by Chris Lange
Raphael stood by the secure room, his spine cracking as he drew up his shoulders. The sharp noise broke her immobility and prompted her to his side.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“I’ve seen worse, don’t worry.”
“I was scared out of my wits when you got stuck in the telepod with him. Gosh, I think I’m still trembling.”
The vampire took hold of both her hands and kept them between his own, his dark gaze free of fear, anxiety or satisfaction. “But your man rescued me, and I am in his debt. He’s very brave, and he loves you unconditionally.”
Her cheeks tingled with heat. Raphael hadn’t lowered his voice and a deaf man would have caught his words of praise. Unsure what to say, she watched him as he released her fingers.
“Tracy, you have much to discuss with your friends. With your permission, I’ll stay with your son until nightfall.”
“I’ve always trusted you. You’re my guardian angel and you certainly don’t need my permission to be with Johnny.”
He smiled his lonely smile before brushing his lips over her knuckles. She punched in the code to let him in the secure room and check on Johnny. Her little boy slept soundly, his features relaxed and peaceful.
She turned to Raphael in time to see him walk to Garrett first, put a fist on his heart, and briefly incline his head. The vampire’s silent gratefulness touched her lover because he gave a nod in turn. With a flowing movement, Raphael glided back to her, entered the room, and left the door ajar.
Then they all stared at each other, extreme relief mingling with joy and excitement. Jake Cooper directed his gaze at her father.
“Sir, if I may ask, where did you send Khrull?”
“That’s the thing, you see . . .”
Her dad scratched one side of his head where white hair battled with brown before lowering his hand to rub his cheek. “I don’t know.”
“You don’t?” She heard surprise in her own voice. Her father wasn’t in the habit of not knowing things, especially regarding his work. He sat down on the bench and, except for Garrett, everybody gathered around the table.
“I’ve recently discovered another world,” her dad said. “I’ve been meaning to explore it of course, but I had to deal first with certain technical aspects. Traveling over there isn’t safe yet. Then the immortal barreled into our lives again and I began to see this universe might be a solution to our problem. If all else failed, I could send him there.”
“What about the people living in that world?” she asked. “They didn’t ask for anything and you’ve just delivered them a raving lunatic who can’t die.”
“True, Tracy, it’s a possibility. Although I don’t think so.”
“Why not?”
“I had a glimpse into those new territories and all I saw was dark, barren lands. I need to run some tests, but I’m fairly sure that place is unfit for human beings.”
Her lungs expanded. She breathed and air whooshed inside, infusing her veins with strength, soothing her limbs and mind. “Do you mean he’ll die over there?”
“In all probability, yes. Immortal or not, lack of oxygen and sunlight don’t play well with the human genetic constitution.”
So they’d really done it. They’d destroyed the crazy fucker for good and the nerve-racking adventure ended here. Nobody had been badly hurt, Johnny was safe, and she was free to take him back home. Her belly started writhing, shards of anguish splintering her guts, but she refused to glance at Garrett.
“Sir, why do you think the immortal called Johnny a half-breed?” Andrew’s question hung over their heads for a few seconds before her father took a long breath and looked at each of them.
“I’d say because Johnny is the product of two different universes.”
She didn’t care much for the term ‘product’ though his statement made sense. Born of a twenty-first-century woman and of an alternate reality nineteenth-century man, her son certainly was a unique child.
Nerves twitching along the tips of her fingers, she stilled her hands. “I wonder what Khrull wanted with my baby.”
Her dad sighed again, pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, and shrugged with a quizzical expression. “I’m curious, too. Though with the immortal gone, I’m fairly sure we’ll never know. My guess is Khrull hoped to study Johnny’s unique physical composition. Now if you’d all excuse me, I have some adjustments to make on the telepod before we go home.”
He stood, his move ending the reunion and also probably the existence of The Circle. Closest to him, Jake winked. “How about celebrating our victory?”
Garrett approached the table at that moment, his erection obviously in check. She evaded the sight of his handsome face and leaned a little to nudge his brother’s elbow. “Andrew, are you in for a drink?”
“Of course, though I’ll join you in a short while. All of a sudden, I feel the impromptu urge to go and kiss my wife.”
Her bottom lip dropped. She quickly closed her mouth to avoid looking like a moron and stared at him. “You’re married? Nobody told me but that’s wonderful news, Andrew. I hope I can meet her before we go home.”
He arched his eyebrows, his startled air reminding her of Johnny when something disconcerted him. “Tracy, I believe you already have.”
“I have? Well, who is she?”
The way he tilted his head knotted her throat and closed her lungs as coldness crept into her even before he answered. “My wife is Ashton.”
She blacked out for a second. She must have because the garden house vanished and then reappeared again, streaks of bright colors flashing across her eyes, muffled sounds echoing in the distance and assaulting her ears at the same time.
A low whine passed through her lips as Andrew took hold of her hand. “Are you feeling well, Tracy?”
