Lucy's Liberation [Elk Creek 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)

by Gigi Moore

  Prentice admired her strength and thought that she reminded him of Lucy the way she tried not to appear weak in front of anyone.

  These pioneer women were made of strong stuff, stronger than a lot of the “strong, single, independent” twenty-first century women that he had known in his time.

  “This is the sort of thing that happens when you stray from your good Christian teachings to…do whatever it is you’re doing out at that house with…” Clint dismissively waved in the general direction of Lucy and Ki, who had broken their clinch to join the rest of the partygoers watching the spectacle Kurt had initiated.

  Prentice noticed, however, while Clint alluded to Lucy and Ki, his glance plainly found Cody across the room as if for support. “You really should pay attention from who you get your facts, Dad.” He turned away from Ethan’s parents, his heart aching more than when he had first walked out of their house and away from them to go live with Lucy and Ki.

  “Ethan…”

  “Let him go, Katie. He was lost to us the minute he took up with that crook and…now this man and woman. He’s…he’s just not our son anymore.”

  Prentice closed his eyes at Clint’s obviously reluctant but harsh words. He told himself it was better this way. No good could come of him associating with Clint and Kate, but even though Clint spoke the truth without actually knowing, it didn’t make the fact hurt any less.

  “Are you okay?”

  Prentice opened his eyes at Lucy’s quiet voice to see her and Ki standing before him. The first thing he noticed was Lucy’s concerned expression, her heart in her eyes.

  He remembered the psychic energy he had earlier cast right before he started to answer her. He instantly felt Cody’s rage seeping into his brain cells like an inky insidious oil spill in an ocean, spreading out and contaminating everything in its path, namely Prentice’s mind.

  Prentice lurched back and grabbed his head with one hand, realizing too late how open to attack he had left himself. He hadn’t expected a psychic threat from anyone here.

  Had what he’d felt been all Cody’s emotional and mental activity or someone else’s?

  Ki caught him around the shoulders and led him over to the nearest bench against a wall where Prentice shakily sat down. “Ethan, what is it?” ”

  “I…I’m okay. It’s just a little headache.” He looked around, scanning the crowd visually and mentally, catching the curious stares and disapproving glares as he homed in on that malevolent mind that had touched his. The feelings and thoughts he had felt belonged to Ethan’s killer!

  * * * *

  What had happened back there? What kind of black magic voodoo had touched his mind?

  He staggered out into the alley way behind the store, eager to get away before anyone recognized him, like Ethan’s two fillies, eager to escape another attack.

  Something wasn’t right about that boy since he’d come back. It wasn’t just the amnesia, but it was as if he’d brought something back with him from the other side, something…not right, something dangerous, especially when it could distress him from across a crowded room without either of them coming into physical contact with each other.

  This was not right, not good at all.

  He told himself not to panic, that nothing had changed. He still planned to take the boy down, now he just had to move up his schedule and get it done sooner than he had anticipated.

  He should have done it long ago, gotten as far away from this little town as he could. Nothing of any good was coming from him prolonging his stay. Except that he was going to miss branding as his own that little filly of Mr. Fancy Pants and the kid.

  Maybe he still could squeeze her in before he left.

  Taking Ethan down wasn’t going to be as easy as he had initially thought. Even if the boy didn’t recognize or remember him, he wasn’t exactly a sitting duck anymore, if he ever had been. He had that…thing he could do with his mind now.

  How long had the boy been sitting on that little weapon?

  He didn’t know how powerful it was, but he was sure a bullet to the head would take care of things right and proper. He just needed to keep his distance until the last minute and catch the boy as unawares as possible, which shouldn’t be a problem.

  He’d taken him down once. He’d take him down again, this time for good.

