“If we fail, hopefully reading the log will instill that responsibility. It has all the adventures, lessons learned, and mistakes made.”
She removed her gloves and folded them over the waistband of her riding skirt, then took his hands and caressed his palms with her thumbs. The sensation shot straight to his groin. “Why don’t you go talk to Elliott and take my horse to the barn. I want to shower before I see the kids, and if I go in that direction they’ll see me. I can go through the tree line and only be seen by your eye-in-the-sky security force.”
“They’ve already seen ye. I’ll have to delete the video before anyone studies it too closely and realizes we just appeared out of a lakeside fog.” His phone rang, and he looked at the face. “It’s Elliott. He already knows we’re here.” He put the call on speaker, so Kenzie could hear the conversation. “McBain.”
“Are ye leaving or are ye back?” Elliott asked.
“We’re at the lake. Just got back.”
“Did ye find Amber?”
“Yes, but we need to talk privately. Where’s JL?” David’s horse nudged him with his nose, pushing David closer to the lake. David slung the reins over the horses’ necks to prevent them from dragging, leaving the horses to lap at the water.
“At home resting. Why?”
“I need to talk to ye first before I see her,” David said.
“Why? Is something wrong with Rick?”
“Not exactly.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
Kenzie turned her penetrating gaze on David, mouthing, “Just tell him.”
David shook his head and used two fingers to point at his eyes. The conversation with Elliott had to take place in person. David had left a team member behind, and he had some explaining to do.
“Ye still there?”
“Aye, sorry.” The horses moved away from the lake to graze in the field. “We need to talk in person and not around JL.”
“Don’t try to protect her,” Elliott said. “Ye know it pisses her off. If it concerns her, she wants to know. Don’t sugarcoat it. It’ll come back to bite ye in the ass.”
“She’s pregnant. I don’t want to upset her.” He wanted to shout that Kenzie hopefully was too. Together they walked arm in arm toward the tree line and the stone path that cut through to their house. The lake was special to them, so they’d built the McBain residence on a knoll overlooking the water. He’d let the horses graze there for now. The entire farm was fenced. They couldn’t get loose and roam Old Frankfort Pike. If they wandered too far away, he’d send a groom to collect them.
“Ye think that matters?” Elliott asked. “I can tell ye right now, it doesn’t.”
David gripped Kenzie’s hand tighter with the crook of his arm. “All right. Call her. Let’s meet in my office in fifteen minutes.”
“Where’s Kenzie?”
“I’m walking her to the house. She wants a shower before she sees the kids.”
“Tell her to call me ASAP.”
David took a deep breath and shrugged a bit, as though his jacket were too tight. Then said in a tone he hadn’t used with Elliott in over a decade, “She’ll get to ye when she has time.”
Kenzie gasped.
“God, ye’re in a shitty mood,” Elliott said.
Maybe he was, but life had to change. Demands on his bride’s time and attention had to change, and it might as well start today. “I’ll see ye in fifteen minutes.”
Kenzie stopped on the path and swirled to confront him, dropping their clasped arms. “Why are you mad at Elliott? Or…” She frowned at him. “You’re mad at me and taking it out on him?”
David removed his black felt hat, ran his fingers through his hair, and counted to ten. “JL is seven and a half months pregnant, and he’s not worried about upsetting her. Ye have three small children and a husband, and Elliott still believes he should come first. If ye’re pregnant again, his beck-and-call privileges will be revoked.” David slapped his hat back on his head. “Hell, they should be revoked even if ye’re not.”
“Hold on, cowboy. You’re messing with my job and we agreed, you’d never pull rank on me.”
“I’m not.” He tugged her forward, and they crossed the final twenty feet in silence until they reached the fence that separated the path from their front yard. He punched in the code and the gate swung open.
“I’ll never pull rank on ye, but I’ll use my last breath to protect ye.” He turned her to face him. “When I found ye, naked and beaten, on the floor of the Cage, it nearly killed me. When I found ye in the back of the truck with a head wound, I thought for a moment not only were ye dead, but I was, too. When we were in San Francisco, and ye were struggling through yer pregnancy, I knew then, if I lost ye, there would be no reason for me to go on.” He pulled her into his arms, wishing he could keep her there, protected every hour of the day.