“Yes. Give me a minute, I’ll be fine.”
Would she? Her gaze dropped to his left hand and the wedding band on his finger seemed to glimmer at her. How come she hadn’t noticed the ring sooner?
Her heart pumping gallons of blood, she raised her head toward Garrett. “You didn’t marry Ashton?”
His eyes widened to their limits, his bewilderment so blatant that she physically felt it. And in that split second, she understood everything. His cold anger at her impersonal attitude when they saw each other again after four years, his raw desire and fury as he confirmed his love for her while she refused to acknowledge her feelings, his undeserved jealousy toward a man he believed to be her new lover, and his inability to fathom her motives, like a cloak of sorrow he carried around him.
Andrew brought up a chair. She sank into it. Her face must have been dead white because she saw the sudden worry in all their eyes. She clasped her hands to still the trembling, wincing at the gushing pressure pouring through her veins.
“Out. All of you, get out.” She croaked more than spoke, yet they sensed this wasn’t a time to question her because they all went for the front door. Even Garrett complied. But right now, he wasn’t the man she was looking at.
“Not you, Dad.”
Chapter 17
“Damn, how could you?” Tracy’s eyes fixed on the man who gave her life as well as so much anguish.
Her father shut the door of the garden house after the men filed out and he shuffled to a chair across the table from her. “How could I what?”
“Oh, don’t give me that, Dad. You know exactly what I’m talking about, and I’m really not in the mood.”
But he remained silent as he removed his glasses, fished a small cloth out of his pocket, and started cleaning them.
Doing her best to quench the palpitations across her chest, she shot him a furious look. “Why did you tell me Garrett got married?”
“Your recollections are fuzzy, girl.”
“My memory is fine, thank you very much. So I’ll ask the question again and you’d better answer me. Why did you tell me Garrett married Ashton?”
“I didn’t.”
Damn the liar! She flung her hands flat on the table, the pads of her fingers beginning to rub the wooden surface. “I can’t play this game with you over and over again. I am your daughter yet you treat me worse than you would an enemy.”
“Then you’re sorely mistaken because that has never been my intention. I only want the best for you.”
“The best for me is Garrett.”
Her father set down the glasses and cloth to lift his gaze to her, his eyes displaying a mix of regret and sadness. “I don’t believe he is.”
“Well, I do. Have you forgotten he’s Johnny’s father? Don’t you want us to be a real family? Think what Mom would say.”
“This has nothing to do with your mother.”
“Oh, but it has because she was the most caring mom in the world. She’d have stood by me, and you know it.”
A pinkish hue tinged his forehead at the mention of her mother. He’d loved her with his whole heart, he’d married her to have a family, so why deny his daughter the same happiness? The lump in her throat loosened a little.
“Talk to me, Dad.”
“The situation was different four years ago. Lady Anne and Lord John wouldn’t hear of their son renouncing his birthright and leaving the household to follow a ‘misleading folly’. Those are their words.”
He quoted with his fingers but having locked horns with the dragon queen, she doubted the woman had employed such romantic terms. The bitch was too keen on calling her a scheming harlot and a fornicatress.
“Nobody forced you to side with them,” Tracy said.
“True, but I was of the same opinion. Anyway, when I realized Garrett was about to make the biggest mistake of his life, I had to take action. I set up a shield on both sides then I asked you to give it a year.”
“Garrett told me you never made a deal with him.”
“I meant to, but the man couldn’t see reason. He threatened to destroy my telepods, both in San Francisco and London if I didn’t let him cross over. He didn’t have the means to go past the shield, but he could lock me out of his houses. Rebuilding two telepods in a new location was a drastic waste of my time.”
Happiness writhed in her belly, bursting through her whole body as her father’s words danced in her mind. Gooseflesh raising the fine hairs of her arms, she swallowed to contain the outpour of emotion flooding her. She’d readily accepted the deal, but Garrett hadn’t. He’d have shattered all ties for her and abandoned his life without a second glance because he wanted her more than anything.
“Oh, my God.” But beyond the joy taking her breath away and coating her skin with perspiration, she perceived a lurking anger waiting to be unleashed.
People had meddled with their lives the same way kings used to treat slaves, and the realization dried her mouth. Damn the dragon queen, her dead husband, and her own father. She pressed her lips together, refraining from lashing out in order to hear the rest of the story. “Dad, what happened then?”
“I did the only thing I could think of. I gave Garrett a reason to calm down, stay with his parents, and forget you.”
The letter. The fucking letter Garrett carried in his pocket. She’d insulted him after reading it, but maybe she’d been too quick to judge him. Her father could be very convincing when he put his mind to it. Hadn’t she herself accepted his deal in less than a minute and without questioning his motives?
“I can’t believe you forged a break-up note,” she said. “You were well aware that message would devastate him, and you did it anyway.”
“For his own good. I gave him closure.”
“Closure?”
She snorted, her legs shuddering from the surging anger she might not be able to contain much longer. Yet she had to.
