Lightning Strikes (The Almeida Brothers Trilogy #3) (12 page)

“We were in the heat of the moment—”

“Yes.  Heat.”  She snapped a finger at him. “That’s… completely it.  It was the heat of the moment, and now, we’re clear again.”

“Totally clear.”

They nodded together, spines a little too straight, eyes a little too unwavering as they stared forward, fighting to avoid each other’s gazes.

Nina broke, jamming her eyes shut.  “I
knew
you tried to kiss me back on the roof of that train.  Ooh…” She made a sound like she was in pain.  “
Ooh
, I knew it.”

“Will you lower your voice?  You’re going to draw attention to us.  And I’m not having this conversation.”

They continued facing forward, backs arched and voices hushed.

Nina continued shaking her head.  “I knew it.  You’d barely had both your feet planted on
this
train before you were pushing your tongue in my mouth for the
second
time today.”

“You kissed me this time.”

Her mouth dropped so wide it nearly hit the floor.  Her big eyes flew to the corners of her eye sockets, but she didn’t turn to him or look at him.  “You unbelievable narcissist.  I have never in my life met such a textbook case.  They should do an extensive study on you.”

“Did you…” Jack’s face grew serious, eyes forward.  “Did you really spend your last dime on that room last night?”

She turned to him and studied his profile, eyes zooming to his lips.

She nodded.

His eyes found hers.  “I’ll pay you back.”

“With the money you can’t get, from the family you won’t call?”

“We’ll be back in New York eventually.  Even if the God’s of fate do drop us there with a few less limbs than we left with—which is appearing more and more likely by the minute.  Once we arrive, I’ll find the nearest bank and—”

“Demand they give you money with no proof of ID?”

“I’ll take you to my place and write you a check.”

“You don’t have to pay me back.”  She shrugged.  “You’re a completely impossible human being, but I’ll never forget what you did for me on that plane.  And with those Nazis.  It’s just a hundred dollars.  I could make that back with my eyes closed.”

He nodded toward her bag.  “What do you need all that money for anyway?”

Something in her eyes changed.  Her face fell.

Jack squinted in question.

“I’m not sure you realize what just happened here, Aries.  You just asked me a very personal question.”

Jack licked his lips and looked away with a shy smile.

“
Unprovoked.” 
Her own smile broadened.
“
Without even a pinch of irony
. 
If I’m not completely crazy, it seemed almost…
Genuine!
Are you feeling okay this afternoon?  Has all this physical exertion we’ve been subjected to affected the oxygen levels in your brain?”

His cheeks brightened.  “I don’t think it’s unreasonable for me to wonder why you’re carrying so much money.  Or are you really
that
desperate to get us both killed before this madness is over?  You’ve got at least ten thousand dollars on you.”

“Nine thousand nine hundred, actually.  Remember?  Hotel room.”

“Are you a drug dealer?” Jack’s smile grew along with hers.  “A mafia princess? A problem gambler?  That would certainly explain all the odd jobs you’ve held.  Help me understand, Nina, because in my years as a
lawyer…”

She rolled her eyes.

“I learned pretty quickly that people carrying around that kind of money, at any time, for any reason, are never carrying it around for something
positive.”

“Yeah.”  She nodded before tilting her head with a squint.  “I definitely liked you better when you were totally ignoring me.”

His smile grew; slow and steady, and neither of them realized they were leaning in until their lips met.  Both of them held on, letting their eyes flutter shut and their lungs fill until they had to pull back, lips smacking in their retreat, hooded eyes opening slowly.

“You.  Are…” He smirked.  “Dangerous.”

“Funny, I was just about to say the same thing about you.  Haven’t even known you for two days, and I’m already tied up in all the ways I… all the things I…”

Jack watched her with rapture, hanging on to every word.  “All the things you what?”

She leaned in and took his top lip in a strong kiss, moaning.  She pulled away for one hushed moment before leaning across the seat and deepening the embrace, her groan meeting his as he cupped her ass and leaned back, nearly pulling her on top of him.

They split apart at the sound of a voice, breathing in relief when they realized it was just the train’s P.A. System, and not a conductor who’d busted them.

As soon as they were sighing in relief, however, they were back to holding their breath in shock.

