Page 83 of Cursed
Unable to draw a full breath, Andre kept his gaze fixed on Morgan as he waited for the logical next question.
“Tell me how,” she said.
His mouth was so dry that he had to moisten his lips before he could speak. “The priestess said that the spell would be broken if a woman who knew the full extent of the curse came willingly to Andre and gave him her love.”
He saw her features contort.
“I knew that was too much to ask of any woman,” he said. “I thought I would live out my life alone here. Then the murders started, and I knew someone was trying to make me leave. I knew I needed help, so I started checking out detective agencies—and rejecting them—until I saw your name on the Decorah Web site, and I knew …” He stopped and ran a hand through his dark hair. “I knew there was something about you that made it seem right. But now I realize I was just fooling myself.” He wanted to turn and escape from her. But there was more he had to say before she left. “But thank you for saving me from Dwight Rivers’ nasty little plan. You did a fantastic job of detective work. I’ll mail your check to your agency.”
It was finished. Whatever had sprouted between them as they’d typed messages back and forth between Beltsville and Belle Vista had died before the roots could take hold. Defeated, he felt his shoulders slump. Before he could make the confrontation any worse—for either of them, he turned and walked away, into the backcountry that he knew so well because he had roamed these acres every night for the past twelve years.
He stared at the graceful branches of a tupelo tree as he walked away, feeling dead inside. He’d bet everything on one roll of the dice and lost.
Morgan watched him leave her, feeling as though a vise were tightening around her heart. He had told her things she couldn’t possibly believe. Terrible things.
But she had no other alternative than to believe—not after everything that had happened since she’d arrived at Belle Vista. She knew she should run in the other direction. Back to Decorah where she would be safe. And then a thought leaped into her mind, a thought that should not have evaded her. How was this different from the men who worked for Frank Decorah, the men who could turn into wolves? No, they weren’t cursed, but they carried the same heavy burden as Andre. They were different from other men, but they had found a way to live in a world that would reject them if it knew their secret.
Yet many of them were married. They had found wives who were willing to accept them for what they were.
Knowing them should have helped her believe what she’d seen with her own eyes when she’d seen the jaguar. But her logical mind had made her fight the only explanation that made sense.
And suddenly she understood that on some deep instinctive level running away would be the worst mistake of her existence. For the past two years, she had felt as though her life were a hollow shell.
Now she had power to make it much worse.
“No,” she whispered.
As Andre walked past a stand of graceful blue water iris, she found herself running after him.
Reaching him, she grabbed at a broad shoulder. He went rigid, then whirled to face her.
“Don’t walk away from me again,” she whispered.
“You want me to stay—after what I just told you? Why? Are you caught in Linette’s dream?”
“No,” she answered, but she knew she sounded uncertain.
“Are you feeling her emotions, is that it?”
“Partly. And mine, too.” She swallowed, then fought to make sense to herself—to him. “Do you believe in reincarnation?” she asked.
“I … don’t know.”
“You said you dreamed of Andre. Dreams where you were him. Where you knew facts that only he could know.”
He nodded.
“And Linette came to me—with a kind of reality that was frightening and confusing.” Morgan squeezed her eyes closed, then opened them again. “Linette taught me things I didn’t know. I loved my husband. I clung to his memory because it was all I had. But there were elements missing from my marriage, gaps I didn’t want to admit. We formed a bond because we were in the same profession—the spy profession—and we could share experiences that we couldn’t talk about with anyone else. But that was really all we had. When he died, I was left with nothing. I mean, we hadn’t made much of a life. We could have settled down, had children. But we didn’t do that.”
She felt as though she’d made a terrible confession and at the same time as though a weight had been lifted off her shoulders.
Reaching for Andre, she pulled him toward her and held on tight. His arms came up to embrace her, but she knew he was still afraid to believe they could break the curse together.
She pressed her face to his chest, then tipped her head up so she could meet his gaze. “Don’t turn away from me—from us. And don’t turn away from the chance to right the wrongs of the past,” she whispered, then held her breath, waiting for his answer.
His gaze burned into hers. “You have to be sure. For yourself.”
“My feelings are as real as Linette’s. What about you?”
