Surprised, they turned and looked at her, their adolescent faces breaking into toothy smiles.
Twenty minutes later she was standing in a general store telling her grandparents everything.
“Malcolm did that?” Kate asked, disbelieving.
“And Scott, too. There were a lot of men and they had guns. I didn’t see who fired the shot that hit us.” She looked down at her arm, now scabbed over and almost healed. The same bullet that had hit her had killed Jaya.
“What are we going to do?” Kate asked her husband, her eyes filled with fear. “They almost killed Shay, Robert. And they killed Jaya. Jaya!” She emphasized, horror filling her voice.
Robert put his arms around her shoulders and hugged her to him. “We’ll figure it out,” he said. “Shay, we need you to come to the council and tell them everything you just told us.”
“I can’t. I have to go to Jason. I’ve already spent too much time here.”
“This is critical, Shay. You don’t understand the implications of what Jaya’s death means for The Colony.”
“You’re right, and that’s why it doesn’t matter if I’m there. You can tell them everything I just told you. And honestly, I don’t care about your rules or your laws—all I care about is Jason. And right now, he needs me.”
“We’ll take you to him,” Kate said, when Robert opened his mouth to protest more.
“Thank you,” Shay said. “I know I don’t have any right to ask, but after you talk to the council, if you could please—” Her voice broke over the lump in her throat. “If you could please check on my dog. I think he’s still down in that...that pit.” Fresh tears filled her eyes as she thought of Buddy alone and scared down in that hole. She didn’t even know if he’d been hurt. What if those men...?
Kate pulled her into her arms. “Oh, sweetie, don’t you worry about a thing. You go to Jason. We’ll take care of Buddy. We’ll take care of everything.”
“Thank you,” Shay whispered, trying to speak through a throat tight with emotion. The moment her grandmother wrapped her in her arms, the shell that she’d erected around herself crumbled and hot tears pricked her eyes. It was such a relief to be able to share her pain, to have someone care and finally help. To have family.
Five minutes later, her grandparents dropped her off at a small white clapboard house two blocks down from the general store. A posted sign out front read Manuel, Healer.
She said goodbye to her grandparents and hurried through the gate in the small white-picket fence and ran up the gravel walk and up the steps to the front porch. The sign on the front door read Please Come In. She opened the door to the tinkling of bells and stepped into to a small waiting room. Two people sat in chairs along the wall, not speaking but looking at her with open curiosity. Shay looked around for a receptionist or anyone to help. She closed the door behind her and stepped into the room when a small man with long black, hair tied back with a leather strap, and deeply lined weathered skin hurried toward her.
“You must be Shay,” he said the moment he saw her.
“Yes.” She was somewhat surprised, though she didn’t know why, not after everything that had happened to her today.
“We’ve been waiting for you.”
We? Wariness instantly clouded her mind and she took a step back. Was Malcolm there? Had he discovered she’d left his house and come looking for her?
“Come,” he said, gesturing her forward. “Jason needs you.”
At the mention of Jason’s name, relief crashed over her, washing away all her misgivings. “How is he?”
“He’ll be better with you here to help him. You have strong energy surrounding you. Come. He’s been calling for you in his sleep.”
Shay followed him into a back room and saw Jason lying on a small bed, a tall white candle burning by his head, the rich dark scent of incense filling the room. She rushed to his side and quickly took up his hand. His skin was pale and dark circles rimmed his eyes. His hand was cold to her touch. She placed it between both of hers and rubbed, trying to warm him.
He turned his head and cracked open his eyes. A small smile lifted his lips. “You came.”
She smiled back at him. “As soon as I could.”
“You all right?”
She sat in a chair by his bed. “I am now.”
His eyes drifted closed. Fear tightened her grip on his hand as she listened to him pull in a ragged, weak breath.
She sat with him all day and all through the night, refusing to leave his side while he slept and struggled to hang on.
Manuel gave her several smooth stones and instructed her on how to put them on Jason’s pulse points, the words to say and how to open herself up to the Universal energy. She did as he instructed, wanting to do anything she could to help, though she didn’t understand how it worked and wasn’t sure she believed it would...until she felt a sensation of warmth entering her hands. As she placed them on Jason, focusing on her strength as Manuel had told her to, a tingling sensation swept up her arms and onto her scalp.
Maybe it would work. “You can do this, Jason. Be strong. Focus on us, on our love and on your promise to hold me in your arms until I fall asleep every night. I’m holding you to that.”
He didn’t stir as she spoke to him, telling him how much she loved and needed him. She just prayed that somehow he could hear her and understand. That he knew. She continued for as long as she could, murmuring over the stones, conducting her energy and pushing her strength toward him until, exhausted, she laid her head against his cool hand, closed her eyes and fell asleep.
* * *
The next morning, Shay woke to Jason stroking her hair. She lifted her head and found him smiling at her.
“Good morning,” he said.
She grinned, wide and foolishly, loving the color that had returned to his face. “It sure is. You’re looking better. Much better.”
“Yeah?”
“And your energy levels feel high, too.”
“You can feel my energy?” he asked.