“Good morning from Amtrak, ladies and gentleman.  Along to the left, you’ll see the beautiful Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  We’re slated to arrive in Los Angeles in about, oh… twenty-seven hours.  Sit back and relax…”

Nina and Jack shared a horrified look.

“Los Angeles?” Nina whispered.

“
Twenty-seven
hours?”  Jack needed a full minute to process this information, and then he pointed at her, hardly able to mask a smile.  “This is you.  This is Hurricane Nina.”

“You’re the most superstitious lawyer I ever met. How dare you blame this on me?  We needed a train, and we found one.  Is it going in the wrong direction?  Yes.  But at least we’ve got a comfortable seat and some air conditioning.  Twenty-seven hours will give that hurricane plenty of time to pass by the time we get to Los Angeles; I’ll pay for our plane tickets, and you can reimburse me once we get home.”

“And what about the tickets we haven’t purchased on this train?”

“If the conductor notices us, I have cash to pay him off.  No big deal.”

“No big deal.  Right.  Because the God’s haven’t already made it crystal clear that they’re out to destroy us.”  His eyes fell to her lips.  “Oh, I’ve got to get the
hell
away from you.”

Thankfully, Nina and Jack had not been met by the train conductor, and as they limped off of the Amtrak twenty-seven hours later, they weren’t as cranky as they’d imagined they’d be.  The excitement of the last few days had left them both more tired than they realized, and they’d slept nearly the whole ride.

“I can’t believe we’re in California.  What is happening?” Jack covered his eyes with his hands, still stumbling sleepily.  He followed Nina out of the train station and into the bright Los Angeles sun.  “You know you’re from New York when even the L.A. air smells like a mountain spring.”

Nina turned to him and caught his eyes over her shoulder.

“This feels like a dream.”  Jack held her gaze, unable to stop the corner of his mouth from lifting.  “I keep waiting to wake up.”

Nina’s eyes fell, and she pushed her hair behind her ear.  “I just have to make a quick phone call; then we’ll get a cab to the airport.”

Jack played his fingers together, nodding softly.  “You okay?”

“I’m fine, just need a second.”  Nina turned away from him and began heading into the middle of the parking lot.  Once she had her back to him, she allowed a frown to hit her face, breathing deep as she dialed a number and brought the phone to her ear.

He answered on the first ring.  “Yet again, I’m the one who gets served with a restraining order, yet
you’re
calling
me
.”

Nina came to a quick stop.  “Why did I just get a voicemail from my lawyer telling me you’re trying to move up the trial?”

“Uh…” He laughed.  “Because I am.  The hurricane has passed.  It’s game on, Nina.”

Her nostrils flared.  She tilted her head up to the sun and let the heat burn her face.  “Why are you so desperate to hurt me?  Honestly.  This isn’t right.  I need that money to protect him.  All I ever wanted to do was protect him, unlike you.”

Silence came through the phone.

She nearly screamed.  “You know damn well I was just in a plane crash two days ago, and it’s going to take me a while to get home.  Are you really going to push up the trial in hopes that I’ll miss it?  Are you really going to play this dirty?   Judge Perkins is a busy woman, you know.  She’s not just going to uproot her life, and her schedule, to suit you.”

“Won’t she?  Because I’m pretty sure my lawyer just got off the phone with her calendar clerk five minutes ago.  Agreed to look into moving the trial up.”

“Well, I’m going to be home tomorrow, anyway, so your dirty tricks aren’t going to get you anywhere, Anthony.  And please believe that I will never forget this.  I will never forget how ugly you’ve been.”

Another long silence, and when he spoke again, his voice shook.  “Fuck, Nina, you don’t want to be married to me anymore.  Right?  I don’t want to be married to you.”

“I want my
money.”

“Half of that money is mine—”

Nina ended the call, fearful that if she allowed herself to hear any more, she might smash it on the ground at her feet, and it wasn’t her phone to smash.

She pressed the phone to her temple and focused on her breathing.  Only when she was no longer feeling blindly homicidal did she turn on her heel.

Jack had kept his distance, nodding to her when their eyes met across the lot.

And she smiled.

He was pulled in, taking slow steps toward her until they were within reaching distance.

Nina searched his eyes, and she nodded.  “Let’s go home.”

