Getting up, Daisy poured herself a cup of coffee, dumped liberal quantities of cream and sugar in and then took a sip. “Work will be a bitch tomorrow if you stay up.” She said, trying to keep her tone light.
She used to try to get Lily to talk about her bad dreams, tried to get her to open up, but pushing only put Lily in a defensive mood and she locked down tight. Much better just to sit with her and show support than pretend to be Lily’s therapist.
“Day off,” Lily mumbled, sipping at her own coffee.
“It’s been awhile since we’ve had one of these late night chats.” Daisy said carefully.
A shrug. Lily’s fingertips danced over her coffee mug. “Do you know what the sad thing is? I was honored when he chose to take me as his mate.” Lily’s expression twisted with disgust. “He was so different back then, you know? Or at least he pretended to be.”
Daisy kept her eyes on Lily, but her sister continued to keep her eyes on the mug before her. “I remember. I even envied you at first. He was very handsome.”
Lily nodded. “He would say all the right things.” She let out a laugh that lacked humor, “And I fell for it hook, line, and sinker. Unlike your Garrett Foley who openly displayed his cruelty, Hank was a master of disguise.”
Daisy grimaced in distaste. “He’s not my Garrett Foley.”
Lily nodded and took a sip of her coffee. “I used to dream about killing him you know.”
“Garrett?” Daisy asked, surprised.
Lily finally looked up from her mug. “Hank. I would think about openly challenging him but then I would disregard it because he’d enjoy that too much. It would be like inviting an audience to see him humiliate me. So I started thinking about poisoning his food, or hitting him over the head with a shovel and dropping him in the swamps for the gators.” Lily took a shuddering breath. “Have you lost respect for me now, Daisy? Do you think I’m a monster?”
Daisy moved around the table and knelt before her sister. Taking Lily’s hands in hers, she assured “I would never lose respect for you, Lily. You lived with that evil son of a bitch for way longer than I would have been able to cope. I would be more surprised if you hadn’t considered it.”
Lily tugged a hand loose to swipe over her eyes. “I’m happy he’s dead, but… Does it make me a bad person to wish that I had been the one to kill him?”
Daisy shook her head and then laid it in Lily’s lap. “I’ll never think you’re bad, Lily. You saved us.”
Lily’s hand stroked over Daisy’s hair. “I’m going to miss you when you go.”
Daisy looked up into her sister’s vivid green eyes. “Do you need me to stay, Lily? I won’t leave you if you need me.”
Lily cupped both hands around Daisy’s cheeks. “Do you want to know what would make me happy, Daisy?”
Daisy nodded and Lily continued. “I want you to see other places, and experience life. I want you to laugh and be happy.”
Still cupping Daisy’s cheeks, Lily leaned down close until their noses touched. “And if you ever find yourself unhappy, I want you to know that I’ll move heaven and earth to come get you. You will always have a safe place here with me when you need it.”
When Lily released her cheeks, Daisy laid her head back down in Lily’s lap. She sighed, she would miss her sister, but they would stay in touch. It was one thing that both of them would insist on. They would worry too much otherwise. And one day, Lily may realize that security alone wasn’t enough to build her life on and she may decide to join Daisy in her travels.
A knock at the door woke Daisy. Opening one eye she saw the room was lit with bright sunshine. It had to be close to noon. Late by most standards but when you hadn’t gone back to bed until almost seven a.m. it still felt way too early. She groaned and shut her eyes again but another knock came. With a growl she pushed up from her bed fully intending to berate whichever Pierce son was outside demanding entry. Seeing that Lily had also opened her eyes and was now sitting up and pushing hair out of her face, Daisy pointed at her. “If it’s your boyfriend, Conner I’m going to kick his ass.”
Lily yawned. “Well, if he’s got coffee at least wait until he sets it down first.”
Daisy chuckled as she walked to the door, but made sure she had her “fierce face” on before she opened it. After all, a smiling, amused Daisy was not at all intimidating. Grabbing hold of the knob and throwing open the door, ready to blast Conner Pierce she stumbled when she saw who was on the other side. Not Lily’s ‘boyfriend’ but her own.
