Outside, a wind began to blow.A cool front was moving in.Something clattered against the patio door leading onto the deck.Ryder shifted in his sleep and rolled onto his back as he fell deeper and deeper into the dream playing out in his head.
Lightning flashed and the plane bucked.Seconds afterward, smoke began filling the cabin.There was a whine to the engines as the plane began to lose altitude.Ryder pulled back on the stick, fighting the pull of gravity with all of his strength.
“God help us both,” Micah said.
Ryder jerked, his head tossing on the pillow from side to side.He hadn’t remembered hearing his father’s voice—until now.
Lightning flashed again, illuminating the horizon and the tops of a stand of trees, but Ryder was hardly aware.It was all he could do to see the instrument panel through the thick veil of smoke.Muscles in his arms began to jerk from the stress of trying to control the plane’s rapid descent, and still he would not let go.Yet no matter how hard he fought, it would not respond.
“I love you, boy.”
Tears seeped from beneath Ryder’s lashes and out onto the surface of his cheeks.
I love you, too, Dad.
One of the windows in the cockpit shattered.Smoke dissipated at an alarming rate.Visibility cleared, and then Ryder wished it had not.There was at least half a second’s worth of time to see that they were going to die.
He sat up with a jerk, gasping for air, unaware that his cheeks were wet with tears.
“Oh, God.”
He rolled out of the bed and reached for his jeans.He had to get out.He had to move.He couldn’t breathe.
Casey felt the bed give.Suddenly she was no longer lying on Ryder’s chest.She blinked, then opened her eyes.The sight of him jerking on pants and stomping out of the room was enough to yank her rudely awake.She didn’t have to turn on a light to know something was dreadfully wrong.It was there in the shadowy movements of his body as he fled from the room.Seconds later, the front door banged, and Casey knew he was gone.
She crawled out of bed on all fours, searching for something to wear as she hurried through the house.One of his T-shirts was hanging on the doorknob.She grabbed it, pulling it over her head as she ran.It hung to a point just above her knees, but when she opened the front door, the fierce wind quickly plastered it to her body, leaving her feeling naked all over again.
She stood at the top of the landing, searching the grounds for a sign of where Ryder had gone.And then she saw him moving toward the trees at the back of the estate, and she bolted down the stairs after him.
* * *
Ryder moved without thought, trying to escape the dream clinging fast to his mind.It was just like before.No matter how fast he ran, he couldn’t escape the truth.Micah had died, but he hadn’t.
Wind whistled through the trees just ahead.It was an eerie wail, not unlike that of a woman’s shriek.Without looking to the sky, he knew a storm was brewing.He stopped, then lifted his arms out on either side of his body like a bird in flight, and faced the force of nature for what it was.Unpredictable.
Unstoppable.Uncontrollable.
The first drops of rain were beginning to fall when Casey caught him.She didn’t stop to ask him why.She didn’t care that she was getting wet.She just threw herself into his arms, becoming his anchor against the storm.
Ryder groaned and wrapped his arms around her, and although the wind still blew and the rain still fell, he knew a sudden sense of peace.He dug his hands through the windwhipped tangle of her hair and shuddered as she bent to his will.
Rain was falling harder now and he couldn’t find the words to explain the horror and guilt that he lived with every day.
Casey clutched at him in desperation.His gaze became fixed upon her face, and she could see his eyes.They were as wild and as stormy as the night.His fingers coiled in her hair.His body was trembling against hers.A chill began to seep into her bones, and she knew she had to get them out of the weather.The gardener’s shed was nearby.She pushed out of his arms, then grabbed him by the hand and started running.To her everlasting relief, he followed.
When she slammed the door shut behind them, the sound of the rain upon the metal roof was almost deafening, but at least they were no longer standing in the midst of it all.
“Lord have mercy,” she said, and shivered as she lifted her hair from her neck and twisted it.Water ran out, then down her shoulder and onto her feet.She reached for the light switch.
It didn’t work.It figured.In Ruban Crossing, if the wind blew or rain fell, inevitably, the power went out.
She turned, and knew Ryder was right before her, although she could barely see his face.
“Ryder?”
His hand cupped her shoulder, then her cheek.He stepped closer until their foreheads were touching and she could hear the ragged sounds of his breath.She lifted a hand to his face, and even though they’d just come out of a storm, she had the strangest sensation that what she felt were tears, not rain.
“Sweetheart?”