Her father shifted in his seat and passed his fingers over the sides of his head. “Garrett’s a strong man. I had the feeling he’d get over it.”
Yeah, like getting over love was easy. Should she kill her dad right now or wait until they got back to Bonita Street?
Kneading the top of her thighs with her fists, she looked at the man who had already ruined five years of her life and condemned his grandson to grow up without a father. “You still lied to me.”
She read awareness in his gaze as he recalled the exact moment she was referring to. With a sigh, he shook his head.
“No, I didn’t. When you came down into the basement just as I got back from Andrew and Ashton’s wedding, I was prepared to tell you the truth.”
“That’s utter crap, Dad. You did say Garrett got married.”
“Search your memories. That’s quite impossible because you never asked me the name of the groom.”
His assertive tone stilled her this time. She closed her eyes to go deep inside her. And there she found it, the recollection that suddenly made her bones ache. Obsessed with the loss of Garrett, she fell into a trap of her own making. Her lids fluttered yet she kept them shut when her father spoke again.
“Tracy, you assumed Garrett was the groom and I didn’t—”
“Prove me wrong.”
“There was no time. The contractions started, I drove you to the hospital and you gave birth to Johnny.”
Sure, like her father couldn’t find the time to tell her in the days, weeks, months that followed. Did he really take her for a half-wit?
“I’m sick and tired of your excuses, Dad. I’m thirty-one years old, I’m a mother, and I don’t want to fight with you anymore. I will marry Garrett, and I don’t give a shit if he’s heir to a fortune and peer to a queen.”
“Queen Victoria is dead. Edward VII is king now.”
She hit the table with her fists, barely able to contain the fury coiled around her guts like a poisonous snake about to strike. “I don’t give a damn about who rules this country. Do you understand that you and Garrett’s mother . . . that bitch, ruined my life?”
“Watch your language.”
Apparently, she was still seven in her father’s mind. But he was wrong. Inhaling through gritted teeth, she forced herself to keep her cool a while longer, stared at him, and toned down her voice. “I will marry Garrett, and you have two options.”
The time to be tricked and bluffed ended now. Even though her dad had a natural talent for deception, she’d watched him, she’d learned from him. Not much to it really, and nobody would stand in her way.
“Either you agree with me,” she said, “so we can all go home like a happy family, or you’re against me and you’ll never see Johnny again.”
His eyes expanded, a small nerve twitching along his hairline. He parted his lips with a sigh, closed his mouth again, darted quick glances around the garden house, and finally settled his gaze on her.
“Tracy, you’re not cut out for blackmail.”
“Watch me.”
The anger freezing her blood suddenly became her ally as she looked at him without an ounce of sympathy. She’d never rob Johnny of his grandfather, but she needed her dad to believe it. Just this once. Just until she got Garrett over to her universe. After that, the genius scientist William Richardson could put up all the shields he wanted for all she cared. Frost slithering up her spine, she bore her gaze into his.
“So, Dad, what’s it gonna be?”
“I can see where all this is going, yet you’re forgetting something.”
No, she wouldn’t go down that road. He was done manipulating her. Motionless, she kept her silence and waited him out.
“Garrett isn’t heir to an empire anymore,” her father said. “He is the Burnes’ empire and he won’t cast his fortune away.”
Her stomach dropped as
doubt infiltrated her bones. What if her dad was right? How come the thought never entered her mind? Garrett ceased to be heir to become head of the household when his father died. He had been sitting on heaps of money for the past four years, and the huge difference changed a person.
Garrett might still want to spend his life with her, but not in a run-of-the-mill apartment in Sausalito, California, twenty-first century. No, he’d ask her to stay here. He’d want to provide Johnny with the best education and turn him into a little lord, heir to an empire. Hadn’t he already insisted on calling their son John Burnes?
Shit, why didn’t she see that coming? Blinded by her love for the man and her jealousy toward Miss Perfect, she’d ignored the blinking signs thrown at her from all sides. Because the real question was: did she want to live in the nineteenth century with the dragon queen breathing down her neck?
“Garrett will follow me home. I know it, Dad.”
“No, he won’t.”
Her father rubbed his cheek. Then he furrowed his brow right before a compassionate look crossed his eyes. “But he will take Johnny from you.”
The sudden lack of air prompted her to open her mouth and gulp in lungsful of oxygen, yet she controlled her reaction. Her father would call her bluff as soon as he spotted the slightest flaw in her attitude.
“Listen, Dad. Garrett’s intentions are none of your concern and the bottom line is the same. Are you with me or against me?”
A breath passed through his lips though his gaze didn’t leave her face. As usual, he was quick to make up his mind. “Okay, Tracy. I’m with you on this.”
She refrained from blurting out a big yippee, clenched her fingers together, and kept a cold expression. “Good. Prove it.”
“How?”
His genuine look of surprise inflated her heart. For once, she held the cards and she was the one to manipulate him.
“Go home,” she said. “Now.”