Free Lotus Blossom by Hayton Monteith Page B

her mind wandered away from the printed page. At the moment it was a monumental undertaking just breathing, in and out, over and over again. She tried telling herself that she hated Dash, the gambler, the unknown embezzler who had damaged her family. She tried dredging up some of the zeal that had her burgling Dash’s safe, coming out to Las Vegas and getting two jobs to do it, but all she felt was a huge loss and a burdensome emptiness that she couldn’t fill.
    Lotus was half asleep when a raucous voice announced that passengers on Flight 306 bound for Chicago’s O’Hare Airport could board the plane.
    Sighing apathetically, Lotus gripped her ticket and duffel bag and followed after a man whose carry-on luggage banged against his leg at every step. She tried to smile at the flight attendant who tore off part of her ticket.
    “I’m afraid you’ll have to put your duffel bag in the overhead or under your seat. The closet is full.” The blond flight attendant smiled at Lotus.
    “Fine. I’ll put it in the overhead.” Lotus was wondering how she would swing up the heavy duffel bag as she passed through first class and made her way to the window seat to which she’d been assigned. Out of breath, she managed with the help of an older man across the aisle to get her duffel bag into the overhead.
    She scarcely noticed when the powerful machine scampered down the runway, then lifted off in smooth ascent. She closed her eyes, grateful that there were no passengers in the two seats next to her. She didn’t just want to sleep; instead, she wanted to fall down a deep hole and never surface.
    Lotus was halfway between sleep and consciousness when she heard the rattle of the drink cart being maneuvered down the aisle of the airplane. Yawning, she turned to tell the flight attendant that she didn’t want anything to eat or drink. It was then she noticed that the curtain that had been pulled between the first class section and the second class section opened. She blinked her eyes, quite sure that she was sleeping and that she was in the middle of a nightmare. Dash Colby was standing there, his eyes fixed on her as though he had known where she was sitting. She closed her eyes and opened them again. He was still there! And he was coming toward her. She couldn’t seem to take her eyes off him as he waited for the flight attendant who was next to Lotus’s seat now.
    “What lunch would you prefer, beef or chicken?” the flight attendant asked Lotus.
    “Neither.” Lotus pushed the words through spastic lips. “Not hungry.” Her stomach churned.
    “Something to drink then?”
    Lotus shook her head, not able to trust her voice to say anymore. She felt herself stiffen as the cart went by and Dash swung into the middle seat close to her. “What are you doing here?” she asked, stunned.
    “What are you doing here?” he inquired silkily.
    “You can’t threaten me,” Lotus gasped, feeling the menace coming off him choking her like smoke.
    “I asked a simple question.” Dash ran one finger up her arm. “I thought we were supposed to meet later at the casino.”
    “Things change.” Lotus gulped.
    “Don’t they?” The velvet hardness in his voice made every fine hair on her body stand erect. “I thought you acted a little nervous, my dove, so I called when I reached my meeting to see how you were feeling. The good Mrs. Weltz informed me that you had moved out and were flying back East.” He took hold of her hand and put her baby finger into his mouth, his teeth snapping down on it. “Persons at the meeting thought I’d gone crazy when I exploded at the conference table after talking on the phone to your landlady.” His sweet voice was like a fine-honed, double-edged blade. “I called Hans and had him arrange my flight while I drove to the airport, breaking every speeding law.”
    Lotus jumped in her seat, trying to jerk her hand free, but he wouldn’t let her. “I told you my home is in the East,” she