“What is Dayan like?” Corinne asked in spite of herself.
Cullen shrugged with studied casualness. “Dayan is a law unto himself. No one can predict what he might do. He’s a genius with a musical instrument, and his voice is beautiful. He’s loyal to a fault, but he isn’t a man another man would ever want to cross. I don’t know how to explain Dayan. But I’ve never seen him like this over a woman. Whatever he feels for you is genuine. He isn’t a ladies’ man.”
“Why am I hearing a
but
in there somewhere?” Corinne asked astutely. “I didn’t say ‘but,’ “ he denied.
“You have reservations about Dayan,” Corinne guessed, “What are they?”
Cullen looked at her very soberly, concentrating on putting his vague uneasiness into words. Finally he shrugged, shaking his head. “He’s just different. Dangerous, maybe, I don’t know how to explain it to you. The entire band is different. Darius is a very scary man. Seriously, Corinne, Dayan is just different. I don’t know how else to explain it. The whole family...” He trailed off helplessly. There were no words to adequately describe Dayan’s family.
“Dangerous to me? He isn’t the type of man to hurt a woman.” She believed that with her heart and soul. She
knew
it with every fiber of her being. “What aren’t you telling me, Cullen? Does it have something to do with my heart? The pregnancy? Or something to do with Dayan disappearing each time I wake up?”
Cullen glanced at her set face. “Corinne, he doesn’t want to be with anyone else. If you think he has someone else stashed somewhere, you’re wrong. I’m not worried too much about your heart condition; I even tried reassuring Lisa, because she’s very afraid. But Dayan’s family can work miracles.”
“I never imagined Dayan with a woman, so protective and...” He trailed off, shaking his head. “But I’ve seen it before in the band members. You should meet Darius. Now, there’s a scary man, but with Tempest he acts entirely different, the way Dayan does with you.”
Exasperated with him, Corinne stared out the window at the passing traffic. Clearly, Cullen was concerned about something, yet he wasn’t going to tell her. Maybe it had nothing to do with Dayan and everything to do with her. Maybe Cullen didn’t want his friend mixed up with someone like her. She was pregnant. She had a bad heart, and she moved objects around with her mind.
With each passing mile she felt more tired, more strained, her heart laboring so hard it was difficult to breathe. And she thought of Dayan. Worried about him when she should have been worrying about Lisa. What if Dayan had returned to their home again and someone had hurt him? Perhaps he was lying injured somewhere, needing her help, and she was unaware of it.
“Dayan didn’t go back to my house last night, did he?” There was a little catch in her voice that she couldn’t prevent.
Cullen shook his head. “Not a chance. He had no need. He took you with him to retrieve the things you and Lisa wanted. I was surprised he did that, by the way. I would have bet my last dollar that he would have tied you up at our house to keep you safe. How did you talk your way around him?”
“He’s very reasonable.” Even as she said it, the car was taking her further and further from him, and her heart was laboring harder and harder.
“You’re certain he didn’t go back to the house? We ran into trouble — did Dayan tell you?” She tried to sound matter-of-fact about it.
Cullen pinned her with speculative eyes. “No, he didn’t say a single word. What kind of trouble?”
Corinne rubbed her pounding temple. She was feeling sick to her stomach. And the terrible dread was increasing with each passing mile. “Things. A peculiar fog bank. There was someone at the house. Dayan went out into the fog, and then we went into the house. There was a car...” She trailed off, trying to pull the memory out of her hazy brain. “I can’t think — I feel sick.”
“Do you have medicine you should be taking?” Cullen was concerned about her color. Corinne was deathly white.
They were approaching the large park where Lisa was to do the photo shoot. To their left, Cullen could see the vehicles crowded together. An area was cordoned off for the cameras and crew. Corinne put both hands protectively over her stomach. She was feeling very sick, struggling just to sound as if she were breathing normally.
“Corinne!” Cullen said sharply. “Do you have medicine with you?”
She nodded toward her purse. Her heart was pounding hard, erratically. The baby was moving in alarm. Cullen spilled out two tablets into his palm, very afraid for her. He never should have brought her with him to this place.
Corinne.
The voice was soft and steady, a brushing like butterfly wings in her head.
What is wrong with your heart? You must calm down.
Dayan’s voice alone managed to calm her. Where was he? The fact that he could reach her reassured her that he was alive and well. Corinne took the tablets and made an effort to breathe rhythmically.
I am okay now, Dayan. You are not where I left you.
It was a clear reprimand.
Where are you?
“Corinne?” Cullen asked anxiously. “I shouldn’t have brought you. If anything happens to you, Lisa and Dayan will kill me.”
It was strange to carry on two conversations at the same time. “Nothing is going to happen to me, Cullen. See, I’m much better.”
We've come for Lisa. She went to a park where they’re photographing her. No! It is not safe. I cannot come to you yet. Leave that place at once!
It was a clear order, delivered tersely with a hard “push” behind it.
She wanted to obey him. Needed to obey him more than anything else in the world. Everything in her demanded she do as he told her, but there was Lisa. As much as her entire heart and soul required that she comply with that order, she could not leave without Lisa.
Don’t be upset, Dayan. I will get home as soon as I have Lisa safe with us. Cullen is here too.
Dayan lay helpless beneath the earth, seething with rage. With fear that amounted to terror. He didn’t dare make his command any stronger. Corinne was strong-willed and she was fighting him. Her loyalty to Lisa demanded that she get her sister-in-law to safety. Dayan knew her heart would not survive a struggle against him. He subsided, a shadow in her mind. The time until sundown seemed to tick away with agonizing slowness.
“Maybe you’d better stay in the car,” Cullen said uneasily. Dayan was working on him, pushing at Cullen’s mind so that he felt it was of paramount importance to protect Corinne. “It won’t take me long to collect her.”
“You’ll never get through security,” Corinne replied, resolutely pushing open the door. She slipped out before her reluctant body refused to do as she asked.
Cullen leapt out of the car and raced around it to take her arm. She walked determinedly along the walkway to the path that cut through to the interior of the park. At the area cordoned off for the shoot, she waved to the nearest security man and flashed a smile at him. “Frank! I didn’t know you’d be working today or I would have come sooner. How’s Lisa doing?”
The man in uniform grinned at her. “My favorite woman. I was desolate without you. You know how Lisa’s doing. She couldn’t make a mistake if she wanted to.” He reached across the rope to loosen the latch and let her through.