Page 25 of A Curse On Black Lake (Black Lake Gothic Cowboys #1)

Chapter nineteen

Killian

Eliana opens the store, and I sit at the table eating the delicious sausage and bacon quiche she made.

It’s been years since I’ve thought like a detective, and my mind keeps going to the evidence Wyatt has compared to what I have.

I feel like one of those old-school detectives on TV with a picture of an outline of a person and red threads pointing in twenty different directions to theories.

Wyatt has continued to try and search my land.

At first, I didn’t think anything of it because it made sense from an investigative perspective.

But he hasn’t been able to obtain a warrant because there is no additional probable cause for a search.

So why did he try to get me to say yes? Was it so he could find the undergarments we found next to an old campfire?

Did he know they were there? The only way he would, is by seeing them or putting them there himself, and that’s too much to fathom.

But if the Spirits are right, then who else would it be?

I don’t have friends. The rest of my family is gone.

“I promise you there’s not enough lavender in that bottle to calm the raging bitch disease you’ve got,” I hear Eliana say.

“Excuse me? Have you looked in the mirror recently, you freak? If anyone has a problem, it’s you, witch!” someone yells, pulling me out of my thoughts.

“Be careful there, Jane. You’re going to knock your halo off those horns of yours,” Eliana says.

Jane gasps. “You’re pathetic. Your grandmother is better off without you,” she says.

What the hell?

I stomp into the front of the house, and Jane Reed stands in front of Eliana, sticking her finger in Eliana’s face. While Hazel Usher has her hand over her mouth as if she’s trying to conceal her laughter.

“And another thing, I—”

“Is there a problem here?” I ask, stepping into the room.

Jane nearly jumps out of her skin and does a double take at me. Her hand drops, and she takes a step away from Eliana.

Our eyes meet, and I can see Eliana’s unshed tears she refuses to let loose in front of these psychotic women.

“I said, is there a problem, Jane?” I ask her again. I’m pretty sure I went to high school with these women.

“Well, no, but I think she’s lying to me,” Jane snaps.

“Why would Eliana lie to you?” I ask her.

“Because she doesn’t like me and she wants to poison me,” Jane says.

Swallowing my desire to say many ungentlemanly things, I clear my throat and look her in the eye. “Well, Ms. Reed—”

“It’s Mrs. Reed,” she says, enunciating each word.

“Yes, well, Mrs. Reed, Eliana may not like you, and based on your performance today, I can’t understand why that might be.

Regardless, she’s trying to help you, and if you don’t want it, then I can show you to the door.

” I take a step closer to Jane, and her eyes widen.

“Because Mrs. Reed, I will not allow you to speak to her like that again. Are we clear?” I ask her.

She swallows thickly and steps back again.

“I said, are we clear?” I ask her.

“Yes,” she squeaks.

“Good, would you like to pay now?” I ask her.

She nods and steps around me to the counter. Eliana rings her up, and Jane slides a ten-dollar bill across the counter, grabs her amber color bottle, and scoots out the door with Hazel.

The screen door slams, and I watch them through the window, get into a car and drive away.

The cash register door clicks shut, and I turn around, facing Eliana. She’s leaning against the countertop, and I can’t read the expression on her pretty face. It’s like she shut down.

“Are you alright?”

She drops her head, and her shoulders go up and down with a long breath.

I walk around the counter and pull her into my chest. I don’t know why I do it, but I feel like I need to. She needs someone to hold her because she’s crumbling. I could see it in her eyes from the moment I met her. But none of it was my business.

I’m making it my business now.

Her cheek rests against my chest, and her body shakes in my arms. A sob bursts from her as her arms come around my waist.

I scoop her into my arms and walk into the living room, sitting us on the couch.

“Is this okay?” I ask her.

“Yes,” she rasps.

Placing my hat to the side, I pull her close. She tucks her nose into my neck and cries. My heart twists and rages in my body. I’ve never seen someone so terrible to another human being. Working in law enforcement, I’ve seen all kinds of things. But I’ve never seen that.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper into her lavender scented hair.

Her shoulders finally stop shaking, and she links her arms around my neck. I tighten my arms around her waist and try not to think about how good this feels. It’s almost a relief to feel someone holding me.

“It’s not true, you know,” I mutter into her hair.

“I know,” she rasps. “I know they were saying things to egg me on, but I miss her so much, and it hurt to hear.”

“I know you do. I miss my dad too,” I murmur.

“How long has he been gone?” she asks.

“A little more than a year.”

Her arms tighten slightly as if to say she’s sorry.

“He was a good man. I might be thirty-one now, but he was my example in life. He was who I want to be one day.”

“I have a feeling you already are,” she says.

I huff and drag my nose lightly over her shoulder. “I don’t know about that. I’m not sure he would be very happy with me right now.”

