Seeing Is Believing by Lindsay McKenna Page A

Diana felt the invisible heat, like spider webs, that encircled her neck with lethal intent. Blackness closed in on her. She heard Wes’s strident, off-key voice, felt his hands gripping her shoulders. She was floating. Floating. Little by little, the invisible cords wrapped around her neck began to ease. Slowly, her breathing became less harsh. Moments melded into one another, and all Diana was aware of was her heart thundering in her breast—and Wes holding her hard against him.
    Gradually, the darkness began to ease and she saw grayness again. Her fingers loosened from around her throat, and she felt terribly weak. She sagged, her head lolling against the warmth of Wes’s chest. She realized she must have fallen to the carpeted floor. He’d knelt over her, scooping her into his arms. Diana honed in on his ragged breath, his voice calling her, his hand touching her here and there to make sure she was going to be all right. The intensity of his care for her dissolved whatever terror remained.
    “Diana! Talk to me!” He was wild with fear. He divided his attention between her and the deadly gourd that now lay on the floor no more than six feet away from them. Anxiously, he held her in his arms, her body still limp against his, although her skin was slowly beginning to regain its color. Touching her cheek, he felt warmth flowing back into her. Moments before, she’d been chilled, her flesh icy to his touch. Breathing hard, Wes caressed her hair, her cheek.
    “Are you okay?” he demanded.
    Weakly, Diana lifted her lashes. She saw the burning light in his eyes, the grim set of his mouth as his hand fluttered nervously across her. Trying to smile and not succeeding, she whispered, “I’ll be okay…just give me a moment, please?” Her voice was off-key, faint.
    Wes was torn between getting up, racing out to the police cruiser and ordering the officer to get an ambulance for Diana, and staying here at her side. But what the hell would he tell the man? Indeed, what could he say to a doctor at a local hospital emergency room? That Diana had touched a red gourd and had gone into an anaphylactic reaction where she’d stopped breathing and turned blue-gray? They’d look at him as if he were certifiably insane. No, he’d best stay with her. The color was coming back to her face and her eyes no longer looked as traumatized. He loosened his iron grip on her and held her more gently.
    “You scared the hell out of me,” he rasped against her ear. “Don’t ever do that again, you hear me? I care too much for you, Diana. Too much….”
    SHAD11005SEEING IS BELIEVING

Chapter Five
    D iana stared up at Wes, not quite believing what he’d said. The feelings coursing through her confirmed what she’d heard. To be in his arms, to feel his natural strength and be the recipient of his care overwhelmed her confused senses. Other pictures kept impinging upon her consciousness, and she struggled to sit up on her own.
    “Wes…get a paper and pencil.” She pressed the palms of her hands against her closed eyes and leaned forward, resting them against her drawn-up knees. “Hurry. I’m getting all kinds of impressions….”
    Muttering beneath his breath, Wes heaved to his feet and raced into the living room of the casita to retrieve his briefcase. Throwing it on the bed, he glanced anxiously at Diana, who remained motionless on the carpeted floor. His heart was pounding with fear as he found a legal pad and pen. Sitting down next to her, his back against the bed, he said, “Go ahead.”
    “I see her. I see Ruth. She’s a small woman, built like a bird, very skinny. She looks so gaunt. So unhappy.” Her voice broke with tears. “The gourd. She held the gourd. It stunned her. She threw it up into the closet.” Diana tried to take the urgency out of her voice, but she felt so many serrated emotions. “I hear angry voices. She’s arguing with someone…a man. It’s a man.” The pictures faded and she waited. Perhaps more