Lightning Strikes (The Almeida Brothers Trilogy #3) Read online

“You,” he said, moving her father away from him, as far as his arms could reach, taking in her still smiling face. How the hell was she smiling right now? “You!”

  The world spun, and a sudden bout of dizziness seemed to slice her body into five quadrants, all moving in different directions. His vision cleared sporadically, just enough for him to see her smile dissipating as she pointed to her head.

  “Hey, you’re bleeding,” she said. “Kind of… like a lot.”

  “Get away from the plane!”

  They both jolted as a flight attendant approached, a young male this time, stumbling under the arm of the overweight, limping man he was supporting.

  “Get away from the plane now!” he screamed.

  Jack and Nina both moved back this time, slow at first, before breaking into a run, getting away from the flaming plane as fast as they could. The group of passengers who’d once been tiny specs in the distance grew closer and closer with each step they took.

  ***

  Shouldering his way through the ticketing area that was swelling with abandoned passengers, canned in like sardines, Jack was borderline homicidal. Frantic mumbles came from every angle; looping together and creating a chaos that reminded him of the Giants games his brother always dragged him to as kids. He gritted his teeth to maintain control, maneuvering his body every which way while taking several elbows to the torso. He tried to ignore the plethora of questionable body odors violating his nose, and only gave the departure screen a second of his attention. One second was all he needed to see the word CANCELLED flashing next to every departure flight, stretching down the blindingly bright screen in bold red letters, almost taunting anyone who dared look at it too long.

  A muffled, disembodied voice sputtered over the airport’s intercom, urging the melee of infuriated passengers to calm down.

  Through the thick clustering of frantic people, Jack managed to find himself at the end of what he hoped was the line to the gate agent, and waited nearly an hour before he was finally at the podium.

  When the heavyset gate agent, with a pink streak in her hair who couldn’t be a day over eighteen, looked up at him with the gall to sigh impatiently, Jack begged for patience of his own.

  “Hi.” He tried to smile, but it felt like a cringe. “I need a seat on the next flight to New York, please and thank you.”

  The gate agent exhaled, throwing him dreary eyes. “Do you have your confirmation number?”

  Jack returned the same blank stare she was giving him. “You see, I was just involved in a plane crash where I nearly lost my life. I careened down an inflatable slide at 50 miles per hour and bashed my head so hard I passed out. Miraculously, I managed to do all this without losing every last one of my teeth although I’m almost positive I’m bleeding internally. Somehow, in the fray, I managed to misplace my confirmation number.”

  “Picture ID?”

  “Sitting in the wallet I don’t have, right next to the confirmation number I don’t have.”

  The agent sighed again. “Name and birthdate?”

  Jack shook his head at her. Why had it taken her this long to ask for his name and birthday? Surely, after being harassed by angry and terrified people for the last several hours, she’d have learned to go straight to name and birthday by default. Apparently not. This only confirmed to Jack that, somewhere deep down, she was enjoying the pain these passengers were in. Day after day of enduring passenger abuse had left her just as dead and empty inside as he was. This must have been like Christmas day for her.

  “Jack Almeida.” He spelled his last name, and the agent typed away. “April 15, 1984.”

  “Well, that certainly explains it.”

  Jack froze as a voice came in next to him. That voice. The voice he’d been sure he’d successfully ditched. His jaw tightened, and he kept his eyes trained forward, at a loss as to why this infuriating human being wouldn’t disappear from his life for good.

  Nina pressed up next to him at the podium. “An Aries,” she continued, her voice going dry. “Arrogant, stubborn…”

  Jack’s lips tightened right along with his jaw, and he spoke to the agent, who was still pattering away on the computer, with clenched teeth. “Faster?” he begged, catching the agent’s irritated gaze when she looked at him from under her eyelashes. “Please.” He still hadn’t decided what was worse. Dying in a plane crash, or enduring Nina for another second.