Her face transformed with a huge smile. She could actually feel that it took up a good half of her face. She probably looked demented. Then worry took hold. Poking her head out the door she looked around with narrowed eyes before yanking Alek into the cabin and shutting the door. She looked out the window, scanning for anyone who might see. “What are you doing here?” She asked. “Did anyone see you? You could have been caught! Are you free to come and go now?”
Alek raised a brow, his lips tilting at one corner in amusement. “Well, good morning to you too, solnyshko.”
Daisy blushed but smiled at the endearment. Stepping closer, she wrapped her arms around him and leaned up to kiss his jaw. “Good morning.”
Alek slid his hands over her back and made a humming sound of appreciation. “Now let’s see. To answer your questions, I had to talk to you and your sister, no one saw me since I’m an expert at evasion,” he said with a smug smile. “But had I been caught I would have simply been turned back, and no, I’m not free to come and go as I please.”
“Did he bring coffee?” Lily called from the bedroom.
Daisy smiled as Alek mumbled “Oops.”
“No. But I’ll get some brewing.” she called back.
“Late night?” Alek asked as Daisy started the familiar process of setting up the coffee machine.
She nodded and grimaced. “Bad dreams.”
Alek’s arms were suddenly around her and he was nuzzling into her neck. “I’m so sorry to hear that.”
Daisy couldn’t help but purr at Alek’s attention. “Lily and I stayed up until after dawn talking, but it’s all okay now.”
She felt his rumbling purr and turned in his arms to give him a kiss. She couldn’t get enough of this man – her man.
“Now that’s a proper good morning.” Alek growled against her lips.
Smiling, Daisy placed one more kiss on his lips before turning to back to the coffee. While it brewed, and Lily showered, she and Alek sat at the kitchen table. “How are your plans coming for your surprise with Mrs. Potter? Are you thinking to take her somewhere dancing?” Daisy asked.
Alek shook his head. I’m not really sure yet, but Eloise doesn’t like going out in the snow so I’m thinking I might do something right at her house. Maybe I’ll drop her off to get her hair done and then come back and move the furniture out of the way and roll up the rug for a dancefloor.”
Daisy was vigorously nodding. “And set up lots of candles around the room.” Daisy clapped her hands together in excitement. “I can make dinner and then you can ask her to dance after you’ve eaten. She’ll love it.”
“Who’ll love what?” Lily asked as she stepped into the main room a towel wrapped around her wet hair like a turban.
Daisy grinned. “Alek is planning a special night of dancing for Mrs. Potter.”
Lily poured herself a cup of coffee and took a sip, nodding. “She seemed like a really nice lady when I met her the other night. If I hadn’t been so worried about you, I probably would have enjoyed myself more.”
Daisy grimaced recalling the tension the night that Alek had told her his true purpose here. She was grateful he had told her before they’d arrived back at Mrs. Potter’s and been confronted by Tarvahl Pierce. Things would have been a lot messier otherwise.
“I hope you decide to visit Mrs. Potter and become friends with her, Lily. You can keep each other company after Alek and I leave. I know she would appreciate it.”
“Actually,” Alek sai
d, “When I leave, my room will be available. If you decide you don’t want to live out here in the woods alone, you may want to think about staying there.”
Lily gave a noncommittal shrug. “I’ll give it some thought.”
“Now that we’re all here,” Daisy said, “What did you need to talk to us about?”
Alek looked between both of them for a moment. “We need to talk about your deaths.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Lily’s head shot up so quickly her turban unraveled. “I beg your pardon?” She growled yanking off the towel and dropping it to the floor.
Alek wasn’t surprised as the female took an aggressive stance ready to do battle. He certainly could have chosen his words better, or at least started differently. He kept his eyes on the more unpredictable of the two and raised his hands in placating gesture, palms out. “Your pretend deaths. On paper only.” He said.
When that assurance didn’t halt Lily’s growling he continued. “I’ve got one of my people working on your new identities, birth certificates, passports, all of it, but we still need to figure out what to do with your current identities. The safest route is for the Munroe sisters to die. Less chance of someone coming to look for you later.”
