by Kristie Cook
She glared at me with sharp sea-green eyes. “Why is that important?”
I grinned with a bit of pride at my cleverness. “Because if the Lakari show up, then we know they’re after someone young, narrowing our choices down to someone severely depressed, terminally ill … or a pair of Twin Flames. Should be easy to pick out in a young crowd, right? And if they don’t show, we’ve eliminated half the town’s population.”
She still stared at me, but her eyes softened.
“Besides, people will be drinking and letting their guards down and in a more private place than the bar,” I added before she could protest any more. “We can get the scoop on probably anyone we want.”
Her head tilted to the side. When she spoke, her tone had lightened, but still held an undertone I didn’t quite trust. “So you want to go because you think it will help the mission? Not because you want to party?”
I dropped my chin and looked up at her through my lashes with a slight smile while lowering my own voice. “Is there anything wrong with having a little fun while we’re there? Don’t we deserve it?”
She blew out an exasperated breath and threw her hands in the air. “I knew it!”
I lifted my head and sighed as well. “You knew what? What’s your problem, Leni?”
“My problem,” she said as she stepped right up to me and pressed a finger into my chest, “is that you’re more worried about having a good time and getting wasted than you are about our mission. And I won’t even mention Rebethannah!”
Except she did just mention her. Why do girls do that?
My jaw clenched and my nostrils flared as I kept my temper in check. This was a stupid fight, but I didn’t like her accusation.
“What I’m worried about is you and us,” I ground out. “You. Us. That’s my priority. I will do whatever it takes to keep you safe and keep us—our souls—intact, and if that means being by your side in this mission, then that’s where I’ll be. And I’m not thinking about getting wasted. I’m thinking about the best and safest way for us to find what we’re looking for without getting people worked up. And especially without getting the Lakari worked up. A harmless field party sounds like a damn good way to do that. If we happen to enjoy ourselves, so much the better.”
She stared at me for a long moment as if she wasn’t sure to believe me, which was ridiculous because she could practically read my mind. At the very least, she could feel my emotions, and she had to be feeling my sincerity.
“Will Bex be there?” she asked.
“I think so. Ty’s working on it. I know he’ll be there for sure. Brock and Asia, too.”
She lifted a brow. “Brock and Asia knew about this party before I did?”
I held my hands up, palms out. She seemed to be coming around, and I didn’t want her temper flaring again. When I’d finally convinced her to let go and not be afraid to show her emotions, I’d basically freed a wild lion out of its cage—and I’d never get it back in again. She’d rein it in for others, but didn’t have to for me. She had a lot more Southern in her than most people knew.
“Let me rephrase that,” I said. “Brock was going to talk to Asia about it tonight just like I was going to talk to you. I wasn’t lying when I said that. Brock was at the gym with us when Ty was talking about it so he invited them, too.”
Her eyes narrowed as she once again studied me. “All right. Fine. I guess we go. Maybe I can finally find out more about Bex.”
I let out a slow breath of relief and moved to sit on the futon covered in pillows, the place I’d slept the first night at a lake in Georgia that felt worlds away now. I grabbed Leni’s hand on the way and pulled her over with me. Once I sat down, she fell onto the futon next to me with her legs over my lap. She picked up the Book that was always nearby. She studied it at every opportunity, but still hadn’t figured out any clues we might have left ourselves. I began to suspect she was wrong for thinking we had. I think she was beginning to doubt the idea herself.
“She’s not quite the open book you expected?” I asked as I flipped her shoes off and massaged her feet.
She didn’t open the Book yet, instead dropping her head back and sighing with pleasure, immediately turning me on. “Yes and no. She talks about just enough where you feel like she’s friendly, but she doesn’t really open up. Everyone knows her mama’s dying, her sister’s taking care of her, and Bex is working like a dog to support them all. There are rumors her mama was a drug addict and abandoned them, but I don’t know how true that is. I think she and her sister grew up in this trailer park, though. And I’ve also heard that after Ty left her for the military, she got a reputation as a slut because she hooked up with so many guys. Beyond that … she’s really good at covering up what’s going on inside.”
“Like someone else I know,” I said pointedly as I squeezed her foot.
“Mmm,” she moaned. “Yeah, I guess. But I think she’s better than I ever was.”
“And you still think she’s Rebethannah?”
Leni sighed and laid her head back on an oversized pillow she used as a backrest. “I don’t know. Every once in a while, I see this look in her eyes, when she thinks no one is watching and she can let her guard down, and I feel it. I feel a connection to her. My soul recognizes hers. But it’s so quick, I can’t be sure of the feeling. I’m almost positive she was Jacey’s Bex—there are too many similarities and too many times I want to say, ‘Hey remember that time …’ But she’d think I was whacked out.”
I chuckled. “I’m pretty sure she already thinks that.”
“Yeah, well, that’s why I don’t know what to do. I don’t know if my soul recognizes her only from Jacey’s life, or if the connection is deeper than that. There are so many things that add up to her being Rebethannah, like how she remembered us when the rest of the world forgot us, and maybe it’s because we have one of those eternal connections. And then there’s her name both times, the fact that my soul met up with hers both times like it was drawn to her, and if she and Nathayden were Broken, then her history with guys makes sense, too—she’s always looking for love. Both times.”
