Sweet Dreams (WJA Series Book 1)

Chapter 25

MARK LOOKED AT HIS wife sleeping next to him.

She was so beautiful.

He didn’t know whether he was in a dream world or in the real world. And his mind wouldn’t stop trying to figure it out. Though it was the middle of the night, he’d awakened just to see if she was still there next to him. She was. He touched her soft shoulder, feeling the rise and fall of her breathing.

Time had a way of working out details. This gift, or curse—he didn’t yet know which it was—had given him something. He now lived life full throttle, with a lust for living he’d never before known. It was as if he’d been given a second chance at life. He was not going to waste one minute of it.

A year had come and gone since he blew up the cabin, with life changing for him in ways that would make most men shake in fear and others turn green with envy. He now worked full time for the World Justice Agency and every day retrieved more missing parts of his memory.

It was as if he had a new instinct. He could see and feel what was going to happen in a situation and react with incredible speed. Not that he was psychic or anything like that. It was just an overwhelming sense of knowing. If a good thing was about to happen, he would feel the emotion before anything happened.

After he’d destroyed the cabin, he’d shocked Isis by following her downtown and into the Merc Building’s underground parking garage, then into the elevator. “Hello, Isis. Going down?”

She tried to act innocent.

“Nine, five, two, huh? Clever. Spells WJA on the keypad of a phone.”

“I take it your memory has returned.” A small smile appeared at the corner of her mouth.

“Most of it. Maybe more than was supposed to. At least this time you don’t have to sneak into my apartment to convince me.”

She looked confused but didn’t say anything. He’d been assigned to help Isis complete a few easy assignments. He loved her attention to detail. She was a cool and in-control-of-herself kind of woman. She planned every case with precise direction and never missed anything. He enjoyed learning from her, and she was willing to help him and teach him any way she could.

He was surprised that Solomon could not explain his dreams or how he could see into the future. His foreknowledge didn’t happen all the time, and after the first time, the insights came in short bursts, like a daydream.

Solomon finally told him, “You’ve been granted a gift, son. Don’t waste it. If it wasn’t for your dream, your family would be dead right now.”

K was supportive of his new job and never asked him to explain what he was doing or where he was when his work took him late into the nights on a few occasions. He suspected she knew he was working for government intel of some sort, but she didn’t know the half of it. “I don’t deserve you, babe,” he told her.

“I know,” K said, “but you’ve got me. Now run along and go be a hero.”

He doubted she bought the working for the government thing, and he didn’t expect her to. It was a nice story to tell the neighbors at backyard barbecues. It meant a lot to him to know she loved, trusted, and supported him.

They paid off the house—rather, Solomon paid it off that Christmas. He’d become part of the family and loved Sam as if she were his own granddaughter. Solomon came over for dinner often and sometimes played dress-up with Samantha. Bracelets and lipstick on the older man made quite a sight, but Sam loved Solomon’s attention, and that was enough for him.

Today, Mark had to take the Taxiover to Vermont, where two brothers had been on a killing spree. They’d kidnapped eleven girls, usually from the local high-school hangout. It had taken the authorities ten months to find six of the girls. Their bodies were almost unrecognizable.