Chapter 27
As we slowly walked back to the cabin, Lochlan’s hand nudged against mine several times until I finally consented to let him hold it.
His long fingers wrapped securely around mine and I found myself actually enjoying the sensation.
Was this craving for physical touch what most people felt all the time?
Over and over, I kept repeating that magical, unbelievable phrase to myself. Lochlan likes me. Lochlan likes me.
It felt as though a tether had connected my heart to Lochlan’s, slowly reeling me in so I wanted to spend more time with him. I was safe with him. I could tell him anything, anything, and he would be on my side.
“So, I’m guessing you’re one of the Syndicate’s bounty hunters?” he asked with a light squeeze of my fingers. A lantern bobbed along in his other hand. “Were you sent after us and told to bring us in?”
“Actually, I was discouraged from coming, but I’ve been looking for my family and one of my earlier leads said Roderick might have been involved, so I came on to find out who he sold my sister to.”
“Well, with any luck, we’ll find a lead. If you want, I can take you to Roderick’s vault where he keeps his records, but you can never tell anyone. Roderick would have my head.”
My heart leapt and I nodded vigorously. “I promise. When can we go?”
Lochlan glanced up at the clouds that had thickened to block out the moon. “We might make it there now if we hurry. It’s actually closer than the cottage, and it’s about to rain.”
Right on cue, there was a distant rumble of thunder and a flash of lightning that illuminated the tops of the Briarcliff Mountains in the distance.
Lochlan followed my gaze. “Good thing those old mines were abandoned years ago,” he said. “The miners used to get a lot of injuries trying to navigate their way up and down the mountains after rainstorms.”
A raindrop landed on my nose. “Don’t the aqueducts help with the water flow?” I asked, quickening my pace as I eyed the massive stone arches supporting the large aqueducts that led to all the cities.
“Yes, but the mountainside would still be slick.” Lochlan turned off the path, tramping along a narrower trail while thorns snagged at his pants. “Roderick keeps all his records hidden in a secret compartment at an abandoned cabin,” Lochlan told me.
It felt as if I was the one tingling with lightning. “How far?” I asked. Another droplet hit my face, followed by another and another.
“Not far.” Lochlan looked up at the dark sky. “But we’ll need to hurry.”
As he said it, rain began pouring down in torrential waves, immediately drenching us. It was as though the sky had opened just to dump buckets of water repeatedly over our heads.
“Run!” Lochlan said, and we took off through the forest.
I could barely see where he was and ended up grabbing onto his shirt so we wouldn’t get separated. There was a colossal boom of thunder as we ran into a clearing where an old, run-down house was. The roof sagged under a layer of moss and the chimney leaned to the side.
“How is this a safe house?” I called, still keeping my fist clutched around Lochlan’s soaked shirt.
“No one would ever suspect it!” he shouted back as the sky was split apart by a giant bolt of lightning.
When we reached the porch, Lochlan wiped the water from his face and began running his hands along the wooden pillars holding up the porch roof. “There’s a key here somewhere,” he muttered, then gave a small “aha!” and pulled a key out of a hidden compartment.
There was another brilliant flash of lightning, so close that I jumped. Lochlan rammed the key into the door and turned it. The door opened, and we tumbled through and slammed the door behind us.
The inside was probably warmer than it was outside, but it felt much colder because the sopping wet clothes plastered to our bodies made the air feel cooler.
Lochlan’s lantern was still barely flickering, and he used the dim light to start building a fire in the hearth.
Most of the wood in the woodpile had grown soft over time, so it caught easily.
“There,” Lochlan said. The fire illuminated the interior of the cottage, which looked thoroughly unremarkable.
“So, where’s the vault?” I asked, looking around at the barren interior. A solitary bed was in the corner, and a broken wardrobe with its door hanging off stood next to a singular tipped-over chair. “I thought you said Roderick hides things here.”
“He does, but I’m not touching any papers until we’re completely dry,” Lochlan said with a shiver. He stripped off his jacket then crouched in front of the fire and extended his hands. “He keeps them in a trunk locked in a hidden compartment on that wall over there.”
“It’s going to take forever to get dry this way,” I informed him, but copied him after peeling my jacket off.
