A long time passed in relative silence, nothing but the soft susurrus of the wind in the full leaves and the occasional squawk of a circling hawk, spotting its next meal down below. Finally, Taryn took a deep breath and spoke again. “Thanks, Lacie. I’m sorry I spewed all over you like that. You don’t know how long I’ve waited to tell someone.”
Suddenly Lacie’s arms were around Taryn, and they just held each other. Taryn was the first to pull away, wiping a tear from her eye. “If you tell anyone I cried, I’ll have to kill you.”
Lacie laughed through her own tears, swearing an oath of silence.
“Maybe someday I can return the favor,” Taryn offered.
“Maybe,” Lacie said, sighing heavily. “I can’t talk about it. Not yet. But this... it helped.”
“I understand,” Taryn said, and Lacie had the feeling that she was one of the few people who really did. “Besides, there’s no rush. We’ll be sisters soon enough, then you’re stuck with me.”
Lacie turned away, gazing back at the beautiful view. “I don’t know about that, Taryn. I’m having trouble accepting what’s happened, making my peace with it. How can I expect any more from Shane?” She drew her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. “For all I know this sudden trip of his is his way to put some distance between us, re-evaluate things. I can’t blame him.”
Taryn gasped. “Lacie, that’s not what you really think, is it?”
Lacie shrugged, afraid that if she voiced it aloud it would make it one step closer to being a reality. Some things should never be spoken of. Did that include her fear that Shane was already having a change of heart but was too honorable to come right out and say so? That he was just biding his time until she got herself together enough to move on?
“Shane told you that you were his heart, didn’t he?”
Lacie nodded. “But that was before... everything.”
Taryn shook her head vehemently. “Doesn’t matter. If you believe this is something that will change, something that Shane – or you – can simply walk away from, then you really don’t understand anything about how this croie stuff works, girlfriend. That line about ‘for better or worse’? Honey, you have no idea.”
Though Taryn’s words filled her with hope, Lacie still had her doubts. She wanted Taryn to be right, but was too afraid to believe. With everything else that had happened, she couldn’t bear to pin her future on a man who might – with great cause – believe that a serious relationship at this point just wasn’t worth the hassle. If she did, and she was wrong, it would destroy her, more than anything Craig Davidson had ever done. And she already knew it was something she would never completely recover from.
The trip back down the mountain was a lazy one. Lacie discovered she loved riding on the back of a motorcycle. In return for her oath of silence and agreement to do this again sometime, Taryn promised to teach Lacie how to drive one.
When they returned to the Pub later that evening, they were surprised to see Jake and Ian there, talking to Jack. Taryn ran into Jake’s arms; he held her as if he had never held anything so precious.
“Shane’s out looking for you,” Ian told Lacie. “He was headed over to your parents’ house.”
Lacie couldn’t get there fast enough. Her feet covered the fairly short distance quickly, and soon she was sprinting up the steps and bursting through the door. What she saw stopped her dead in her tracks.
It couldn’t be. And yet it was.
“Brian?! Oh my God, Brian?!?” Lacie couldn’t take another step forward, afraid that if she did, he would disappear. He turned around, flashing her that familiar grin and she held her breath. He was so much thinner than she remembered, a shell of the big, hulking mass he had once been, but there was no mistaking that smile or his favorite way to greet her.
“Hey, brat,” he said.
Lacie flew into his arms, crying hysterically. He laughed and held her tightly, as if he had never thought he’d do so again. “Missed me, huh?”
It was a long time before she allowed herself to step back, but she continued to hold on to his shirt. Tears coated her face, dripped onto her clothes and his. “Only a little,” she sniffed. “What happened, Bri?
He wiped carefully at her tears. “Our location was compromised. The Bastards took us by surprise. We never knew what hit us. How about you? You okay?”
She nodded, taking a deep breath. “I will be.” And for the first time, she actually believed it.
––––––––
“How did you do it?” Lacie asked later, sitting on the front porch swing with Shane. She was drinking hazelnut coffee – decaf. She wasn’t sure she would ever be able to stomach another cup of tea.
He shrugged. “It was your files that gave us the starting point we needed,” he said. “Ian was able to figure out the rest.”
“How?” She’d felt like she’d been running around in circles for the past few years. Everyone she talked to said there was absolutely nothing that could be done. Yet within the span of a few weeks, Shane and his brothers managed to locate and rescue Brian and what was left of his unit.
He winked. “Family secret. One I can’t share with you yet.”
“But you will, someday?”
“Oh, yes.”