Warrior Nights

by Sheryl Nantus

  Kara was…

  Smiling. Laughing.

  A bit of the heaviness lifted from his heart at seeing her like this, a part of her inner nature set free. It looked good on her, and he liked it.

  She clapped her hands together as Liam approached from behind. “It’s so beautiful…”

  Liam stopped and glanced over her shoulder at the children’s book spread out on the table.

  Geraldine turned and smiled. “Jack. Your friend here was telling me about Valhalla.”

  A throbbing erupted behind one eye as he gazed down at the book, spotting the title.

  Viking Myth and Legends.

  The brightly-colored images showed a variety of people and creatures, most of which he recognized from his own childhood, tales recited by his father and grandfather.

  His heart raced as he saw the two women focus on the image of an armored woman, multicolored wings spread wide as she flew over a battlefield.

  A Valkyrie.

  He tried to tamp down the fear rising in his gut, the bile choking the words from his throat.

  No.

  Chapter Four

  “I saw her wander into the children’s section and pick up a book about Vikings. Thought I’d keep her company while you were checking the shelves.” She peered over her glasses at Kara, still deep in the Norse Mythology book in her hands. “You can have that one if you like. We have a second copy.” The older woman winked at the pair. “I’ll sign it out under his name.”

  “Thanks.” Her mind was still spinning, trying to make sense of the sudden shift in Liam’s attitude, the fear and anger flashing over his features before he shut it down. “I’ll take good care of it.”

  “I’m sure you will.” The librarian nodded at Liam. “I’ll leave you to your research.”

  “Thanks for your help.” He patted Geraldine’s shoulder. “We’ll stop by before we leave.”

  Liam led Kara back to the original table he’d left her at. Carefully, he extracted the tome from her hands and put it to the side of the stack he’d picked out.

  “Let’s focus on this.” He drummed his fingers on the travel books. “You can look at that other one later.”

  He had a point—they hadn’t come to search for mythical creatures and fairy tales. She still had to figure out where she came from and who she was.

  Viking Myths and Legends could wait.

  “Right.” She pulled the nearest book close and opened it up to a panorama of a beautiful wilderness area, labelled as Yellowstone National Park. “Let’s start.”

  Before long, her mind was swimming, saturated with images of cities and towns, deserts and beautiful gardens, stone monuments and tall steel pillars jutting into the sky.

  It all seemed familiar and yet… not.

  Liam wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. He’d shucked the leather jacket and sat next to her now, so close his body heat warmed her skin.

  It was hard to believe she couldn’t remember being with him, no more than a few intimate flashes of memory.

  A tingling ran through her as she stared at the photographs, her mind far away from the printed page.

  I stayed with him for a week. A whole week.

  How could I not remember more?

  Kara closed her eyes, unable to banish the images flashing through her mind’s eye—all of them involving the man next to her.

  It wasn’t hard to imagine what they’d done, judging by the handful of images she could recall so far. His strong, toned muscles pushed the black T-shirt to its limits, the broad back and shoulders signaling a strength most men would be envious of.

  Her eyes darted to the well-worn jeans, snug on his hips. A flush ran through her veins as she struggled to remember more about their time together, her mind racing along sensual paths.

  And yet, it was like sitting next to a stranger. A stranger she wanted to know better, to find out how and why their lives had become entwined again, a year after she’d run out on him.

  “Hey.”

  Kara looked up.

  Liam smiled and pointed at his eyes with two fingers. “Eyes up here.” His jovial tone told her he knew exactly what she was thinking about.

  She swallowed hard and turned back to the colorful pages, ignoring the trembling in her gut, moving south to settle between her legs. Her thighs pressed together in an attempt to quell the desire, set afire by Liam’s simple grin.

  Her gaze moved to a picture of a happy couple romping on a beach, and she couldn’t help wondering if she’d ever done that.

  Among other things.

  “I’m tired.” She scrubbed her eyes with both palms. “Can we stop for a few minutes?”