“It does start to add up,” I conceded as I dropped her foot and picked up the other.
“I know, right? I want so badly to try to trigger her past memories, but what if it’s not her? And even if it is, or if she’s another dyad half we might have known before, she hasn’t reconnected with her Twin Flame, so there may be nothing I can do to make her remember. So, yeah, then I look like a bigger ass than I already do.”
I’d convinced myself before that Leni had been trying too hard to fit the Bex peg into the Rebethannah hole, but as she got to know the girl more and made these points, I could almost believe we’d found her. I needed more proof, though.
“Maybe this party will be your chance to find out more about her,” I said.
“Maybe.”
I grabbed her chin playfully and turned her face toward me. “Come on, admit it was a good idea. Saying that we’ll go.”
She rolled her eyes. “I will do no such thing until we’re there. For all I know, you’ll end up wasted and we’ll have accomplished nothing.”
“You could just as easily be the one wasted.”
She giggled. “If so, I’ll warn you now that I’ll probably end up dancing on the picnic table.”
I cocked my head and narrowed my eyes. “As long as you keep your clothes on. At least until we get home.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t think it’s me we really need to worry about. I seem to recall you being drunk, or at least buzzed, four of the first five nights we were together. Or was it all five? I don’t remember seeing you without a bottle of Jack nearby.”
“Leni,” I said, dropping my voice and leaning my head against hers so our mouths nearly touched. I lifted my hand to the side of her face and rubbed my thumb ov
er the soft, smooth skin of her cheek. “When will you understand I don’t need that shit anymore? I don’t want to be numb. As long as you’re with me, I want to feel it all. Everything. I don’t want to miss a single moment or a single word or a single touch from you. I want to feel every bit of every moment. I want to feel you. Fully and completely.”
Without closing her eyes so she could look directly into mine, she parted her lips and nipped my bottom one. “I want to feel you, too,” she whispered, her breath hot against my lips. “All of you, in me, right now.”
She didn’t have to ask me twice.
Afterward, our souls drifted together outside of our bodies in that perfect place of just her and me.
Except it wasn’t so perfect.
“They always ruin the mood,” Leni’s soul murmured into mine. I didn’t have to ask who she meant. The Lakari’s Darkness was tangible and heavy, like swamp muck trying to suffocate from above and suck from below until it swallowed you.
“Let’s take care of them,” I said with a mental groan.
After enjoying another moment of peace, we pushed our souls through the roof of her camper to do our nightly job. As usual, several Dark spirits hovered over the trailer side of the park, covering the entire area. Their black shadows were like gauze, allowing the moonlight to pass through them like a sheer curtain, so they were spreading themselves thin. If there were more and the Darkness deeper, the people in their homes below would have been miserable. All of their souls would have been at risk. Was Enyxa after everyone here? Or was she simply not showing her hand yet?
“Let’s get rid of them and get back,” Leni said, not wanting to contemplate Enyxa or her Lakari’s intents while out of our bodies.
Staying together as one brightly lit soul, we swooshed and soared through the trailer park, a streak of Light forcing the Darkness away. There weren’t enough Lakari to fight us, so they flew off like cowards, knowing our Light could permanently destroy them. When we returned to the roof of Leni’s camper, we hovered for a bit, enjoying this special time together that was much more fun and relaxing than any party or bottle of Jack Daniels could ever be, and also ensuring the Darkness didn’t return. At least not tonight.
Chapter 12
“I have to admit I’m glad you have to work today,” Mason said, and although I couldn’t see him, I could imagine the twinkle in his light-green eyes.
“That’s not nice,” I said as I squeezed the phone between my ear and shoulder and shuffled through the registration cards for each of the RVs and campers in the park. Grams, God rest her soul, had done everything the old-fashioned pen and paper way, and Uncle Troy and I were slowly beginning to computerize things since she passed. Camper registrations hadn’t quite made it there yet. “You’re always telling me I work too much, and now you’re glad that I am?”
“If it means you can’t go to a big party without me, yeah, I kind of am. I want to be the one who lets you relax and have fun. I want to be with you when you do. Did I mention I’m a selfish bastard like that?”
I sighed, even though my insides flipped with joy. “For that to happen, we both have to have the day off at the same time.”
Mason, it turned out, worked about as many hours as I did. His shifts at the hospital were long, and he rarely took a day off. He said he would for me, but, of course, that was nearly impossible to make happen.
“Take off next weekend, and I promise I will, too,” he said.
“Weekends are impossible. Uncle Troy races on Saturdays and is always going out of town for them.”
“Friday night, too?”
“I work at Sullivan’s then.”
“Take it off.”
I laughed. “I make more money in tips on Friday nights than I do the rest of the week!”
He groaned. “I’ll make it up to you. Whatever you’d make, I’ll give you.”
My spine pricked. “I am not a charity case, Dr. Mason Hayes.”
“You’re killing me. I swear, you are going to be the death of me.”
