Welcome to the Dream (A Celeste Cross Book, #1) (6 page)

He'd lost other people over
the years. He'd been too slow, he'd made mistakes, and people had
died. It didn't feel the same as it did with Annabel
though.

Jack drummed his fingers on the
desk. ‘I guess you're right,’ he conceded.

Cindy's smile tugged at her lips
until it revealed a slice of her white, even teeth. ‘Then you'll
have to join us at the bar afterwards. No doubt we'll be
celebrating.’

She always had a certain
twinkle in her eye when she talked about taking him out for a
drink. And no, he wasn't an idiot – he knew exactly what it meant.
Jack wasn't going to let anything mix with his work
though.

‘
Right then, I guess I'd better
go and get ready for this teleconference.’ He pushed up from his
chair, tugging down on his shirt, dust falling off his sleeves and
drifting onto the floor.

Cindy's eyes darted over him.
‘Just what exactly have you been up to?’

Jack flattened a hand over his
chest as he tried to brush away more grit. ‘Turning a hot water
cylinder on.’

‘
You mean at your dad's place? I
thought Susie was gone for 6 months.’

‘
She's got a house-sitter in.’
Jack found another patch of mud on the belt of his pants, but gave
up on trying to rub it off.

‘
Who is he?’

‘
She's the daughter of one of
Susie's friends. She is a programmer or something, I think.’ Jack
looked up.

Cindy got a sharp look in
her eyes for, but it disappeared the instant Jack mentioned the
word programmer.

Was Cindy
jealous?

She gave a snort. ‘You mean some
greasy chick with unwashed hair and a bad complexion?
Really?’

Cindy could get quite nasty
when she wanted to, and Jack knew she hadn't even begun. She was
barking up the wrong tree though. Celeste Cross wasn't some dingy,
greasy, long-haired female equivalent of your stereotypical
computer nerd. She had a distractingly curvy body, which he'd
caught just a tantalizing glimpse of when she'd rounded the corner
without a top on. She also had long, clean, and probably quite
touchable hair, and a cute, heart-shaped face. He wasn't about to
describe that to Cindy though.

‘
What's a girl like that doing at
your aunt's house? That close to the forest? Isn't she going to get
frightened by every bump in the night?’ Cindy arched an
eyebrow.

‘
I'm sure she'll be fine.’ Jack
walked around the side of his desk and gave her a short, sharp nod,
and he hoped she got the point. Conversation over. ‘I want a
constant update on your mission tonight. Everything. If anything
goes wrong—’

‘
Yeah, yeah, I've got it. Burst
in on your incredibly important meeting with the head of NATO and
plant a gun in your hand.’ Cindy twisted around to look at him as
he passed.

‘
That's it.’ Jack walked
off.

Chapter 5

Celeste Cross

She'd unpacked everything,
and now it was coming up to seven o'clock and her stomach was
grumbling.

There was no food in the
house. Literally nothing. Not even a can of beans. She'd managed to
rustle up only pepper, salt, and baking soda. Wow, when Susie had
said that the cupboards were bare, she hadn't been fibbing. Now
Celeste had to face the prospect of going out again, cramming into
some decent clothes, and getting back in her stinking hot
car.

She was dragging her feet as
she headed towards the front door, cursing as she went. She loved
talking to herself when no one was around. Maybe it was a habit
from living and working on her own.

‘
Okay, okay, we'll just go to the
store, it'll only take half an hour, maybe an hour at most.
Celeste, stop bloody complaining,’ her voice was firm, but her
resolve was weak. By the time she opened the door, she was
practically flopping against it.

‘
But it's too bloody hot.’ She
latched a hand on her singlet and pulled at it, trying to get as
much air on her chest and neck as she could.

You are going
to get lost.
She thought
as she wrenched the door open, a blast of humid heat hitting her
face and exposed arms. Though it was already evening, the day
hadn't cooled down much. Which just meant it would be a stinking
hot night. And Celeste hated hot nights. She couldn't sleep, no
matter how many windows she opened or fans she had on or how little
she wore, she wouldn't get cool enough to drift
off.

What was worse, tomorrow was
meant to be hotter. Jack had said that through a distracting smile,
hadn't he? For just a second Celeste let her imagination wander off
and be entertained by exactly how hot one could get around Jack
West. Then she shook her head. ‘You have to go to the store, go to
the store, come on, get to the door.’

She finally dragged herself
to her car, already feeling the sweat dribbling down the middle of
her shoulders as she did.

I'm going to
have to get like ten ice creams.
She promised herself as she took the car slowly
down the gravelly, steep driveway. Susie's house was really in the
middle of nowhere. Though Celeste hadn't had a chance to explore
the property yet, Susie had told her it was on a good 20 acres. And
beyond that was State Reserve, backing onto one of the military
training grounds. There were no neighbors for
kilometers.

It was peaceful and Celeste
loved peaceful. She really wasn't one for having neighbors pressed
right up against her house. She liked to have her anonymity, mostly
because a) she talked to herself, and b) she liked to play her
music as loud as she pleased.

With this beautiful isolated
house, Celeste knew she was going to enjoy this holiday. And of
course, at that point, a certain name popped into her head. Jack
West. Now wasn't he a pleasant surprise and a pleasant distraction
too. Not for the first time she wondered exactly why Susie hadn't
mentioned her nephew was drop-dead gorgeous.

Oh well, Celeste quite liked
surprises.

Once again as she was
driving to town, she got lost and took a wrong turn, yet again
ending up near the army base. She was really going to have to pay
more attention to the roads around here, lest they think she was
spying on them or something. After a half-hour, she finally found
her way into Gresham City. It was probably going on 7:30pm at least
and her stomach was starting to rumble very loudly. How she'd
subsisted for most of the day only on ice cream she didn't know,
but it was something she was now going to rectify.

