Before he could protest, Hannah clasped her hand over his.
Thirty-three
The lying, conniving bitch!
He clutched the stupid worthless rock she’d claimed would solve all her problems. “A rock won’t force people to pay blackmail. And you can’t expect me to give you kickbacks for the guests I bring in,” he said in the calm voice of reason.
“I can when they’re criminals and you’re using my property for their meetings!” she shouted back. “If they won’t pay, I’ll call the FBI! The moonstone will make it happen, trust me.”
His stomach lurched at her crazy talk, but he’d been in tighter spots. “This is a free country. I cannot prevent anyone who can pay from taking a room.”
“I know damned well you’re taking money under the table for arranging those meetings. I want my share!” Carmel screamed.
Her shrieking made him nervous. He wasn’t used to it. The people he worked with had reason to prefer quiet invisibility. His knuckles whitened around the rock. Before he could form a reply, a knock at the door interrupted and Carmel flung it open to screech at the intruder. The woman was becoming more unstable every day.
“Francois, you fool! I told you not to interrupt until I called. Give me those photos.”
Photos?
Outside, the dissolute chauffeur mumbled and held out a manila packet.
“Proof!” Carmel shouted, grabbing the packet.
She had photos of the meetings? That would get him killed.
Before he knew what he intended—as if the rock had given him orders—he swung his rock-holding fist at the back of her head and snatched the packet from her hand.
Hannah gasped in shock and dropped her grip on Aaron. She was back in the barren suite, staring at the ceiling.
Crouched on the floor beside her, Aaron stared at the lump of rock in his hand as if it might bite him. Gingerly, he laid it back on the satin in the casket. “Francois and Carmel were blackmailing Roper,” he said decisively, before she could interpret the scene aloud.
Was that what he’d taken from that episode? Not that the moonstone had swung itself? Her brain was too shattered to translate anything except Roper’s violent reaction.
“Do you think the photos showed his gangster friends?” she asked, probably irrelevantly.
Chief Walker returned from his phone call to hear the last of their discussion. “Roper probably burned anything incriminating he took that night, but Francois kept the originals of everything. Tell me what to look for.”
Aaron looked blank for a moment, took a deep breath, then squeezing Hannah’s hand, he offered his judicious version of the tale. “Carmel was blackmailing Roper, asking for part of whatever his gangster friends paid him to hold meetings at the lodge. Francois brought over photos we assume were part of the blackmail. Roper lost it. I don’t think you have a case for first degree murder. He just picked up the nearest hard object and whacked Carmel to get at the photos. But since Francois was present and a witness, you have some case for first degree in his death.”
“If it helps, I can testify to that,” Hannah offered. “He said he put pills in Francois’s beer.”
“Hearsay and probably not admissible.” Walker glanced at the moonstone they’d just set in the box, then to the statuette that Brenda offered to him in its protective layer of gauze. “Right. There are new techniques for lifting fingerprints from certain kinds of rocks. Don’t know if this is the right kind.” He glanced at Aaron. “Did you leave the van driver alive?”
Aaron shrugged. “He’s alive. Not sure he’s learned his lesson. Since he’s too incompetent to have hurt anyone yet, you may have to offer him immunity and nail Roper that way.”
Walker nodded. “Hannah, you okay to testify? Attempted murder will hold him until we have everything we need for the other charges.”
She rubbed her head. “Throw the book at him, and I’ll be there.”
She meant it. Her first attempt to be more than the Librarian had almost ended in disaster, but she’d accomplished her goal—she’d found the moonstone.
She couldn’t leave soon if she had to stand as witness. Could she learn more courage, be more than a librarian?
She glanced at Aaron, who was regarding her with smoldering dark eyes. With Aaron’s impassive, iron-jawed expression, it was hard to tell if he was feeling murderous or lustful. As Nurse Brenda packed her medical bag, Hannah shakily offered him a smile.
