She nodded. "I'll leave you alone." Clearing her throat, she stepped back from him, and it took all his strength not to pull her closer.
"Just remember, sometimes people will put you ahead of themselves. It does happen."
He snorted. "Yeah, the whole world is just rainbows and puppies. Boy Scouts really do help old ladies cross the street without mugging them and no one ever ignores a trauma victim's screams."
"Aidan-"
"Don't. It's impossible to believe in the world you describe when your own family sold you out for nothing more than cruelty and money."
He saw the acknowledgment in her gaze before she withdrew from the room.
Yeah, he knew he was a bastard. Just like he knew there were decent people out there. They just didn't exist in his world. When he'd been poor no one had ever helped him. People had gone on with their lives as if he were invisible and that had been fine with him. He didn't mind invisibility.
Actually, that wasn't true. He'd wished repeatedly in his life that he really had been as invisible as other people had made him feel.
Closing his eyes, he could still see Heather's beautiful face. Hear her laughter. When it had all begun, he'd thought losing her would be unbearable. That it would destroy him.
By the end of it, he hadn't missed her at all. Not even a little, which made him realize why they'd been able to turn on him without remorse. There was no such thing as real love. The heart was just another organ, pumping blood through his body. There was no magic to it. No spiritual bonding between friends and family.
People were users, plain and simple. Hoping for anything better only led to bitter disappointment.
No, this was his life. He'd be alone until the day he died. But deep inside him was still that stupid, insipid dream of one day having a family. Ever since his parents had been killed by a drunk driver, he'd missed that sense of bonding. Of family belonging. His parents had loved each other dearly and had had mutual respect-at least it had looked that way to his seven-year-old mind.
Who knew what the truth really was. Maybe they'd hated each other as much as his brother hated him, and like Donnie they'd kept it a secret.
As for Heather, that bitch was the one who should have an Oscar on her mantel instead of him. Her acting had been exceptional right up until the end.
And right outside his door was the first woman to set foot in his house since Heather had walked out of it...
"So what?" he asked himself under his breath. One woman was as good as another and most likely she was twice as treacherous.
Disgusted with it all, he lay down on the couch and turned on his TV to let his Star Wars DVD distract him from the madness of letting a stranger into his home.
Leta paused as she felt the slight unconscious tugging in the back of her mind. There were really no words to describe the sensation, but anytime a human target went to sleep, a dream god could feel it. As quietly as she could, she made her way back to Aidan's den where she found him dozing on the couch.
He was leaning back with one foot still on the floor and one arm draped over his face. Cocking her head, she stared at how strangely attractive his pose was. His faded T-shirt was stretched tight over a chest that was absolutely ripped.
The stubble on his cheeks only emphasized the rugged handsomeness of his features. He looked vulnerable and yet at the same time she had no doubt that if she made the slightest sound, he'd jerk awake, ready for battle.
As she closed her eyes to spy on his dreams, she saw the snowstorm outside that she'd started was permeating his subconscious. Kneeling on the floor by his side, she let her thoughts drift until they connected more fully with his.
Here in the dream world she was an observer who followed his lead.
He stood outside a basic Cape Cod house where lights twinkled against a dark snowy storm. She heard the sounds of laughter and music coming from inside the home.
Curious, she moved to stand beside Aidan as he spied on the party's attendants through a frosted window.
"Look at them," he said as if accepting her presence in his dreams without question. His lips were curled disdainfully.
Leta scowled at the revelers who were toasting each other during a Christmas party. "They seem very happy."
"Yeah, like a nest of scorpions waiting to strike each other down." He jerked his chin toward a thin, pretty woman in the rear of the group. "The blonde in the corner is my ex-fiancee, Heather. The balding guy she's draped over is my brother, Donnie."
The two were making cooing noises at each other before they drank out of the same wine glass. Boy, Freud would have had a field day with Aidan's dreams.
"Why are they together?" she asked him.
"That's an interesting question. After I gave Donnie a job, Heather threw a fit over it. Next thing I knew he'd started snaking on the bitch. The most amazing thing is she always told me she absolutely hated him. She thought he was brainless redneck trash who needed help to tie his own shoes."
He shook his head as he pointed to a brown-haired man at the table across from Heather and Donnie. "That's Bruce. He was the president of my fan club and a longtime personal friend. My nephew Ronald befriended him and the next thing I knew the two of them were off spreading more lies than even my publicist could counter. What kills me is that I know exactly what my nephew really thinks about Bruce. Man, if he only knew what Ronald said about him the minute he was out of earshot. For that matter, all of them. They never hesitated to insult each other to me because they knew I wouldn't betray their trust. A more treacherous bunch of snakes never existed. And what really baffles me about them is that after having seen the way they all turned on me for no other reason than simple jealousy, they're dumb enough to believe that the same people who screwed me over would never do it to them. Unbelievable idiots."
