Chapter 34 #2
“Just say thank you .”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” She lifts her eyes, and another smile finally graces her lovely lips. I can breathe a little easier once more. “I hope you consider trying again.”
“Why does that feel like a loaded request?”
She shrugs, “Probably because it is.”
“Did you enjoy your excursion to Southport?” I ask, switching gears.
“It made me miss it.” She sighs. “The Ametrine Cauldron… I know I didn’t make a whole lot of money there with just Reiki appointments and the occasional card reading when Laura wasn’t in.
But I really loved it there. You know how people say, if you do what you love, it never feels like a job?
I really had that there. Most days, anyway. ”
“I had to do what I did… You weren’t safe there… And I had to make it look like retaliation.”
She stares at me for a moment, then goes on as if I hadn’t said anything at all.
“For a while, Laura toyed with the idea of rebuilding and starting up again. She decided she was too close to retirement age. She sat on the property for a few months before deciding to sell it. It went pretty quick. She used the money to buy herself that dream cottage on the beach. Can’t say I blame her.
Sometimes I wonder what business is going to go up there.
The lot is in the historical district, so whatever is built on the property has to come close to the original structure.
Laura said it’s just about finished, but I haven’t driven by. ”
“Why not?”
She shrugs, pulling the blanket around herself, and I wonder if she’s getting too cold.
“It might make me sad. Like looking at the ghost of someone I used to know. It won’t be the Ametrine Cauldron.
The property is commercial, so maybe it will be lawyers’ offices, or a hair salon, or something, now that it has all new plumbing… I’ll go back there…one day.”
Her little sniffle solidifies my decision. The time has come for me to depart. “The temperature continues to drop. Get back inside, sweet one, before Santa brings you a cold for Christmas.”
“Have you eaten tonight?” she asks, her hopeful tone taking me by surprise yet again. “We still have some food from tonight. And homemade eggnog… Not that eggnog is my forte. Fair warning.”
“I have not.”
“Well, you must be hungry. It has to be after nine already,” she says, situating herself to rise with her gift and blanket in hand before she stands and walks past me to the door.
I shove the giftbox into my pocket and quickly undo the clasp of the necklace. Standing as I secure her gift around my neck, I notice she’s smiling at me again.
“It’s backwards. The rose quartz is the accent piece. It’s supposed to stand out,” she explains.
“I think I like it better against my skin.”
“ Or you don’t like pink.”
“Come now, Vanna… Wouldn’t you guess pink is one of my favorite colors?” I tease.
She rolls her eyes at me, placing her hand on the doorknob before she twists it slowly. “ Ace is asleep.”
I nod in acknowledgement of her maternal warning, quietly following her inside her warm abode and toward the spacious front rooms of their home. The kitchen island is lined with a few covered trays. The flat screen above the smoldering fireplace in the living room is playing some MMA fight.
Keegan and his Sergeant at Arms stand up from the couch as we enter, looking none too pleased to see me.
“I thought you went to bed,” Keegan’s gaze drifts to Vanna, and he steps around the couch to approach us. “I didn’t know you went outside.” He seems disturbed by the revelation.
“ Ace is sleeping,” Vanna says again, placing her gift on the kitchen island.
“Speaking of Ace,” I say, removing an enveloped card from my inner pocket. “This is for him.”
Keegan snatches it from my hand, prompting a disapproving little glare from Vanna, which in turn brings his level of aggression to a low simmer. “Fine. You can go now.”
“Come on, Dean. He just got here. Let him eat something,” Vanna insists on my behalf. “Look at him, he’s practically an icicle.”
“ That’s got little to do with the weather.” Keegan glares at me, stepping closer to the kitchen island in order to inspect the gift I gave her. “What is this? A black hole ?”
“From Legion, that tracks ,” Viking jokes, reclaiming his seat in the leather armchair.
“ Touché .” I grin.
Vanna steps close to stand between us, arms crossed, gaze shifting back and forth like she’s waiting for one of us to ruin something.
“We need to put certain things behind us,” she says, voice steady but laced with something softer…
A plea. “We’re all on the same side, whether you two like it or not. ”
I don’t bother glancing at Keegan. I don’t have to. I can feel his reluctance in the heavy silence. He exhales sharply, and I know he’ll agree. He loves her.
“ For you,” Keegan finally concedes. Though it’s more so in surrender than agreement.
When I spare him a glance, there is no camaraderie, just the bitter acknowledgment of the one thing we do have in common…
Her.
“ You have my sworn allegiance, sweet one… An allegiance which extends to your husband and his cause,” I promise, reaching into my leather jacket once more. “And perhaps this gesture will solidify your trust in my commitment to this alliance.”
Keegan cocks a skeptical brow at me as I hand him a small velvet box. “Is this going to blow up?” he sarcastically inquires, leaning past Vanna to place his half-empty beer on the marble island.
I patiently wait for him to open it.
When he does, his suspicious glare softens, and he glances back at me. “Your leverage, I presume?” he says, showing Vanna the SD card within. A little gasp brushes past her lips.
I nod once, but for all the relief in his eyes, there is something else, too.
Something sharper. Something resentful. Not because I had held this over him and his MC, but because we both know why I am giving it up.
I’m not doing this for him. I’m doing it for her.
She is my shield, and this fact burns him more than anything else ever could.
I see it in the way his stubbled jaw tightens, in the way his gaze shifts to her.
We both know she doesn’t even realize it.
She’s too relieved by my grand gesture to sense the way the air has turned razor-sharp between he and I.
He’s well aware of the fact that it isn’t respect or loyalty that keeps me in check.
It’s her. The one person in the world I will never betray. The one person I will burn for.
I meet his stare head-on, allowing him to see it in my eyes. Even without leverage, I will always be here.
Not as his enemy.
Not as his friend.
But as the man who will never stop loving his wife and doing whatever is necessary to prove it to her.
She smiles at me, eyes glassy with gratitude and completely unaware of the power she wields over us both.
“ I’m so proud of you ,” she says on a trembling whisper, and I can tell it’s with great effort she does not embrace me again in front of her husband.
Perhaps on some subconscious level, she does recognize his renewed desire to blow my head off.
“Please, come, sit down. Let me fix you a plate,” she insists, rubbing her husband’s arm for a brief moment to quell his murderous rage permeating the atmosphere.
We both watch her scurry into the kitchen.
I slide my gaze back to Keegan and smile as I step around him to join his wife. “ Merry Christmas and Yuletide blessings, Dean…”