Julian stared at the radio as if it had started spewing obscenities, his mind scarcely able to process what he was hearing.

Airplanes…Twin Towers…America under attack…and he was listening to it all unfold in real time.

And then the rest came back to him.

Trese. Flying in and out of New York—and meeting with Cece Blake at her Atlantic Broadcasting office in the…

God, no.

One skipped heartbeat later, he remembered she’d flown neither United nor American. And that her appointment was for closer to midday.

Thank you. The prayer sprang up from the depth of nowhere, startling him. Besides earlier, on   He couldn’t remember doing that since…since shortly after giving up hope on a second chance with Rachel, on her and Zak’s wedding day. Then, following closely on the heels of his stray prayer, his very next thought, also out of nowhere, was of Destiny.

If she wasn’t yet glued like most of America had to be to a TV screen, she would almost be finished with her session soon. It felt like ages since Zak had called him and he’d turned on his car radio and sat in shock trying to absorb what station after station was reporting. News, music, talk, religion—it didn’t matter. All other operations had ceased in deference to the story of the hour. Of the century, possibly the millennium. America was under attack. For the first time on her own soil.

He needed to get going. This wasn’t one of those days he needed to leave Destiny cooling her heels in the lobby of North Miami Fitness and Rehab.

“You almost here, Julian?”

“No. You have a hot date I don’t know about?”

“No, but—“

“Read a magazine or something. I’ll be there.”

“ ’K.”

 No whining, no censure, no emotional blackmail. And it worked like a charm ninety-percent of the time. His inspiration would suddenly dry up, and he’d close his laptop. Or he’d suddenly not have the energy to complete the set he’d just started on the bench. And he’d stomp down the stairs and slam out of the house. Barely growl a response to her sunny greeting fifteen minutes later, then immediately feel like an old toad when her smile died, and end up spending more time with her than he’d planned before taking her back to Rachel and Zak’s.

Not today. She didn’t need any of that today. Her world—the world they all shared—was changing in a fundamental way, and she was going to need help processing it.

She might already know. Not about Trese…that was his burden alone to carry. For now, anyway. If Trese didn’t get a call through soon, he’d have to rethink his decision to sit on the truth of her whereabouts. But it was early yet, and the phone lines in the Northeast had to be jammed up pretty good by now. No point in jumping the gun and adding to anybody’s distress for nothing. The day would be filled with anxieties enough. Especially with the latest rumors flying around that they were going to start shooting down aircrafts that wouldn’t heed the authorities’ order to land.

No—until he’d heard from Trese and at least had something positive to pass along, he was just going to concentrate on keeping his latest promise to her.

“Not a word of this to anybody, Julian. Promise me.”

He’d sent Trese a dry look and suggested she specify exactly what she wanted him to shut up about, considering how much of what she got up to was hush-hush of late.

She hadn’t cracked a smile as she pinned him with those ebony eyes and emphasized she wanted him to keep his counsel regarding both her trips to Philadelphia as well as the current one to Mexico, including the last-minute detour to New York. And after meeting her unsmiling gaze, he’d quit his teasing and given her his word.

He glanced up at Trese’s front window now. On the other side of it, Jason and Joanna, no doubt still absorbed in each other, likely knew nothing yet about the terror attack on the Twin Towers, or the unconfirmed reports there were other attacks underway—because there was no doubt in anybody’s mind at this point it was a coordinated attack and no accident. It would take a conspiracist like Trese to come up with an alternate theory, and there was a good possibility she was somewhere near the heart of it right now, trying to find her way back home, because he doubted there would be any flight to Mexico or anywhere else leaving out of JFK International the next day.

Heart in his throat and his stomach plummeting to his boots, he glanced from the radio to Trese’s front door and then in the rearview mirror at the road beyond the driveway…and reached for the ignition.

Zak would have to wait a little longer to hear Jason’s voice. The most he could promise Zak for now was to try Jason’s cell himself. If Jason didn’t answer and he and Zak had to wait a little longer to touch bases with each other, they at least each had the comfort of being with the ones they loved. Destiny was stuck with the stone-faced young woman she’d once tried to pass off as her gym coach.

He felt a tug of tenderness at the memory, along with a twinge of remorse. There hadn’t been much tenderness or good humor coming from him in the months since Trese first finagled him into helping out with Destiny in her absence. Not because of any resentment he harbored against Destiny, either. The opposite, in fact. He’d felt the same pull that had endeared her to just about everyone else. He’d just been careful to not let her see it, whether out of prudence, fear of unwanted emotional entanglements or just plain cussedness he wasn’t sure.

In any case, from his first failed attempt at juggling bench presses and conversation with Destiny to his last, just days ago, the result each time had been the same. Her sweetness, sensitivity and accommodating ways crushed by his crassness, exactly the way it happened in his dream just now.

Except that in his dream he seemed to be stuck in some kind of time warp, with no clue what was up with her and therapy. Or why after making a to-do about having a gym membership practically next door to where she went for therapy, she had never taken him up on his offer to accompany her one day as a guest and give her some pointers.

Any other situation, she’d have jumped at the opportunity to do something, anything with him. But she seemed to have made up her mind that the gym was off limits. Yes, it was unisex, she’d assured him when he pressed her. And no, it wasn’t a bunch of rowdy teens or grumpy seniors who went there. She just didn’t seem keen on his participation in the one area of her life he was naturally inclined to take an interest in. For some reason. And for a while he’d had no interest in figuring out why.

That was months ago, before he’d come to know her as well as he now did. Before the day he’d been filling in for Trese while she did a double shift. He’d finished earlier than expected with a South Beach event he’d been covering and ended up going to pick Destiny up from therapy way ahead of schedule.

He felt a pang just remembering her humiliation when she eventually emerged into the outer waiting room and found him waiting there.

Pity, shame, admiration and a host of other unnamed emotions warring in his chest at the memory of the moment he first realized what Destiny had been hiding from him, Julian shifted into reverse and released the brake.

“Hang on, baby girl,” he murmured as he eased the car out of Trese’s narrow driveway. “I’ll be there in two shakes.”