by L. L. Muir
Forgive myself?
She opened her eyes.
Jacob stopped talking mid-sentence and gave her a nod.
Jamison wrapped his free arm around her and squeezed hard, then looked into her eyes, as sober as she’d ever seen him. “You’re stuck with me, you know. I don’t know what you’re plotting—because you’re always plotting—but please don’t leave me. Once, a long time ago, I told you that I could live without you.” He took a deep breath and sighed. “I said I could, but I didn’t want to. Now I’m saying it again. If you really don’t…have feelings for me…and all this was just some sort of survival-bonding, tell me. I’ll completely understand.”
He looked over his shoulder at Lucas and grinned, then turned back. His smile affected her the same way his laughter had. Her toes curled—her soul curled. She wished they could have a lifetime together so she could see as much of it as possible.
He tried to act cool. “But hey, if you want to take some time to think about it, that’s okay too. I can wait. Years, even.” He swallowed hard. “I just wanted to make sure you knew that.”
He opened his hand and gently pulled his fingers from around hers. It was painful. She had to wiggle them to get the circulation back, then she shook her hand out.
“Yeah,” she said. “It was time to let go, don’t you think?”
Jamison swallowed hard, but said nothing.
“We’d better use the other ones for a while.” She took his left hand in her right one and wrapped her fingers through his like they had before. Absolute joy bubbled in her chest and she grinned at Jamison, sure he would be able to read it all on her face. “I’m done running, Jamie.”
She was ready to forgive herself for running away from him the first time and luring him into Gabriella’s trap. She was ready to forgive herself for walking into that same trap on purpose. And she was ready to excuse a few moments of cowardice, considering, and start giving herself some credit for surviving the nightmare at all.
Aaand, I have remarkable taste in men.
He lowered his face to hers and kissed her enthusiastically enough to tell her he felt the same way. By the time it was over, she was up on her tippy toes, trying to get just a little closer than physically possible. Finally, he let her come back down to earth.
Lucas laughed out loud.
Rather than finding out what Jamison’s mother thought of their PDA, Skye turned so they both faced Lanny.
Skye dropped the smile. “Let’s get this bullshit over with before four thousand people freeze.”
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
Lanny was not pleased.
As pleased as Jamison was with Skye, Lanny was equally displeased with the foul-mouthed girl from Henderson.
Which only pleased Jamison more.
He and Skye grinned back and forth at each other the whole time Lucas allowed Lanny into his head. Jacob stood close and Jamison was grateful for the angel’s willingness to stick around. After all, there were a lot of people out there who were suffering in one way or another.
“They’re not suffering,” Jacob whispered. “They’re having the horror taken from their minds and something milder put in its place.”
Jamison’s gut twisted at the idea. The violation of his own mind by Lucas was something that had taken him a long time to forgive.
“Be at ease, my friend. To forget, in this case, for the mortals, is infinitely better than remembering years locked in a cage.”
Jamison nodded but was still grateful Lucas wouldn’t let the same white-washing happen to him. He’d just have to make sure that protection extended to Skye. No way did he want to have to explain to her who he was again.
Finally, Lucas stepped back from Lanny. “Do you have any questions?”
Lanny turned to scowl at Skye. “How you could believe I am anything like Gabriella?”
“You’re kidding, right? You made her what she was. Like mother, like daughter.”
“You ungrateful— I’m the one who allowed you and Jamison to be together. If it weren’t for me—”
Jamison stepped to the side to shield Skye from the woman’s rant. “If it weren’t for you? You don’t get to take credit for anything good that comes out of this. For all you cared, we all would have drowned down there.”
“Not true. Not true! You have only seen a sampling of how many lives and souls Gabriella would have destroyed if I hadn’t put Skye on a hook and dangled her in the monster’s face. Four thousand is a pittance—”
Skye pushed around him. “What do you suppose God thinks of you playing God?”
The Primary narrowed her eyes and took a step forward. Whether or not she intended to do something nasty, Jamison put a hand out to stop her from coming any closer.
“When I face God, child, he can tell me himself. But that meeting won’t come to pass for more years than you can imagine.”
Skye gasped and pointed at Lanny. “That’s just what Pilot said!”
Lanny bit her lip, then shrugged and shook off her concern. “If he’d been honest with me, none of this would have happened.”
“Honest?” Grandpa’s opaque figured appeared to one side of Lanny and Jamison’s heart jumped. “Honest, ye say?” The old man turned quickly to Lucas. “Catch me daughter, if ye wouldn’t mind there, Lucas. She’s fainting away.”
Jamison let go of Skye to reach for his mother, but she was already unconscious in Lucas’ arms.
