Epilogue #2
“Your back was rarely against a wall. You knew how to make sure that rarely happened. Especially once you graduated from your master’s program.”
“Oh, there were a few times,” Lauren said, remembering when she and Reese went out to a club one night and some dude slipped a date rape drug into Reese’s drink.
Lauren found him trying to drag Reese out of the building and had busted his head open with a bottle and beat the shit out of him.
She was hysterical when the cops were called, and Reese wouldn’t wake up.
She’d called Ma Mable who brought her a lawyer to the club and they threatened to sue everybody because Ma Mable had somehow found out that the guy who spiked Reese’s drink worked at the club as security and had prior accusations.
“You’ve always been a direct, fearless, anti-nurturer,” she informed her mother, butting her shoulder.
“Even Deborah trusts you. You made an altar for her. That’s a special level of mothering. If you want to leave Daddy, you can stay here with me in Shrouded Lake.
“So you’re staying,” her mother said.
Lauren shrugged. “I kind of love it here. And though it feels like it shouldn’t be possible, I love that man downstairs. I trust him. I feel free when I’m with him.”
“Love doesn’t make sense. It’s up to us what we do with it.
Me and your daddy, we’ll work things out.
He’s been dedicated to us, faithful, begged for my forgiveness long ago.
I think now I can finally give it. I was so angry when you left because he wanted me to stay out of it and I listened to him, and I broke you in the process.
I will forever have to live with that… But I’ll never leave my home to move here.
They’d end up getting angry with me, throwing me in some hole, and forgetting where they left me. ”
“Probably.”
“I’ll come to visit though, vacations and holidays.”
Lauren kissed her mother on the temple and rose, walking to the door. “Come on let’s go see how—”
Santiago was in the hall, in the process of creeping away from the door to sneak back downstairs.
“Really!”
Ma Mable laughed.
“It was time for you to take your medication,” Santi said. Lauren walked over to him and wrapped her arms around his waist.
“It’s okay, we were listening at the window when you were talking to Daddy and Lahn.”
“Yeah, I saw you.”
“Let me go back to the house and deal with your sister and your daddy,” Ma Mable said. “Maybe we can meet on neutral ground one day at Lina’s place?”
Lauren took her pain meds and antibiotics.
“That works for me; you okay with that?” she asked, looking at Santi.
“As long as you take it easy.” He nodded at Ma. “We’ll see you at Lina’s for dinner tomorrow.”
Ma Mable left. Santi sat at the kitchen table and pulled Lauren into his lap.
“Let’s talk about a strategy tonight so there are no misunderstandings, no surprises tomorrow.”
“I won’t fight my sister or cuss out my daddy, if that’s what you’re afraid of.”
“It was. Aunt Lina will probably make a big to-do since it’s your first outing since being shot.”
“Since I killed Veronica.”
“You didn’t kill Veronica Archer. You fell in the lake just like she did. Sometimes the dead call for vengeance, Lauren.”
“Do people think that I drowned her?”
“If anyone ever did, they won’t anymore. Doc Cleveland sent me the autopsy. There wasn’t a drop of water in Veronica’s lungs. Cause of death states that she suffocated.”
“That’s impossible.”
“It’s like they stilled her lungs; took her last breath.”
The news didn’t help her feel better, but it didn’t make her feel worse.
“Veronica was a murderer, and she would have probably continued to kill to get what she wanted without a drop of the remorse you’re now feeling. The spirits protected you. You’ve got to thank them for that when your wound is healed.”
“I will, me and Ma. She’s good at making offerings.”
He shook his head.
“Your mother can do rituals and make offerings but that’s not what I mean. You’ve got to return to the water to thank them.”
“Like go in?” she said, sitting up straight.
“Yep.”
“Hell no—”
“We’ll do it together, let them know you’re mine. Let them bless our union so there’s no mistaking you belong to the Freeman line.”
“Union, huh?” she said, then kissed him deeply.
“Me and you forever, little wren. Once the water binds us, the connection is more permanent than any wedding ring. Shrouded Lake waters are powerful. Once they bless us, not even Moses would be able to separate that union. If you do want a wedding ring, your mama offered me your great-grandmother’s. ”
“Whoa.”
It really showed how much her mother didn’t see Derrick as her happily ever after. Ma Mable had never offered the ring to her and Derrick.
“You really think you can handle me, Sheriff Stillwater?”
He nodded.
She reached down to caress the back of his hand as it eased between the juncture of her thighs.
“I don’t think I could go more than a day without my fix.”
Her phone vibrated in her pocket.
“Where do you want me to give you your other dose of medicine? The wall, counter, on the floor?” She kissed, licked, bit, and sucked the side of his neck and he groaned, turning her so she faced the table, her legs straddling the outside of his.
Looked like they wouldn’t be getting out of the chair.
She felt his hand slip in her pocket and pull out her phone.
She thought he’d turn it off, but he placed it on the table.
She felt him tense. Opening her eyes, she looked at the phone’s display. She went to turn it off and he stopped her.
“You said you needed to start clearing up things back home.”
“Now? Fuck Derrick, I don’t need closure with him.”
“I need this to be the last time I see his name on your phone.”
There was nothing about clearing up her life back home that involved Derrick. They
didn’t have shared accounts or household expenses.
The few items she’d had at his place were easily replaceable and she didn’t even want the shit.
Everything important to her was with her or in storage.
The proof of how un-integral Derrick was to her day-to-day life was profound.