***

After hitching a ride on a car rental shuttle, Jack and Nina stepped onto the sidewalk outside of Los Angeles International Airport.

“I don’t give a damn where it’s going, or if I have to pay for it, but we’re getting on the next flight out of here to anywhere on the east coast,” Nina said.  “And then we’ll figure it out from there.”

Jack nodded.  “And I’ll repay you the moment we land in New York.”

“Deal,” she said, unable to hide the warm shiver that raced through her body when he set his hand on the small of her back.  “This is it, Jack.  We’re going home.  Nothing can stop us now.”

They followed the colorful signs overhead directing them to the ticketing area, rehearsing the sob story they were planning to guilt the gate agent with.   As they turned a corner, they were met with a sight that stopped them both in their tracks.

It took a moment for them to process the meaning of the chaotic sight that greeted them, and once they did, silent denial followed.

Jack was the first to break, sputtering out a strained laugh. It instantly became full on, and his mouth dropped open as he burst into hysterical laughter, bent over at the hip, squeezing his eyes shut.

Nina attempted to remain stunned, angry, and in complete disbelief.  But even she couldn’t help it. Her shoulders shook.  Her lips vibrated.  Soon, she was overcome with deep laughter, the kind that tightened the muscles in her stomach to the point of pain.  She set her hand on Jack’s back when her laughter grew stronger, and the pain in her gut became too much.

For several minutes they laughed, falling all over each other as tears came to their eyes from the sheer hilarity of it all.

Across the lot, in front of the sliding glass doors of LAX’s Ticketing area, hundreds of people, all races, and creeds, marched in a circle.  They blocked every entry, jamming large signs in the air, chanting for fairness, for equality, for a
break
.

A break.  The same thing Jack and Nina had been chasing for the last three days.

As their laughter evolved to sniggers, basking in the glory of their relentless bad luck, Jack and Nina didn’t even notice a Latino shuttle driver tossing a cigarette on his way back to the departure area.

“Air traffic control,” he informed them.  “All 17,000 of ‘em.  On strike.  Hasn’t happened since ’81.”

Jack and Nina watched him pass with tear filled eyes, the chants of the air traffic controllers growing louder and louder in the distance.

“Higher wages, shorter workweek, better pension!”
they chanted.
  “Higher wages, shorter workweek, better pension!”

Still wiping their tears, Jack and Nina were barely able to collect themselves before one of them burst into laughter again—which prompted the other to do the same.

“Wait,” Nina slapped Jack’s arm.  “Air traffic controllers are government workers.  They can’t go on strike.  This is a danger to our national security.”

Jack shrugged his shoulders in a very ‘
whatta ‘ya gonna do?’
fashion while motioning toward the scene.

Nina followed his finger, took in the sight of the air traffic controllers marching once more, and then threw her head back.  This laugh was so ferocious it nearly bent her spine in half.  Jack had to grab her arm to keep her from falling backward.

The Latino driver looked over his shoulder, setting a foot inside the bus with a logo for The Ritz Carlton Marina Del Rey emblazoned to the side.  “I guess the stress of the hurricane back East was the last straw.  One airport stops, and it’s like a domino effect.”   He squinted at them, taking in their black eyes, disheveled clothes and grimy skin.  “You guys look like hell.”

That only made them laugh harder.

The driver nodded into the truck.  “We still got rooms at The Ritz.  Get in and I’ll get you there before word spreads and prices skyrocket.”

Nina raised an eyebrow.  “Because the prices at The Ritz are so reasonable otherwise?”  The moment the words left her mouth, she wheezed out another hoarse laugh, bending over at the hip when the hysterics took over her body once more.  “Ouch,” she cried, covering her stomach with her hands when it became too much.

Then, just like that, she shot up, eyes wide.

Jack jolted at her sudden about face, and he frowned when she grabbed his arm and yanked.

“I have an idea,” she said.

“Oh
hell
no.”  Jack shook his head.

“Let’s go, Aries.  On the bus,” she demanded, dragging him after her.

***

After accepting the ride on the hotel shuttle, they found themselves bouncing around in the last row of the bus as the young Latino, who believed he was an extra in a Fast and Furious movie, flew through the LA streets.