Lily lifted one side of her lip in a snarl but sat down and took another sip of coffee. Alek felt Daisy’s hand come to his back and slide up and down in soothing strokes. Turning his head he gave her a grateful smile.
“What did you have in mind?” Lily asked, drawing his attention back to her.
“I’m thinking a car accident on icy roads in Canada since that was the last known location for the two of you I fed to Kramer. It’ll be pretty simple. We’ll take some shots of you and Daisy that can be used to make some fake security feeds from a gas station or convenience store showing you two getting into a car that will later be photographed with those plates as a wreck.” Alek shrugged. “Proof of death for Kramer.”
“What if he wants the bodies returned for burial?” Daisy asked.
“I know a lot of people.” Alek said shrugging. “We can always find some cadaver bodies or recently deceased Jane Doe’s that we can pass off as the two of you. Especially if the wreck was bad enough to make them unrecognizable. Just leave the details to me and my team.” Daisy gave him another stroke and he wanted to purr. Talking about their deaths, even fake, was disturbing and her touch soothed his agitation like nothing else could.
Lily let out a shuddery sigh and nodded. “It’ll be good to know we’ll be permanently off his radar.”
Alek looked at Lily and then at Daisy. “I need to know you are both on board with this. You need to be fully committed to the plan. You will never be able to return to Florida or contact anyone in your pride. Not even your parents. Ever. So if you need time to consider then you should take it. Once it’s done, there’s no going back. Lily Munroe-Kramer and Daisy Munroe will be gone.”
Lily gave Alek a narrow eyed glare. “I don’t need time to think about it. Our parents,” she snarled, “gave us away to monsters. They’re dead to me. Now I can be dead to them too.”
Alek turned to look at Daisy who was nodding vigorously. “I want our freedom. I don’t ever want to look back. Do it.”
“I’ll set the ball in motion.”
Once that was sorted, Alek asked if the sisters would like to walk to the falls and in an aside to Daisy, he informed her that despite yesterday’s snowfall he was pretty sure the falls had begun to melt.
Daisy jumped up from her seat, planted a loud, smacking kiss on his cheek and said, “Just let me jump in the shower.”
He saw Lily smile fondly after her sister as Daisy shut herself in the other room. “Thanks for the invite, but I think I’ll let you two lovebirds have some time alone. Less third wheel-y for me.”
Alek nodded. “All right.”
She took a sip of her coffee and eyed him speculatively. Something changed slightly in her gaze, something disturbingly familiar though he couldn’t quite place it, but it was something dangerous. Alek braced himself for impact, waiting for her to threaten him with bodily harm. Instead she said, “Daisy’s not like me, but she’s not weak either. Her strength comes from her heart. To grow up the way the way we did and still see the good in the world…”
Alek nodded. “I agree.”
“Our parents weren’t very… demonstrative in their affections.”
Alek raised a brow at her wording. “According to Daisy, your parents weren’t capable of affection period.”
Lily nodded. “She may be right. But I watched her for years trying to impress them, over and over again, hoping to gain their notice and get the smallest crumb of approval from them.” She shook her head sadly. “It never came.” Her gaze turned pleading – a look he never thought to see on this fierce female’s face and a testament to how much she loved her sister. “Please don’t do that to her, Alek. Don’t make her work like that for your love. I can’t stand the thought of her spending the rest of her life repeating the past. If you love her, tell her, show her, and do so often.”
Before Alek could reassure her, Lily rushed on. “I know you were brought up in those training camps, and I know you had a tough time of it. I can’t even begin to relate to your experiences. But if you’re too tough, too hardcore, to give Daisy what she needs then you need to bow out now. Please. Before she leaves with you and ends up miserable.”
Alek took Lily’s cold hand in his and squeezed. “I love her, Lily. Truly. Since I gained my freedom, I have been obsessed with destroying the fur traders. Hate was my motivation. For the first time in years, I have something else motivating me and that’s because of Daisy. I’m motivated to get this done so that we can build a real home, maybe start a family someday, and finally have a life. I want to travel with her and share with her so many amazing things. I want to make her happy. She means the world to me and I won’t let a day go by where I don’t let her know that.”