He looked as stunned as if she’d hit him. Had no one ever smiled at the glowering tyrant before?
Once Brenda got out of his way, Aaron scooped Hannah up as if she weighed nothing and carried her past gaping, protesting Lucys—her friends, who had come to her aid, however eccentrically.
“I know actions speak louder than words,” she said, clinging to Aaron’s wide shoulders. “But a whisper of what you’re doing might help. I’m not fond of being pushed around at the moment.”
“You like being overpowered on other occasions?” he asked consideringly, carrying her down the hedge-lined walk to the parking lot.
“Possibly. I’ve never tried it in a safe context.” He was scaring her and exciting her at the same time. She’d had more excitement in this past week than she’d had in her entire life. Was it possible to become addicted to adrenaline rushes?
“You’ll always be safe with me,” he said, opening the door to his van and setting her in the passenger seat. “I’m not as positive about the Lucys.”
“It was my idea.” She knew she sounded defensive. She didn’t care. “Roper was our only suspect. And the journals indicated the box and the moonstone belonged together. We needed the moonstone. If he’d been there when Carmel died, then it made sense that he might have the missing moonstone.”
“I get all that. I might even get why you thought you had to be the one to go after it.” He climbed in the driver’s seat and started the engine. “What I don’t get. . .” His voice raised. “What I don’t get is why the hell you thought I’d leave you to face a killer alone!”
“Oh. Huh.” She studied the windshield. “I guess because you rejected breaking and entering, and I understood that. It’s the same as not telling Walker what he doesn’t need to hear because it’s easier all around.”
“Not acceptable.” Instead of stopping in the parking lot, he roared on down the highway. “That’s what the damned nun did—went her own way without consulting her knight first. To be fair, he probably went questing for stones without telling her. I’m guessing if we want to believe we’re reliving our failed past lives—or other peoples’ failed lives—then we’d better accept that going our own way results in never seeing each other again.”
“I didn’t think you wanted to see me again,” she pointed out. “I have a knot in my head. I could be dying. I think that makes me do dangerously silly things. I don’t blame you for backing off.”
“I’m not backing off!” he roared as he swung the van down his private driveway. “I just don’t know what the hell I am doing!”
“And you don’t like that,” she guessed, considering this new angle with interest. “That’s reasonable, I suppose. Will you let me know when you’ve figured it out?”
He slammed the van to a halt outside the house and flipped off the engine. He didn’t look at her. “What if I never figure it out? What if I need a lifetime to figure it out?”
Hannah pondered that. “Can I help you work on it?”
There was that smoldering look again. He leaned over and kissed her this time, though, so she guessed he wasn’t about to murder her.
“Yeah, I think that’s the key,” he muttered against her mouth, cradling the back of her head so he could smother her with more kisses. “I think we need to work it out together. Let’s start somewhere easy, like bed. I think we have that worked out pretty smoothly.”
“You’re skipping the difficult bits, mister,” she murmured back, reaching for his neck. “Practice talking while you take me there.”
He haul
ed her out of the seat and kicked the van door closed once they were outside. “The shop opens tomorrow,” he said helpfully, carrying her to the door. “I have a buying trip scheduled for next week. I’m thinking I ought to hire someone to handle the shop.”
At this mundane speech, she laughed into his neck and tickled him anywhere she could reach.
She loved the hard-headed man, and holding him like this, she understood him. She didn’t need magic or moonstones or even words. Aaron gave off his own vibrations and they resonated with hers.
Thirty-four
“Look at them, they’re adorable,” Hannah whispered as they strolled down the moonlit trail to the vortex, weeks after Roper had been taken to jail. “Hillvale really is developing into a lover’s paradise.”
Since Hannah was holding his hand and all was right with his world, Aaron was inclined to agree, if he knew what he was agreeing to. He glanced down at Hannah, who still managed to glow like a sunny day even in the moonlight. She was so vibrant with life, she brought him to life again. She was a drug he would take for as long as he could have her.
