Vision of Darkness Read Online Free Page A

divorce, but that couldn’t possibly account for such a visceral reaction to him. She rubbed her temple, closed her eyes and drew in a calming breath to ease away the feeling. What she really wanted was to stand on her toes and taste the hard line of his mouth—even imagined herself grabbing two fistfuls of his hair and yanking his lips to hers, which was a perfectly ridiculous thing to want. She didn’t know him and wasn’t in the habit of kissing men she didn’t know. In fact, since her divorce, she had not been in the habit of kissing any men, period. But staring at Alex, at the solid line of his shaded jaw and narrowed eyes, she wished for just one second she could be as reckless as Miranda.
    Alex appeared just as surprised by the contact of his fingers on her chin as she was. He dropped his hand, backed up a step, and she watched a shutter slam down over his face. His expression became all hard, suspicious lines again—same as when he first entered the diner before she coaxed a smile out of him. The bizarre intimacy dissipated like the last tendrils of fog under morning sun and the longing in her chest vanished. She mourned it almost as much as she was relieved it had passed.
    They were strangers again.
    Alex rubbed a hand around the back of his neck and glanced away, but not fast enough to hide the dazed expression in his eyes. “Uh, I need to get going.”
    “Of course.” Her voice came out breathless. She wanted to fidget. Instead, she stuffed her hands into the pockets of her coat and concentrated on Kevin and Josiah as they continued to struggle with the heavy decoration. “Have a safe trip.”
    “Yeah. Thanks.” He stared at her for a second too long then replaced his sunglasses. He walked toward his car, but stopped short of it. He shook his head and turned back. “Pru, listen, I know we just met—”
    Overhead, Kevin lost his grip on the grinning pumpkin. The decoration ripped out of Josiah’s grasp and smashed to the sidewalk nearly on top of Alex, its colored bulbs bursting into orange and black shrapnel. Pru swallowed a cry as Alex dove behind his car.
    “Oh, God. Oh, shit.” Kevin scrambled from the ladder and over to where Alex was laying on his back by the front tire of his car. “Oh, God. Oh, shit.”
    “Kevin!” Helen’s high-heels crunched over the scattered bits of colored plastic as she hurried over. She frowned at the broken pumpkin, then over at Kevin. “What did you do?”
    “I-I don’t know. I’m sorry, Mom. One minute I had it and the next….” He trailed off and his hangdog face went green. “We should call the ambulance. He’s bleeding. He’s not moving. Oh God.”
    “No.” Alex finally stirred. He sat up and wiped a hand down his face, smearing the blood that bubbled from a little cut over his eyebrow. “No, it’s all right. It’s a scrape. I’m fine.”
    Alex climbed to his feet, using the car to steady himself. His eyes locked on Pru and concern flashed in their gray depths. He angled between Helen and Kevin.
    “Pru, are you okay?” Alex asked. “You’re white as hell. Here, sit down.”
    For a moment, it had been like watching a movie with the comfortable distance of a screen between her and the action. She snapped back at the sound of his voice. Her insides screamed with terror, but she couldn’t move, couldn’t think beyond the fear of what could have happened. In her mind’s eye, she saw Alex still lying on the pavement, unmoving in a pool of spreading blood. A slice of glass had severed an artery and there was no saving him. Blood everywhere, just like in Portland when her life fell apart and two others brutally ended.
    Then his warm fingers brushed her cool cheek. She blinked and his face came into focus. He wasn’t dead, but he was bleeding, a little trickle down the side of his head. The lens of his shades had popped out when he had landed and nicked his eyebrow. It was a tiny cut, barely worthy of a Band-Aid, but it made her stomach roll