  * * * *

  Once they had all gotten home, Lucy and Ki had hovered over him like worried parents. The last thing Prentice wanted to do was leave, but his only escape from the expected interrogation had been coming to work. Despite this, Prentice probably shouldn’t have come to Winchester’s tonight and he knew it. Not coming, however, would have looked suspect since he had assured Lucy and Ki that he was perfectly fine and wanted to work. He wished his angels would say something to him, help him make the decision he needed to, but they had been maddeningly silent of late.

  Prentice missed Brielle’s soft voice in his head. He missed her mental caresses of encouragement. He had never thought he would see the day when he would admit that.

  Did Brielle’s and Caith’s absence mean that he didn’t need their help anymore? Was he making the right choice deciding to handle what he had discovered by himself rather than tell Lucy and Ki or go to the law? How could he be making the right decision and still feel so conflicted and torn?

  Prentice had been going over his options again and again since the fight at Healing Magick earlier and knew that keeping the perpetrator as far away as possible from Lucy, Ki, and everyone else he cared about was the best thing to do. He needed to get the man alone somewhere and handle his business one way or the other.

  He thought about using his powers the way he had once used them on Aura, kill the man before he could kill Prentice or get to his loved ones, but that would have been cold-blooded murder. What alternative did he have besides giving the man a fighting chance, though?

  Prentice had even thought about going to the sheriff. That solution too didn’t seem viable.

  He could see the lawman and his deputy questioning him and wondering why he had waited so long to come forward and point the finger. They might think that he and his attacker were still collaborating and throw Prentice in jail on suspicion. The last thing he wanted was to be trapped behind bars and at the man’s mercy when he came looking for Ethan. He had a feeling Ethan’s killer wouldn’t have any compunction taking out two lawmen in order to get to his prey, especially since he intended to be on the run immediately after from what Prentice had been able to glean.

  No, he wouldn’t unnecessarily drag anyone into this. He couldn’t risk anyone else’s life. This was Ethan’s battle, now his by default.

  This must have been why he had been sent back. He needed to prove himself worthy of his second chance and if that meant dying alone at the hands of Ethan’s killer, then so be it.

  Since the thoughts Prentice had earlier read at the shower had been those of desperation, he went back to the storage room to retrieve a case of liquor, wanting and fully expecting Ethan’s killer to follow on his heels.

  Playing things by ear, totally unlike him, he hadn’t planned what he would do with the man once he did come into the room and Prentice got him alone.

  After several minutes, when he didn’t feel the perpetrator’s presence—mentally or physically—it surprised him when the door finally did open behind him and he recognized the psychic signature of his visitor.

  Prentice steeled himself and turned to see Lucy standing just inside the threshold, smiling as she leaned against the closed door with her arms folded over her breasts.

  Happiness, relief, and impatience simultaneously flooded him. He had to get rid of Lucy before Ethan’s killer made a move. Prentice was sure he would and soon.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “Well, that’s a fine how-do-you-do.”

  “I’m serious, Lucy. Why are you here?”

  She licked her lips, suddenly poker-faced and unperturbed. She unfolded her arms and pushed herself off of the
door to cross the floor, the gentle sway of her hips making her too damn fetching and hot for Prentice’s own good.

  Lucy would pick this night to be totally irresistible, like this night was different from any other night when she turned Prentice the hell on.

  He didn’t have time for this!

  “It may interest you to know that I was a little worried about you after the debacle at the shower earlier. I wanted to check up on you and escort you home.”

  “What makes you think I need an escort?” The sad thing was that he did, he just didn’t want her or Ki to know it.

  “Maybe I just couldn’t wait to be with you.”

  “What does Ki think of all this? Does he even know you’re here?”

  “Of course he does. But Ki’s not the boss of me.”

  “Tell me about it,” Prentice mumbled and grasped Lucy by the shoulders as she frowned. He guided her back toward the door as it opened.

  “Why are you trying to get rid of me?”

  “I’d like to know that myself, kid.”

  “Boone? What are you doing here?” Lucy asked when she saw him standing just inside the storeroom.

  “You know him?” Prentice asked.

  “Boone helped me out of a sticky situation with Cody a little while back.”