Lily nodded. “If I’m not there to protect her, I need to know that you will be. Just don’t smother her.” Lily said firmly and he looked into her eyes. It came to him, suddenly why they looked so familiar. Piercing green and different from his own, yet he recognized those eyes; saw them every day in his own reflection when he looked in the mirror. There was darkness in that gaze. The darkness that comes from being surrounded by it for too long; it saturates the soul. Unlike Daisy, who had come out untouched, her sister had eyes like his, the eyes of a true predator even in human form – eyes of a killer.
“I’ll protect her with my life.” He assured her and she nodded her acceptance, got up from the table to put her coffee cup in the sink, and then shut herself in the bedroom.
Daisy smiled the entire way to the falls. The sun was shining, the air smelled cold and clean, and Alek was holding her hand. Despite their rather macabre discussion this morning, her mood was as bright as the day.
When they reached the clearing, Daisy released a gasp of delight. The outer edges of the falls were still crusted in ice but the center had melted. The water was crashing freely now to swell the creek with run off from the thaw; the spray throwing rainbows all around like magic.
Alek moved behind her, wrapped his arms around her waist, and lay his chin on the top of her head. “It makes you want to believe in fairies, doesn’t it?”
She tipped her head to the side and smiled up at him. “You don’t believe in fairies?”
His response was a smile and a kiss to her nose. She shrugged. “Some would say we’re magical creatures, so it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch of the imagination to believe that fairies might be real.”
He smiled and nuzzled her cheek. “I never thought of it that way.”
Daisy leaned to the side slightly and shot him an exaggerated wink and a grin. “Don’t let this blonde hair fool you.”
Alek pulled her in tight and ran his fingers through that hair. “I’m rarely fooled. I never underestimated you for a moment.” With that he slid his mouth against hers in a sweet kis
s, once, twice, before turning her fully in his arms to deepen the kiss.
Daisy moaned, her stomach clenching tight in anticipation as Alek’s tongue stroked over hers. He had one hand gripped gently in her hair while the other fisted the fabric of her heavy coat. She pressed even tighter against him, wanting to burrow beneath his skin and be truly one with this magnificent man that held her heart.
The moment was perfection that would stay in Daisy’s memories forever. This magical glen of sunshine and rainbows, the roar of the falls crashing, and her lover’s arms holding her tight.
She broke away to gasp in air and Alek’s lips moved to her jaw and a nuzzling kiss to her neck before he turned her again so that she was facing the falls. Her head tipped back against his shoulder as he stroked his mouth down her exposed throat. His hand moved to unzip her coat and then slid under her sweater to the warm skin of her belly. Daisy shivered, but not from cold.
Alek’s lips moved to her ear and she felt the ticklish scrape of his teeth and the warmth of his breath before his whispered words made her shudder with pleasure. “If it were summer I would strip your beautiful body bare and make love to you beneath those falls.”
Daisy let out an mmm of agreement before she gasped when his fingers slipped into the waistband of her jeans and then lower. She imagined being held against Alek as he’d just described, his skin glossy wet and slippery from the falling water. A moan escaped her, his fingers delving into her panties to find her slick folds, swollen with need, and caress them. She was unbelievably aroused. She pushed back against him, wanting to be closer, felt the hard ridge of his erection against her lower back, his tongue sliding against her ear, his breath a hot caress. Another slide of his fingers against her swollen flesh and she exploded in waves of pleasure with a cry that split the air.
Daisy was grateful for the strong arm around her, keeping her from collapsing to the ground. Every muscle in her body seemed to twitch and spasm as little shockwaves zinged along her nerve endings. Her hand pressed against his through the stiff denim of her jeans, needing the pressure against her core as it continued to throb. She could feel Alek fully pressed against her back, his mouth dropping kisses against her hair, her cheek, her neck. “You are so beautiful.” He whispered, and Daisy took a shuddering breath.
For Her: A Malsum Pass Novel Page 13