He followed her gaze to the night-shrouded Goddess of Death clinging to the arm of lanky Lance. . . Now that Aaron paid attention, Lance did seem a little more spruced up than usual, with a determined spring in his step that hadn’t been there before.
“Val’s veil is short and only gray,” Hannah whispered. “I don’t know if she’ll ever wear color again. The black is too ingrained, and now that she’s letting her Nordic-blond hair grow out, she looks good in it. She may still frighten guests.”
Aaron puzzled over that as the slow procession of candle-carrying Lucys ambled down a trail heavily scented in September roses. “What guests? Val hides around strangers.”
“Lodge guests, silly. You really ought to pay more attention to my email.” She nudged his hip.
His last buying trip had been a short one. There hadn’t been time to do more than skim Hannah’s massive missives in case there were matters he needed to address. But she handled everything so well in his absence that he really didn’t need to worry. He just liked hearing her voice, even when it was written.
“You really ought to learn to pick up a phone,” he countered. “Then I’d listen.”
“No, then you start talking sexy and I forget everything I meant to say. Didn’t Kurt tell you that Lance wants to try running the lodge? He’s lived there forever, knows the staff, knows the guests and routine. He’s perfect.”
“Yeah, I vaguely recall something of the sort. He’ll probably give starving artists a free ride, but that’s better than Roper’s gangsters, one assumes.” The thug he’d punched had turned out to have a criminal record in a dozen states. With a little effort, the cops had pinned him to several deaths. He was spilling his hefty guts to avoid the death penalty.
“Val is moving in with Lance,” Hannah whispered. “Monty and Fee are buying her house.”
Monty and Fee were getting married by moonlight under the auspices of Cass, who had little more than an online certificate of divinity. Aaron wasn’t certain either the mayor or the cook was sensible enough to care for a house, but he wished them well. Fee had been thrilled with the twelve-place setting of vintage, silver-trimmed Noritake china he’d given them—a set with only good memories on it. He’d had to warn Monty not to put them in the microwave.
“Lance and Val as management will be like having the Addams Family running the lodge,” Aaron murmured. “Now that the lamassu are draining the bad energy and the poltergeists are gone, we’ll just have our very own local vampires haunting the place.”
“Lance and Val are not vampires,” Hannah scolded. “Carmel might have been an emotional vampire, but Val is just a wounded actress. She can perform at will. With her compelling voice, she’s perfect for handling any guest drama. And Lance will simply let the staff run the operation while he writes checks and paints. It’s all good. And bless you for hiring Mariah’s dad to work in the shop. Thomas is absolutely adorable.”
“Hiring an illegal alien may not be my finest moment, but it beats a few others I can think of. And he’s a natural. He can spin a yarn about anything.” He was lining up more help while he was at it.
Now that he didn’t need to protect Hillvale anymore, he had an entire world to explore. Hannah had already expressed interest. Teaching a single student wasn’t challenging enough for her quick mind. Sally could handle all three kids, he’d been assured. He just needed to do this right. . .
“I may have to start believing your lover’s paradise scenario.” Aaron nodded at another couple already seated in the stadium. “Now that she’s rearranged my inventory, Wan Hai has moved into Pasquale’s house and is rearranging his life.”
“Good for her,” Hannah said, beaming.
“Better for Walker. She’s quit trying to rearrange his and Sam’s place.”
As they followed the procession down the aisle between the rows of amphitheater seats, Aaron studied the changes that had been made to the vortex arena while he was gone. He knew several Lucy meetings had gone into the planning. It would take time to learn if they’d made the right decisions, but the energy around Hillvale had steadily improved since the Lucys had begun making changes.
Harvey had outdone himself by carving a redwood totem pole to hold the moonstone and its casket. Cass had agreed that locking them in a safe wasn’t the way to heal the community. The decision to place the totem pole in the vortex, near the good energy of Cass’s property had been a difficult one. Once the Lucys had decided the lamassu bearing the guardian stones could be safely placed at distances from each other, it had worked out, he thought. At least no one had been murdered recently.
