Flash Burned (Burned 2)

I crooked a brow at him. It was completely masochistic of me, but I wanted him to say the words I simply couldn’t form in my own mind.

His lips pressed together and he shook his head.

Kyle spoke up again, because he never sugarcoated things for me. Something I’d always appreciated and admired. He simply said, “Body parts.”

My eyes squeezed shut.

My father added, “Everything burned, Ari. The lobby, the vast majority of the main building. Right down to the ground. Including some of the grounds.”

Likely those body parts Kyle had mentioned as well.

I couldn’t fathom any of it. I’d seen the flames, the destruction. Yet it seemed surreal to believe the Lux had been blown to bits. That stunning lobby, all that opulence, Dane’s hard work.

Naturally, I still couldn’t latch on to him being dead. But if he were alive … he would have tracked me down. It would have been the first thing he’d do, and I was easy to find in the hospital.

Even my mother found me.

I let

out a hearty sigh of frustration as she swept into the room the next afternoon, filling it with such an overwhelming citrusy scent it puckered my cheeks.

“Aria Lynne,” she said in a feigned maternal tone. “Oh, darling. I have been so worried. Ever since I heard about the explosion at the hotel.”

“That was several days ago, Mother.” And she was only now showing up, when she lived just an hour and a half away, in Scottsdale?

“Yes, well, I’ve had my hands full. This time of year is always so busy with fund-raisers to attend and—oh, but what I am saying. Of course I came as soon as I could.”

My stomach roiled. I didn’t want her anywhere near me, especially when I was so vulnerable, so emotionally and physically wrecked. I knew everything my mother did was anchored to some sort of demonic need to better her own situation. Whatever she was doing in my hospital room had nothing to do with the fact that I’d been injured in a hellish bombing.

That reality—because I knew it wasn’t me she ever worried over but how everything under the sun impacted her—made all my aches and pains worse.

It was incredibly unfortunate that I had plenty of evidence to prove how distressingly right I was about her devious intentions.

“I thought we agreed to not see or speak to each other ever again,” I reminded her.

Actually, she’d called me in a dither one day to say she’d kill the tell-all book she’d threatened to write about her affairs while my dad was on PGA tours—and would leave me alone. That had come after Dane had paid her off and, I suspected, though he’d never confirmed, had threatened her. He’d said he’d handled it. I didn’t doubt that meant he’d put the fear of God into her.

But Dane was dead now.

That torment stole my breath. Except …

Damn it. Was that why she’d come back?

He’d scared her off. But now that he was gone…?

“What do you want?” I asked in as steady a voice as I could manage. Which really was a crock. I sounded hideous. Pathetic, weak, and hideous, to be exact. Particularly as I fought back tears.

“Aria Lynne,” she breathed in her refined, pseudo-socialite tone. “I read all the news stories, saw all the footage on TV. Why, you could have died, darling. And I just … well…” She sank into the chair beside me and gripped my hand. Which I immediately yanked away.

“Mother, I have stitches in my palms.”

“Oh, I didn’t realize.” She shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “Anyway, Aria Lynne, I spoke with a lawyer and he says there’s a valid lawsuit to pursue on your behalf, and I—”

My mouth opened and I was fairly sure some incredibly scathing words were about to spew forth. But Kyle had come into the room at the same time and he stared at my mother with murder in his eyes.

“You have got to be kidding me!” he blurted. He knew all about her extortion attempt, including the five grand I’d given her initially.

“Meet Kathryn DeMille,” I reluctantly said. “Mother, this is my friend Kyle.”