Dream Bound Read Online Free PDF

gone wrong. His mind spun in too many directions to pin down any particular problem to worry about, and then ... “Well, shit. One more thing.” He stared at a set of headlights winding up the long private driveway to his house. Where the fuck did they come from?
    Who in the hell could have come through the locked gate? Only a couple of people knew the combination—his attorney was in Washington on business, and Dink had called just this morning from New York where he was shooting a news special about global climate change. No way either of them could be here.
    Quietly, quickly, Mac stood and slipped inside, grabbed the .45 automatic he kept by the door, and went out on to the front porch. Standing under the porch light in full view of his unknown visitor, he waited while the headlights drew closer. He heard the soft growl of an expensive engine as the vehicle took the last switchback below the house and then rolled into the driveway.
    Security lights flashed on as the vehicle pulled up to the garage, and recognition struck like lightning. Laughing, Mac opened the door and put the gun away. Then he strode quickly across the lawn as nationally famous news anchor and Mac’s closest friend since forever, Nils Dinkemann, unfolded his lanky frame and crawled out of the little Mercedes sports coupe.
    “You’re supposed to be in New York!” Mac grabbed him in a tight hug and fought an uncharacteristic need to burst into tears. Damn, but he’d missed this guy.
    Dink hugged him, and then stood back and looked him in the eye, something not that many men were tall enough to do. “No, I need to be here. I didn’t realize you were this close, that you’re headed up to the site tomorrow. You’re going for it, aren’t you? You’re going to find Zianne.”
    Stunned, Mac stepped back, out of Dink’s grasp. “What? What do you mean?” He’d never told anyone the truth about Zianne, not even Dink. Never once had he given away her secret, that she wasn’t just a beautiful, brilliant computer geek who’d loved him and then dumped him for no reason, that she was instead an alien creature from not only another world in another galaxy but from another time.
    Dink shook his head. His smile didn’t reach his eyes, and exhaustion marred his otherwise youthful appearance. “It’s okay, Mac. You don’t have to lie to me. We both suspected from the beginning that Zianne wasn’t human.” His lips tilted in that familiar grin Mac loved.
    “It used to bug me, that you didn’t trust me enough to tell me what you knew, but I figured you had your reasons, that Zianne had her reasons. When she disappeared ...” He shrugged and shook his head. “You gonna invite me in?”
    Mac stared at him, trying to take in the fact that Dink knew, had known all along. One of the top investigative reporters of all time, and yet he’d sat on a secret like Zianne? It made no sense, but Dink’s profession was the only reason Mac had never said anything. As much as he loved the guy, he knew how important Dink’s work was to him. How much he’d always loved ferreting out a story. It hadn’t been worth the risk.
    Except Dink knew. He’d known all along.
    Mac nodded. Brushed a shaky hand across his eyes. “Yeah, I’m gonna invite you in. And you’re going to get roaring drunk with me while I tell you a story you can’t tell anyone, especially on the six o’clock news. Do I have your promise?”
    He stared into Dink’s silvery blue eyes and saw his own reflection in their depths. Dink just smiled at him—the same smile he’d given Mac when they were just little kids trying to stay sane in a totally screwed-up world.
    A world where they’d each lost their parents much too young and ended up in foster care, tossed into a system that wasn’t prepared for a couple of little boys with brilliant, totally screwed-up minds. They’d kept each other sane, in a few cases kept each other alive. Over the years they’d forged a link that not even