Page 83 of In the Pursuit of Haven
That’s right! I sagged in relief as the shadows of the wharf overtook us in its loving grip as we escaped Hunter’s men yet again.
There was no way we could go home.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Jessie scattered the papers from the counter in his dad’s kitchen, seconds before throwing me up there. His lips found mine as he tugged me closer.
With a little difficulty, I drew back, my shoulder hitting against the shelves. “You sure no one’s home?”
“Believe me, my old man is slumped over in a barstool at the nearest pub by now. We’ve got this place to ourselves.”
I felt myself get lost in Jessie’s kisses.
We’d gotten a little carried away on the way to my father-in-law’s place. Hiding out here was safer than going to Haven’s for the time being. The historic brown-shingled fisherman house was nestled up against the coast in Marblehead with steep staircases leading down a sheer embankment that isolated his family’s private dock. We’d stumbled all over ourselves getting up to the house, laughing and trying to keep the other from falling.
I wasn’t sure if it was the thrill of discovering our first Shepherd’s Relic entirely on our own or scraping past one danger after another, but one thing led to another and we couldn’t keep our hands off each other.
His were presently finding my knees and I was trying not to laugh since he knew every ticklish spot on me. “Jessie!” I jerked when he did it again, and that’s when I knew he was doing it on purpose. There was only one way to solve this. I wrapped my legs around him.
The front door flew open. Jessie twisted around. My fingers loosened on his shirt as Pete came stumbling in. Abby was holding him upright.
My husband groaned and squeezed my knee again. Giving me a steady look that promised we weren’t through, he peeled away from me to go help his sister. “Where’d you find him?” he asked.
“I was on my way back from the—uh museum”—Abby’s eyes veered to me—“when I saw him through the window at Zak’s, making a huge scene!”
Great! Another bar fight!The Crabbs would be banned from every Salem establishment by the time this treasure hunt was through, which probably would include me if… well… my attention riveted on my husband as he grabbed his father’s side to steady him.
Jessie tried to lower his voice, “You left Zak’s to go to the museum?”
“You know why I had to go,” she hissed into her father’s shoulder, then she turned a glare on the drunken man too. “He was having it out with Robert.”
Jessie’s eyes shot to me before they met his sister’s.
I froze. There were secrets in that look. I knew it after Abby called Robert a blackmailer. What was left to this story that they weren’t telling me? I slid down from the counter.
Pete was sweating so hard he looked like he’d taken a swim outside. His once-black hair was almost completely white, and it was matted against his head. “Robert,” Pete snarled, “thinks he can roam freely around here after what he did to Leon.”
Leon? But that was the name of Matthew’s friend in Haven’s letters.
“C’mon.” Jessie helped Abby pull him onto the couch.
Straightening my shirt, I followed them into the living room. “Leon?” I asked under my breath.
Jessie licked his lips. “Yeah, Walter Leon,” he repeated, though quieter… if that was possible.
His father might be drunk, but he wasn’t deaf. “Yes, Walt! Walt!” he shouted. “Walter Leon!” he shouted. “You know him? Trying to talk like cowardly mice behind my back? Stupid kids. Say it for all the world to hear—ha, ha, Walt Leon!”
Yeah, I got it, though honestly I’d thought Leon was his first name.
Pete’s wild expression only got worse when he was drunk, and now he fixed all that wrath on me. “Robert killed him,” he hissed.
My stomach felt queasy. Jessie had never given me a name. By all rights I never should’ve known who Leon was except for Haven’s letters.
It was almost like Pete blamed me for all that spittle going my way. “He killed them all… Matthew, Drake… I don’t care what anyone says! My brothers!” He shook his head mournfully and rolled face first into the couch. “It’s only the truth,” he mumbled into the couch cushion. “Robert was trying to keep secret what he’d done when Leon confronted him. I heard the whole thing.”
Jessie turned silent as the news sank into me.
“They should’ve given him the death penalty,” Pete grumbled, “hurt him like he hurt us.” His eyes closed like he couldn’t wake up from the nightmare that his life had become. Watching him now, I only saw the young boy he’d been in that glossy team photo when he stood next to his older brothers on their yacht.