Grandpa put his hands on the belt of his kilt and tilted his head at Lanny. “Tell what’s honest about asking Adrian to let me escape now and then, when ye knew I’d be betrayin’ me own kin? Mmm? Even if God’s not displeased enough to unseat ye, woman, I’m here to tell ye that Adrian himself is not so happy to discover ye’ve been using him so.”
Lanny’s eyes rounded. “Adrian? What about Adrian?” She looked over the old man’s shoulder, then searched the faces in the crowd beyond. She seemed genuinely horrified to hear his name.
Jonathan stood on the fringe of that crowd and waved Lucas to him. “Bring her here. Let me see what I can do.”
Lucas gave Jamison another wink and carried his mom away. Jacob patted his shoulder and went with them. It was just himself, and Skye and a ghost left to face the Primary.
Lanny lunged forward and grabbed Skye’s forearm. “Ungrateful. All of you.”
Skye didn’t struggle. She got up in Lanny’s face. “Tell me. Was it Pilot’s idea to kill my parents? Or was it yours?”
Lanny gasped and let go of Skye like she was on fire. Then she stuck her nose in the air. “I’m a Primary. Only God himself—”
“Hold that thought, ye wee bitch.” Grandpa took his hands off his hips and signaled to someone behind him.
A low hum began, like helicopters in the distance, and Jamison turned to watch hundreds of Somerleds warming up for another impromptu farewell party. He remembered Lucas was still holding onto his mother, and he looked for them, worried the big man would be caught inside the circle. But Lucas was singing too.
Lanny laughed. “What is it, boy? Did you think you could get rid of me like the others? Did you think all you had to do was catch me in the middle of my own people and get them to turn against me?”
Her voice rose steadily with every question, then she paused to watch her two escorts rise into the air. Before they’d even exploded, she turned back to Jamison with narrowed eyes.
“Your worst mistake was making me angry,” she snarled. “I was going to let you kiss your little Somerled goodbye before I sent the two of you to opposite corners of the world. But you messed in your nest…boy!”
The women flashed and disappeared.
Lanny laughed at the Somerleds still singing at her, then at Jamison. “You’re going to wish you’d let us wipe your memory.”
“Shut it!” Grandpa’s specter grew a little taller than he’d been in real life, even in his younger years. He looked at the darkening sky and shouted, “Adrian, me lad! We’ve not got all day!”
Lanny’s laughte
r ended with a screech and she started backing slowly toward the helicopter, her robes swaying back and forth with each step. “He wouldn’t. He wouldn’t!”
Jamison looked up and he and Skye held each other tight as star after star shot across the washed out blue of the sky. Then suddenly, one of those stars changed direction and headed straight for the plateau. He blinked and the star was gone. But a painfully bright light suddenly reflected off the helicopter.
Or did it?
“Adrian, we can discuss this another time,” Lanny bullied.
Jamison heard no reply.
“Adrian! You wouldn’t!” Lanny whined, looking straight at the light. “I took some risks— Adrian, don’t! Please! You loved me once. That has to mean something.”
Her feet lifted off the ground and she gasped and held out her arms awkwardly, even though she had to have watched hundreds, if not thousands of others do it gracefully. The singing suddenly grew so loud Jamison had to let go of Skye so they could cover their ears. But Lanny didn’t rise like the others. When she reached about ten feet off the ground, she was flung into the sky like a white rock from a giant slingshot. A shooting star in reverse.
A heartbeat later, the bright point of light near the helicopter shot up after her. There was no explosion. No flash of light or falling ashes. Lanny just continued out of sight.
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
It was three o’clock in the morning when Jamison woke in his hotel bed to the sensation of someone tugging on his foot. It took a second for his eyes to adjust even though there was only a little bit of light coming from the hallway of the large suite.
His first thought was that Skye needed him. “What? What?”
His grandpa sat at the end of the bed gleefully pulling on his foot through the sheet.
“You’re looking a little pale, old man,” Jamison rasped.
“Auch, aye. I am that, wee Jamie. It seems my time here is done. Adrian’s sealing the cracks I found in his system, or so he says. I’ll nay be allowed to come again.”
Jamison jumped off the bed. “I’ll go get Mom. She’s just in the next room—”
“Nay, laddie. The woman was never meant to see me as I am. No use startin’ the grieving over if there’s no cause for it.”
Jamison understood. His mom did tend to grieve a good long time, just like her son. But they’d finally started to be happy again and it would be wise not to mess with it. Lucas had thought the same thing when he’s agreed and had removed the sight of her father’s ghost from her memory.
Still, Jamison felt selfish for having the man to himself.
“What about Skye?”
Grandpa shook his head. “You’ll give her my good-bye?”
Jamison nodded and searched for something memorable to say.
“Thanks for everything, Granddad. I love you.”
“And I you, me lad. It’s just… Tell that son of yours—”
“What?!” Jamison’s chest felt like it might collapse from the weight of such a responsibility.