“I can,” she said, somewhat surprised, yet pleased.
“Cool. What else can you feel?” He waggled his eyebrows at her.
Just seeing the sparkle in his eyes sent warmth surging through her and practically had her melting into a relieved puddle on the floor. Tears threatened, but she held them back. She was done crying. “I almost lost you,” she whispered, afraid to say it aloud.
“I’m not going anywhere,” he said. “I promised you, didn’t I?”
For a moment they just stared at each other. “How much do you remember?” she asked.
“I’m not sure. I... How’s Jaya?”
She hesitated. “She didn’t make it.”
Jason sucked in a deep breath in a whistling hiss. Before she could say anything else, she heard the bell ringing in the front room and Manuel demanding that someone leave his house. Seconds later the door burst open and Malcolm entered. Shay stood and placed her hand protectively on Jason’s shoulder. “You can leave. I’m not going with you.”
“I know,” Malcolm said. “I didn’t come here for you. I came to apologize to you both.”
“We don’t want to hear it,” she said.
“And to tell you I’m leaving,” he added.
“Just like that?” Jason said. “After everything you’ve done, do you really think an apology is enough?”
“No,” Malcolm admitted. He looked terrible, like his face had fallen, sinking as his muscles went slack.
“What about the shipment?” Jason asked. “Are you just going to run off and leave everyone high and dry?”
“There was no missing shipment,” Malcolm admitted. “It was a ploy, a distraction, something to get you out of town so I could work on your girl here.”
“What were you hoping to accomplish?” Sha
y asked, stunned by the lengths this man had gone to get to her. Her grandparents had tried to warn her about Malcolm, but she hadn’t listened.
“To win you over to my side. Get you to understand what was at stake and why it was so important that you at least give the impression that we were together. That you were aligned with me.”
“And for that, you had to send Jason away?”
“Yes. He is in love with you. If he told the council his intentions to marry you, the game would have been up.”
“And Mitch on the mountain?” Jason asked, his eyes flashing with anger. “What was that about?”
“I have no idea. Louis said he’d left Mitch alone for a few minutes when he heard the shot. He couldn’t believe what had happened. Apparently, Mitch had been working for Scott for a while, undermining my operations, doing everything he could to sabotage me. I’ve been going crazy trying to figure out why everything has been going wrong. Parts from my shipments have disappeared. I’ve had funds misappropriated. Every move I’ve made has been met with a countermove. Now I know why.”
He rubbed his hand across his face and then looked at Shay almost apologetically. “You, Shay, were my last hope. Scott knew that. I think Mitch was trying to kill you that morning on the mountain. Maybe even you, too, Jason. If neither of you made it back to The Colony, everyone would have blamed the Gauliacho. No one would have ever known what he’d done.”
Shay shuddered.
“What’s going to happen to them now?” Jason asked.
“I’m not sure how much can be proved. Mitch is dead.”
“How?”
“Shot in the battle yesterday.”
Shay remembered seeing him fall to the ground. She collapsed back into the chair next to Jason’s bed.
“The sheriff is rounding up Scott and his men and mine. They’re testing our guns, trying to determine which ones have been fired. They’ll figure out who shot Mitch and Jaya.”
“You think Scott was the one who tried to kill me?” Shay asked as disbelief coursed through her.
“We’re not sure yet if it was Scott or one of his men who fired the shot.”
“What about the sheriff? Doesn’t he work for you? How can this investigation be trusted?” Shay demanded, not wanting to believe her cousin would go that far to get rid of her.
“Cal works for The Colony, not me.”
“But he came and took Jason yesterday morning.”
“He does favors for me because he’s a friend. But he wasn’t there when Jaya got shot. I believe when he finishes his investigation, he will discover that Scott killed Mitch to keep him from confessing the magnitude of what he’s done. If he had, Scott would never have been able to stay in The Colony.”
“Do you think they’ll figure it all out?” Shay asked. She didn’t know why she believed a word he was saying. She knew she shouldn’t, not after everything he had done, but there was a clarity of tone in his voice. She could hear his honesty ringing through in his words.
“I’m not sure,” he admitted. “Right now, they’re making a lot of arrests and gathering testimony. It could take a while to get to the bottom of it. If they ever do. It’s becoming apparent that Scott was the one who burned his own house down and planted evidence to try to pin it on me.”
“With his daughter inside?” Jason asked, shock raising his voice.
“People are speculating that he didn’t know she was there. That her getting burned because of his vendetta is what drove him over the edge and made him come after us like he did.”
Jason’s eyes narrowed. “What drove you to do the insane things you did?”
“Listen, Jason, I never meant for you to get hurt. You were just supposed to fall into that pit and hang out there for a while. That’s all.”
“But I did get hurt and Jaya is dead, putting us all at risk.”
“I know that. I pulled you out of the pit, I had Louis bring you here.”
“After you insisted we marry,” Shay said.
“True,” he agreed. “But I tried to do everything I could to salvage a situation that went horribly wrong. And that’s why I’m here. The pack is coming apart. I need to do what I can to fix it.”
“What more could you possibly do?” Jason asked, sarcasm heavy in his tone.