  “I reckon little Lucy and I go back a ways.”

  Prentice pushed Lucy behind him. “Leave Lucy out of this.”

  “What is going on, Ethan? What’s wrong with you?”

  “Yeah, Ethan. Tell the little filly what’s going on.”

  Prentice watched Lucy look from him to Boone and back again and saw the moment she realized who Boone was when the blood drained from her face and she gasped.

  “Oh no.”

  “Sorry, Lucy,” Boone said and moved toward them with sure and threatening steps.

  Chapter 26

  They should have been home by now.

  Ki held his épée aloft with both hands, imagined soundly swatting Ethan or Lucy on the bare ass with it and watching the firm, round flesh give way beneath the rod as blood rushed to the surface to turn the spot a glowing pink.

  His cock instantly hardened in his trousers and pressed against the buttons at the thought of the things he wanted to do to his wife and his lover.

  Ki imagined all the ways he would punish them both for making him wait so long to get them in bed—beneath him, beside him. He wanted to punish them more for making him worry.

  He knew he shouldn’t have let Lucy go to that infernal saloon by herself, but she had been bound and determined and once she got a thought in her head, there was no deterring her.

  She’d reasoned that there was no need for both of them to go. She had just wanted to check up on Ethan and then had figured she’d stay a while and walk home with him. She’d assured Ki that she’d make sure they both made it home not much later than sundown to have dinner at a not-too-unreasonable hour.

  Like Ki, Lucy had been worried about Ethan ever since the incident at the shower.

  Ki had had the evening all mapped out before the fisticuffs had broken out at the shower. He’d had everything planned so perfectly on how he was going to make love to Ethan and Lucy after dinner, claiming them as his own, declaring his love, making things official.

  Such melodramatic gestures and pipe dreams were usually beyond him, but Ki had changed since he had come to this sleepy little western town. Neither had he ever been particularly spiritual or much of a soul-searcher. There was something about Elk Creek, however, that lured and spoke to his essence, as if a part of him remained here, a part that he had always been looking for. He didn’t know if it was the people or the place, just now that he had found that piece of himself, he didn’t want to leave it behind.

  He had intended to tell Lucy and Ethan this tonight. He had already told his mother his plans and she hadn’t been surprised. She had just given him her blessings.

  Ki should have known that things had been going too swimmingly. Life for him had always been charmed and privileged, but never particularly easy, although he was sure someone looking in from the outside would think so, someone bitter like a Cody Paxton, maybe.

  He slid his watch out of his pocket and noted the time.

  Sundown had come and gone and dinner had been served long ago, though he hadn’t eaten much. First he’d been distracted and annoyed that Lucy hadn’t brought Ethan home on time as promised then he’d been distracted by anxiety, wondering what had happened to them.

  He kept trying to tell himself that his worries were unfounded, that Elk Creek was a small town where everyone knew everyone else and their business. However, he just as quickly remembered the look on Kurt McCall’s face when he’d attacked Ethan. He remembered Tanner Gray’s hostility at the gazebo and the fact that there was an unknown predator out there somewhere who meant Ethan harm, had indeed already “killed” him.

  Ki paced the length of the parlor, pausing only to slice the air with his épée, and thinking of all the ways he would hurt someone who tried to hurt Lucy or Ethan.

  He had just decided to go to Winchester’s when a loud knock sounded on the front door.

  Ki thought he must have been so absorbed by his mental agonizing and strategizing he hadn’t heard anyone approaching the house by horseback or horse and wagon.

  Had the visitor walked?

  He hastened from the parlor and practically sprinted down the hall to the front door. When he opened the door to find Maia Malloy on the other side as breathless and worried-looking as he felt, Ki knew his worst nightmares were about to come true.

  He looked past her to see she had indeed ridden over by horseback, and he was surprised that she was alone and visiting this time of night.

  “Oh thank Goddess, you’re home!”

