Magni

by Janice M. Whiteaker

  Magni shook his head. “This is a men only club.” He couldn’t help but smile as he took a cool sip of his fresh beer. “I don’t know that I’d take her on through. Kari’s got a little more of the family secret in her than she thinks.”

  Joel turned back to the table. “Who else?”

  Magni nodded. “All the Wolffsen men. It’s passed from father to son.” He tipped his beer at his son. “That’s how you got so lucky.”

  Joel’s hazel eyes darkened.

  Magni set his beer on the table, the glass hitting the surface harder than he intended. He wiped his hand down his face. “I wish I knew.” He swallowed hard, his stomach fighting against the beer it wasn’t as interested in as he thought. “I would have found a way to bring you home.”

  For twenty-five years his greatest regret was going out in the woods with Lori. He thought her disappearance was the worst thing that ever happened to him.

  Now he knew it wasn’t.

  Magni took a deep breath. There were questions he wanted to ask and chances were the answers weren’t going to make him happy. Hell, chances were Joel would tell him it was none of his business and he’d be right, it wasn’t. But damned if he didn’t want to know about his son and the life he lived without him.

  “Your adoptive parents. Are they nice people?”

  Joel’s shoulders slipped down. “I don’t think they knew what to do with me.”

  “But are they good people?” It was the little bit of hope Magni had that he wouldn’t switch one weight for another. The burden of Lori’s disappearance lifted but the thought of Joel suffering, alone and afraid carried a heft that might break him.

  “They are good people.” Joel’s eyes lifted. “That was part of the problem.”

  Magni let out a long breath. “How so?”

  Joel’s mouth pinched into a tight line. “They didn’t know what to do with someone like me.” He looked down at the table where his hands sat, clasped together. “I was angry. Violent. Aggressive. They couldn’t understand what was wrong with me.”

  Guilt nipped at Magni’s gut. It wasn’t his fault but that didn’t mean he wasn’t responsible for the struggles Joel had. “You just described every man in our family.”

  Joel hesitated. “I fought a lot.”

  “Did you win?”

  Joel looked up at him. “Every time.”

  A swell of pride filled Magni’s chest.

  “But that only gave them more of a reason to send me to military school.” The hard line of Joel’s jaw softened. “They just wanted to do what was best for me.”

  “Did they?”

  His son stared at his hands for a minute. His head barely bobbed in a small nod. “Yeah.”

  The door to the bar opened, pulling Magni’s attention from his son. He was really hoping the place would stay empty until they were finished. He wanted Joel to be able to ask whatever he wanted without feeling stifled by other people.

  But it wasn’t other people.

  Jerrik grinned at him from across the bar, giving him a wave. He crossed the bar in short order and slapped Magni on the shoulder. “Morning.”

  “Barely.” Magni looked at Joel. “Joel, this is Jerrik.”

  Jerrik shoved his hand out. “Glad to finally be formally introduced.”

  Joel took his cousin’s hand in a firm shake. “Likewise.”

  Jerrik looked between the men then pointed to a chair. “Can I join you?”

  Magni looked to Joel. He wanted his son to know this, whatever it was, was on his terms. If he wanted to talk, Magni would talk. If Joel wanted to get to know Jerrik, he would. If he didn’t want any of those things?

  It would be hell but Magni would give him that. The kid was out of control of so much of what happened in his life, it was time he got to chose what happened, and what didn’t.

  Joel nodded. “Of course.”

  Jerrik’s smile widened. “Awesome.” He skirted the table and sat down between his uncle and his cousin. “How do you like Greenlea?”

  Joel leaned back just a little, the hard intensity of his face relaxing the smallest bit. “It’s really beautiful.”

  “Have you been up in the mountains yet?” Jerrik grabbed Magni’s empty beer and tossed it into the recycling bin beside him.

  “No, but I was planning on going up before I leave.”

