The Darkness to Come Read Online Free

sometimes referred to her as his “good luck charm. “
    “Promise me you’ll call, okay?” she asked.
    “All right, I promise.”
    She stood on her tiptoes and gave him a quick kiss. “I’ve got to go open the salon. Sistas are beating our doors down with Christmas coming up.”
    He watched her return upstairs. The room was dull in her absence.
    His thoughts doubled back to their conversation about her nightmare, and the dream man.
     Just as Rachel had good feelings about things, Joshua had a bad feeling about this.
    He was convinced that she had lied to him.
     

Chapter 2
     
     
    Rachel had lied to Joshua. Again.
    As quickly as possible, she left home to go open her hair salon. The longer she stayed in Joshua’s presence, the worse she felt about what she’d done.
    She backed her silver Acura TL out of the garage and drove away from the house, winding through the subdivision of spacious homes and large, winter-browned lawns. It was a quarter to seven, the December sun still in hiding. Although she loved the holiday season, she disliked the late sunrises at that time of year. A shower of golden sun rays as she drove to work might have lifted her spirits.
    Or perhaps not. She was burdened with such heavy thoughts that morning that nothing would have improved her mood.
    Why had she lied to Joshua? He was sweet, honest, and loyal, the kind of man she’d longed to meet and had doubted she would ever find. He deserved the best she could give him of herself. He deserved the truth.
    But for so many reasons, she didn’t believe she could give it to him. Not yet.
    Last night’s dream was fresh in her mind. After she’d awakened from the nightmare, Joshua believed she had fallen back to sleep, but when he shut off the lights she’d lain awake for much of the night, plagued by the macabre visions that scored her mind’s eye.
    Was the dream a premonition? Yes, maybe. Hell, not maybe. Probably. She had a lifetime of experience with such things, and had learned to tell the difference between a dream that was a departure from reality—and a dream that foretold a possible reality.
    She had to be careful, watchful.
    In typical Atlanta fashion, traffic was already heavy on Camp Creek Parkway, the four-lane road that snaked past their neighborhood all the way to the marketplace where her salon was located. Cars poured onto Camp Creek from intersecting streets that supported an ever-increasing number of residential communities.
    In her three years living in Atlanta, Rachel had watched the South side transformed from vast acres of silent fields and undisturbed forests of pine and elm into the metro area’s hottest slice of real estate. Some people complained about the rapid pace of growth, but Rachel welcomed it.
    It was easier to stay hidden in a heavily populated area.
    Stopping at a traffic light, Rachel flipped down the sun visor and examined her face in the mirror. She wasn’t looking for flaws, and she wasn’t planning to apply make-up—she had been blessed with a blemish-free complexion that required only a light touch of cosmetics.
    She was inspecting her new look.
    Before moving to Atlanta, she’d worn contact lenses, instead of the thin frame glasses she now sported. Auburn was her natural hair color, and her lush mane had previously hung to the middle of her back. Upon relocating, she’d dyed her hair black and trimmed it to a cute, curly ‘do.
    If someone who’d known her before she came to Atlanta saw her today, they wouldn’t recognize her. She hoped.
    She felt someone watching her, and she spun in her seat. An older man driving a Cadillac Escalade occupied the lane next to her. He winked and flashed a gold-toothed smile.
    She ignored him and turned away. She was too damn jumpy and needed to calm down, get control of her day.
    Ten minutes later, she parked in front of her salon, Belle Coiffure. The name was French for “beautiful hairstyle.” She and her business partner, Tanisha Banks, had opened the