She leaned back and clasped his face between her hands. “I love you, McBain, and I can’t imagine life without you, but neither can I imagine life without the freedom to do what I love doing. You’ve got to back off. If I’m pregnant, we’ll compromise and find a workable solution.” She took a deep breath and when she continued, her voice was steadier. “Until then, let me talk to Elliott about my workload. I’ve budgeted for two new attorneys, but he’s afraid if there are more lawyers in the company, I won’t know everything that’s going on.”
“He’ll have to deal with it.”
Her brows shot up and she glared at him. “David. Stop it.” A breeze came through the trees in a gust that blew his hat back on his head, as if Kenzie had flicked it with her finger. “If I didn’t know better,” she continued, “I’d say you’re acting like a jealous asshat.”
He pulled her to him again, letting her cheek rest above his heart. “Ye’re my life, Kenz, and above all, I want ye happy and safe. I remember how close we were to losing ye. It scares me knowing ye might go through another pregnancy and get sick again.”
“You can’t put me in a bubble, hon. If I am pregnant, my OB/GYN will monitor this pregnancy closely. We’ll be fine. Relax. And let me handle Elliott.”
Softly, he said, “Okay. I’ll be waiting in the wings, yer knight in shining armor.”
25
The Present, MacKlenna Farm, Lexington, Kentucky—David
Thirty minutes later, after taking a hot shower with his bride, David sauntered into the security center to find Elliott and JL sitting on stools in front of the refreshment bar, deep in conversation. The monitors on the walls flashed views of the stallion barns, paddocks, the corporate center, the main entrance to the mansion, the lake, and various other locations throughout the three-thousand-acre farm. At this hour of the afternoon, only one guard monitored the computers. The rest were patrolling the grounds. With any luck, the guard’s attention had been focused elsewhere when he and Kenzie came out of the fog.
“There he is.” Elliott picked up a freshly brewed cup from the coffee maker’s drip tray and handed it to David. “Dark roasted, dab of cream, no sugar, and ye’re late—”
“Where’s Rick?” JL asked.
David sipped, sighed at the welcoming taste of his favorite high-octane. “Come in my office and we’ll talk.”
With Elliott’s assistance, JL climbed off the barstool carrying a bottle of juice and entered the corner office. David shut the door, and the latch fell with a sense of finality. Neither Elliott nor JL would leave the room happy. Hell, he wouldn’t, either.
David stepped toward his desk but changed his mind. He didn’t want the modern L-shaped furniture to be perceived as a barrier, so he took a seat on the sofa next to JL. She put her feet on top of the Thoroughbred racing magazines stacked on the coffee table, and Elliott sat across from them in an upholstered chair and crossed his legs. David glanced at JL’s ankles. Not that he was checking her out, but after Kenzie’s last pregnancy, he was more aware of problems that could occur, and wanted to be sure JL wasn’t dealing with swelling issues. Even pregnant, her dancer�
��s legs remained classical and elegant.
“Where’s Rick?” JL asked again. “And if you don’t tell me, I’m calling Pops. And you don’t want to mess with him.”
JL was right about that. The retired deputy chief had never been angry at David, but he’d seen it up close. Pops could intimidate the most stalwart members of the security force with just a look from his piercing light brown eyes.
“I’ll tell ye everything ye want to know, but first I have two quick tasks.” He didn’t wait for an answer. Instead, he opened the laptop sitting on the table next to the sofa. Both JL and Elliott knew he couldn’t be bullied or threatened, and while he tried to be accommodating, occasionally they just had to wait.
She cradled her juice bottle in one hand, picked at the label with the other. “Can you at least tell me where he is?”
“Denver,” David said without glancing up.
