Page 104 of Leather & Lark
“Yeah. I’ll be okay. It’s just …” I pause and press my lips together, trying to trap the grief that invades every bone, every drop of blood. It takes a few unsteady breaths and twisting a loose thread of my sweater around my finger until it aches before I can speak again. “It’s just that she was my anchor,” I say as I head to my bedroom. “She was steady in every storm. It’s not like I didn’t know it was coming, but I still feel … adrift. Expecting it doesn’t make it easier, you know? I was hoping we’d have a little more time.”
“I know. I was too, duchess. I’m sorry, I know how much she meant to you.” Lachlan’s heavy, worried sigh permeates the line. “Is there anything I can do?”
A breathy, mirthless laugh leaves my lips before my throat closes once more. “Probably. But right now I just need a hug.”
“I can do that,” Lachlan’s says. I clutch the phone to my ear and let the tears fall again. I feel solace in his silence. I know he’s there, giving me time, another steady anchor in a storm. I stand in the bedroom that’s become ours and stare at the floor, caught in mytorrent of thoughts and realizations when his quiet voice finally pulls me free. “Lark …?”
“Yeah?”
“I love you.”
A breath stalls in my lungs. That quiet confession echoes in my mind until it brands itself there.I love you, an indelible ink written in memory.
Every big and bold moment with Lachlan seems to roll through my mind. The first time we met. The second. That kiss in the city clerk’s office when we said our vows. The way he whispered to me just before our lips met.Geallaim duit a bheith i mo fhear céile dílis duit, fad a mhairimid le chéile.I didn’t know what it meant—I still don’t. But I felt it. That this man would be there with me in my darkest times. And if I let him, he’ll be there in the light too.
The show can’t start until you jump.
I press my hand across my eyes, but it doesn’t stop a fresh wave of tears from flooding my eyes and sliding down my skin. Bentley whines at my feet and I drop to his level, gripping an arm around his thick neck to cry into his fur as I hold the phone to my ear with an unsteady hand. “I love you too, Lachlan.”
“Get an Uber, duchess,” Lachlan says, relief and a smile in his voice. “I’ll meet you at Shoreview soon.”
With a deep sigh, I say goodbye and try to reconcile a world that feels like it’s turned upside down. Ethel is gone. Everything in my family will change. I’m in love with my husband.
An incredulous laugh bursts from my lips despite the tears that still cling to my lashes. I press my forehead to the soft fur between Bentley’s ears. “I’m in love with my husband, Bentley. I guess that means we have to keep him.” My eyes lift to the ceiling with abittersweet smile. It doesn’t take much to imagine Ethel’s reveling in a final plan coming together just the way she wanted. “Hear that, you scheming hell-raiser? I’m in love with Lachlan Kane. I’m pretty sure that’s what you were after, right?”
I rise to my feet. Before I order an Uber, I head to the bathroom to splash water on my face. My flesh feels too hot with all this emotion coursing beneath my skin. But when I look at my reflection, I see the beauty of being stripped down to my core. It has nothing to do with the makeup that still clings to my eyes or the foundation that’s been washed away. It’s got everything to do with the person I see in the mirror matching the woman I feel like inside. One who doesn’t hide behind what the world wants to see. There’s no practiced smile, no facade to keep others from being inconvenienced by my emotions. I’m in pain and I look like I’m hurting. I’m in love and I look like I’m living.
I like the woman looking back at me. I think my aunt would be proud of her too.
I’m just wiping the final drops of water from my face as Bentley gives a warning bark from the living room.Maybe the Uber was closer than I realized and I missed the bell, I think. But when I pick up my phone and check the app as I start toward the living room, the Uber is still ten minutes away.
Bentley barks again as I enter the living space. And then he growls.
“What is—” I start, but then I see what it is—whoit is.
Abe Midus is standing in my living room.
Predatory eyes. A hungry smile.
All at once we are hunter and prey.
I take off running for the kitchen. Something hits my legs and I smack into a lamp on my way to the floor. A lightning strike of pain blinds me when I land. My palm finds the side of my head and comes away sticky with blood. Bentley growls behind me. There’s a thud and he yelps. Something pierces my neck, sharp and inescapable before it’s pulled away.
I reach for my phone. My fingers slip across the glass when it’s kicked from my grasp. My groan is muffled by the roar of my heart as I try to pull myself across the floor. Power leeches from my muscles with every second that passes. I have just enough strength to turn on my back and breathe.
Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.
Stay awake.
The edges of my vision darken and blur.
Abe Midus stands at my feet and slides a cap onto a syringe before slipping it into his pocket. A slow smile stretches across his face. Light reflects off something clutched in his grip. A black- handled tool with a brutal silver edge. Tears leak from the corners of my eyes. I try to beg but my mouth won’t form the words.
Bentley squares himself over my legs, head lowered, hackles raised. His vicious growl burns through my last moments of conscious thought. Abe bends, his eyes pinned to my snarling dog.
“Hello, you.”
APPARITION