“Of course air traffic control is on strike for the first time in
thirty
years
.
  Of course they are.  I have no idea how we convinced ourselves it could be any other way,” Jack said, his own voice laced with amusement as he placed a hand across the back of her seat.  “Goddamn it, Nina, this is your fault.”  He waited for her eyes to meet his.  “I have got to get the hell away from you.”

“Here are our options,” Nina said.  “We can wait the air traffic controllers out—”

“Which could take days, weeks,
months,”
Jack said.

“Months?
It’s a countrywide strike.  No way it’s going to take months.  Once enough money starts disappearing, the government is either going to give them what they want to get them back to work, or hire new people to do their jobs for them.  I give it a week, tops.  Any longer and our country would fall apart.”

“Let’s just get on another train,” Jack said.

Nina threw her head back with a groan.  “I can’t, Jack.  I can’t.  I can’t get on another train.  I think I’m traumatized for life.”

He had to nod.  “I feel you.”

She sighed and gave him a look.

He shook his head.  “No, Nina.”

“Why can’t you just call your damn family?”

“Even if I could call them, there’s nothing they could do for us anyway.” He lowered his voice.  “Money can’t fix this.  You’ve got ten grand on you right now, and it has done us
no good
.  Money is not going to save us from this.”

“From what?”

“From you! Hurricane Nina, and the insane karmic retribution that follows you everywhere you go.  I’m really starting to wonder if you slaughtered puppies in your former life.”

“Did you ever stop to think that it’s
your
karmic retribution we’re suffering from, not mine?”

Jack searched her eyes.  His gaze went to her lips, and when he leaned down and covered them with his, she forgot what they were arguing about.  She moaned against his moan, encircling his neck with her arms as he did the same to her waist.  Their embrace deepened until they forgot they were on a bus, forgot what they were fighting about, forgot any and everything that didn’t involve tasting each other’s unique flavor, sweeping tongues languidly.

Nina was the first to pull back, brushing the tip of her nose against his.  “If I’m such a karmic curse,” she whispered.  “You should make a run for it right now.  You should be getting as far away from me as humanly possible.”

Jack clawed at the hem of her top, keeping his eyes lowered as he licked his lips.  “Don’t you think I would’ve done that by now… if I had any idea how?”

Nina couldn’t fight her grin.  “We might never make it back to New York.”

“So be it.”

***

As the shuttle came to a stop in front of The Ritz in Marina Del Rey, Jack and Nina said goodbye to the driver.

The moment they both hit the sidewalk, breathing in the ocean air, the doorman smiled at them and tilted his hat, pulling open the grand door to the lobby.

Jack went to step forward but froze when Nina entwined their fingers.

He looked to the side and met her eyes, frowning as she pulled him away from the hotel and in the opposite direction.  They circled around the shuttle, even as the confused driver hollered after them that they were going the wrong way.

It wasn’t until Nina was pulling Jack across a quiet street that was lined with palm trees, laughing the whole way, that he finally pulled back on her hand.

“No, doll, The Ritz is that way.” Jack pointed to the doorman, who was still gazing at them in confusion from hundreds of feet away.  “The Egyptian sheets are that way.  The shower is that way.”

“You know damn well we’re not sleeping at The Ritz tonight, Jack.  We were just hitching a ride.”  She said, giving him a devious look.  “I have a plan.”

“I’m beginning to understand that disaster is
always
near whenever those four words leave your mouth,” Jack said, his eyes going straight to that pretty mouth.  He didn’t even realize he was leaning in to sneak a taste until she’d stepped away, causing him to stumble after her when she tugged his arm.

“Where are you taking me?” Jack demanded.  As he allowed her to lead him away, watching her ass bouncing in those tight leather pants, he realized it didn’t matter.  He would follow that ass to the ends of the Earth and back again, even if it was an ass that he was convinced was going to get him killed.

His mind wandered back to the shoddy hotel room the other morning, waking up with that soft behind pushing up against him.  He thought about that uncomfortable ass train ride, opening his eyes to the feel of her soft curls brushing against his cheek, and he swallowed back a deep sigh.  A man should be so lucky to wake up to her everyday.  She was clearly insane, yes, but he couldn’t deny she was breathtaking.