The P.I.. Cara Summers

in the faceted jewels began to swirl. She often saw things more clearly at that magic moment when one day gave way to the next. When the clock chimed again, the shadows in the stones broke into colors—a rainbow of them. They warmed her palms, and slowly, colors shifted, parted, then bled into one another until an image formed in her mind—a young woman, small and blonde with bottle-green eyes. And she was racing down a shadowed flight of stairs. In a holy place? Before Cass could get a real sense of the surroundings or the circumstances, the colors shifted again, and this time it was Kit, her youngest nephew, she saw. The young woman was at his side and they were both running through the darkness. This time she sensed danger.

      Closing her eyes, Cass tried to see beyond the images to what they meant. A damsel in distress for Kit. The Fates had chosen wisely, she thought. Her youngest nephew, the dreamer, had always had an errant-knight streak in him.

      Even as joy streamed through her, her heart squeezed a bit. Kit would be the first of her children to meet the woman he was fated for. From the time he was small, Kit had always been insatiably curious, and that characteristic had often gotten him into scrapes. It had also shaped him for his future careers as a P.I. and a crime-fiction writer. Her lips curved slightly. The boy just couldn’t resist solving puzzles. Yes, a damsel in distress would do very well.

      Shifting her attention back to the swirling colors in the crystals, Cass moved them in her hands and watched the rainbows grow darker and darker until everything was gray. Suddenly, a flash of fire knifed through the darkness. Cass’s heart chilled and her stomach tightened with fear. What she saw was money, guns and blood. What she sensed was greed, envy and death.

      The crystals burned now against her skin. But she kept her gaze steady. Colors flashed again, shattering the darkness. And she sensed the love—passionate and true.

      Would it be enough to protect her Kit and the woman the Fates had chosen for him?

       1

       Friday, August 28—evening

      S HE SURFACED SLOWLY , her senses awakening one by one. She felt the pain first—a hammering headache near her right temple. And heat. Humid air pressed in on her carrying the scent of exhaust fumes and the noise of traffic. Engines thrummed and a horn blasted in a staccato rhythm.

      Close by, voices shouted. Angry male voices. She caught enough of what they were saying to wonder if their language was turning the surrounding air blue.

      Where was she? What had happened? Panic bubbled up as the questions swirled through her mind. Opening her eyes, she managed to get a glimpse of her surroundings before a fresh wave of pain had her wincing and squeezing them shut again. She’d registered enough to know that it was dark out. Not pitch-black, but a sort of twilight-gray. She was in a car. The plastic divider that separated her from the front seat made her think it had to be a taxi.

      Opening her eyes again, she gritted her teeth against the pain and took more careful stock of her surroundings. She was half lying on the backseat. The shattered window to her right gave her the first clue that she’d been in an accident. And the two men right outside that window were arguing about who’d caused it.

      Okay, she knew where she was—in a taxi. And that there’d been an accident. In the initial impact she must have hit her head and been knocked out for a few minutes. But she was conscious now. How badly had she been hurt?

      As she began to lever herself into a sitting position, the pounding at her temple increased and had her gritting her teeth again. But she made it. So far, so good. She wasn’t dizzy and she was almost getting used to the headache, which seemed to be the only source of pain.

      “Bottom line. I had a green light. You ran a red,” growled a gravelly voice to her right. “And I got a witness—my fare. Hey, lady, you want to tell this guy what happened?”

      She carefully turned to look at the man whose round and mustached face had appeared at the broken window. He jabbed a finger at her. “Tell him I had the green light.”

      “I…can’t.” Panic did more than bubble this time. It shot through her in sharp arrows.

      “What do you mean, you can’t? You saw it.”

      “I don’t…remember.” When she searched her mind for the details that had led up to the accident, she came up empty. She raised her hands and pressed her fingers against her temples, hoping that might help.

      It didn’t.

      “What are you talking about?” he asked. “You yelled at me to look out, that this creep was running the red. And then you screamed.” He jerked a thumb at the skinny man standing next to him. “He rammed right into us and caused a six-car pileup. Traffic is stopped in four directions.”

      She shifted her gaze back to the man who’d evidently been driving her taxi, taking in more details now. He had thick dark hair, a stocky build and he wore a folded, red-print bandanna around his head that made him look like a pirate. If someone had thrust a Bible into her hand, she would have sworn that she’d never seen him before in her life.

      She pressed a hand against her stomach. “Give me—” When her voice cracked, she swallowed hard. “I need a minute.”

      “Lady, are you all right?” It was the other man who spoke. He was tall with the thin build of a scarecrow, and she could hear concern in his voice.

      “I’m fine,” she said, stubbornly clinging to the hope that she was speaking the truth. But it wasn’t merely the accident she didn’t remember. She couldn’t even recall getting into the taxi…or where she was going…or where she’d been…or…

      She dropped her hands into her lap and clenched them into fists as the pain in her head sharpened.

      She couldn’t…she couldn’t remember who she was.

      “Look,” the skinny man continued, “she’s hurt. She’s got blood on her. I’ll call an ambulance.”

      Blood? As he punched numbers into his cell phone, she glanced down at herself. Sure enough, there were dark stains on the cuff of her jacket and on her skirt. She gingerly probed her right temple and located a goose egg just above it, but there was no sign of blood on her hand when she drew it away. Was she hurt somewhere else? She turned up her cuff, but there wasn’t a mark on her arm. Nor could she find any kind of wound when she checked beneath the stains on her skirt. The only pain she was experiencing was a headache—which was getting worse.

      “We got an ambulance coming, lady.” It was her taxi driver who spoke, and his earlier anger seemed to have faded. “You just sit tight. You’re going to be all right.”

      “You’re probably in shock,” the other man assured her. “You just take it easy until they get here.”

      Shock. That had to be it. Relief streamed through her. Any minute now, her memory would come flooding back. And in the meantime…There had to be clues. She glanced around the backseat, looking for her purse. A white plastic dress bag was the first thing that caught her eye. It lay half on the seat to her left and half on the floor. She realized she’d been lying on it when she’d first regained consciousness. Instinctively, she lifted the bag, smoothing it as she hung it carefully on the hook over the door. Through a clear plastic panel on the front, she could make out a white lace gown embroidered with tiny seed pearls. A wedding dress?

      Hers?

      The momentary relief she’d felt was shoved out by a fresh wave of panic. Surely she’d remember if she were on the way to her wedding. But why would she be going to her own wedding in a taxi? Wouldn’t she be with family?

      Something knotted in her stomach. Maybe she didn’t have a family.

      She turned to the window. “Sir?” The word sounded like a squeak, and she swallowed hard when her taxi driver’s face once more appeared in the window.

      “You all right?” he asked.

      “Yes,” she lied. “Where did you pick me up?”

      He