Gia shrugged. “Your training is over. You have learned all that you need to survive as an immortal without risking harm to mortals. I will see that Justin arranges for regular deliveries of blood. And,” she added solemnly, “If you sleep at the house tonight, you will not be able to prevent yourself from having shared dreams with Justin again.”
Holly’s eyes widened at that and Gia nodded.
“I hope you may be able to forgive yourself for the dreams you’ve had, because you did not know they were shared. But I know you will never forgive yourself if you return to the house tonight and knowingly have them again.” Meeting Holly’s gaze she added, “Trust me when I say that if you sleep in the same house as Justin, you will have them again, piccola.”
While Holly absorbed that, Gia reached down the front of her top and retrieved a wad of money that she had apparently tucked in her bra. Taking Holly’s hand, she pressed the money into her palm and closed her fingers over it. “Take a taxi to the bus station. One leaves at 1:45 in the morning which is in a little under an hour.”
“You know the bus schedules?” Holly asked with disbelief.
“I looked into it a couple days ago. I knew you would not take it well when you learned that you were not having your dreams alone. I thought it best to be prepared,” she said gently, and then offered a crooked smile and added, “Fortunately, you did not find out until your training was done. I feared you would find out sooner and be forced to stay, in which case . . .”
“I’d have still had the dreams and have to deal with my feelings about that,” Holly guessed.
Gia nodded, and then hugged her quickly. “There is a slip of paper in amongst the money with the number to my cell phone on it. Call me if you need to, or even if you just want to.” Straightening, she smiled and added, “I like you, piccola. And I think we could be good friends if your marriage does not work out and you accept Justin as your mate.”
Releasing her then, she turned to move to the door. “Wait here for a couple of minutes. I will get Justin to accompany me back to the table so that you can slip out.”
“You won’t get in trouble for this, will you?” Holly asked with concern.
Gia shook her head. “You are done with your training, there is nothing to be in trouble for.” Turning back, she offered a crooked smile and added, “Justin will be very angry at me at first, but he is not the type to hold a grudge. Safe journey, piccola.”
“Thank you,” Holly murmured and watched her walk out. She then paced the bathroom, silently counting slowly to 120 before moving to the door and easing it open. The hall was empty. Holly slipped out and let the door close silently behind her.
Justin tore his gaze from the hallway leading to the bathrooms, and glanced worriedly at Gia on the dance floor. She’d urged him away from the ladies’ room and back to their table some time ago, at least half an hour by his watch, and told him that Holly would be fine, she just needed some time alone. The woman had then gone out onto the dance floor and hadn’t returned to their table since . . . and neither had Holly.
He was about to go check on Holly himself when Gia suddenly waved at where he and the twins sat at the table and then headed for the hall to the washrooms.
She was checking on Holly, he thought and relaxed back in his seat. She’d bring her back, he assured himself. Hopefully, after smoothing everything over with Holly and reassuring her that shared dreams were perfectly natural between life mates and she had nothing to feel guilty—or angry at him—for.
That thought made him sigh unhappily. He’d known Holly would be angry when she discovered the dreams she was enjoying were shared. He’d just hoped . . . he didn’t know what he’d hoped. Justin supposed he’d simply not wanted to think about her being angry because the shared dreams were the only real connection he had to her and he hadn’t wanted to give them up. There had been no doubt in his mind that if she knew that he was sharing in the dreams she was having, she was stubborn enough to try to stop them from happening. She probably would have taken to sleeping out on the lawn or something ridiculous like that to try to prevent them. When that didn’t work, she no doubt would have demanded he sleep in a hotel on the other side of Los Angeles to avoid it happening again.
Justin peered at his watch and saw that another fifteen minutes had passed since Gia had gone in the washroom. What the hell were the women doing? And what was this proclivity women had to spend so much damned time in the bathroom together? Did they play poker in there? Have tea parties? Book club meetings at the sinks? Napkin-folding practice with the paper hand towels? What?
Just when Justin was about to lose all patience and storm after them himself, Dante poked his arm and pointed out, “Here comes Gia.”
Yes, here came Gia . . . alone, he noted grimly and stood up.
“Okay, let’s go,” the woman said brightly, breezing past the table, headed for the exit.
“Wait!” Justin barked, hurrying to catch her arm and stop her. “Where is Holly?”
Gia eyed him solemnly, and then said in a gentle voice, “She’s gone home, Justin.”
“What?” he snapped, his fingers tightening unintentionally.
Gia reached up and wrenched his hand from her arm, but her voice was still gentle when she said, “Her training is done. She has learned all she needs to know to survive as one of us and she has now gone home to her husband.”
Justin stared at her with bewilderment and then shook his head faintly. “But . . . how?”
“I gave her money. She took a taxi to the bus station. Her bus leaves in five minutes. She is on the way home.”
Justin’s mouth snapped closed and he rushed past her, his only thought to get to that bus station and stop Holly.
“You’ll never make it to the station in time,” Gia said patiently, following him out of the nightclub. “I deliberately waited to tell you until it would be too late for you to stop her.”
“Why?” He whirled to scowl at her furiously. “What the hell have I ever done to you that would make you do this to me?”
Gia shook her head sadly and walked forward to rub his arm. “I didn’t do this to hurt you, Justin. I did this to help you. She is drenched in guilt over your shared dreams and too angry right now to be reasonable. The sooner she goes home, the sooner she will realize that there is no way she can make her marriage work now that she is immortal. And that means the sooner she will return to you. This way she left before she or you could say something that you both might later regret.”
Justin turned his head away and then asked, “Do you really think her marriage won’t work out now?”
“Of course. She can read his mind and control him. A relationship that is so unbalanced cannot work.”
“What if he is a possible life mate to her too?” he asked, naming his biggest fear.
“I don’t think so,” Gia said with slow certainty.
Justin immediately turned back to look at her. “Why?”
“Because in her thoughts her upset is that she cheated, even that she cheated on her husband, but never once did she think she had cheated on James.”
“But James is her husband,” Justin pointed out with confusion.
“Yes, but she thinks of him as her husband, not as James, the man she loves,” she tried to explain, and then waved that away and said, “Never mind, only a girl would understand. The point is I do not think it will take long for her to realize the marriage cannot work. So the sooner she gets home the better. And you have to let her go so that she can see that and return to you free of all doubts and reservations.”
Justin narrowed his eyes. “This is sounding like that stupid ‘if you love her let her go’ bit.”
“I suppose it is,” Gia said with a crooked smile. “In this instance it is true.”
Sighing miserably, Justin glanced to Dante and Tomasso who had been silent throughout.