Chapter 24
Jasmina
HE HAD TRUSTED ME, taken me with, and given me the reins.
He’d treated me as his equal.
And it was something I always thought I wanted but not something I thought I needed. I guess I’d been starving. Ravenous for it. Until suddenly I wasn’t.
Because he satiated the hunger immediately. So easily. And in front of those men, he hadn’t hesitated to stand behind me rather than in front of me.
Callahan moved something broken and put it back together in me when he took me to those gates, when he stood with me as his equal.
And sometimes it was a little broken piece that you didn’t know people kept chipping away at every time they didn’t believe in you. The loved ones who claimed they trusted you, that they knew you were capable, who claimed they’d let you any other time but never did.
They broke you, slowly but surely.
Callahan gave me space after he opened the car door for me. He had to, I guess, considering his brother was looking at us oddly as I escaped to my bedroom. And even still, he came to my room after, asked if I needed to go back to the library, if I needed anything at all.
I needed him, but I needed peace first. I wasn’t sure how to say it, but he must have read it in my eyes. “Want me to detangle your yarn?” He pointed to the crochet I was aimlessly working on.
“Yeah, Archer’s sweater is never going to get done at this rate.”
“Archer’s?” He immediately frowned. “Why the hell are you making him a sweater?”
“Because he told me his favorite colors, and I like him?”
“Don’t you like me too?” he grumbled, sitting at my feet and starting to detangle.
“I might be starting to.” I smirked at him, but my smile fell away as I met his eyes. “I really might be starting to.”
He took a deep breath and moved his fingers with ease over the yarn, nodding. “If it’s any consolation, Jas, I’m starting to like you too. A bit too much.”
The next morning, I struggled with knowing the SD card was hidden in my room, that I hadn’t gotten further on what it might have on it, and that I was keeping it from Callahan.
Now the guilt festered for him along with my aunt and uncle.
My loyalties felt torn, my mind mixed up.
Even still, I told myself it was for the best to do what I had to. Figuring out whatever the data hid first was smart. Anyone would have done the same, I told myself.
Plus, Callahan seemed to be less and less concerned about going to the library every day, especially after we’d made clear how we would handle anyone who disagreed with our engagement.
After three days of going in a row, his eyes were less and less watchful. He’d sit down in a quiet area and pull out his laptop, like he was fine with me doing wedding research while he worked.
“I’ll be here if you need me,” he would tell me every single time, and then he’d nod to Archer.
That’s where the problem was, unfortunately. Archer was still following me around that library like he was stuck to me like freaking glue.
“Do you want to go look for any books yourself?”
“Not interested in books, Ms. Ruiz.”
“You mean, Jasmina.” I rolled my eyes. “You can throw knives in my room with me but not call me by my first name? Cut the shit, Archer.”
“It’s not shit, Ms. Ruiz. It’s a bit of respect.” He smirked.
Archer was huge, but in a teddy bear sort of way. He didn’t seem to care about anything anyone said either. He had a way of watching my every move but also not being very involved.
And for nearly an hour, I’d been engaged in a performatively slow walk up and down the romance aisle.
I pulled books from the shelves at random, pretending to read the back covers while my heart hammered against my ribs as and I got more and more antsy.
I was like a damn trapped bird that wanted to be free of his gaze.
Archer, my ever-present shadow, didn’t even look uncomfortable when I went among the bodice-rippers purposely. Of course I loved a good romance novel, but men usually shied away from them.
I picked up a Shain Rose title and hummed before I asked, “Think a shadow daddy after a witch would be a good romantasy to read?”
He just looked bored, almost as if he was respecting my privacy while simultaneously tracking every micro-movement I made. He was too good at his job, which made my actual reason for coming here very, very difficult.
My pocket felt heavy. Inside it was the SD card I’d kept hidden on me always but never got to. Today, I swore I’d get new information. I was wasting time on a wedding and getting lost in that when I should have been trying to figure out what no one had in years and years.