Water slowly dripped off us to puddle on the floor beneath our feet and the sound of the storm continued to rage outside so ferociously that the windows rattled and the walls of the cabin groaned in protest.
“I seem to remember some old clothes around here somewhere,” he said, digging around in the dilapidated wardrobe.
He pulled out a few items. “They won’t fit well, but at least we’ll be dry.
Now don’t look for a minute,” he went on, pulling on the collar of his shirt.
I turned away and heard the splattering sound of him wringing out his shirt and changing into something else. “There. You can look again.”
“You forget I lived for months on a pirate ship,” I told him with a grin. “I’ve seen plenty of men’s chests.”
Lochlan blushed a little. “It’s not saying much if I’m more modest than a pirate. I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable.” He crouched back down beside me. The clothes he’d picked out fit him well enough, and he handed over a fresh shirt and set of breeches. “For you.”
“It’s your turn not to look now,” I told him, waiting until he turned before I slipped out of my own shirt and pulled on the clothes he’d given me, which swallowed me whole. “Were these Roderick’s or yours?” I asked, trying to find a way to cinch up the pants.
“Mine,” Lochlan said, eyes still covered as he ensured he couldn’t watch me change. “Are they still too big?”
“See for yourself.”
Lochlan uncovered his eyes and burst out laughing. His tunic hung down so far that it might as well have been a dress on me, the sleeves were so long that my fingertips weren’t even visible, and I had to hold the pants with both hands to keep them from falling down.
“I didn’t think I was all that tall.”
“Maybe I’m just that short,” I teased. “There’s a reason I always pretend to be a young boy who hasn’t hit his growth spurt yet. We don’t have any rope here, do we? I need a belt.”
“No belt or rope,” Lochlan said, stifling a yawn, and returned to the wardrobe. “Try these instead. They’re from when I was younger.” He handed over a pair of much smaller pants and covered his eyes again.
The new pair of breeches fit much better, and, by tucking in the hem of the long tunic, the pants managed to stay up.
The top was still very baggy, but comfortably so, and I felt much more relaxed than I had when wearing the dress.
“All done,” I told him, rolling up my sleeves.
“Thank you. I know it must be weird to see me wearing your clothing.”
He uncovered his eyes and took in my appearance. “Not weird at all,” he said quietly. “I actually like it.”
I grinned, squatted down beside him, and held my hands out to the flames. “There you go, being all nice again. So tell me, how did you turn out so well with Roderick as your father?”
“He wasn’t always this awful,” Lochlan said. “I know it’s hard to believe, but he used to be fun. He told a lot of jokes, and he and my mother seemed happy, at least to me.”
“What happened with your mother?” I asked, still watching the dancing fire.
Lochlan rubbed his hands together, then stretched them back toward the flames again.
“When I was about six or seven, my mother didn’t want anything to do with Roderick anymore and she left.
She tried to take me with her, but Roderick said he wanted me to stay and I told her the same thing.
I know it probably sounds crazy to you, but he really was different back then, at least with me.
He would play with me and we would go to the creek and talk all the time.
I had a lot of good memories, actually. Your friend Brent used to live near us and Roderick would take us fishing.
That’s where I knew him from, but…I’m always ashamed of what my father became. I try not to remind people.”
“I’m so sorry,” I said. No wonder Lochlan had stayed with his father for so long, still clinging to the hope of what used to be.
“He got worse over time,” Lochlan went on.
There was a hollow look to his face that made me wonder if he was simply tired or disliked talking about his childhood.
“But in my youth, he used to encourage all my interests. He bought me my first knitting needles and everything. He paid for all my medical training and dance instruction, too. I thought at the time he just wanted me to be happy. I didn’t know he was involved with the slave trade to the extent he was.
He would just say he had some business deals. Then he started changing.”
“Couldn’t you have gone to stay with your mother once that happened?”
“I tried once. But by that point, she had a new job and a new family, and I didn’t get along with her husband and son. I still don’t.” Lochlan stared hard at the leaping flames then added, “Elvin is my half-brother. That’s how we know each other.”
“What?!” My jaw fell open. “Elvin?”
He let out a breath of laughter and rubbed his eyes. “Yeah. That day he came to the knitting booth, I could tell how much you two disliked each other and I wondered if he’d say something. I didn’t want you to find out from him and associate me with him. I didn’t want you to dislike me.”