"I won't be there long... ." she said, trying to make the idea palatable and failing miserably.
He set a pan on the fire and dumped a can of beans into the blackened inside. "What do you mean?"
She frowned, still thinking. "Once I go to sleep, I'll wake up."
"Uh-huh."
She warmed to the idea. It felt right. Once she went to sleep, she'd eventually wake up. And this nightmare would be over. "Then I'll be back in my bed on Bain-bridge." She looked at him. "No offense, but I'm getting tired of you. I want to go home."
He stared at her, his eyes narrowed and assessing, his mouth drawn into a frown. "You're not going anywhere until we talk, lady."
"Lainie," she said.
"Huh?"
"My name is Alaina Costanza. People call me Lainie."
He snorted. "Whatever. The point is, you've got some talking to do, but I'm too damn tired and hungry to bother with you tonight."
"It's just as well," she answered. "You wouldn't believe me anyway."
He gave her a hard look. "You better hope I do."
Lainie felt a shiver of apprehension slide down her back. She crossed her arms and glanced away from him, unable to keep staring into the threatening darkness of his eyes. He was exactly the man she'd created?hard, uncompromising, selfish, and cruel.
She stared out at the dusky, inhospitable valley and suddenly felt small and frightened and alone.
Jesus, she hoped the dream ended before his questioning began.
65
God, it was dark out here. Really dark.
Lainie stood at the edge of the now-slumbering fire. The small hump of sticks had burned down to a glowing, throbbing coil of red-gold embers. Remnant scents of supper?baked beans and coffee?clung to the cool night air, lending an impossible homeyness to the desolation of the desert.
"You gonna stand there all night?"
Lainie didn't look at him. He'd asked her the same question five minutes ago. She hadn't answered then, either. She couldn't say precisely what was wrong, but something was. She felt .. . disconnected and vaguely afraid. As if something were hovering out there, in the endless darkness, waiting for her to close her eyes.
"That's crazy," she murmured, trying to sound strong and resilient. Even to her own ears, she failed. Out here in the great alone, all she sounded was weak.
"You're crazy, lady," he said, slowly kneeling beside the fire.
She was careful not to make eye contact. She didn't want to look at him right now, didn't want to see her obvious neuroses reflected in his brown eyes. She just wanted to be left alone. She wanted to wander to some lonely place with a queen-sized bed and tumble into a dreamless sleep.
The kind of peaceful, restless sleep she'd never experienced in her life.
She needed that now. Needed it with an intensity that frightened her. She crossed her arms tightly and spun away from the fire, pacing.
All she had to do was crawl into the bag and go to sleep. It sounded simple enough. Hell, it couldn't be any simpler.
But it didn't feel simple.
She shook her head. "Stupid, stupid, stupid."
66
"No one would argue that point with you."