Malcolm smiled. “You look like you’re going to make it. You need to step up. Both of you.”
“Geez, thanks for your concern.”
“Listen, I’ll be the first to admit I’m a bastard, but that doesn’t mean I wanted anything bad to happen to you.”
“What about your marriage to my girl?” Jason asked through a tight jaw.
“What marriage? It never happened.” Malcolm turned toward the door.
“Where are you going?” Jason demanded, his tone filled with disbelief.
“I need to find Celia. I drove her away and now, because of my actions, her mother is dead. If we don’t get her back here, we won’t have anyone to rejuvenate the crystals and protect The Colony from the Gauliacho.”
Shay shuddered at the mention of the black shadows and their insidious whispers.
“I’m going to bring her home.”
“You expect us to trust you can do that after all you’ve done?”
“No, I don’t, but it doesn’t matter. I have to make things right. You, Shay, the old woman, my men, none of this was ever supposed to happen. People weren’t supposed to die. I don’t know how it all went wrong.”
“It went wrong because you let the power go to your head. You became greedy.”
“Maybe. But it’s over now. Besides, you’re in no condition to go after her yourself. For once, you’re going to have to sit here and trust me to get it right.”
“I did trust you.”
“Not enough to go after Maggie. You had to do that yourself. Now it’s my turn.” Malcolm turned to go.
“Wait,” Jason said, his sharp tone cutting the air.
Malcolm turned back to him as Jason held out his wrist to Shay. “Please?”
Shay began untying the knots that fastened the bracelet Shay had never seen him without. She realized as she looked at it again that the green, black and red stones intertwined within the black cord matched the crystals she had seen in Jaya’s bag.
“Jaya gave this to me to wear on my travels. It’s made from the same crystals surrounding The Colony. She regenerated it when she was healing me. It will offer you protection from the Gauliacho for three days.”
As Shay undid the final knot and removed the bracelet from Jason’s wrist, the stones pricked her palm, sending an uncomfortable sensation creeping along her skin. She handed it to Malcolm as quickly as she could, not wanting to touch it a moment longer. As she did, as her hand brushed his. She could see the darkness hovering within him, but she also saw a shimmer of light buried down deep. Perhaps a remnant from his childhood before he’d succumbed to his lust for greed and power? Was that the part of him that Jason remembered? She didn’t know him well enough to say for sure.
“And take this. For Celia.” Jason lifted the chain with Jaya’s purple stone from around his neck.
Malcolm looked grim as he took it. “Thanks.”
Shay glanced out the window as she heard the sound of a car pulling up out front. “It’s my grandfather, along with four other men.”
Malcolm stiffened. “They’re coming for me.”
“Go out the back,” Shay said. “We’ll tell them we didn’t see you.”
Jason looked up at her, surprise filling his face as Malcolm left.
She shrugged. “He’s still lost, but perhaps if Celia forgives him she can help him find his heart.”
“And if she can’t? If she turns him away?”
“I guess I’m a hopeless romantic and want to believe she won’t.”
He smiled and reached for her hand. “That’s why I love you.”
“Do you really think he’ll be able to find her?” she asked, incredibly thankful that it was Malcolm leaving The Colony and not Jason.
“We better hope that he does. For all our sakes.”
Seconds later, her grandfather and four other men squeezed into the room. “Shay,” her grandfather acknowledged, then turned to Jason. “Jason. It’s good to see you’re looking better than I expected.”
“Thank you.” He looked at Shay, that spark she loved so much filling his eyes. “I had a lot of help.”
Shay stood still by Jason’s side as the four older men took her measure. The council. These men had the power to alter her life. She should have been intimidated by their intense stares, but she wasn’t. She clutched Jason’s hand, took a deep breath and then told the men everything.
Including her marriage to Malcolm.
Luckily, it didn’t matter. The marriage wasn’t legal. It was performed under duress and the only witness was dead. Her grandfather, Robert, would file the papers immediately to legally annul the proceedings so no one could ever come forward and claim that she and Jason could not be married. “Nothing is standing in your way now. Nor, for that matter, is there any reason to rush a wedding. Take your time. Get to know each other. Make sure you are both certain you are ready for a lifetime commitment.”
Her grandfather’s words resonated within her, and as she looked at Jason, the same worry and trepidation she’d felt yesterday morning in her grandfather’s house, after having learned about Maggie, came rushing back. He was right. There was nothing threatening them, no reason to rush. To not be absolutely certain. For the first time since Jason had fallen into that hole, she felt an overwhelming sense of sadness. She’d been so happy he was alive, she’d forgotten all her reservations about him, about them.
“Also, Shay, we think you might be the best candidate to lead the pack. At least temporarily. Consider it a sort of probation.”
“What?” Shay asked, his words pulling her up from her dour thoughts. “But I don’t know anything about your community. How could I possibly run it?”
“You will learn,” Robert said. “You have your father’s gift of being able to see people’s true intentions. That will help you more than the day-to-day knowledge of life here in the village. You will learn that soon enough.”
Harlequin Nocturne March 2014 Bundle: ShadowmasterRunning with Wolves Page 49