  “Oh yes,” Nina said. “Arrogant and stubborn to an almost unbearable degree yet, somehow, completely oblivious to it. Aries are also amazingly courageous.” Nina craned her neck in an attempt to catch his eyes. “The most courageous of all the zodiacs, in fact.”

  Jack’s gaze flew to the corners of his eyes, giving him a view of her bright red manicure. She had long, claw-shaped nails, two of which hadn’t survived the crash, broken and jagged.

  “Thank you,” Nina said. “For saving my life, Aries. I insist on making it up to you.”

  “I must counter and beg that you don’t.” Jack looked out of the corner of his eye again when she dug her hand into the hunter green messenger bag on her hip and came out with a fist full of crumpled hundred dollar bills. As a man who strove to keep his bills in numerical order and all facing in the same direction, he involuntarily flinched and met Nina’s eyes.

  “I have money, see?” She straightened. “And I insist on paying for your hotel room tonight.”

  “That really won’t be necessary.”

  “I just heard you tell this lovely young lady.” She motioned to the gate agent. “That you lost your wallet. How else do you plan on paying for a room?”

  “I’m a big boy. I’ll figure something out.” His eyes went back to the agent. “Besides, considering we almost just died under this charming airline’s watch, I’d assume they’d be the ones insisting on paying for my hotel room.”

  This time, both Jack and Nina shot daggers at the agent with their eyes.

  The agent made a face.

  “What is that look?” Nina demanded, pointing at her.

  “Well, see…” The agent’s cringe deepened. “The airport has been completely shut down, and we’ve had more than a dozen diversions in the last hour alone due to the storm…”

  “Don’t say it,” Jack begged.

  “It looks like all the hotels are completely booked for the night.”

  “You said it.” Jack nodded.

  Nina laughed, leaning deeper onto the counter. “Are you… are you… fucking kidding me?”

  “I’m not.” The agent slid four slips of paper toward them. “I’ll give you the hotel vouchers anyway, just in case you get lucky and happen upon a room. I’ll also give you a voucher for any seat on the Amtrak if you want to try your luck there. First train leaves at six a.m.”

  “Where the hell are we supposed to sleep?” Nina asked.

  “We have cots set up in the main lobby…” The agent held up a finger while snatching up the two-way radio clipped to her belt, bringing it to her ear. A few seconds passed with her listening to the grainy voice on the other end, and then the cringe was back. “And it sounds like we just ran out of those, too.”

  Jack breathed deep, clutching the counter. “I’d like to be bumped to the first flight leaving this airport, and I don’t care where it’s going. Just get me the hell out of here, please.”

  “It’s a great plan,” the agent said. “But unfortunately, the runway is still closed, and once it reopens every flight out is booked solid for the next three days.”

  “I’ll sit standby.”

  “Fair enough, but I feel it’s only right to tell you that the shortest standby list is a hundred people long—”

  Jack pushed away from the counter without another word, clutching his vouchers, unable to hear a second more.

  As he swept through the rapidly thickening crowd of people, he almost screamed at the voice that rang out behind him.

  “Can you believe this?”

  He didn’t look back at her as he swept out of the airpor
t’s sliding doors, but even as he walked for nearly ten minutes, he knew she was right behind him.

  The passenger pick-up area outside was just as much of a zoo as the ticket counter inside. The lightning storm they’d been trying to escape had finally caught up with them, leaving hundreds of stranded passengers soaked in the pouring rain, most of them in the process of screaming at each other or someone else. Rainwater flowed from the hems of heavy coats and the edges of umbrellas as they lunged for every cab that pulled up to the curb—apparently, they’d become a hot commodity.

  “Looks like there are no cabs, either,” Nina said from behind him.

  Jack froze and then turned to her. “What, what, what is it going to take?” He threw his arms out at his sides. “To get you out of my life?”

  Nina, who, sure enough, had been following close behind him, slowed to a stop, her brown eyes searching his, squinting against the spatters of rain that were managing to catch her, even as she tried to stay in the shaded area. “We’re two people who’ve been through a very traumatic experience together; we’re in the middle of a strange city—and we’re both going to the same place. Judging by the way you’re dressed, I’m guessing getting to New York City is just as important to you as it is to me.”