“We’ll figure something out,” I promised as movement in the office window caught my eye. Uncle Troy was outside, probably getting ready to load up his stock car for tonight’s race somewhere far off from here. Although we had a racetrack right outside town, they only had stock car races twice a year, one for the Fourth of July and one in early August. The rest of the season, Uncle Troy spent weekends traveling around Florida.
“Let’s call in sick tomorrow,” Mason said. “I’ll drive up there tonight, and we can spend the whole day together. Nobody will have to know.”
I laughed again. “Everybody will know in this town. And I can’t lie like that, especially to my own uncle.”
“Wait. You’ve never called in sick?”
“Only once, years ago. Because I was sick.”
“Huh.” He paused. “I didn’t take you for being such a good girl.”
Now the sound that came out was more like a snort than a laugh. “Don’t you worry. I can be bad. Very bad. Just not when it comes to my work. I thought you liked a girl with a strong work ethic.”
He sighed. “Yeah, I do. But I don’t like when that work ethic gets in the way of me being able to spend time with a beautiful girl.”
“Oh, I’m sure there are plenty of beautiful girls you can spend time with,” I teased. Sort of. I still didn’t get why he was chasing after me when there were a number of gorgeous nurses and lovely doctors falling over their feet for his attention. I knew because I’d seen it firsthand.
“There’s only one I’m interested in spending time with,” he said flatly.
More movement in the window made me look up. Uncle Troy was headed this way.
“One day. I promise,” I said. “But I gotta go.”
“When are you coming to see your mother?”
“I don’t know, Mason. I have to look at my schedules again.” The knob on the door turned. “Seriously, I need to go. Now.”
“Call me later,” he said, his voice distant because I was already hanging up.
Uncle Troy eyed the phone in my hand before looking up at me. “Talkin’ to that damn doctor again?”
“Sure was,” I said cheerfully. “Mama’s still the same, if you care.”
“Not really,” he muttered. “Ty Daniels is waiting outside for you.”
My eyes flitted toward the window and back to my uncle’s face.
“He’s at his house,” Uncle Troy clarified.
“Well, what’s he need that he can’t come in here and ask?”
“He needs to show you somethin’, and I said that was fine.”
I stared at him blankly, not understanding.
He waved his hand at me. “Go on. Take the day off. I’m not sayin’ it twice, though.”
“Don’t you have to go?”
He moved around to my side of the desk. “Nah. No races this weekend.” His big hands grabbed the back of my chair and tilted it forward. “Now go, girl, before I change my damn mind.”
I stood before I fell out of the seat and moved slowly around the desk, still hesitant. “Ty—”
“Ty Daniels is a good man who fought for his country and would do even more for you,” Uncle Troy said as he stared me down with brown eyes like Mama’s. His round face had softened, though, for once showing concern. “You deserve a good man like him, and you deserve a day off. Today you get both. Ya’ll can thank me later.”
He shooed his hands at me again. Baffled, I grabbed my purse and went outside, the door banging behind me. Ty’s big, black truck sat in front of his house, and he stood on the far side of it, his forearms leaning on the walls of the bed. He wore a white tank undershirt and a red ball cap and even though I couldn’t see his lower half, I knew it was clad in jeans and cowboy boots. He also wore the biggest smile I’d see
n on his face since he’d come back from the Middle East.
“Told ya,” he said as I approached.
“Told me what?”
“That Troy would do this for me.”
I sighed and looked down at myself. “I’m not dressed for a party.”
“You look fine to me, but you can change if you want.” He walked over to this side of the truck, and I was right: jeans and his old worn cowboy boots. “But we don’t have to go to the party. I wanna show you somethin’ first, then we can do whatever you feel like.”
“You seriously got the day off for me?”
“Troy likes me. He likes us. Together. The man is smart.”
I raised a brow.
He laughed, his smile sending a blast of warmth through me. “Maybe smart’s pushin’ it, but I ain’t gonna argue with him about this.”
“I don’t get why he cares so much.” Not like he ever did before.
“Probably because he knows you been talkin’ to that doctor, and if you go off with him, Troy’s left to run this place by himself.”
“Ah.” I nodded. “Now that makes sense. Always lookin’ after himself.”
“I don’t care who he’s lookin’ after right now because you get a day off. Finally. So do you plan on changing or are you gonna get that pretty ass into my truck as it is? I can’t wait a minute longer to show you my surprise.”
“Surprise?”
Ty moved over to the passenger door and grasped the handle. “Better make up your mind quick or I’ll pick you up and throw you in.”
“Okay, okay. One minute.” I laughed as I jogged over to my house and hurried inside to change.
I quickly yanked off my t-shirt and replaced it with a button-down halter, then changed from my work jean shorts into my favorite cut-off Daisy Dukes and exchanged my flip-flops for cowboy boots. I pulled the brush through my hair and twisted the dark red locks up in a clip. I put on a little eyeliner and mascara since I hadn’t this morning because I thought I’d be working in the office by myself. For a moment, I admittedly thought about blowing off Ty and calling Mason back. But I couldn’t do that to my friend. Or to Uncle Troy, who may never give me a day off again if I did. Besides, I was a little intrigued by Ty’s surprise.