  Ki put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed, trying to calm himself as well as her. The mundane thought that he had never heard anyone use the feminine version of a deity before crossed his mind but it couldn’t eliminate Maia’s distraught state. “What’s wrong?”

  “They’re gone!”

  “Who? Thayne and Cade?” He already knew the answer, though, and his heart tightened in his chest right before Maia responded.

  “Ethan and Lucy. He took them.”

  “Who took them? Cody?”

  “No. It’s that cowboy who recently started working at the Westyn ranch. Boone Logan. He’s been around town for a little while here and there.”

  Ki had just been thinking that, unlike in a big city like New York, he knew everyone in Elk Creek there was to know. Evidently, he didn’t. He had never heard of this cowboy, but then he understood the profession to be transitory with a high turnover rate, nothing like working in a law firm. Men came and went to the ranches around town, on cattle drives and roundups, all the time. There wasn’t much more to keep them in the area unless they were thinking of settling down stakes and making things permanent like Ki.

  Did Ethan or Lucy know this Boone Logan? “How do you know he took Ethan and Lucy? Did you see them? Have you spoken to the sheriff?”

  “I can’t explain it, but I…I have these visions and I saw it. He took them from Winchester’s. And no, I didn’t want to go to the sheriff and risk that he wouldn’t believe me.”

  He’d had the feeling that not just Maia Malloy, but also her husband and brother-in-law were “different” ever since he had met them. It wasn’t just that they were all “together” the way he, Lucy, and Ethan were “together.” It was much more. And since the night he’d made his confession to Ethan about Rance and…felt Ethan in his mind, he couldn’t discount the supernatural anymore.

  As for the sheriff, he could imagine the man might be a little leery of Maia’s story, despite the strange incident that had occurred in the town a year ago involving her, Thayne, Cade, and Prentice. Whereas he? Well, he had a lot more invested in believing Maia’s abduction story.

  “We’re wasting time.” Maia suddenly grabbed his hand and dragged him out the door, down the fron
t steps. “We have to hurry.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “I’m not sure. But I’ll know when we get there.”

  * * * *

  “You know who Ethan is, don’t you?”

  Maia slowed her horse but didn’t come to a complete stop as she glanced at Ki from the corner of her eyes.

  They had been riding for almost an hour without exchanging a word. Ki had been buried in his own thoughts as he had suspected Maia had been. He didn’t know what made him blurt the question just then except that it had felt right and past due.

  “If you mean do I know that Prentice’s soul inhabits Ethan’s body, then yes, I do.”

  “Do Cade and Thayne know?”

  “I’m not sure. I only just realized it myself this evening at the shower. But since they’re both…gifted like me, it’s possible they picked up something, too, and just haven’t mentioned it to me yet.”

  “Do you three do that sort of thing a lot? Pick things up?” Before coming to Elk Creek, he had only heard of such “gifts” between the pages of fantasy stories and fairy tales. Despite his wide travels and cosmopolitan life experiences he had never personally come across someone with genuine supernatural abilities, only charlatans and magicians claiming to have supernatural abilities.

  “We’re all clairvoyant but with specific talents under the general umbrella of ESP. I see the future. Cade can discern a person’s past, present, and future by touching them directly or an item that belongs to them. Thayne can read people’s thoughts and feelings,” she explained before briefly turning to him, shaking her head, and chuckling. “I can’t believe I’m telling you all this. We’ve never mentioned to anyone in the town what we can do, not since we’ve been here, although I’m sure people all have their suspicions after what happened a year ago.”

  “Have you…” Ki swallowed hard before going on. He wasn’t normally so inarticulate, but then this wasn’t the most normal of circumstances either, and even though she had told him a great deal, Ki sensed there was a great deal Maia had left out. He wondered if what she didn’t say had anything to do with Prentice and his apparently hostile, ill-fated history with her and her husband and brother-in-law. He wondered if Prentice had had any of the powers that Maia had just described, in his previous incarnation, or had he brought them back with him from the grave. “Have you forgiven him?”