  Magni watched, fascinated at how easy it was for Jerrik to begin to put Joel at ease. Was it his nephew’s easy going manner? That he knew the right questions to ask? Or maybe Joel just felt a sense of camaraderie with a man his age who knew what he’d been through.

  Whatever it was, the sight of his son and his nephew together gave Magni a feeling he’d never had. An almost completeness he didn’t know was missing.

  But it was only almost. There was still one thing missing.

  He was working on that.

  “How long are you planning to stay?” Jerrik’s question pulled Magni’s attention back to the conversation. It was something he’d been hoping to figure out how to ask himself. Leave it to Jerrik to make it look easy to ask difficult questions.

  Joel’s eyes barely jumped to Magni before landing back on Jerrik. “I’m not sure just yet.”

  Jerrik nodded. “Fair enough.” He grinned at Kari as she dropped off another round at their table. “Have you met my sister yet?”

  “Not formally.” Joel held out one hand. “Joel.” His eyes widened almost imperceptibly when Kari gripped is hand. The girl had a handshake that intimidated the hell out of a smart man. And it looked like Joel was smart.

  She gave him an easy smile. “Kari.”

  As she left Jerrik turned to Joel. “Well we’d love for you to stay here as long as you want.” He held his beer up. “Glad you found us.”

  Joel tapped his beer against Jerrik’s.

  “Same.”

  ****

  “How was it?” Christine stood at her table in his shop, clipping at a piece of glass with a tool that looked a hell of a lot like pliers. She paused and looked up as he walked through the shop to stop beside where she’d been working since Craig called and he left to go to the bar.

  “Good. I think.” Magni looked at the line of glass puzzle pieces she’d snipped into shape while he was gone. “You got a lot done.”

  “I’m pretty fast when I’m not distracted.” Her cheeks pinked up the tiniest bit as her eyes went back to the glass in her hand, her dark hair falling into her face as she leaned down.

  Kidnapping all her tools was the best thing he ever did. It meant Christine had to come to his house until they finished the light fixtures for the diner. That meant he had at least a week to come up with another excuse to keep her close.

  Magni stepped behind her. “Are you saying I’m the problem?” He gently raked her hair out of her face, pulling it back into a ponytail that he twisted around one hand. He used the grip on her hair to tip her head to one side, opening the side of her neck up. He leaned down to nip at the smooth skin, splaying one hand across her stomach and pulling her against him. “Maybe it’s more of a lack of focus on your part.”

  She scoffed.

  He smiled against her neck.

  She landed an elbow to his ribs in a soft jab. “Go to your own table.”

  Magni held her tighter. “There all my tables sweetheart.” And he had half a mind to put his woman on his table and show her just how distracting he could be.

  But she wasn’t his woman.

  Not yet.

  Not that she knew of anyway.

  Figuring out how to make Christine his was proving to be far harder than he anticipated. For as sweet and self-sacrificing as she was, the woman had an independent streak a mile wide. One that he wanted to preserve.

  So she had to think it was her idea.

  “Maybe I should go back to working at my own table then.”

  There it was. The side of her that made him crazy in the best way. She could get his hackles up and make him hard at the same time. Irritate him and turn
him on in one breath. And she knew it.

  And she liked it.

  Christine liked taunting the beast in him. Making it jealous. Protective.

  Possessive.

  “Is that really what you want to do?” The words came out on a growl as his beast pushed up in protest.

  Christine shivered.

  “Yes.” Her answer was a throaty whisper. And a lie.

  Magni twisted her hair tighter and her breath caught. He leaned into her ear. “Don’t lie to me.”

  Her chest lifted as her breathing sped, pushing her breasts against the limited constraints of one of the low-cut shirts she’d been wearing lately, giving him a peek of pale pink lace. “Or what?”

  His beast growled at the taunt. Ready and willing to give her what she was gunning for. What he knew she wanted.

  A faint sound carried down the hall between the cabin and the shop.

  Christine tensed against him. “What was that?”

