“I’m surprised, especially since she spoke to you about me and the renovations I’d done.” He sent her a “you’re-not-making-any-sense” expression and India laughed. “Right. You probably have no idea what I’m talking about. Evelyn hired me to remodel the Young building with the intent to sell the place, which is why I’m surprised she spoke to you about me and the renovations, but never mentioned her plan to sell.”

“Did she ever tell you why she wanted to get rid of the place?”

India nodded. “She planned to sell her real estate company and retire.”

Lucas smiled. “I’m surprised. The woman had loads of energy. I’d never have guessed she’d planned to stop working.”

“Maybe she didn’t want you to know. How much business did you two conduct with each other?”

“Enough.” His eyes darkened and he sucked in a shaky breath. “Too bad she didn’t live long enough to enjoy whatever plans she’d made.”

India shuddered. “Yes.” If only she could remember everything from that evening. Maybe then she’d understand how the car careened over the embankment and why Evelyn was found dead on the side of the road. She’d been in the car with her. Had she gotten out? Lord, none of it made any sense.
There wasn’t anyone around when we finally stopped moving.

Lucas gave her a quick kiss on the mouth, then laughed at her startled expression. “I wish I was inside your head with you,” he said. “Then maybe I’d understand what you’re talking about.”

“What do you mean?”

“You said there wasn’t anyone else around.”

India didn’t realize she’d spoken part of her thought aloud. “Sorry. The police told me Evelyn was found at the edge of the road and I’ve been trying to figure out how, why and when she’d have gotten out of the vehicle, and how the car could have gone over the edge of the road. I don’t understand, unless…”

“Unless what?”

“Someone else came along and hit us.”

Lucas’s face drained of color. “I saw another car.”

India gasped. “What?”

He stood and paced back and forth in front of the bed. “A car came barreling down the road toward me that night. I had to swerve to avoid hitting it. I tried to get the plate number, but it disappeared before I could. A minute or two later, I found…”

“Evelyn.”

“Yes. I didn’t make any connection at the time, but after what you’ve told me, it’s possible that car could have hit you. It must have, given the timing.”

“What do you remember about the vehicle?”

His head tilted to the side as if considering her words. He stayed silent for long moments, then spoke. “I was surrounded by total darkness. All of a sudden, bright headlights raced toward me. They blinded me for a minute.”

She frowned. “The same thing happened to Evelyn and me.”

Lucas stopped in midstride and faced her. “It did?”

India clenched the comforter atop the bed in her hands. The smooth, silky softness seemed to calm the chaotic thoughts whirling around in her head. “Yes. Only the car came from behind, and then cut into our lane.

“Evelyn swerved to the side of the road, but the other vehicle kept coming, as if they hadn’t seen us. They almost hit us, but Evelyn sped up and avoided the collision.”

India frowned as another memory surfaced. “We took the next exit. I told you earlier that we’d been forced to get off the highway, but I was wrong about that part. Evelyn took the next exit believing the other driver would continue on the highway, but they followed us. Lucas, do you think it could have been the same car you saw?”

He nodded.

The breath whooshed out of her. Someone hit them. Why didn’t they stop to make sure she and Evelyn were all right?

The wall tumbling down while she and Evelyn stood talking slammed into her mind. They could have died if the beams had landed on top of them, would have if she hadn’t caught the slight shift of one of the supports out of the corner of her eye and reacted quickly to get them both out of the way. The scaffolding incident had been another near miss, but could have been much worse.

Now Evelyn was dead. Oh dear Lord.
Is someone trying to murder me, too?