Chapter Nineteen

Collision Course

Nick woke from a fitful sleep, sprawled in the dunes outside Elizabeth Diamond’s beach house, battling a splitting headache and choking on a mouthful of seaweed and sand. In his dream he had been kissing Alex. He hadn’t meant to fall asleep, but all that wine on an empty stomach had numbed his senses until he’d passed out.

He was familiar with Elizabeth’s house. He’d slept in her garage many times, although she’d had no idea he’d been there. He’d used his sketch pad, the one Alex had given him, as a pillow to cushion himself from the chill of the concrete floor, and left his pad and art supplies at Elizabeth’s when he was working at Reed’s. Ever since he’d reconnected with Alex he carried the pad because, for the first time in a long time, he was compelled to draw and paint.

He was stone cold from head to toe and shaking, even though he wore Alex’s husband’s wool suit. The damp suit didn’t offer much protection. He’d wanted to return Mark’s suit, but Alex had insisted he keep it, and now it was ruined.

“He won’t be needing it,” she’d told him, describing her plan to toss all the clothes in Mark’s closet out on the lawn in the rain.

He vaguely recalled Alex had left him to go home. She’d been drunk and more than upset, ranting and raving about killing her husband. That was before she’d kissed him.

He still felt her kiss down to the marrow of his bones, and the thought of that kiss warmed him. For a minute he thought his heart had stopped. He’d wanted to kiss her back, to do more than that, to love her and take her right there on the beach in the middle of a raging storm. He needed her with an urgency her kiss had ignited. But she wasn’t kissing him so much as she was retaliating against Mark.

He’d wanted to show her his true feelings for months, but the situation was hopeless. She was a married woman, even though her marriage appeared to be in shreds. And he had nothing to offer her.

She’d offered him a ride to the shelter downtown, and he’d declined. He hadn’t wanted her to drive more than the short distance to her home in this storm. And not in her condition. He would borrow one of the Reed’s vans and check on her in the morning, see how she’d fared during the hurricane. See if her rat of a husband had the nerve to show his cheating face at home. Find out if she followed through with her threat to show him the door if he did.

At this late hour, the city shelter would be closed anyway, and public transportation no longer ran between the beach and the city. This was a dangerous storm, a Category Three, maybe a Four, Nick estimated. The shelter staff had warned everyone to check in early, but Nick had needed some time alone with Alex, to make sure she was okay.

He hated that he had been the cause of Alex’s pain. If he hadn’t sketched Elizabeth and Mark, Alex might never have found out about their affair. Maybe she was better off not knowing. But he’d had only the best intentions. It was his way of telling her before she found out by accident, possibly walking in on them in her own bed.

The lovers had been cruelly blatant and reckless. They were bound to get caught sooner or later. They’d been seen all over town, but, as usual, the wife was always the last to know.

Someone moved in the darkness. Mark Newborn was walking up to his mistress’s house.

How could a man who knew his wife had discovered his affair continue on this collision course? Surely he should be heading home by now, crawling on his hands and knees to beg Alex for forgiveness. Nick knew if he had a woman as special as Alexandra, he would move heaven and earth to keep her. Nick moved closer to Elizabeth’s house to investigate.

Mark Newborn’s car was parked in the driveway, which confirmed his suspicions the man would continue to hurt Alex. Nick hid in the bushes at the side of the house and waited for Mark to ring the doorbell.