Chapter Forty-Eight
Jo
L ochlan kept his promise.
He’s woken me up every morning with an orgasm and put me to bed with them, holding me tightly until I fall asleep.
It’s taken so much stress off my life that I haven’t been anxious at all about turning in my thesis.
Leaving campus for the final time is anticlimactic.
I earned my Master’s in Biomedical Engineering, but I’m leaving with a lifetime of confidence and happiness because of the man whose ring I’m wearing.
I’m not sure it’s a good idea to keep wearing it, but he didn’t want it back yet, and I’ve been selfishly glad.
I admire it every chance I get, imagining what it would be like to truly be claimed by Lochlan.
If he had given me this authentically, I know he’d never let me go.
A big part of me wishes he wouldn’t.
I pull back into the sanctuary and feel a wave of sadness overtake me.
I technically only have a few more days left until I should leave.
I’ll have the money from my trust to start over and do whatever my heart desires .
Unfortunately, what my heart desires the most is right here.
I know deep down he doesn’t want me to leave either, but I don’t think he’ll ever forgive me if I stay.
He’d certainly never forgive himself.
Even with my backpack empty of all my textbooks, I tread heavily to the front door, stopping when I see the hot pink sticky note stuck to it.
Emergency meeting with the guys.
Come to the bunkhouse so I can fill you in.
Uh oh.
Something must’ve happened.
I leave my backpack sitting on the porch and hurry to the bunkhouse.
I fling the door open and jump back.
“ SURPRISE!!!!” Everyone screams.
The guys are clapping, and Emory is jumping up and down.
Becky and Tessa are holding a cake.
Jackson, Natalie, and her little brother, Dec, are holding a ‘Congrats Grad’ sign, but my eyes go straight to the tallest of the bunch.
Lochlan’s standing to the side with his arms crossed over his chest, smiling at me.
Proudly.
My heart does a little somersault in my chest, and my feet don’t stop moving until I’m leaping into his arms.
“Thank you,” I muffle against his cheek before kissing it.
“Congratulations, darlin’.”
* * *
“I’m not going to be able to move for the rest of the night,” I whine, slumping against the big sectional in the bunkhouse.
I just finished my third piece of cake after eating two plates of the BBQ that Seiver made and way too many helpings of all the side dishes Natalie cooked.
We’re hours into my surprise graduation party, and I can’t think of a time that anyone has ever celebrated me, let alone this many people.
I don’t want the night to end.
“I’m sure Lochlan won’t mind carrying you home.” Natalie winks, and I laugh.
Sometimes it’s easier to talk to her than Jackson because there isn’t the added pressure of being a long-lost sibling.
Lochlan’s shooting pool with Hayes against Becky and Tessa, but when I look over at him, it’s only a moment before he meets my gaze.
His attention never wavers from me for more than a few minutes.
I smile shyly from across the room and focus my attention back on Natalie, who is smirking at me.
“I have to leave soon,” I remind her.
“Right. Well, if you want to leave and go to our house so you’re still close to lover boy, let me know.”
“Jo’s moving in with us?” Jackson asks, sitting down with his own plate of cake.
“No, I’m not.” I laugh.
“I’m traveling for a bit, that’s the plan.”
“What does he think about that?”
“He wants me to go. He doesn’t want me to stay here.”
Jackson looks at me pointedly.
“That might be what he’s saying, but I can see a man who does not want you going anywhere.”
“It’s…”
“Complicated,” he finishes.
I know I owe him more of an explanation of me and Lochlan’s strange relationship, but I’m not even sure where to start.
In reality, I don’t know what we are either.
“Mrs. Sheriff.” Emory comes running up to Natalie, who looks startled to be labeled as such.
“Can Declan come with me to pet the mule?”
“Oh, um.”
“Please, sissy!” Dec begs from beside her.
“I guess that’s okay.” Emory takes off running toward the door, but Natalie grabs Dec’s arm to stop him.
“Does she know you don’t like to be called Declan?”
“Yeah, she’s in my class.” His cheeks grow rosy.
“But, she can call me Declan if she wants.” He sprints after Lochlan’s niece, and Natalie looks at Jackson and me like an overly concerned but proud mom.
“Do you want a drink?” Lochlan asks from over my head, leaning over the back of the couch.
“No, I’m okay.” I pat the seat next to me, and he comes around to sit down.
I don’t hesitate to lean against his chest, sighing contentedly.
“I don’t mean to kill the mood,” Jackson starts.
“But, someone posted Frank’s bail. They used a bail bondsman, paid anonymously.”
“Whoever hired him to ram the gates?” Lochlan assumes.
“That’s my guess.”
