A house in the mountains.
The music built to a crescendo as we took a tour of the house. Its wood floors. Its kitchen with a big farm sink and lots of old appliances that needed to be updated (but I hoped they never were). Its bathroom with an old claw-footed tub.
My breath caught.
A cozy living room with an abstract painting over the fireplace, the predominant color of the painting an ocean of blue.
There were little bedrooms with not much in them.
And another bedroom with a big bed flanked by two nightstands that each held a lamp but only one had a picture frame.
The camera moved closer.
It was a silver frame. A silver frame with a picture in it that I knew was taken in Las Vegas. The picture of a couple nestled in a web of crystals.
The words to the song started beating into my brain.
The video faded to black.
But the picture immediately faded back.
A deck.
A view.
A dawn.
A man’s bare feet, ankles and legs in pajama bottoms propped up on the top railing.
I knew those feet.
The camera pulled back.
He also had on a long-sleeved thermal.
His back was to me.
His hair was thick, dark and clipped its usual short.
His ocean blue eyes were turned from me.
Tock, tock, tock…José Gonzalez was speaking to me.
But it was Nick Sebring communicating to me.
I watched Nick’s profile as he took a sip of coffee and dawn came over the soft-topped mountains that were not Rockies.
He turned and looked over his shoulder right at the camera.
I drowned in blue.
The screen went black.
In desperation to get it back, my gaze shot to Nick’s brother.
He had his on me and his mouth open to speak.
He closed it as he looked into my eyes.
Then he gifted me with a miracle.
In the expanse of a breath, I watched hard dissolve, scars heal and light shine.
“Hurry, honey,” he whispered.
I didn’t even take the time to nod.
I turned on my foot, my robe rippling out behind me, I ran to my bedroom.
I was hopping up and down, awkwardly pulling on a pair of slacks when Sylvie hit the door to my closet.
“Here to help, babe. What do you need me to pack?” she asked.
I spared her only a glance.
She was no longer looking inscrutable.
She was looking like she was fighting against laughing.
I nearly fell over, tangled in my pants.
I righted myself and answered, “Nothing here I want.”
“Nick’s ready for you, Olivia, but he’s a guy. Not sure he’s got your brand of shampoo down. And heads up, he’s never gonna have your brand of shampoo down. We bitches gotta take care of that shit. Hell, you in his life, the man will forget his brand of shampoo. That’ll be up to you too.”
“Right,” I whispered, tearing off my robe, on a mission and not fully processing her impromptu relationship lesson. “Then please, if you will, until I can get to the store wherever Nick is, I’ll need you to pack my shampoo.”
I turned to the rails and yanked off the first blouse my hand hit.
I heard her muffled chuckle as she walked out.
I finished getting dressed. I then dashed around my closet to get the bare essentials, tearing at hangers, opening drawers and not closing them, shoving things into the first piece of luggage I could grab—a carry-on.
A carry-on bag.
My heart started feeling funny.
I ran to the bathroom just in time for Sylvie to shove a variety of packed cosmetics bags in my lonely piece of luggage.
We moved out of the room, me fast, Sylvie behind me coming slower.
That’s when I smelled it.
Gasoline.
I stopped dead in my hallway when I saw him.
Ghost walking toward me, a filled body bag over his shoulder.
Now Ghost—his gaze glancing off me as he passed—his expression was inscrutable.
I sensed motion in the hall and looked down it to see Knight come toward me from the great room.
He approached, stopping in front of me.
“You died tonight, Livvie.”
I put a hand to the wall but didn’t tear my gaze from Knight.
Sebring.
He wasn’t making me free.
He was making me free.
“You,” I said softly, saying no more.
Knight got me.
“I’ll be good knowin’ my brother is happy.”
My heart kept feeling funny but I knew what the feeling was in my eyes.
Tears stinging.
For me to be free, we were disappearing. No roads could lead to us. Too dangerous.
I was getting Nick.
Nick was losing his family.
I couldn’t do that. Nick had worked hard at earning back his family.
“I can’t—” I began.
“You think I finally got him, and he finally got you, I’d let anyone keep me away?” he asked.
I swallowed.
That made me feel better.
Knight grinned at me and with that, he was almost as beautiful as his brother.
“You’ll lay low. We’ll sort shit. Then we’ll have a family reunion.”
Yes, that made me feel better.
I nodded.
“Not much time,” a man’s voice muttered and I saw the brown-headed, scarred guy moving down the hall from the back of the house.