I was convinced something was hidden amid all the metadata I’d seen right before I’d come to Paradise Grove. I couldn’t make much sense of it, but I knew it contained the same damn name—Galaxy Skies—as the logo I’d seen in the background of that old security footage.
I couldn’t let go of that. It might have been partially pixelated and a breadcrumb that would mean absolutely nothing, but I needed to follow it to its end at the very least. Unfortunately, I couldn’t when Callahan was monitoring my damn search history.
The library was my only safe bet, and I’d be damned if Archer freaking ruined it.
I was just contemplating faking a sudden interest in historical fiction to get closer to the terminals when a peal of laughter rang out from the front desk area.
Archer’s head snapped toward the sound, his boredom instantly gone.
In its place was no respectful monitoring.
His whole posture changed and stiffened.
And then he was hurrying down the aisle past me before I could blink, his attention violently split between his duty to me and whoever was up there.
“Friends?” I called him out on it, trailing him.
He breathed out quickly as if trying to dispel his discomfort and cracked his neck. “Mia, Fran, and … Mia’s sister.”
“Sister? Oh.” I managed a dry tone, hiding my desperation for him to leave. “Like the sister we talked about the other night? The one you supposedly have no opinion on?”
“I gave you her background. That’s it,” he clipped out, refusing to look at me. “Like I said, she’s been staying in Paradise Grove recently.”
The way the tips of his ears turned red gave away everything. That man had it bad for Mia’s sister. There was definitely some sort of emotion toward her buried under that stoic exterior.
“Well”—I held up Shain’s book—“I’m going to go read up on this book and see what I can find on … flower arrangements. I’ll be by the computers. So, don’t mind me if you want to go, you know, see how Mia’s sister’s stay is going.”
Archer sucked his teeth, torn. A gasp from around the corner that sounded a lot like a woman’s decided it for him. He almost lurched toward the sound. “Come on, you’re coming with me,” he grumbled, and I rolled my eyes, not wanting to but knowing I had to pick my battles.
Mia and Marian looked alike, with tan skin and beautiful wavy hair. Her sister had a bit more curves and was a little shorter but just as pretty. Fran walked right up to me and said, “Did you bring your cat?”
“Oh, Romeo? I don’t think he’s allowed in the library,” I said and glanced at Mia, who was smiling.
“She’ll try to get you to bring the cat anywhere.” She shrugged. “How’s wedding planning going?”
“Honestly, I have a lot of research to do.” I shot a look toward Archer.
“Oh.” Mia frowned and looked between us, then a slow smile spread across her face before she gave me a tiny nod. “Then don’t let us keep you. And can I get your number from Cal so I can reach out and help sometime?”
“Um … sure,” I agreed cautiously, only because I wanted to see if Mia could accomplish what she was silently agreeing to.
“Great. Go research.” Then her honey eyes laser focused on Archer. “Arch, Marian swore someone followed her home from the grocery store yesterday, can you believe that?”
“What?” both Marian and Archer said at the same time.
Mia winked at me and tilted her head for me to go.
“I’ll be at the computers, Archer,” I mumbled, and Archer didn’t even look my way.
“Yeah, don’t do anything stupid,” he said before he turned back to Marian. “What did they look like?”
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” I lied smoothly.
The second I turned the corner, I tucked the romance book under my arm, because I was definitely checking it out, and meandered over to the computers.
I took my sweet time getting to the public computers, sliding into the seat farthest from the aisle. My hands shook a little, like I’d never done a damn sneaky thing before. This was different, though. This was finding out a message from my parents.
This was finding out if they left something for me.
As I wiggled the mouse to wake the ancient screen, I felt exposed, convinced every patron whispering in the stacks was secretly reporting back to Callahan. Yet, no one was paying attention anymore.
I opened a private browser window. My fingers hovered over the keys. Galaxy Skies.
The initial results were useless noise—astronomy sites, cheap travel agencies. I had to dig deeper. I used the dates I’d pulled from the SD card metadata, filtering the search back fifteen years.
Nothing. The company was nowhere.