“What should we do?”
“Well, I took the liberty of getting eyes on him. Seems like he skipped town. I don’t think Frank’s going to be a problem. It’s back to whoever hired him.”
“But you have a theory?” Lochlan asks.
He and Jackson seem to always follow the same wavelength, even though they are the least chatty people I know.
“I still think Randall Porter is behind it. It’s too convenient that he has an airtight alibi for every single date and time that something went down here.”
“He’s paying someone?” I ask.
“Most likely. His family loves to get other people to do their dirty work. I’m building a case against his mother, Vanessa Porter, already. I think she was more involved with her father’s crimes last year than she led on.”
“He’s the one you killed?” Lochlan asks, and I whip my head to look at Jackson.
I didn’t know he had been involved in anything like that.
“He was a twisted man,” Natalie interjects, reassuring me.
“The lawyer we used to get custody of Dec is filling in for the prosecutor, she’s helping me gather what I need before we press charges. I’d like to include Randall Porter in the lawsuit if I can get the evidence against him.”
“What do you need from us?”
“I’m going to send her your way to get witness statements, start a paper trail.”
The door to the bunkhouse slams open as Dec comes running inside.
“There’s a fire! Help!”
We’re all out of our seats at warp speed, pool sticks crash as they’re thrown down, and every person in the room sprints outside.
“We didn’t do it, I swear!” Dec yells, running as fast as he can towards the little barn with the strays.
“The hay just started burning!”
“Where’s Emory?” Lochlan asks, while Becky and Tessa are running around, screaming her name.
I don’t see her anywhere.
“She was right here, she was letting all the animals out so they didn’t get hurt.” Natalie grabs him around the shoulders, holding onto him tightly as chaos erupts around us.
Everyone is splitting in different directions.
Ryker and Arizona are the first to grab hoses, while Curtis and Jordy start tossing hay bales away from the flames before they catch.
Jackson’s calling for Fire & Rescue, and when I turn to look at Lochlan, he’s gone.
I spin, barely catching a glimpse of his back as he runs into the burning barn.
“Lochlan!”
“He’s making sure she’s not in there,” Hayes says from beside me, suddenly, grabbing my arm so I don’t run after him.
“She’s not in any of the other outbuildings. Seiver went to check the main house,” he tells everyone else.
“Rain, round up the strays before they get hurt. Spock, make sure the fire engines can get through the gate when they get here!” Hayes commands, one eye glued to the burning building.
“Hayes, it’s getting worse.”
“I know.”
The fire catches the roof, and the flames grow brighter, sending more black smoke billowing out than before.
“Where is she?” Becky cries while Tessa holds her.
“She’s not in there!” Lochlan yells from the opposite side of where he went in, coming back around to where we’re standing.
He has smears of soot across his skin, but other than that, he’s unmarked.
I don’t have time to be relieved that he isn’t hurt when Seiver comes hobbling down the path between the barns.
“The guesthouse is on fire, too!” He yells, coughing.
“I tried to snuff it out, but it was burning too quickly.”
“DAMMIT!” Lochlan yells.
“I don’t give a shit about the buildings. Let them burn. Find my niece! ”
“Split up!” Hayes yells, taking control and divvying out roles to the parolees while Lochlan comforts his sister.
Everything is moving around me hypnotically as I try to rub two brain cells together to solve our problem…
To fix anything that’s happening.
“Are they all accounted for?” I ask out loud.
Lochlan glances at me like he doesn’t know what I’m saying.
“What?” Hayes asks.
My mind’s reeling.
“Rain, did you find all the strays?” I ask him as he walks by, pulling a goat.
“The chickens and barn cats have scattered everywhere. Goats are accounted for. No mule, yet. He must’ve taken off.”
“That’s where she is. She went after the mule. She had to have,” I guess.
“How well does she know the property past all the outbuildings?”
“She’s been on all of these trails with me a hundred times.” Lochlan’s eyes are wild with worry, but I see the speck of hope my idea gives him.
“Everybody take off down a different path!”
The parolees scatter in different directions on foot as Becky and Tessa run to the garage.
“Stay here, help Jackson with anything he needs when the other first responders get here.” He kisses my head and turns toward the garage, but I grab his arm.
“I want to help look for her.”
“I know, baby, but you don’t know the property well enough. If you get lost and I can’t find you, I’ll lose my fucking mind. I’m holding on by a thread already.”
I see the pain in his eyes.
Emory missing is destroying him.
“Okay, I’ll be here in case she turns up.”
“Thank you,” he utters against my forehead before running to the garage.
Becky drives the side-by-side out of the garage with Lochlan hot on her heels on the four-wheeler.