He accessed the security log, found the video footage taken at the lake twenty-four hours a day, and deleted the last sixty minutes of tape. Next, he hacked into Amber’s home network and sent an email to Olivia that included the video of Amber and Rick. Satisfied he hadn’t left any footprints, he logged out and turned his attention to Elliott and JL.
She glared intently at him with her former-cop eyes. “You told me where, but not when. I’m out of patience. Spill it.”
He threw one arm along the back of the sofa and turned toward her. “We weren’t sure where we would land. Turns out it was Leadville. We split up to search the city, and Rick found Amber at her ancestors’ general store. He was upfront with her and confessed right away that he was from the twenty-first century. They were having a friendly chat by the time Kenzie and I arrived several minutes later.”
“How long had she been there?” Elliott asked.
“About twenty-four hours. Not long, but she’d been a busy lass. She’d rescued a Pinkerton agent’s son from being run over by a freight wagon, obtained her law license, negotiated a settlement for the lad and a contract for a five-night performance at the Tabor Opera House for herself, purchased a guitar worth six figures in the twenty-first century, arranged housing in a respectable boardinghouse, and met her seven-times great-grandparents.”
“Geez,” JL said. “If she moves that fast, I wish she’d been with us in 1909 New York City.”
“I heard she’s a top-rated Colorado attorney. If she can do all that with only the clothes on her back and a razor-sharp mind, she’s got my full attention and a job offer,” Elliott said.
“Save your job offer for later,” JL said. For just a second, something akin to rage flashed across her face before her expression settled into frustration. “I want to know why you’re here and my brother isn’t.”
“Amber wasn’t ready to come home. She wanted to go fossil hunting in Morrison.”
“What? Are you serious?” JL asked. “Rick is in the nineteenth century babysitting a rock hound?”
David held up a placating hand. “Let me explain.”
She jabbed at his extended hand as if it were a punching bag, leaving a stinging mark on his palm. “There’s no explanation wide enough, deep enough, or long enough that’ll satisfy me. I can’t believe you left behind a soldier recovering from a battle wound, who’s only been stateside a few weeks, and has never time traveled. Does that make sense to you?”
“Look,” he said, rubbing his hand. “Rick came back moody and unfocused. I wasn’t sold on Kenzie’s recommendation to take him along, but as soon as he dressed in what we jokingly called his Clint Eastwood costume, he changed.”
“How? He probably became more unfocused.”
“No. He became the old Rick again. He performed five nights at the Tabor Opera House, singing to a standing room only crowd. He dined with beautiful women, flirted with Amber, joked with Daniel’s son, and charmed the owner of the boardinghouse. That’s not the Rick we’ve seen lately. Going back was good for him.”
JL crossed her arms and chewed on her bottom lip, as if not sure of something. Then she looked David in the eye. “Wasn’t five days enough?”
“He’s a grown man, and ye’re not his mother.” David tried to say it with compassion, but from JL’s wide-eyed expression she didn’t receive it that way.
“You don’t have to be mean.”
Silence fell over the room and they sat there as still as statues in a tableau.
Elliott finally broke the silence. “Ye mentioned a man named Daniel and his son. Is he the Pinkerton agent?”
“Aye, Daniel Grant and his ten-year-old son, Noah. But we’re getting ahead of the story. Let me back up. When we told Amber we had come to take her home, she said she couldn’t leave yet because she’d signed a performance contract that she couldn’t break.”
“What difference did that make? She was going to leave the century.”
“Her contract was tied to the settlement she’d negotiated for Noah. She was afraid Mr. Tabor might sue the boy’s father for bad faith. She didn’t want to cause problems for them, so she had to fulfill her contract.”
“Didn’t she care that her sister was going bat-shit crazy with worry?”
“Aye, and that the sheriff was looking for her. We told her. That’s when we came up with the idea of taping a video message that Kenzie and I could bring back, hoping that would call off the sheriff and relieve Olivia’s worry.”
“While Amber and Rick went fossil hunting?” JL asked.
“We didn’t see a downside. There was no war, no bad cops, no Oregon Trail. It seemed safe enough. Plus, Daniel agreed to escort Amber and Rick to Denver. From there they could take day trips to Morrison.”