  “You guessed wrong.”

  “I think we should stick together.”

  “I don’t.”

  She held up the wad of cash she still had in her hand, cupping it with both when a sharp breeze almost blew one of the bills away. “I’m the only one with money.”

  Jack studied the wad in her hand and then looked away with a frown.

  “If there are no planes and no hotel rooms, then we’ll catch a train out of here, hitch a ride to the next city and then fly back to New York from there.”

  “Oh, no one’s flying back to New York tonight!”

  Their eyes flew toward the new voice, widening when they caught sight of an elderly white woman with grey dreadlocks, sitting in a broken down, hot pink cab.

  Smiling, the woman leaned over and looked out of her passenger side window, showing them the gaping black hole where her two front teeth used to be. “Storm’s been upgraded. Full-blown hurricane. The Jersey Coaster is gone, the subway is down, and bridges are lifted. New York City is officially closed!”

  Jack’s mouth fell open.

  New York was officially closed, and as he cast a horrified look at Nina, he realized he was officially screwed.

  “Can we have a ride?” Nina begged, displaying the wads of cash in her hands. “To the nearest train station?”

  “Last train left an hour ago. Station’s closed until first thing tomorrow.”

  Nina leaned down on her knees, and her head fell. Behind her, Jack’s did too.

  The driver lowered her voice. “But I do know of one hotel, just outside the city, that still has rooms available. About an hour out.”

  “Take us there,” Nina begged.

  “It’ll cost ya.”

  “How much?”

  “Triple the noted price.”

  Nina’s eyes widened, shocked that she was being swindled by someone’s grandma. “Done!”

  The woman waved with a smile. “Hop in before someone else beats you to it!”

  Nina lunged for the cab.

  Jack reached for her, taking her arm in a tight grip. “This woman is in a hot pink cab with no tags or contact information and is offering to drive us an hour outside of town. Every cab that has pulled up to this curb has been accosted by customers in seconds. Every cab but this one. Does that mean anything to you?”

  Nina gave him a sweet smile. “Sounds like you’ve changed your mind and have decided to stick with me? I knew I could break you down, Jack Almeida.” She raced to the backseat of the cab and threw it open, leaping into the back as fast as she could to avoid the downpour. Through the open door, she gave him a look. “Don’t worry, Aries. I’ll protect you.”

  2

  “Apparently, once the severe turbulence hit, the flight attendant in the back galley had to sit down, but she forgot to turn off the ovens. By the time it was safe for her to get back up, the tail was already on fire! She didn’t even smell the smoke until we were thirty minutes from the airport. That’s why we crashed. How did the pilots not know? Don’t they have monitors that are supposed to detect shit like that? It’s like, guys. You had one job. One job. Land the plane. Don’t crash. How do you screw that up?”

  Was this woman still talking? Clearly Jack had gone insane. It was the only conclusion he could come to after climbing into that cab with Nina.

  He saw her throwing him random looks every now and again from where she sat next to him in the backseat of the cab, and he did everything he could to make sure he didn’t return her curious glances.

  “So that’s why you’re bleeding,” the driver said, casting a look at Jack in the rearview.

  “You had to sign a waiver to let them release you like that, right?” Nina said, pointing to the gash on Jack’s head. The rain had made some of the blood wash down his neck and stain his grey suit jacket. “You could have a serious injury. I thought a lawyer would know better.”

  Jack didn’t respond, leaning on the armrest while watching as the scenery outside slowly became less metropolitan, and more backwoods. The ride got bumpier every second, making him bob back and forth.

  “Hey, Aries, do you have a phone? I lost my phone.”

  “I don’t have a phone.”

  “Hey, driver? You got a phone?”

  “It’ll cost ya!”

  Nina fell back against the seat, grumbling something about refusing to be fleeced by someone’s grandma, and then, silence. Ah, blessed silence.