  “Sure. It’s almost time for lunch.” He pulled over the book she’d been looking at, taking in the images. “London. Make me hungry for some decent fish and chips.”

  Kara frowned. “You’ve been there?”

  “A few times. There’s something about the oil or the batter—just doesn’t taste the same anyplace else.”

  She reached out to pick up the Norse mythology book and flipped through the pages again. “Clear my mind with something different.”

  Liam stood up suddenly, moving away from the table.

  “Kelly’s Diner is the best place to eat in town. It’s also the only one open this time of year. Let’s head out.”

  Looking back, Kara couldn’t say why she didn’t stay at the table when they’d first come into the library, waiting patiently for Liam to return. She got up and walked around the bookcases, finding herself drawn to the children’s section. The area was cheerfully decorated with bright ribbons and hand-drawn scenes of fairy tales from around the world hanging on the walls near dragons and faeries.

  The book sat on a nearby cart, waiting to be shelved. Once she picked it up she didn’t want to let it go, flipping through the pages. When the librarian came over she’d instinctively kept hold of the volume, allowing the senior to show her other books on Norse mythology as they waited for Liam.

  Now, as they sat in the small restaurant, she was unable to keep from glancing at the book. The colorful cover showed a woman on a winged horse, flying through the air as she pointed a sword at an unseen enemy.

  That’s wrong. There are no horses, no swords.

  The revelation shook her to the core.

  What am I saying?

  She gave herself a shake and studied the menu again.

  Stop. Just… stop.

  This world was one of hard truths and solid facts.

  There was no Valhalla, no Valkyries. Ragnarök might represent the end of the world in the Norse fairy tales, but she had the day-to-day reality to deal with—finding out who she was and what part she played in society.

  But she remembered…

  “Hey.” She glanced up to see Liam studying her. “Don’t get too caught up in that stuff. Marie’ll run your prints again and something’ll show up. Everyone belongs somewhere.”

  “Like you belong here?”

  Before he could answer, the waitress came on over.

  “Jack.” She smiled at Kara. “Good day.”

  “Lucy, Kara. Kara, Lucy.” Liam collected the menus. “We’ll have the cheeseburger platters. Coffee for both of us.”

  That earned him a raised eyebrow from Lucy, the older woman turning her attention to Kara. “That okay with you, sweetie? Always like to check when a man orders for a lady.”

  “I know what she likes,” Liam answered.

  The possessive tone sent a shiver through her, a few seconds of hot desire flashing free. Kara dipped her head down, trying to hide her blush. “That’d be fine, thank you.”

  Lucy nodded and turned away, leaving them alone.

  “That does sound nice,” Kara admitted, “but you should have let me order.” She put as much steel into her voice as she could. “It doesn’t appear right.”

  “But it’s true.” He smiled. “You went through everything on the menu and then some, busting Room Service’s balls. They co
uldn’t keep up with you. Your favorite happened to be the double cheeseburger.”

  “How did I pay for all that?” Kara desperately searched her mind for a fragment of memory to hook onto. Liam’s smile was familiar, but…

  “You had a stolen credit card and the identification to back it up. Showed it off to me, laughed about how much fun you were having at someone else’s expense. Said you got it from a woman’s purse at another bar—she was drunk and not paying attention, so you thought you’d teach her a lesson about being responsible.”

  “What?” She blinked, trying to process the words. “Are you serious?”

  “Yep.”

  “You didn’t…” She sputtered. “You didn’t stop me?”

  “Why would I do that?” Liam gave her a cocky smirk. “Let’s just say that a year ago I wasn’t the law-abiding citizen sitting here with you today.”

  She laughed in spite of the shock and dismay at learning she’d been a criminal. “I guess you like the bad girls.”

  “Very much so.” A low, sultry tone crept into his words. “And you were very, very bad. Hard to keep up with you.”

  Kara swallowed, suddenly very aware how close they were sitting together.

