Never Tell

He walked her to the Mercedes, where a valet held the door open. “About that pin, Mom,” he said. She stopped, studying him with a questioning look. “Is opal your birthstone?”

“Why, no. Why do you ask?”

“Oops.” He grinned at her, hoping to lighten her mood. “Because I’ve heard that you should beware of owning opals if they’re not your birthstone. They’re bad luck. But since yours are a legacy from the past and it’s no fault of yours that you own these, their power is kaput.”

He had failed to lighten her mood he realized as he stood at the curb waiting for the valet to seat her in the Mercedes. She looked straight ahead as Morton pulled abruptly away, but it was a night with a full moon and when the car turned the corner, Hunter saw her face. Even with the tinted windows, he could see that it was ghostly pale.

“Okay, cut the bullshit and tell me what that was all about.” At the wheel of his Nissan, Jason shot across three lanes of Southwest Freeway traffic and settled in at a nice, steady seventy miles an hour pace before adding, “And I’m not some dude who’s got the hots for you, sugar, so don’t give me that line about not eating and your stress level knocking you to your knees. I’ve seen you when stress is bad and I’ve seen you when life itself is bad. This was one of the latter, not the former.”

Erica sighed and fixed her gaze on the rear of an eighteen-wheeler just ahead of them. “I don’t know what it was, Jace. I just took a look at that piece of jewelry and it felt as if I was suddenly hurled back in time. A horrible time. I thought I was going to be sick.”

“Maybe it was the shrimp.”

“I was so busy networking, as you instructed, that I really didn’t eat anything.”

“No kidding?”

“Cross my heart.”

Jason drummed his fingers on the steering wheel, thinking. “Maybe there is something about the jewelry.”

“But what? I’ve never seen Mrs. Trask in my life. Her face was totally unfamiliar. Mr. Trask, yes. Everybody’s seen him from time to time. You’d have to live in a time warp in Houston not to. But I barely remember even looking at him, I was so busy trying to keep from passing out with horror.”

“You say you felt as if you were hurled back in time. What does that mean?”

“I don’t know. You remember reading about Alice falling down the rabbit hole? Well, that’s the best way I can describe what happened. Except that I didn’t see anything or remember anything. All I felt was…emotion. I was terrified, Jace.” She bent her head in her hands. “Those people must think I’m crazy.”

“When you told Hunter and me about it, you said it felt like a déjà vu moment. A psychiatrist might suggest there’s something buried in your memory bank and the pin was like a key unlocking it.”

“Oh, please, Jason. That only happens in the movies. I wasn’t an abused child, I didn’t witness my parents doing something heinous, and my nanny didn’t lock me in a dark closet. There’s nothing traumatic in my childhood.”

“What about the trauma nine years ago? Seems to me that qualifies as something you’ve buried in your memory bank.”

For a beat or two, she couldn’t speak. The pain of it could still almost crush her. And Jason was the only person in her world who would dare remind her. “I don’t see how a silly pin could have anything to do with that,” she said quietly. Then, turning her face away, she closed her eyes, ending their conversation.

That night, she had the dream again. But this time, she wasn’t wandering aimlessly, but moving through a huge room, smoke-filled and crowded. The hotel ballroom? As she walked, people moved about, talking and laughing. She heard snatches of music, the clink of glasses, smatterings of applause. She glimpsed faces and felt people turning to watch her making her way toward…whatever it was. And with the familiar heady anticipation building inside her, she moved toward that something—something wonderful. Now she saw Jason, who seemed to urge her on, but when she wanted him to come with her, he simply melted into the crowd as if he had never been there. Then she saw Hunter standing in the arched doorway, smiling. Beyond him was his mother wielding a pair of scissors, cutting her new jacket into shreds. She wanted to tell Hunter to stop her, but now he was disappearing, too, swallowed up in nothingness just as Jason had done. And then, suddenly, the promised joy was gone and she felt only deep disappointment and pain. Terrible, terrible pain.

She woke up to find herself sitting straight up in bed with Willie pressed against her, purring. She buried her face in her hands and found it wet with tears. Shakily, she wiped them away and drew in a long, shuddering breath. She was suddenly cold, bone cold. She reached for Willie and lay back, pulled the blanket up and covered them both. The cat was warm. Holding him close calmed her, helped to banish the dream. In a minute, she turned to look at the clock on the bedside table: 3:10 a.m. Hours yet until daylight. She was never able to sleep after the dream, anyway. She pushed the covers aside, kissed Willie on the top of his head and got up.

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