Santi already had boxes of her things at his place; had already set up a home office for her downstairs.
Now that her family was here, the only reason she had to go back was to deal with her storage and to renegotiate the contract with her job since they weren’t “willing” to accept her resignation.
“If it’s done let him know. Wish him whatever end he meets and tell him to lose your number.”
The phone stopped ringing, and she thought she’d been given a respite until he immediately called back.
Adjusting herself on Santi’s lap, she leaned her elbows on the table and answered the phone.
“Derrick,” she said flatly.
“Lauren...I thought it would go to voicemail again.”
“Well, you lucked out,” she said, looking behind her to roll her eyes at Santi.
“What do you need?”
“I left you dozens of messages, did you at least listen to them?”
“No, I deleted them, because what could you have said that would have possibly
mattered?” Heavy silence reigned on the other end.
“As I think about it, not much,” he said. “Nothing that could’ve expressed how sorry I am, how much I did love you, still care for you, that I deeply regret—”
Santi lifted her off his lap and placed her in the chair next to him. He leaned into the table, almost in her face and glared, tapping the table near the phone.
She shook her head, lifting her hands in confusion.
What? She mouthed silently. He motioned to the phone then to her as if to say handle this shit now.
“You regret that you didn’t love and care for me enough to not have sex with my sister. Would I have ever known if she didn’t get pregnant?”
“We’d been drinking, Renny—”
Santiago’s hand fisted. She didn’t know why he was getting so angry. The phone call would have to end fast, even though he was the one who wanted her to answer it.
“It was just so easy to be with her, she was laughter and lightness—”
“And what, I was frowns and heaviness?” she asked. Now she was getting pissed.
“No! No, you were...you never really needed me. It felt good to be needed, to come to the rescue and be appreciated.”
“Sooo, I was too capable for you?”
The figurative dark cloud above Santi’s head was now sending out jags of violent electrifying energy.
“I just never felt capable enough when I was with you. That was my insecurity, not a lack with you.”
“Oh I know.” She now fully comprehended that she’d dodged a fucking bullet when she left.
“I hope you and Lahn all the happiness with the baby.”
“Um...Lahn terminated the pregnancy within a week of you leaving. That was in one of the messages you deleted. The only reason she thought she could keep it was because she thought, despite everything, you would be there to be the number one auntie. Like she’d have it as an apology and offer the child up to you. ”
“Get off the fucking phone,” Santi snapped at her. “This. This was the motherfucker you thought was the man for you?”
“Why are you yelling at me!”
“This is some bullshit. To be absolutely fucking clear, Derrick, she has a man who values the shit out of her. Strength, courage, intellect, and big fucking heart. If you’re weak as fuck, just say that. Now go find your equal and don’t call Lauren again.”
He disconnected the call and stomped out of the house. Lauren sat in bemused silence for a good ten minutes trying to figure out what the hell just happened. Then she followed Santi outside.
She began stripping at the porch.
By the time she reached him she was completely naked. The waning sun cast red, orange, and gold light over Shrouded Lake.
The slight breeze was cool against her skin, and the rocky sand was firm beneath her bare feet. She wrapped her arms around Santi’s waist from behind, pressing the side of her face against his muscled back. They breathed together until his breathing slowed and hers grew stable.
“Who knew that all I needed in my life was a man who would fight for me?”
“I did.”
She began to unbuckle his pants and proceeded to shed him of all his clothing as she had hers.
Reaching out her hand, she smiled at him, unable to dim the all-encompassing light of her love.
“You ready?” she asked, walking into cool waters with him trailing slightly behind.
He swooped her up into his arms and carried them into deeper waters until she was floating against him.
“Ancestors of the blood pact, great spirits of the waters, you have made me
whole with your intercession. Grandfather, I sleep in peace.
Thank you for Lauren Gael Green; the other half of my soul.
” His lips brushed across hers; his palm stroked her from the small of her back to the curve of her ass.
“My own little wild wren. I accept all that you bring to this life, hellion, your heart, your trust, your courage and diabolical mouth. I unify our soul pact within these waters, upon these lands. I pledge to love you long after our physical bodies no longer walk this earth.”
She took a deep breath; then another. “Wow…um…I…”
She couldn’t calm her racing heart.
“I never thought I’d see you at a loss for words,” Santi laughed.
She flicked water into his face.
“Always with the violence.”
“Always in love.” She smiled. He snorted and cocked a disbelieving brow.
She loved him. She loved this man beyond anything she ever thought possible. But in Shrouded Lake she learned that with him, within this place, nothing was impossible.
“I thought I knew what loving someone meant, but with you, Santiago Stillwater, I know what it means to be held, I know what it feels like to be at peace, the certainty that comes from knowing the strength of my spirit will never break yours—”
“’Cause I’m not a little bitch.”
“Nor are you modest. Water spirits...spirits of houses Moor, Freeman, and St. James, you’ve gifted me with your protector, your warrior, my Santi.
And I haven’t come without my own offering.
Soon one of the last surviving descendants of the Moors will return to their home, and the blood pact will be in place once again.
I hope you find my gift as worthy as the gift you’ve given me. ”
She locked her arms around Santi’s neck, and their legs brushed as they treaded water as one.
“I’m very glad I didn’t cave in your balls that first day.”
“Outcome wouldn’t be different even if you had,” Santi said, kissing her as they sank beneath the undulating waves of Shrouded Lake.