Aaron glanced at one of the stone warriors on its concrete base guarding the pathway to the moonstone. “Is anyone digging up the original lamassu?”
Hannah laughed. “Amber’s movie star husband has offered to build a community pool there. He’s hoping to find underground water. He and Harvey really want to build that winery up the mountain, if they can just find where the stream has gone.”
“It could happen,” Aaron agreed. He was feeling very agreeable these days. “Once the negative energy is recharged to positive, anything might happen.” Which gave him freedom to roam the world in search of other people or places that needed a guardian.
They set their candles in the wrought iron stand one of the artisans had created, then took their stone seats near the front of the natural stadium. The evening gleamed with stars and candlelight. Aaron circled Hannah’s waist, and she leaned into him as Val began singing and Harvey played his organ.
For the first time in his life, Aaron knew peace. He wasn’t regretting the past. He was with a woman who gave him joy just by breathing.
Kissing Hannah’s head, he released her waist to remove a small box from his coat pocket.
“I love you beyond reason, Librarian. Marry me,” he whispered just as the music reached a crescendo and the bride appeared.
As Aaron slid a ring over Hannah’s finger, Val’s voice rose like an angelic choir to Harvey’s dramatic accompaniment. Stunned, Hannah could only stare. It wasn’t a fancy ring, just a sliver of old gold and diamonds, but when he held it against her skin, she could feel the love in it. He’d looked for a ring embedded with love. Tears sprang to her eyes, and she pulled his head down to kiss him even as Fee walked down the aisle.
She could see Fee any day. She would only ever have one proposal like this.
“I love you, my knight in tarnished armor. I think I always have.”
Aaron hugged her close, returning her passion, and under the starlight, her tears fell faster.
He’d asked her even before she’d given him the news. She’d only received it today, and she’d wanted to wait until they were alone to tell him. By asking now, he was risking heartbreak all over again, and she thought her own heart might explode at the realization of the depth of Aaron’s love. She’d known his tough carapace concealed fountains of passion.
She just hadn’t expected him to ever let down his guard.
“I love you,” she murmured against his mouth. “I love you with all my heart and soul and into eternity.”
“That’s how love should be,” he said, hugging her closer. “You’re my soul mate, my heart, and we’ll never be parted, no matter what this life brings us. I’m learning to accept that we’ll always find each other. Te amo, amica mea. I love you and I need you in my life, please.”
She snuggled against his shoulder and watched the altar as Monty’s face lit up at the approach of his bride. “This really is a lover’s paradise, isn’t it?” she whispered as Fee’s face glowed under the moonlight. “There is so much love and joy here.”
Aaron squeezed her in agreement.
In silence, they listened to Cass’s brief ceremony.
As the couple pledged their vows, Hannah pulled Aaron’s head down so she could whisper in his ear. “I had another MRI while you were gone. Brenda insisted. She read the results along with the technician. The knot is assimilating—in a good way. She says I was keeping my enhancing gift bottled up, but now that I’m working with you more, it’s becoming a part of me. And you.”
Startled, he stared down at her with those black eyes that could suck her down channels of time. She kissed him, and his relief was apparent in his passionate response. Professor Aaron might play the part of cool sophisticate, but inside, he was a churning cauldron of emotion.
“Tripping through time isn’t breaking your brain but curing it?” he asked when they came up for air.
“If you wish to believe Brenda. I suppose it makes sense. I have all these books in my head, often in Latin and French and in ancient dialects that only I might understand when we’re pulled into a memory. You may be reading the images through my mind, and that’s why we work together. We may still both go nutso,” she whispered with amusement.
“I’m writing that up in my journal for some future librarian to translate,” he said dryly. “I proposed to a woman who makes me crazy.”
Moonstone Shadows Page 28