  He let her hair fall through his fingers as the beast crept in further. There was someone at his house, a house that you didn’t end up at by accident. He could hear them breathing. Magni inhaled long and slow. A vaguely familiar scent tickled his nose, making him wince.

  The person knocked on his door again, this time harder, making the sound easy to identify. Christine clutched his hand, her eyes on him. “Magni?”

  “It’s okay sweetheart.” He tucked her behind his back as they walked through the shop toward the open door separating it from the cabin, then into the cabin itself. Christine peeked around him as they closed in on the front door.

  He yanked it open.

  A cautious smile met him on the other side. “Hi.”

  “Jesus Christ.” The words came under his breath as Magni stared at a ghost.

  Lori stood perfectly still, fingering the band wrapped around the end of a braid that hung over one shoulder. “It’s good to see you Magni.”

  He stood in shocked silence, staring at the woman who at one point held the strings to his heart, using them against him, like a puppet master. He couldn’t stop staring. He’d looked for her for years, believing one day he would find some part of her that would end the nightmare of her disappearance. Now Magni knew he had the wrong nightmare all along.

  And this one was still going.

  Lori’s eyes were the same. Cool. Confident. But he didn’t look at them the way he did before. Before they were alluring, hypnotic. Now they were detached, selfish. They moved down his body. “You haven’t changed a bit.”

  He barely felt the bump as Christine stepped from behind him. She was face to face with Lori before he knew what was happening. As her hand pulled back he couldn’t make himself stop her.

  The sound of her palm slapping against Lori’s weathered face echoed through the cabin.

  “Bitch.”

  Christine pulled back for another swing. He caught her hand.

  “Stop.”

  She struggled against his hold. Fighting to get free as she glared at Lori. “Let me go.”

  He wrapped an arm tight around her waist and Christine took advantage of his grip, kicking up her feet and catching Lori between the ribs, the impact knocking him back a few inches and sending Lori sprawling onto the porch.

  “Christine stop.” He drug her back, struggling to contain the tiny woman who was turning out to be a bit of a beast in her own right.

  “Don’t tell me what to do.” Her eyes were wild as she wrestled him with a strength he should have expected from her. “She deserved it.”

  Magni leaned into Christine’s ear, watching as Lori rolled to her side, wheezing from having the air kicked out of her lungs. “You’ve got to calm down sweetheart.”

  Her eyes flashed. “Don’t call me sweetheart.” She stepped on his instep and twisted from his grip, storming across the living room to grab her purse before rushing out the front door, dropping a faint ‘cunt’ over Lori’s writhing body as she left.

  Magni stood in his living room as the woman he wanted kicked half the gravel out of his driveway with her tires and the woman he wished was dead sat up on his porch, clutching her chest. Lori looked over her shoulder then back at him, her breathing still labored. “Was that the little girl who had a crush on you?”

  “No.” Magni shut the door leaving Lori sputtering on his front porch. Christine wasn’t a little girl. She wasn’t Lori’s business either.

  He barely made it two steps before she was knocking again.

  “Magni. I need to talk to you. I got a letter from a man named Craig who said I should come here.” The knob clicked and the door inched open. She stood, twisting her hands at her waist. “I’m sorry.”

  The words sounded hollow. As if it was his fault she had to apologize in the first place. “Are you?” He crossed his arms over his chest. This was a waste of his time. Time he should be spending chasing a real woman down the mountain.

  Lori looked offended he questioned her sincerity. “Of course I am.”

  “What are you sorry for Lori?” Did she have any clue what she’d done to him? To their son?

  She lifted her shoulders. “For everything.”

  “That’s a pretty general statement.”

  She scoffed. “What do you want me to say?”

  “I don’t want you to say anything to me.” He pointed over her shoulder to the road outside that led to Greenlea. “I want you to go apologize to my son.”

  “Our son.”

  The word cut through him. That she would try to use Joel after tossing him away. After robbing him of his family. A family that would have taken him with open arms if she didn’t want him. Magni advanced on her, anger burning through his veins. “He’s not yours. You gave that right up.”

