Page 79 of Trouble Comes in Threes

“Aunt Rose, are you okay?”

I shook my head to orient myself. “Did I wake you?”

She slowly nodded.

“I’m sorry,” I said as I reached toward her. I would have gotten up and gone to her, but I felt shaky and nauseated.

She didn’t hesitate to come to me. I tugged her down to the sofa, wrapping an arm around her back and pulling her tightly to my side. Muffy jumped up onto the sofa and curled up in my lap. I stroked her head with my free hand.

“I’m sorry I woke you. I guess I had a nightmare.” But was it just a nightmare? The woman who’d been murdered was the same person from my visions of the warehouse and my dream two nights before, only the vision had expanded and changed. The murdered woman had been in a different part of the warehouse this time, and she’d been shot while she was sitting down.

“You had a bad dream?” she asked, incredulous.

“Grown-ups have bad dreams sometimes,” I said softly, leaning back into the cushions and bringing her with me. Little did she know I had plenty of them.

She snuggled into me. “It must have been really scary.”

“It was.” More than she knew. I had no idea who Selena was, and I’d never seen that man before. Was he part of a new crime group moving into Fenton County? Was he responsible for the two recent murders? The woman who’d been murdered looked so familiar, but I didn’t think I’d ever seen her before. An overwhelming sense of relief that the body I’d seen definitely wasn’t mine took over, but an undercurrent of anxiety still ran through my blood. While I didn’t know the woman, everything in me screamed that I needed to save her.

My mind was racing. I’d obviously had a vision for a woman named Selena, but I was completely alone in the living room. How had that happened? Not to mention, I’d been asleep. Again.

“I heard you say, ‘she got shot.’” Ashley said.

My mouth dropped open, but I quickly shut it as I glanced down at her. “I said that?”

“You were screaming, and then you shouted that, then you screamed some more.”

I didn’t have time to react to that because the deadbolt turned on the front door and glanced over to see an exhausted looking Joe walking in.

“Hey,” he said, glancing at Ashley in surprise. “What are you doin’ up?”

“Aunt Rose had a bad dream.”

Joe’s gaze turned to me as his forehead furrowed with concern.

“It’s nothing,” I said, even though it was definitely something. “I fell asleep on the sofa, and Ashley heard me and came down.”

“She was screaming,” Ashley said solemnly.

Joe’s eyes narrowed as he walked over and sat on the coffee table in front of us. He took my hand. “You okay, darlin’?”

I gave him a weak smile. I knew what he was thinking. He assumed the two murders had stirred up my Hardshaw nightmares. “I’m fine. You’re home late. What time is it?”

He cringed. “Almost eleven.” He turned his attention to Ashley. “You ready to go back to bed?”

She twisted at the waist to look up at me. “Are you okay?”

I gave her a reassuring smile. “I’m fine. Really. I’m sorry I woke you.”

“It’s okay,” she said, but she didn’t seem convinced that I was all right. She turned back to Joe. “Will you tuck me in, Uncle Joe?”

“You know it,” he said, but shot me a worried look.

I mouthed, I’m fine, then scooped Muffy into my arms and grabbed my mug with my free hand as I stood. “I’m going to take my mug to the kitchen, then go upstairs to bed.”

“Okay.” Joe pulled Ashley to her feet and guided her up the staircase, glancing back at me as I walked into the kitchen. After I poured out the half-full mug, I put it in the dishwasher, turned it on, and let Muffy out the back door to do her business. I stood on the porch and watched her, wondering if Dermot’s men were still out in the fields. My dream had shaken me to the core. But while I wished I could write it off as another nightmare, there was no denying it had been a vision. It had all the earmarks of one. I’d felt the tingling in my head, and it had been crystal clear, not muddled like a dream. Ashley said I blurted out what I saw. What I didn’t understand was how I’d had it. It made no sense, yet there was no denying it was too close to the vision I’d had at Piney Rest to be dismissed.

“I thought you were going to bed,” Joe said, walking up behind me. He slipped his arms around my waist, pulling my back to his chest and placing a kiss on my neck.

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