  Liam leaned back, giving her a sly grin. “You kept smiling and signing the tabs.” The smile disappeared. “Until one morning I woke up and you weren’t there. As soon as I realized you were gone for good, I got the hell out before the hotel tried to pin the bill on me.”

  “I left you hanging? No note, nothing?” Her gut twisted.

  “I didn’t take it personally. I mean, we didn’t have any agreement or anything. But I would have liked to at least have said goodbye.”

  She closed her eyes, pushing down the nausea.

  “Kara.” His hand pressed down on hers. “I never held it against you. There were no promises given, none asked for.”

  She gritted her teeth, using the pain to settle herself. “I’m sorry if I hurt you.”

  “You didn’t.”

  His gentle smile met her eyes when she opened them. It hurt worse than if he’d slapped her.

  “When we met, you told me you were looking for a distraction, a way to spend some time away from whatever you were supposed to be doing. I was…” Something flashed across his face, an emotion she struggled to identify.

  Regret?

  Sadness?

  “Between jobs and needed a break. What we did wasn’t wrong.” One edge of his mouth twitched. “Well, maybe the bit about stealing the credit card.”

  Lucy came over with the plates, the two thick cheeseburgers at the base of a mountain of fries. She gave them a friendly nod as she placed the food on the table.

  “I just…” Kara waited until Lucy had moved off again. “I just wished I could remember.”

  “You will.” Liam picked up his burger. His gaze wandered to her side, where the book sat on the dark leather cushion. “Probably won’t find it in there, though.”

  She noted the shift in his voice, the trace of fear, and filed it away for future reference.

  Liam watched her eat, noting her appetite hadn’t changed much since breakfast. He’d told a little bit of a white lie, sending up a quiet prayer it wouldn’t be held against him.

  He did take her leaving without a word or a note of goodbye personally.

  Once he realized she’d packed her belongings and left, he’d gone around the hotel room, searching for something she’d forgotten, some memento of their time together.

  Nothing. It was as if she’d vanished into thin air, leaving no trace behind.

  He didn’t realize how much he’d enjoyed being with her until he wasn’t—and there was no way to find her again. It took the better part of a bottle of whiskey to banish his memories of her before Liam moved on to another town, another job—another chance at redemption.

  He kept eating, forcing his attention away from the book at her side. It could be a coincidence.

  Or Fate was about to slap him upside the head.

  “What do you do around here?” Kara asked.

  The simple question brought him back to the present.

  “Sort of a Jack-of-all trades.” He took the ketchup bottle and squirted a fat puddle onto his plate. “I have a full-time job at the warehouse, working the forklift. I also do extra work before and after my shift, odd jobs for people who can’t do the work themselves. Clean out the gutters, take out the trash, deliver groceries. If they can afford to pay, great—if not, that’s okay as well.”

  She eyed him, and his heart skipped a beat. It was the same intense gaze she’d used on him at the bar, not long before dragging him into the hallway for an intense make-out session.

  “You came here from Las Vegas to do that?” Her tone lowered to a soft purr, the words caressing his skin. “I’d think you have other skills you can put to work.”

  The memory flashed across his mind’s eye, splintering his reality. Not of her, not of the hotel room.

  Of hot sand, spurting blood, and shouting.

  “No.” He forced the word out through clenched teeth.

  Kara frowned as she worked on her own burger. “Really? You’ve done nothing but grunt work since you were born?”

  He pushed back the memory, locked it behind invisible doors. “It’s a long story. Eat up—we’ve got work to do this afternoon.”

  Her eyes widened. “Like what?”

  “Like what I told Marie. It’s my day off, and I have things to do. The Carallos are planning to leave today and need help boarding up their house. I promised to be there this afternoon, and I don’t break my promises.”

  She nodded. “You can show me the town when we go over.” Her hand brushed against his, the gentle touch setting his skin afire. “I’d like to see what this place is all about. I must have come here for some reason.”