  Lori shrunk back. “What happened to you?”

  “My wife tricked me into smoking enough pot to kill Willie Nelson so she could give me the slip and run off, stealing my son and leaving me to deal with the fallout.” Years of suspicion and unanswered questions hung over him like a cloud because of her. To this day there were people who thought he killed her and hid her body in the woods in spite of Christine’s defense of him.

  Lori’s chin quivered. “I couldn’t stay here anymore.” She blinked her watery eyes. “I wasn’t ready to be a wife and a mother.”

  “No shit.” Magni stared down at her, unmoved by the emotional display. She was upset, but only for herself. It was something he couldn’t let himself acknowledge until this minute, mostly because it felt wrong to admit what Lori was when she was most likely dead. But now, now it was easy to see how selfish the woman he chased for years was.

  He’d been enamored with her, blinded by her beauty and her relaxed personality. The fact that she didn’t want him just made the chase that much more exciting because he was young and stupid. She was a hard-won prize and he treated her as such, all but kissing the ground she walked on.

  And then she left, making him think she was dead and that it was his fault.

  Lori needed to take some fucking responsibility for what she’d done and she needed to apologize to his son. But first she owed him some answers. “Where have you been?”

  She sniffed, straightening her stance a bit. “California.”

  He waited for her to elaborate.

  Lori shifted under his stare. One hand went to her cheek to gently rub the flaming imprint of Christine’s hand on her face. “I joined a commune.”

  “So instead of staying here, where I let you do whatever the fuck you wanted by the way, you left and went to live in fucking yurts?”

  “We live in trailers.”

  Magni wanted to scream. This was ridiculous. She was ridiculous. He pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. “Does it really matter?”

  “Not anymore because I’m done with it.” She stepped into his house. His space. A space he only wanted to remember one woman being in. “I’m moving back to Greenlea.”

  “Like hell you are.”

  Lori stop
ped and looked at him like he’d lost his mind. “I thought you’d be happy.”

  “Why in the hell would you think I would be happy?” Magni stared at her sandaled feet standing on the same floor Christine stood on. It grated his nerves that Lori was invading the space only one woman had ever touched. She didn’t deserve to breathe the same air as Christine let alone exist in a space he’d decided was only for her. He pointed to the door. “Get out.”

  He wanted her out of his house. Out of his life.

  Lori’s jaw slipped for a split second before she caught it, clamping her mouth shut and straightening her shoulders. “Fine.” She turned and walked to the porch. “But you can’t kick me out of Greenlea. I’ll stay as long as I want.” She smirked at him. “Or as long as I need to build a relationship with our son.”

  Magni slammed the door on her for the second time, this time turning the rarely used deadbolt.

  13

  “Bitch.”

  Christine slammed the charm she’d been struggling with onto the table and yanked off her loupes. Leaning back in her chair she rubbed her eyes, trying to refocus her energy on the task at hand. It didn’t work.

  She pushed off the table edge and walked out of her work room. Anger made her antsy, stealing the concentration she needed, making her skin crawl with unspent adrenaline fueled energy.

  She’d give up most of what she had right now to get another swing in on Lori, only this one wouldn’t be open handed. The heifer deserved a punch right in the middle of her smug face after the way she looked at Magni. As if he was still hers to do with what she wanted. Like she remembered exactly what hid under his clothes.

  That was what sent Christine careening off the edge. Knowing that snatch knew more about him than she did. That he’d been with her. Filled her body with his.

  And then she left him to rot. Like he was nothing to her.

  It made Christine want to throw something. Or scream. Or drink. Or all of the above.

  Christine stopped in the kitchen and huffed out a frustrated breath. She liked all her stuff and had no intention of chucking any of it against a wall. Maybe some of Lori’s stuff... or Lori. Off a cliff.

  Screaming wasn’t so much her thing. But then again neither was cussing and she’d been on a roll with that lately, especially today. Including dropping the worst of the worst.