  “So what’s waiting for you in New York?” Nina asked.

  Jack didn’t answer, running the pads of his fingers along his lips. The half soothing, half unbearable tingle the soft stroking brought to his lips was doing wonders for his patience.

  “Or should I be asking… what did you leave behind in Cambridge?” she rephrased.

  Jack remained silent. For a moment, it seemed like she was going to accept that silence.

  Of course, she wasn’t. Silly him.

  “You’re pretty dressed up for an hour-long flight; that’s all. And you strike me as the kind of guy who’s sat in his fair share of first-class seats—enough times to know that it doesn’t warrant a four-piece suit.” She squinted at him. “Who are you running after, Aries?”

  This time, Jack did look at her, and he worked very hard to make it clear to her how bored he was with this conversation with deeply hooded eyes.

  “Or, should I be asking who you’re running from?” She raised her eyebrows.

  “What’s waiting for you in New York?” Jack asked. “Why did a woman dressed like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, with a wad full of hundreds in her bra and her midriff exposed, plop down next to me in first class?”

  She straightened. Her lips drew themselves into a tight line. And then, she collapsed into her seat, looking away.

  “Obnoxious right?” Jack nodded at the back of her head. “When a complete stranger pries into your life for no good reason?”

  She shot him a look. “You are so rude. I am the farthest thing from Buffy.”

  “I’m sorry. Black Buffy, then.”

  “So now I gotta be black?”

  It occurred to Jack that she’d done it. She’d sucked him in. How had he let this happen? Even as he told himself to disengage, he spoke again. “Well, you are black.”

  “That’s racist.”

  “Took you ten whole seconds to pull the race card. That’s gotta be a new record, huh?” He jammed his eyes shut and begged himself to stop responding.

  Thankfully, she didn’t test his rapidly dissolving self-restraint and scoffed in response.

  Good. Scoffing was easy to ignore.

  The driver peeped at them through the rearview. “You two don’t know each other?”

  Both their eyes flew to the rearview.

&nbs
p; “Unless being seated on an aircraft next to a living breathing disaster qualifies, no,” Jack said. “We don’t know each other.”

  “I was scared,” Nina spat. “God. You are such an asshole. Robot.”

  Jack looked away from her.

  “I’m just trying to make it up to you, dude.”

  He closed his eyes. Tight. Do not engage, Jack. Do not engage.

  “Look,” she sighed. “I don’t get the opportunity to sit in first class a lot, alright?”

  “No.” He threw her another dry look, but his voice hitched as he feigned shock.

  “In fact, it was my first time ever… After hearing my pathetic sob story, the gate agent took pity on me and gifted me with an upgrade. I thought my seat mate might’ve had the same compassion, but I got a robot trapped in a GQ model’s body instead.”

  Jack blinked. GQ model? He willed himself to look away from her, and it was harder than it had been before.

  “What do you do for work?” she asked.

  He smiled in disbelief, wondering if she was one of those women that craved abuse. The more he ignored her existence and denied her his attention, the harder she fell all over herself to get it.

  “You must be a lawyer,” she said. “You’ve got that sanitized, soulless aura about you. Only a good lawyer can pull it off.”

  Jack shot her a look.

  “So I’m right.” She nodded. “An Aries lawyer. Yikes. Feeling bad for the wife.”

  He watched her eyes fall to his empty ring finger and, once again, refused to take her bait, rolling his eyes before catching the smiling driver’s eyes in the mirror. “Driver, please, for the love of God, hurry.”

  “Yes!” Nina cried, watching him from the corner of her eye. “Please. Hurry.”

  Noting the tone of the room, the driver smartly clicked on the radio. Classical music filled the air. From beside him, Jack heard his seatmate scoff again. Obviously, if it wasn’t some form of hip hop or trap music, Nina the Vampire Slayer simply wasn’t interested.

  As the first few notes of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata found him in the backseat, however, his fingers moved with each note.