Groaning, he came instantly to consciousness, welcoming it as he rolled over to turn off the alarm. He saw that it wasn’t quite five o’clock. He’d better get up and take another shower—this time a hot one, unlike the one he’d taken before bed last night. Returning home from Jordan’s, his body aching with frustration and unsated need, he had stepped directly into an icy stream of water, hoping to ease the tension enough to sleep. But it was hours before he managed to drift off, and when he did, his dreams carried him back to the place his restless waking thoughts had visited. At first, he saw only Jordan and Spencer, and they were in trouble, and he was leaving them behind. Yet as the nightmarish sequence his mind had conjured wore on, it took an unexpected turn. Jordan and Spencer became Jeanette and Tyler. He knew they were in trouble, knew he had to save them, yet he was powerless to get to them. It was a familiar dream—one that had haunted him over the years. But the parallel between his lost wife and son, and Jordan and Spencer left Beau feeling uneasy.
