A pyramid of champagne sat on a table in thecenter of the room. The caterers had left an hour ago after settingup some of their displays. They would return in the morning,probably while Nicolette was still having Aida and some workersrearrange all the paintings. Aida inspected the glasses to makesure there were no smudges on them while Owen trailed her aroundthe table.
Convinced everything was as good as it wasgoing to get, Aida started for the door. “I’m supposed to meet somefriends,” she told him.
“I’ll join you.”
Aida barely managed to keep herself fromgroaning. He really didn’t know how to take a hint. “I don’t thinkit’s your thing.”
“Butyouare very much my thing,Aida.”
A shudder ran through her; the vamps whoimprisoned her believed she was theirthingtoo. She closedher eyes against the wave of memories assailing her.
Stay here. Stay in the present.
She repeated the words over and over again toherself, but she couldn’t cling to the present when the past waspulling at her. It had been years since she left the island, yetone small reminder could plunge her back into that basement withall those smells and the sounds of slurping as the vamps fed fromher and the others.
The others, she thought with an inwardmoan. She hadn’t known any of the people imprisoned with her beforegoing to the island, but they became her friends. When they werealone, in the dark, they would all whisper about their lives, theirdreams, and their loved ones to keep from going insane.
During that time, she grew to know thembetter than all her high school friends, understood theirsuffering, and held them while they wept. She wouldn’t haveremained sane without them to help guide her through the worst ofthat place, and none of them survived those monsters.
Aida mentally shook the memories from hermind. She wouldnotallow now to become one of the timeswhen the past took her over and she found herself huddled in thecorner of the bathroom, shoving her fist in her mouth to muffle herscreams.
When she left Maine for Arizona, she hopedcoming back to the human world would make her nightmares go away;it hadn’t. It took her years, but eventually, she realized a partof her remained imprisoned on the island; it always would.
Still feeling raw, she couldn’t look at Owenwhile she went into the storage room to retrieve her purse and coatbefore returning to the showroom. Strolling along the wall, Oweninspected each of his paintings with a smile that made her eyesroll.
If he hadn’t been so smug, she might havedated him for a lot longer. He was intelligent, talented, and hewas here, which was more than she could say for a certain someoneelse that she tried not to think about, but as much as she foughtit, Julian crept his way into her head daily.
She’d never revealed the details of theirkiss, not even to Mollie. She wasn’t exactly eager to tell peoplehe’d scrambled her brain, awakened her body in ways she neverdreamed possible, and vanished without a word.
Just thinking about it made her blood boil.Julian Byrne was an asshole.
CHAPTER 5
“You did a fantastic job, Aida,” Owen said.“Nicolette is an idiot for always making you think otherwise.”
“She’s a perfectionist.”
Aida had no idea why she was defending thewoman who could make her life a living hell, but it had becomeinstinctual as she often heard the same thing from Kyle andCassidy. Neither of them understood why she continued to work here,but they didn’t realize her love for the place outweighed her hatefor it.
When that changed, she’d probably move on,but until then, she could suffer through Nicolette’s craziness ifit meant she could stand in this building and absorb the beauty andpeace of the art surrounding her. It was a balm on her batteredsoul.
“That’s not why she makes you rearrangeeverything every time,” Owen said.
“Oh, and why do you think she does it?”
“Because she’s afraid you’ll realize howtalented you are and leave her.”
Aida started to laugh but stopped when shesaw the seriousness on his face. “That’s not why.”
And then she recalled the many,manytimes Nicolette called her in to rearrange everything she’d done,only to have it look almost exactly the same afterward. For all hisself-absorption, Aida realized Owen might be onto something, butthere wasn’t much she could do about it.
“She shows my photographs sometimes,” Aidasaid.
“You’re talented in photography, Aida, butthisis where you really shine. You should run, orown, a gallery.”
Aida stared at the painting on the walls asshe considered the idea of running orowninga gallery.Right now, her focus was on paying her bills and her photography,but the idea of owning a gallery intrigued her.
She had no idea where she’d get the money forsuch a thing, but it would be amazing to walk through the halls ofhergallery. Maybe Mike and some of the others would investin it, but before she could ask, she had to save up enough money tohelp in the investment, and she would have to formulate a solidplan to present to them. It could take years, but that was okay,she had a lot more to learn about this business anyway. And maybenext week she wouldn’t think this was a great idea, but she doubtedit.