The old man started giggling and fading at the same time. The light from the hallway cut right through him.
“Auch, now, I’m just funning with ye, ye ken.” He gave him a wink, then kissed the flat of his hand and pressed it to his heart. “But ye might be wise to name the lad Kenneth…”
And he was gone.
Jamison made his way across the hard-tiled kitchen and silently through the shadows to Skye’s bedroom. He poked his head through the door and was relieved when she gasped. He’d hoped to find her awake.
“Can’t sleep,” he lied. “How about you?”
She met him in the living room fully clothed and turned sideways on the couch to face him. “I may never wear pajamas again.”
“Oh?” He grinned.
She hit him with a couch cushion. It got quiet, but it was a comfortable kind of quiet. Then she stretched her foot over to him and tucked it under his butt.
“I’ve been trying to imagine what’s happening to Lanny,” she said.
“I’ve been trying to get all of it out of my mind.”
She ducked her head. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. What are you thinking?”
“Well… I hope it doesn’t make me a bad person to hope she’s getting what she deserves. I mean, all of it was her fault.”
He squeezed her ankle since it might be the only part of her she’d allow him to touch in the middle of the night, in the dark. “It doesn’t make you a bad person. You’re right. It was all her fault. She wasn’t working off a prophecy, right? She was betting against a prediction, which is like playing the odds. There was still a chance Gabriella would do no harm if Lanny didn’t interfere. She should have given her that chance. Maybe Pilot wouldn’t have betrayed them if Lanny hadn’t suggested it.”
Skye nodded but he could barely tell in the shadows from the curtains. “I don’t know,” she said. “I think Pilot was always going to make someone pay for the fact that Gabriella loved Buchanan instead of him.”
“True.” He teased his fingers along her shin and she slapped his hand away. “You know, that’s probably the most important lesson to learn here, that you should never deny a man the chance to love you.”
She laughed. He reached for her shin again and she slapped it away again, so he settled for touching her ankle. She suddenly stood on the couch, turned around, and sat in his lap.
“If I keep your lips busy, maybe your hands can give it a rest,” she whispered.
“Maybe.” He lifted his face to hers and gave it a test, keeping his hands as still as he could.
He kept expecting his mom to walk in and send them back to bed, but she didn’t. And finally, he decided they’d better stop and take a break or Skye would be wondering if Jamison was a bad person—and not for what he thought about Lanny.
He ended the kiss, pulled back, and tucked her head onto his shoulder. “We’d better stop or I’ll have to sit on my hands.”
She nodded into his shoulder. After a minute, the silence wasn’t so comfortable.
“So, where do we go from Henderson?” she said, her voice a little weak. “I’m afraid I don’t have much money.” Then she explained why and his gut was in knots when she was through.
“I met Blair,” he said. “He hit me in the stomach with a shovel that day. A real sweetheart. I was freaking out because you’d run away and I couldn’t find you, but I total understood you getting away from that—”
“Creep?”
“Exactly.”
“He hit you with a shovel?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s weird. What was he doing with the shovel?”
“No clue. He came around the side of the house with it when I knocked on the door.”
She straightened and faced him. “And it was the day you found me?”
“Yeah.”
“The day he stole my money and closed my account.”
Light dawned. “Maybe he…”
“Buried it in the backyard,” they said in unison.
“So, to answer your question,” he said, “I think, before we leave Henderson, we find a shovel.”
“And after that?”
“We go home. To Flatsprings. Until you decide we need to go somewhere else.”
“Is it hot there?”
“No.
“Good. How about Somerleds? Good or bad, I’ve had enough of them to last the rest of my life.”
He grimaced. It was no time to remind her their place was next door to a large Somerled ranch. “Well…”
She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “You know what? It doesn’t matter. As long as we’re together, I can handle anything.”
“Oh, good. Because Lucas and Jonathan live next door.”
She groaned.
“But on the bright side…”
“Yeah?”
“You’re going to love the treehouse.”
She didn’t look impressed, so he thought it might not be the best
time to tell her they would eventually have at least one son…named Kenneth.
THE END
If you liked Skye and Jamison’s story, go to Amazon.com and leave a review. Then go to my website and send me an email. I’d like to thank you personally.
Thank you for spending your precious reading time with my characters!
ALSO BY L.L. MUIR
Somewhere Over the Freaking Rainbow
Kilt Trip
Going Back for Romeo
Not Without Juliet
Collecting Isobelle
What About Wickham
The Curse of Clan Ross Series
Christmas Kiss
Kiss This
Blood for Ink
Bones for Bread
Lord Fool to the Rescue
Under the Kissing Tree
Ruffles and Rawhide
Where to Pee on a Pirate Ship
TABLE OF CONTENTS
DEDICATION
ALSO BY L.L. MUIR
PREFACE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE