by James, Ranay
Did he want to follow her? He doubted he could catch her before her flight left for Dallas, and he had no idea where she was going from there. What he did know was there were limited flights out of Lubbock and as late in the day as it was, he would be lucky not to have to wait until tomorrow should he decide he was going to go chasing after her, which was not likely, especially with Jesse in tow.
“Did she take Killer with her?” he asked striking on a thought.
If she took him with her she was probably staying inside the U.S. territories. Since most countries require pets be isolated for several weeks after entering a country to ensure it is free of disease, it was unlikely she would want to deal with the complications for such a short trip. She had her speaking engagement in just under two weeks. It made little sense that she would take Killer out of the country.
“She asked me to watch the house, not the dog,” Mr. Owens smiled seeing the logic behind the question. The sheriff needed to get off the fence, Tom thought, and felt Josh was wavering.
Good, she is taking the dog, Josh thought. That made it somewhat easier. He did not need his passport because it was looking like she was staying inside the United States.
“Did she tell you where she was going?” Josh asked hoping Tom knew. Maybe he had just been keeping that information close to his vest until he saw which way Josh’s intentions headed?
“No. She didn’t say and I did not ask. Oh, by the way, she did say she was going to finally get to wear her string bikini.” Mr. Owens fabricated that part hoping it was going to spur Josh into action and finally get him off the fence line. Possibly the thought of her nearly naked and on some beach by herself without him close at hand might be just the thing.
Josh was seething. His suspicions were correct after all. She was going to Trey. If she was trying to make him jealous, she was succeeding beyond her wildest dreams. Then, he realized he was the one to end it. Making him jealous could not be on her mind.
Tom felt it necessary to push and turn the heat up a little hotter under the sheriff. “She got an offer from the British Museum for a two year fellowship. The museum has just received an exhibit with a two-year run from the excavation of the ancient city of Knossos on Crete, and they want her to take a look at it. There is a For Sale sign in her yard, too. Bet you did not know that now, did ya?”
“No. I didn’t.” Josh felt that must have been what she was trying to tell him.
She might just leave him after all. He and Jesse had not given her any reason not to leave for England after their actions today. He suddenly felt that prick of panic settle beneath his breastbone. A surge of adrenaline fostered by fear raced through his body.
“Tick, tick, tick. That, my friend, is the sound of your time running out. So what are you going to do, Sheriff?” Mr. Owens pushed.
“I’m not sure,” Josh answered before closing his phone, but not before Mr. Owens reminded him again that she was an attractive woman, available, and deeply hurt with a job offer to move across the pond.
Josh weighed his options; he could leave her alone, let her cool off, and catch up with her later when she returned or go after her. Jacqueline had used this tactic on more than one occasion.
He quickly reminded himself Jamie was not Jacqueline.
“Daddy, do you really love her?” Jesse asked frankly. It was a simple question.
“Yes, Jesse, I do love her,” he answered honestly looking over at his daughter as they made steady progress down the highway now only minutes from the city limits.
Jesse ceased to be a child in his eyes. She was growing up, just as Jamie had said, growing into a young woman with a sharp mind and a good heart. She looked nothing like Jacqueline, and he had no worries about the depths of her character in spite of her recent misstep.
“Do you love her with all your heart and hope to die?” she asked cocking one perfectly arched brow.
“Yes, with all the part of my heart not already belonging to you,” he smiled softly.
“Well, then what are we doe-assin’ around for? Stomp the gas on this hunk of junk and let’s go get her.” She grinned broadly making up his mind for him.
Go get her they would.
And in that instant, not only did he see himself in Jesse, he saw a true romantic with a McKinnon spirit. God help the man she was destined for as a mate. The man would never stand a chance.
And where Jamie was concerned, neither did he.
Chapter 26
Jamie boarded American Airlines Flight 3802 bound for Dallas just before they closed the cabin door. Tucking Killer under the seat in front of her, she settled in for the short flight from Lubbock to the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.
The hum of the small, double engine jet was somehow a comfort as she began actually looking forward to a little time away. It had been years since she treated herself to a vacation. It was time she was good to herself for a change. She loved her house and was not one ounce sorry she had saved every extra dime she could get her hands on to have a great down payment. However, she also needed to place some space between her and Josh.
She had already forgiven Jesse. She was a child, confused and insecure given her lack of feminine guidance. Jesse saw her as a threat to her father’s affections. Eventually, she would mature enough to realize her father would always love her no matter who was sleeping in his bed.
She could not say the same for Josh. He was a grown man and should have known better.
Their affair had been hot and turbulent from the very beginning. It was time to let the flame cool down, and she guessed that flame would eventually go out. However, she had never been in love before and it was purely speculation on her part.
Jamie knew from her sister’s experience that Miranda had never fallen out of love with the man who broke her heart. She had just learned to deal with it. Jamie was guessing it was better to go down in a big ball of flames than to just fade away as so many relationships do.
You know, she thought to herself, the kind of fading away where you wake up one day wondering how you could possibly have gotten involved with someone in the first place seeing no attraction and little common ground.
She would not have to wonder long with Josh. He was, simply put, a knock out on the physical level, but he was so much more than a great body. He was extremely intelligent, with deep thoughtful insights into this world and beyond. It is a combination she found hard to resist. He had played on her weaknesses, finding the chink in her armor, and then using his skill of persuasion and seduction, went in for the killing blow.
But he had baggage he brought into the relationship, which proved to be the final undoing.
She reminded herself why she had Rule #2: Never get involved with a man with kids.
He had only served to prove her convictions were grounded in good, solid, logical common sense. Straying off that path had now led her to extreme heartache.
She wondered how he would have reacted to her baggage, not that it would ever matter at this point. Her family tree was not exactly what one would call ‘normal’. She thought about that family tree. She had not seen her father in centuries and really missed him. She said a prayer for him as she fingered the medallion hanging around her neck.
“Nice piece.”
The voice broke into her thoughts. It was the gentleman seated next to her across the aisle of the small plane.
“I’m sorry, what?” she asked.
“Your necklace, I could not help noticing. It is a very nice piece of work. I’m guessing Celtic in origin if I’m not mistaken. Possibly late Bronze Age, but I’m leaning more Iron Age, probably somewhere between 600 and 300 B.C. Is it a reproduction?”
Jamie was impressed at the man’s knowledge wondering if he were a collector, dealer, or professor. Realistically speaking, there could be very few other reasons why the man would have such detailed and accurate knowledge of the artifact she had always worn around her neck since a baby. She still wondered how it never set off the security det
ectors.
“I’m impressed, Professor?” she questioned fishing for a name and dodging the question of its authenticity.
“Goff. Darren Goff, Ph.D. in pre-Roman British History.” He extended his hand. She shook it.
“Jamie Gillman, forensic anthropology. It is nice to meet you.”
It is not often she came in contact with someone knowledgeable enough to see this artifact not only for a fabulous piece of jewelry, but also for its significance to the history of the time period.
This gentleman was distinctly from southern England, she thought, asking what brought him to Lubbock and tucking the amulet inside her shirt.
He was not from the natural or cultural sciences department. She knew most all the faculty and staff, if not well, then by face and reputation. She did not recall ever seeing this man before today. She would have remembered because he did not fit the typical moldy, stuffy, old professor. He was a handsome man in his late thirties, sharply dressed GQ style. Great skin, was her first thought. Definitely a metrosexual, she thought, right down to the manicured and highly-buff nails. She found she preferred Josh’s more rugged look. She quickly pushed the unsettling thought aside willing Josh to leave her brain.
“I applied for the position vacated by Professor Duncan. I was sorry to hear about his passing. He was my mentor and I his greatest follower.”
He offered up that he had the pleasure to attend one of the late professor’s seminars the previous summer focusing on the ancient realm of the Titans and their supposed banishment to the underworld by the younger gods of Olympus. She almost choked on her drink.
“He had some very interesting theories in regard to the ancient realms of both this world and one we cannot begin to comprehend. Personally, I do not disdain these theories just because we cannot prove them.”
She agreed wholeheartedly. “Charles was well loved by student and faculty alike. He was definitely a one-of-a-kind, and as to his theory, I am not going to dismiss it outright. The theories cannot be disproved either,” she added sheepishly. “Even Einstein and Hawking believe there is more out there then meets the eye.”
“Ah, a follower I see. Me, too. His will be some very sizable shoes to fill. I can only hope that when I die, I have raised enough questions in my time that I too can be considered an eccentric.”
She nodded feeling his loss as a friend and colleague. “I know. I will miss him. He was quite insightful and a wealth of information for me in some time periods I am not as well versed in as others. How did the interview go, by the way?”
“I completed the final interview this afternoon. Tough crowd,” he smiled.
It had gone very well he told her, and he was expecting a contact to be forthcoming. The preliminaries were already in motion with a verbal contract extended before he was dropped off at the airport.
Jamie welcomed him. She knew why she was here. It was the last place anyone would look for a Sidhe Princess. Yet, she wondered why such an esteemed professor would select Lubbock leaving Oxford in the process. There had to be a personal reason driving such a drastic change. It certainly was not a career move.
They continued to converse as the small regional jet made its way eastward. As a highly specialized sector of academia, neither found it strange they were both on the agenda as guest speakers for the seminar in Cambridge. They parted in Dallas, Darren just making his connection to London’s Heathrow Airport with the promise to share a cup of tea once she was settled at Cambridge for the lecture.
Jamie did not have as tight a connection for the second leg of the journey, so she leisurely made her way to the next terminal to await her flight to Miami.
She was completely unaware Josh was already a step ahead of her.
Chapter 27
Jamie exited the Miami airport to a balmy seventy degrees. Palm trees gently swayed in the ocean breeze as gulls passed overhead making their way to the nightly roosting grounds. She did not get very far.
“Dr. Gillman?” the officer asked.
“Yes?” Jamie was faced with three armed officers almost the moment she stepped out of the terminal in Miami. “What's wrong?” her heart pounded as thoughts racing through her mind of all the people she loved and who could be hurt. Like it or not Josh was top of the list.
“If you will please come with us?” the taller one of the three asked politely, but with authority and undertones giving Jamie the impression he certainly did not expect her to refuse.
“Who's hurt?” she demanded again.
“It is not our intent to alarm you, Dr. Gillman. There is no emergency. Now, please come quietly.”
“No,” she shouted, drawing the attention of several road-weary travelers. “I will not come with you! And I certainly will not come quietly. You have not even identified yourself. And you will tell me what I’ve done wrong.” Remembering her lessons from Josh, Jamie stayed where there were people and away from the curb. She would not be snatched as Debbie had been.
“He said she would be difficult,” Officer Walters matter-of-factly reminded his coworkers.
“Who said I’d be difficult?”
Then it sank in just exactly who she felt this “he” was they were referencing.
“He called you, didn’t he? He called you because he used to work down here. What did he say? ‘Hold her, so I can accuse her of kidnapping my kid,’ or maybe charge me with child neglect'? Well, you can all just go straight to hell. Taxi!” she yelled for a cab, flagging one down. If she were under arrest, then they would have done so already. They were here on a fool’s errand and she told them so in no uncertain terms.
The cab pulled up and she got in the back seat with her computer bag. Before the cabby closed the door, she delivered her own message.
“Well, you can report back to Josh he has no idea what difficult really means, but if he really wants to find out, tell him to come himself the next time instead of sending his goons. Oh, and while you’re at it, tell him if he wants to find me, just look for Trey.”
That ought to get him, she thought, feeling the need to twist the knife, as she slammed closed more than just the taxi door.
Chapter 28
Jamie dug through her purse and paid the bellhop after he placed her bags in the suite of rooms she had managed to secure on such short notice. She could ill afford to do much haggling of the price. This time of year the area was busy with families on winter break enjoying the beautiful weather Southern Florida has to offer, so it was either stay in a fleabag with questionable linens, or pay the going rack rate for more suitable lodgings at Loews Miami Beach Hotel.
She paid the price.
However, after opening the room’s curtains, she admitted the view was worth the three-hundred-and-forty dollars a night she was shelling out. Looking out over the beach, she had a perfect third-story balcony view of the emerald green and turquoise of southern Florida waters. The moon was still large and bright; its light reflecting off the waves as they leisurely rolled onto the beach. She could hardly wait to see what the view would look like at sunrise.
No wonder people flocked to this part of the United States and paid ridiculously high prices for six hundred square feet of living space in a glorified apartment disguised as a condo.
She had declined to pay for a snack box on the plane and was not inclined to venture out after dark, so she unpacked while waiting on room service.
Maybe tomorrow night, she told herself, after she had a chance to explore the immediate area. However, tonight she would stick to the safety of the hotel, order room service, sulk, and lick her wounds.
Deep in thought and losing track of the time, she jumped at the knock on the door.
Peering out the room’s security peephole, she opened the door to the crisply dressed porter in his black and hunter green uniform. Stepping aside to allow him to push the cart containing a covered tray, two glasses, and a bottle of wine she wondered at the added items.
“Are you sure this is my order? I did not order wine.”
He instructed her to just slide the cart into the hallway after she was finished and bid her a good evening.
“Thank you,” she said after digging again through her wallet for a tip, quietly closing the door behind the young man.
“Romantic adventure, my ass. Maybe romantic disaster is more like it,” she snorted uncorking the wine.
She figured why not commit the crime that he accused her. Pouring herself a small glass, she sat out on the balcony listening to the steady rhythm of the waves. There was something soothing about the water that helped to settle her nerves. She dined alone using the silence and quiet of the evening to collect her emotions that until that moment had been all over the board. It had been exhausting.
She was hungry, much to her surprise, and the food smelled good having not eaten since earlier in the day before her encounter with Josh. It was warm enough, considering it was room service. It definitely could have been worse, she conceded.
And what to do about him?
She pondered the question as she slowly ate the cuisine not ever really tasting it. She was still very hurt from his stinging rejection and low opinion of her. Normally, the opinions of others were of no consequence to her. She set her own standard. Having lived a life in the Fairy Court, she was accustomed to constant ridicule or insincere flattery. She had developed the ability to let it roll off.
Not so where Josh was concerned.
She was in love with him, and that love gave him power over her in ways no otherworldly creature could ever possess. His opinion mattered, she concluded, all the while still puzzling out how he could be so dimwitted when it came to the lies of his child, guessing it was the forest and tree thing where Jesse was concerned.
“And what was with sending the police to get me?” she pondered aloud downing her second glass, letting the alcohol seep into her brain.