“Do ye think Daniel Grant is her soul mate?” Elliott asked.
“I hope so,” David said. “He’s an honorable Scotsman. And his sister married Blane Fraser.”
Elliott scratched his chin in thought. “That would be my four-times great-grandfather.”
“Fourth or fifth. We’ll have to look at yer family tree.”
“That’s interesting. That would make him an uncle several times removed,” Elliott said. “So the fossil dig was an excuse for Amber to spend more time with Daniel, and yer early departure was to bring the video back so Olivia would know her sister was alive and well and falling in love.”
“Something like that.”
“Okay, smart guy,” JL said. “So why aren’t they back yet? The way the brooches work, you’ve only been gone a few minutes. They should be here, or in Denver. Have you heard from Rick? I haven’t.” She huffed, held out her hand. “Let me see the video.”
David opened his camera app and clicked on the video. JL watched it, shaking her head. “Looks like you might be confused about Amber’s soul mate. If you ask me, she has the hots for Rick.”
“Who said it was Rick?”
“Who else would it be?” She handed Elliott the phone, and she fell silent, her eyes seeming to look inward. “During Rick’s first year on the force, a perp sliced him with a knife right below his nipple,” she finally said. “I recognize the scar. Connor will, too. He won’t like it. My brothers have a strict dating code and messing with Connor’s girlfriend’s sister is a violation.”
“Was he sending ye a message?” Elliott asked.
“Knowing Rick, yeah,” JL said. “Look at the video. Amber’s head could easily have covered the left nipple instead of the right. He wanted us to know it was him and that he was okay. But what I don’t get is why Amber and Rick aren’t here. What brooch do they have?”
“Rick has the amethyst, and Amber has hers, which is an amber. Kenzie and I traveled with the diamond.”
JL put her feet on the floor and took a long cleansing breath. “We know the amethyst brooch returns you to within minutes of the time you left. So I ask again. Why aren’t they here?”
“The stones didn’t come with a list of rules,” David said. “We’re figuring this out as we go along. The amber brooch could be more powerful than the amethyst.” He threw up his hands. “I don’t have an an
swer.”
“I do,” JL said. “Something has happened. You said they were going to Denver. Had they left before you abandoned them? How were they getting there? By train?”
David tried suppressing his growing irritation. It didn’t work. “I didn’t abandon them. We divided forces. And they were traveling on a private stagecoach. There was no train in Leadville yet.”
“I’ve heard about stagecoach travel. They were held up, horses broke down, and they crashed. To get to Denver, they probably had to go through the mountains. What time of year was it there?”
“Late fall.”
“They could have run into snow and icy roads. Rick will be freezing his ass off after spending two years in the desert. You’ve got to go back, David. You don’t have a choice. Take Connor, or even Shane. He’s in Reno.”
“I’m not ready to buy into a stagecoach accident,” David said.
“Look,” JL said. “They should be home and they’re not. There are only two conclusions you can draw—they’re hurt, or they lost the brooches.”
“When Kit left, she was gone for months,” Elliott said. “I knew she’d gone back to discover her identity. Waiting all that time…not knowing if she was dead or alive nearly killed me. There’s no reason to be left in limbo the way I was. Ye’ve got to go back, David.”
“None of us should ever go through that kind of worry.” David’s voice thickened, and he fell silent. Then he roused himself. “JL, send Connor a text. Tell him ye need to talk privately and to call as soon as he’s free. Don’t mention me. He’ll want answers ye can’t give him yet.”
JL sent the text and thirty seconds later, her phone rang. “It’s Connor,” she said to David and Elliott. “I’ve got to talk to him.”
David nodded.
“Hi, Con.” She put the call on speaker. “Are you free to talk?”
“Not really. Where’s David?”
David gathered his thoughts. He couldn’t leave Connor in the dark. He had to talk to him. “I’m here. Where are ye now?”
The Amber Brooch: Time Travel Romance (The Celtic Brooch Book 8) Page 29