Frustrated, I tried a different angle. I utilized same image technology after I pulled a screenshot from the files. It was a shot in the dark, one I didn’t think would work, but it was a last-ditch effort.
And one image matched it.
One.
I found it.
It wasn’t a document. It was a still frame taken from grainy, low-resolution security footage uploaded to an obscure community watchdog forum years ago regarding industrial zoning violations. The time stamp was fourteen years old.
The image showed a desolate warehouse loading dock at dusk. And there, bolted above a rusting metal shutter, was a sign.
It was weathered, but the stylized G matched the corrupted fragment on the SD card perfectly. The neon script spelled out Galaxy Skies.
My breath hitched. It was real.
I leaned closer to the monitor, squinting at the blurry JPEG. Below the main sign, painted onto the brickwork in fading white letters, was a slogan. It was almost illegible due to the poor camera quality, but I managed to piece the words together: a twinkle in your eye.
The world seemed to stop. The library noise faded into a dull roar in my ears.
That phrase. It wasn’t just a cheesy business motto. It was a memory. A memory I didn’t visit because it was of my parents, of them singing and enjoying themselves. Of what my dad sang to me one last time before he passed.
Suddenly, I wasn’t in a dusty library. I was six years old, tucked into a bed, the smell of my father’s cologne wrapping around me in the dark. He was sitting on the edge of the mattress, his voice a low, comforting rumble as he sang the lullaby he’d made up just for me.
It didn’t mention galaxies or skies.
Close your sleepy head, my prize … his voice sang, clear as a bell, remember where there’s a twinkle in your eyes, that’s where the treasure will be.
9116713-o-o-o-o-3
In the dark, you’ll find, that’s where the treasure will be.
All for you, Jasmina, to make the choice for family,
9116713-o-o-o-o-3,
that’s where the treasure will be.
A chill snaked up my spine, cold and sharp. The song. The slogan. My father hadn’t just been singing me to sleep; he had been teaching me a code.
“Find any floral arrangements you like?”
I flinched violently, my knee knocking against the underside of the desk with a loud thud.
Callahan was standing right in front of me. I hadn’t heard him approach over the blood rushing in my ears.
My hand reflexively jerked the mouse, minimizing the browser window with the security footage. My heart was beating so hard I thought he must be able to see it beneath my shirt.
“Really pretty ones,” I breathed, trying to keep my voice steady. “Want to see?”
He narrowed his beautiful blue-green eyes at my flushed face, and then he peered over the computer to see.
He didn’t buy it. Not for a second.
“What were you really doing?”
I licked my lips and held up the book I was going to check out. “If you want honesty, I was looking up if this book was good or not. Turns out it’s orgasmic.”
He glared at the book in my hand. “A book?”
“Shain was talking about a scene online, and I’m honestly wondering how the idea to do something that hot in a fantasy was thought up because—”
“Shain?”
“The author, Callahan.”
“You want to know how this Shain guy comes up with hot scenes?” He looked perturbed as hell. I didn’t care to correct him and tell him Shain was a woman.
I shrugged and gave him a cheeky smile.
“We’re leaving,” he said, his voice flat. “Now.”
I stood up, happy I deterred him from my actual search. “Great. I want to get home and see how good this romantasy actually is.”
He hummed, and I swear he grumbled, “Yeah, me too.”
“Huh?”
“I’m going to read that book with you.”
That had me stopping. “What?”
“I’m gonna find what you find so orgasmic about this Shain’s writing, Jasmina. I need to know exactly what you want from me on our wedding night.”
Shit. I was supposed to be focused on the breadcrumbs my father had left. The treasure wasn’t just a bedtime story. It was real, and my lullaby might just lead to it.
It was important.
And yet, somehow the transgressions of my father and my uncle felt less important now. I was surviving with Callahan so far. And my cousins and aunt and uncle seemed safe.
A treasure being found, I wasn’t sure I needed … or wanted.
Instead, I was thinking about Callahan being a shadow daddy and how much I may want that on my wedding night.