The first thing she did was
head to the nearest supermarket and practically buy them out. She
couldn't believe that the only items Susie had in her cupboard were
baking soda and rudimentary condiments. But that was about to
change. After Celeste spent a good $300 on groceries, she packed
them into her car and then went to get something to eat. She found
a nice little Japanese restaurant and sat down to a yummy bowl of
natto and rice. She managed to while away an hour, reading some of
the magazines they had or just staring at the street outside.
Gresham City was quite lovely; it had a mix of old architecture
interspersed with long median strips planted with massive leafy
green oaks. What was more, every now and then the view was dotted
with very muscular handsome army types walking around in their
uniforms.

After she'd eaten, she'd
walked along what looked like the main street of the City, just
dawdling, wasting time before she went back to her car and no doubt
got lost on the way home again.

She had sandals on, and even
though the night had cooled down, her feet were still sticky and
wet with sweat. But with a full belly and the knowledge that her
car was packed with food, she didn't mind the heat so
much.

There were all sorts of
stores, from haberdashery, to newsagents, to several second-hand
stores too. They were all closed; it was nudging nine o'clock after
all. Yet when Celeste crossed the road and walked along the other
side, she noticed that one still had lights on and, what was more,
had the door open and an open sign buzzing in the
window.

She screwed up her nose as
she peered into the doorway. It looked like a second-hand
bookstore. There were rows and rows of messy boxes with all sorts
of books and magazines spilling out of them.

Celeste loved books,
especially second-hand books; she loved a bargain. She couldn't
think of a better way to spend a day than looking through all the
shelves trying to find a couple of gems here and there.

She teetered on the
doorstep, not sure whether she should go in, then she just shrugged
her shoulders.
It says open, I'm going in.
She thought as she entered.

It had a low ceiling, with
bright neon globes dotted at neat intervals, casting their vibrant
illumination on top of the old gritty, ceiling-high
bookcases.

Celeste's sandals flopped
against the unpolished floorboards, each one giving a squeak as she
shifted her weight.

For some reason she wanted
to keep as quiet as she could, even though, as she kept on pointing
out to herself, the store was open, and there was nothing wrong
with frequenting a store that was open.

She shifted over to one of
the boxes further into the shop, leaning down and picking up a book
that looked as if it was smack bang out of the '70s. It had a gaudy
green and orange cover, and had a person with electricity and
lightning bolts zapping out of their brain. She turned it around in
her fingers and realized it was a manual for acquiring psychic
powers.

She chuckled to herself,
putting the book back in the box. Then she moved further along one
of the shelves near her, grabbing at a hardcover cookery book that
promised to teach her how to make the perfect up-side-down
cake.

There was a squeak behind
her, and she turned on her foot quickly.

There was a man, pretty
short, with a long, bushy, silver beard. He was wearing an old pair
of brown corduroy pants and a checked shirt.

It's probably
just the owner.
Celeste
thought as she offered him a warm smile. ‘I don't suppose you have
anything on dreaming, do you?’

The man stood there,
considering her, his narrow, grey eyes never blinking.

She gave an uneasy gulp. ‘I can
them find myself, sorry to bother you.’ She turned, intending to
shuffle along the shelf she was near, and then make her way out of
the store.

The man cleared his throat,
the floorboards creaking as he shifted his weight, stepping over to
her.

It really was a narrow,
cramped store, and Celeste found herself being pressed up against
one of the overflowing boxes behind her.

‘
This is . . . a
nice store,’ she mumbled, looking for something to say.

The man had an intense face
– that was the only way to describe it. His features were sharp,
long, and right now they were crumpled in obvious
confusion.

‘
Oh well, I guess I'd better get
out of your hair. You're probably closing, right? Well, nice to
meet you.’ Celeste tried to shift away, but the man took a step in
front of her.

His expression kept on
crumpling, his eyes narrowing further, his cheeks pressing up, his
nose crinkling.

‘
Can I help you?’ Celeste's voice
was choppy.

‘
Who are you?’ the man finally
spoke, and it was a stuttering, punctuated sound, reminding Celeste
of gunshots for some reason.

Her cheeks started to redden,
her back feeling cold. ‘Oh, I'm new around here. I'm just saying
for a couple of months. Anyhow, nice to meet you.’ She moved to get
past him.

Again he moved in her way. ‘No,
who are you?’

Celeste faltered.
Oh great, what was
this guy on?

She took a steadying breath, and
tried to calm her nerves. Straightening up, she tried to look at
him evenly. ‘I'm going now,’ she said clearly.

He stepped towards her,
actually grabbing hold of her wrist.

She spluttered. ‘Excuse me?’ She
tried to tug her hands free.

His eyes were so narrowed
now, that his stormy grey irises were just pinpricks, hardly
visible under the shadows playing across his face as he dipped his
head low towards her.

She stiffened up, pulling at her
wrist harder, finally tugging it free. Then she stepped aside,
stumbling over some boxes but not caring for a second. ‘I'm sorry I
came into the store. I thought it was open,’ she said, the words
tumbling out of her mouth. She had no idea what this man was on and
why he was acting so aggressively. Okay, maybe he was angry at the
fact she'd come into his store so late, but maybe he was just
loony. Point was, she was getting out of here right now.

‘
Monsters consume man, Sage
consumes monsters,’ the man said, voice punctuated, stuttering tone
sending chills down her back.

Celeste let out a sharp breath.
She stopped herself from laughing though. Instead she offered him a
short nod. ‘Goodbye.’ With that she turned around and rather
quickly made her way around the shelves and then out the
door.