Leta tilted her head as she heard his memories in her mind. As he said, each of the people in the room had said horrible things about one another to him. They'd played against each other and done anything they could to keep their hands in Aidan's fame while trying their best to alienate him from the others in hopes of hanging on to him tighter. It was frightening to think they would be capable of getting along with each other given the things they'd said behind each other's backs to Aidan. "I don't understand. Why would they do this?"
Aidan led her away from the house, through the storm, until they were again inside his cabin. He went to the desk she'd seen just inside his living room. It was a tall, Colonial-style writing desk, complete with leaves and Chippendale trim.
Without a word, he opened a drawer and pulled out a folded sheet of paper. His gaze was dark as he handed to her.
Unfolding it, Leta glanced over the list of names. Some had marks through them while others were marked with stars. "What's this?"
"Donnie's list. He'd gone through all my contacts and friends, systematically trying to befriend them. He kept telling me that I had to pay him whatever he wanted because if I didn't, he'd ruin me since all of my friends were now his. 'They'll believe me over you anytime,'" Aidan mocked in what must have been his brother's voice.
Leta was aghast. "You've got to be kidding me."
"Trust me, I'm not that creative. Everyone from my agent to my banker is on that list. The names with marks through them are the friends he couldn't convert with his lies."
"What happened to them?"
"Donnie and Heather ran them out of my life without my even knowing it. I was off on a trip making my last movie when he ousted my booking manager. Richard had been with me since the very beginning. Apparently something had happened between them and Donnie fired him and threw him out of my house and office. I didn't even find out about it until I'd gotten back weeks after the fact."
"Did you call Richard?"
"I started to when word got back to me of the lies he was then spouting about me to my so-called friends. It wasn't until later that I realized it was Ronald's girlfriend who, at Ronald's behest, was playing as everyone's friend, and she'd goaded Richard into it. She was moving between everyone, spreading crap just to watch all of us fight."
"Why would she do that?"
He sighed wearily. "I've asked myself that a thousand times over and I'm no closer to an answer now than I was when it began. I think that's why I always loved movies so much. In a movie, everything has to make sense. The characters always have to have motivation. Good,solid motivation for everything they do. They can't be a dickhead without reason. If someone turns on a character, they have to have a hardcore, believable reason for it. Unfortunately, in real life you don't. People turn on each other for anything from catching a constipated look on your face when you had gas and thinking it was directed at them, to not liking the brand of shoes you're wearing. People are sick."
Leta glanced down at the list of names in her hand. She couldn't believe anyone would be so cold. So conniving. Surely there was more to it than what Aidan was telling her.
Wasn't there?
Surely he'd done something to deserve it. Yet as she used her powers to look over the situation, she realized that he hadn't. Unlike his brother and nephew, he'd been giving to a fault. Loving to a fault. Unfortunately, he'd given his love and trust to the wrong people.
"The simplest reason," Aidan continued, "is my brother was jealous. He wanted to have my life and he did everything he could to take it. He got Heather on his side and into his bed. Then for a time he'd wooed my fans, even though he kept stirring them up and had them turning on each other more times than he didn't. For whatever reason, he thought he could use them to blackmail or steal my money from me. What he forgot was that I didn't get to where I am by being afraid to stand up for myself. More than that, he wasn't the first person to try and ruin me and I doubt he'll be the last. But I am still standing and it's going to take a lot more than his crap-ass lies to knock me down."
Leta wanted to weep at the conviction she felt inside him. At the raw pain. She didn't know where it came from, but admiration for him swelled deep inside her. He was strength personified.
Everything about him was integrity and honesty, even in the face of such unrelenting hatred and hostility.
His eyes burning, he cupped her cheek in his warm hand. "Why are you here with me?"
Several lies came to her mind, but she didn't want to lie to a man who'd been dealt more than his share of them. And since they were in a dream state, there really was no reason to. "Your brother has summoned a demon out to kill you."
He laughed.
"I'm serious, Aidan. As crazy as it sounds, your brother found a way to summon a god of pain from his slumber and he has commanded him to torture and kill you."
"And you're going to save me." He laughed again, then sobered. "Why would you do that?"
"It's my job."
The expression on his handsome features looked less than convinced. "So you just randomly follow the god of pain around trying to protect his targets. What are you, the antipain fairy?"
"Something like that."
He snorted. "Note to self on waking. Lay off the beer on an empty stomach. This dream is even more screwed up than the time I had a donkey and a corkscrew."
Leta frowned. "Donkey and a corkscrew?"
"I don't know you well enough to fill you in on those details."
Before Leta could ask more, she felt that deep sense of foreboding in the pit of her stomach. She looked around, but the cabin was the same in this realm as it had been in the mortal one.
"Aidan-"
Before she could say anything more, Dolor grabbed him from behind and knocked him to the ground.