Christine Feehan - Air Bound

“I do,” Blythe conceded.

The phone rang, a loud intrusion in the soothing colors of Airiana’s safe retreat. Everyone else looked toward the instrument. Airiana found herself drawn to the center of the room, where the sound took on ominous patterns. Her heart nearly stopped and then began to pound.

“It’s Damon. Damon Wilder,” she whispered. “And it’s for me.”

AIRIANAplaced her teacup carefully on the table in front of her. Her mouth had gone dry. She watched as Blythe casually picked up the phone and greeted the caller in her usual gentle, cheerful voice.

Lexi slipped her hand into Airiana’s. “Damon’s always been nice, Airiana. Why are you afraid?”

Airiana shook her head when Blythe held out the phone to her. Blythe frowned but resigned herself to being the go-between.

“Damon wants to come out this morning and have a meeting with you.”

“I’m working in the greenhouse this morning with Lexi and I won’t be able to schedule anything for several hours.” It would give her time to think. Damon and Sarah were supposed to be on their honeymoon. What would be so important that they would suddenly return and Damon would want to schedule a meeting with her? Whatever it was, it wasn’t good—for her.

“He says he’ll come by around twelve-thirty. That it’s important.” Blythe had a little note of warning in her voice.

Airiana nodded. That would give her sufficient time to gather her defenses around her and ensure Damon—or anyone else with him because he wouldn’t come alone—couldn’t convince her to do anything she didn’t want to do. “That’s fine,” she murmured, and looked down at Lexi’s hand, shocked that she’d been squeezing it so hard. “I’m sorry, Lex,” she added.

Lexi shrugged, flashing a teasing grin. “I’m better off without that hand this morning; after all, you’re helping me with the compost.”

Airiana found herself smiling again. That was the beauty of family, especially a family as close as hers. One moment she could be completely terrified, and the next, one of her sisters could make her laugh.

“You wish. I’ll pull all the beds, but you and that nasty smelling concoction you love so much will be all alone when you start shoveling.”

Lexi made a show of rubbing her hand. “I’m injured and the compost has to be mixed in those beds this morning. At least you’re capable of sending the odor away, although, really, it isn’t that bad.”

Airiana and Lissa both laughed.

“Of course you wouldn’t think it was bad, you’re a little farmer and it probably smells good to you,” Lissa said.

Blythe was silent and Airiana was very aware she was watching her carefully. Airiana sighed. “I know. I should have talked to him, but I need a little time,” she admitted, the smile fading from her face.

“He said he came back early. There was an emergency of some kind at his work,” Blythe reported, her shrewd chocolate eyes never leaving Airiana’s face.

“I wouldn’t know about that,” Airiana assured. “I wouldn’t, Blythe.”

“He works for the government in some capacity for defense,” Blythe said. “You all know he was injured a few years ago when someone tried to steal his work. They tortured his assistant, Dan Treadway, and killed him.”

Airiana’s stomach lurched. She pressed her hand tight against it, nodding her head. “I know. I heard the story from Inez at the grocery store.”

Inez Nelson knew just about everyone and everything about them here in Sea Haven, where she owned the local grocery store.

“Airiana, if this is a matter of national security . . .” Blythe began.

“ Don’t. Don’t say it. I don’t work in that field and I haven’t for a very long time. I have no idea why Damon would want to talk to me. He’s never so much as acknowledged me. My mother was killed almost ten years ago. Damon was targeted much more recently. One has nothing to do with the other. And I certainly wouldn’t know anything at this point that could help him. They investigated my mother’s death and said all sorts of things, but no one proved anything to me.”

“But you did, as a teenager, work for the Defense Department,” Blythe clarified.

Airiana sighed. “You know I never talk about that.”

“Well, maybe it’s time you did,” Blythe said. “You’re safe here. You need to talk about things, Airiana. If you don’t, you’re going to keep having nightmares and keep thinking you’re going to lose your mind.”

“We were told never to discuss our work. I took an oath.”

“And no one is asking you to discuss your actual projects,” Blythe pointed out.

Airiana took a deep breath and let it out. Lissa looked at her expectantly. Lexi gave her a tentative smile of encouragement, but she clearly only wanted Airiana to do what made her comfortable. She was such an empath that already she looked close to tears. Airiana found herself wanting to comfort Lexi.

“When I was about seven years old, some men came to my home and asked my mother if they could do special testing on me. I was already well into high school and even studying some college-level mathematics. My mother agreed. We were struggling financially, and they told her if I qualified for their special program there would be a lot of money involved for us.”

“You never talk about your father,” Lissa said. “Where was he?”

Airiana shook her head. “My mother never spoke about my father. If I brought the subject up, she would start crying like her heart was broken. I don’t even know his name. Marina gave me her last name.”

“These men who came to visit you and your mother were from our government?” Blythe asked, determined, obviously, to keep her on track.

Airiana nodded. “It was a new program they’d developed for children like me.”

“Crazy smart,” Lexi said, flashing an admiring smile.

Some of the tension drained out of her. She found herself smiling back at her youngest sister. “ Crazy smart is a good term for me,” she agreed. “They set up little apartments there at the school. It wasn’t really a school like most schools. We were in a government very secure building, and we had teachers of course, but each of us worked on our own projects. We were educated as fast or as slow as the individual could handle, but clearly the projects were why they wanted us.”

“But they didn’t want parents living there with you?” Lissa asked, frowning.

Airiana shook her head. “They told my mother it was best for someone like me to learn without distraction, and honestly, I loved it, especially after Mom began to drink. I could have spent all day in school and in fact, I often worked late into the night. That was encouraged, and I’ve always been a bit of a night owl. I missed my mother, of course, and they allowed me to go home on weekends.”

“You worked for them until you were sixteen or seventeen?” Blythe asked.

“I was nearly seventeen. It was ten days before my birthday when someone murdered my mother. So really, about ten years.”

Lexi suddenly sat back, her eyes enormous. “Airiana, you can’t suspect that the people running the school actually had something to do with your mother’s death. You don’t think that, do you?”

“They lied about her, Lex. She wasn’t selling my work to another government. She wasn’t spying for another country or leaking information. When I was little, we discussed my work, but once she began drinking, I rarely tried to talk to her about it, and once I turned fourteen, I never did.”

“Why fourteen?” Blythe asked.

“I took an oath not to discuss my work with anyone. Mom had helped at first with the project, you know, brainstorming with me when I was little, but she’d begun to drink and I was going to her less and less.” She shrugged. “We had a rule, and she was the one who made the rule. When we were together, it was just us. Not the school and not my projects. She wanted me to be a girl and go to the mall and the movies and learn to have fun. She wanted to teach me how to have fun. I was very serious and she was afraid that by allowing me to go to that school I wouldn’t be a normal teen.”