Armageddon Read Online Free PDF Page A

finally he nodded, mouthed something back at her and held up ten fingers.

    Twice.

    Lena bit her lip but finally nodded. He was with a client. She’d just have to be patient.

    16
    Mentally reciting the mantra she’d been repeating to herself for a week now--‘act normal’--she headed back the way she’d just come. She would’ve liked to have waited for Nigel outside the procedure room, because she knew how absentminded he could get when he was working. He was always totally focused on his job and probably wouldn’t even think to stop and eat at all if not for the chime prompters.
    She hoped he didn’t forget he’d promised to meet her for lunch, but she was afraid to stay because no matter how many times she repeated the mantra in her head she felt-- knew she had a tenuous grip on calmness at best. If she stayed, she was going to embarrass her big brother in front of his co-workers at the very least.

    At worst....

    Well, she didn’t know how anything could possibly be worse than they were already.

    Either she’d lost her mind, or Morris wasn’t Morris anymore.

    That didn’t even make sense to her, but she could not convince herself, no matter how hard she tried, that the man currently staying in her spare bedroom was the same man that had cared for her and Nigel throughout their childhood. She also couldn’t convince herself that whatever it was that was wrong with him was something natural, the results of some sort of medical problem.

    Either someone had been screwing with his mind very deliberately, or....

    The other possibility was just plain unthinkable. And impossible.

    He’d managed to deftly evade every attempt she’d made to get him near a clinic.
    That was very like Morris who hated doctors and distrusted anyone in any kind of authority so that in itself wasn’t the part that bothered her. It was the way he went about it that bothered her. He didn’t argue. He evaded.

    Morris loved to argue.

    She felt as if she was in mourning for a loved one. Almost from the time she’d encountered the complete stranger that was wearing Morris’ face she’d felt as if a vice was tightening around her chest cutting off her air. She hardly knew where she was half the time, or what she was doing. The focus of her entire world seemed to have zeroed in on the deep and painful sense of loss she couldn’t shake and she was barely aware of anything beyond that narrow scope of pain.

    When she left the Quasar Corp. building, she stepped off the walk and threaded her way through the clutter of commuters on the south bound people mover. A number of people glared at her for cutting across instead of taking the upper level mover that was heading west, but except for begging pardon and trying harder to avoid collisions, she ignored them.

    She was concentrating hard on containing the emotions roiling inside of her, but impatience was eating at her tenuous hold.

    When she finally reached the walk on the other side, she glanced around at the tables of the café. Spying one tucked into a reasonably private alcove created by a potted plant and a low stone wall, she headed for it. Movement caught her eye before she was halfway across the courtyard and she glanced instinctively toward it.

    It was a woman and she was headed for the same table.

    Gritting her teeth, Lena made a dash for the table and plopped down in one of the chairs.

    “Hey! I was going to sit here!”

    17
    Feeling abruptly territorial, Lena turned and glared at the woman. “So was I and I did. I was here first.”
    “Because you ran,” the woman said sharply.
    “And?” Lena growled challengingly. It was stupid and she knew it. There were several other tables available. It wasn’t as if she’d grabbed the only one.
    And she knew the other woman had actually been closer than she was and had every reason to feel as if she’d had first dibs.
    She didn’t care. As irrational as she knew it was, as dangerous as it was to argue publicly where they