  Her memory might be spotty, but she’d have remembered Everett’s Ridge if she’d ever been here before—the small town had a certain atmosphere to it, a homey comfortable feel that wrapped around you like a warm blanket. The one main street branched off into narrower alleys, lanes filled with gift shops and antique sellers, candy stores and clothing boutiques, aimed at the visiting masses.

  “It’s a nice place,” Kara said. “What brought you here?”

  “The road.”

  She laughed. “I guess I set myself up for that.”

  “I was looking for a place to hole up until spring, catch up on my sleep. Found I liked it, got a job and stayed. Nothing much about it.”

  “Hmm. So, what do people do in Everett’s Ridge during the winter?”

  “Curl up in front of the fire and watch the snow fall outside.” He maneuvered them across the street. “Same as they do anywhere else.” Liam led her around another corner. “Here we are.”

  She took a deep breath of the delicious scents drifting over them. “A bakery? Shouldn’t they stay open year-round?”

  “They will—they keep the back of the store open for the locals, making the basic breads and such.” He waved at the bay window, the beautiful cakes and cookies on display. “But they want to seal this part off—keep anything from breaking the glass until the tourists come back in the spring. It’d take forever to order in a replacement from the city.”

  She eyed the delicate red and white letters swirling along the glass. “Are the storms that strong?”

  A wisp of a memory trickled across her mind. A cold wasteland, barren except for the jagged rocks sticking up out of the ice. The hot, desolate desert—sand dunes extending as far as the eye could see. Bottomless oceans filled with giant, hungry sea creatures with razor-sharp teeth.

  Hel…

  “It’s not that the wind blows. It’s what the wind blows.” Liam touched the glass with his index finger, startling her out of the reverie. “Hard piece of ice breaks off, slams against this, and it’s an easy thousand dollars. Better to winterize it now before the snow falls and get it done.”

  Before she could grasp at the memory fragment, the
door opened and a robust, cheerful woman with red cheeks waved them in.

  “Come on, come on!” Her smile was contagious. “I’ve just put a lovely batch of cherry pies into the oven!”

  The pair swept into the store, carried by her cheerful attitude. Kara couldn’t help gaping at the cupcakes and the pastries, the fresh-baked breads and the cookies tempting her even though she’d just eaten.

  “Jack, who’s your friend?” she asked.

  “Kara. Came in to visit before winter hit.” Liam responded easily, the lies tripping off his tongue.

  Before Kara could say anything, she found herself holding an apron.

  “Wonderful. I need an extra pair of hands to help pack up these pastries for the Garibaldis—they’re heading out today and want some supplies for the road. The rest are going to Smith’s Inn.” She nudged a thumb behind her. “Jerry’s in the back with the wood and nails.”

  Kara grinned as she followed the woman deeper into the bakery.

  Everyone seemed to fit into the Ridge, somewhere.

  She couldn’t help wondering when she’d find out where she fit—and why she’d come here.

  Chapter Five

  She was tired but in a good way. Boxing the cookies and pastries had turned into a long, one-sided conversation with Mrs. Monnetti talking about their house in Florida and their children and grandchildren. She’d listened and nodded at the right gaps in the discussion, listening to Liam help put up the plywood on the building’s exterior. The normalcy of it all, the small talk and simple tasks, drew her into a Zen state—her lost memory and her relationship with Liam wasn’t up front and a priority, letting her relax for a bit.

  Not too long after that, Liam had excused himself—saying he had to go to the Carallos and help out there. Mrs. Monnetti leaped at the chance to keep Kara inside and warm, eager for the extra help in the kitchen.

  For her part, Kara welcomed the chance to stay out of the biting cold, giving Liam a kiss on the cheek as he exited. It’d earned her a happy chuckle from the older woman.

  It’d been late afternoon by the time Liam returned and collected her and the pie, enduring another series of suffocating hugs from the elderly woman. Now they were home, both exhausted and with hearty appetites.