“I don’t know that my Grams would be very happy with me, either.”

“But you found me,” I tell her.

She huffs, and I feel a slight rush of air as if she’s breathing me in. “I couldn’t let her last words be in vain. Plus, they wouldn’t let me walk away from it either.”

“You make it sound like they forced you,” I mutter.

“No, no one forced me, but it doesn’t matter now,” she says.

“Do people say things like that to you on a normal basis?” I ask her.

She shrugs. “Maybe, but no one has ever done that for me before, other than Grams,” she whispers.

I pull back, and she sits up to look me in the eye. “Stand up for you?”

“I have a bad habit of making it worse. I play into what they think of me. But since Grams died, I don’t have the energy.”

“You deserve to have someone protect you, Eliana.”

She looks away, and a tear slips from the corner of her eye. I thumb it away and slip the digit between my lips, tasting her sadness. Her gaze follows the movement, and my heart picks up its pace.

“Do I? When I make it worse? I would think I deserve it then,” she says.

“Well, maybe you should stop doing that. Stop hiding behind what people assume about you because it’s all wrong, and, no, you don’t deserve it.”

The corner of her mouth tips up as her thumb rubs a circle over my neck, brushing my beard, and my heart picks up.

“Well, even if I wanted to, I think that ship has sailed because Wyatt thinks we’re a thing, and those women do too. The town thinks you’re a murderer; only I’ll be the witch that helped you.”

Dammit, she’s right. “Shit, I’m sorry, I—”

She shakes her head rapidly. “I knew what I was doing. Sticks and stones, and all that. You and I have something much larger than ourselves to focus on right now instead of those sad women.”

“It doesn’t make it right,” I mutter.

She puffs out a breath and rubs her chest. “No, it doesn’t, but that wasn’t the first time, and I’m sure it won’t be the last.”

“It sure as hell will be the last,” I tell her sternly.

An eyebrow ticks up. “And how is that?”

“I’m here, that’s how,” I tell her, resolute. I’ll be her bodyguard if I have to.

A small smile grows on her face, but it doesn’t reach her eyes as she drags a hand through my hair. “They were right about you,” she whispers.

“Right about what?” I ask her.

“They said you would protect me. I thought it was from the man I in my dream. But I think it’s from … everything,” she says.

“No one deserves to be treated like that, Eliana, no one. So yes, I will protect you. But do me a favor?”

She hums, and her fingers keep skimming through my hair, and it’s taking everything in me not to crash my mouth to hers.

It’s been a long time since I’ve felt the need to.

“Stop giving them fuel to the fire they are burning for you because I’m afraid they’re going to find a way to put you on a stake in the middle of it. ”

“Witch trials have never been a thing in Black Lake,” she says.

“No, so don’t give any of them a reason for that to change.”

She sighs. “Yeah, I know. You’re right. It’s how I keep myself separated from them. It’s how I justify it. If they attack me for the person I’ve convinced them I am, then I can separate myself because I know it’s not me.”

“I can understand that.”

“Is that why you’re always so grumpy?” she asks.

I lift a shoulder. “I’ve struggled for so long after Dad died. I don’t know how to be any other way, and I never found my way out of it.”

“There are no rules for grieving, Killian.”

“If there were I probably would have broken them,” I tell her.

She smiles. “Same here,” she says like it’s a secret.

I grin, and this time her smile reaches her eyes, and every atom in my body buzzes with hunger. I’m dying to kiss her. But I can’t because I’m not sure she’s ready, but most of all I’m not sure I’m ready to feel something for someone knowing the risks.

Her lips part, and I think she’s going to cross that line with me, and my mouth moves before I can tell myself to shut up and let her.

“Dad had been sick for a while. I was trying to balance taking care of him and doing my job. It didn’t work, if you were wondering.

” I glance at her, and she cocks her head, listening.

“I messed up on a case before I left. It was bad. I accused the wrong man, Jacob Abernathy. I thought all the evidence pointed to him. It’s funny now that I’m thinking about it; the irony is not lost on me.

But the town hated me. They were all convinced the guy didn’t do it. I thought they we’re wrong.”

“If only they afforded you that same amount of conviction,” Eliana mumbles, fiddling with my shirt.

“I left shortly after that, and then I made it worse when I fired our ranch hands and staff. They really got mad at me because people lost their jobs, and you know there aren’t many in this town.”

“Why did you do it?” she asks.

I puff out a breath and rub my chin. “I don’t know, maybe the impending grief?

I wanted to be alone. I felt alone already.

My dad wasn’t even dead then. Maybe it was a little self- punishment.

I messed up the case, and I knew I would have to take over the ranch when Dad died.

Doing it alone made my assumptions all true. ”

Her hand presses against my heart. “You really do understand what it’s like.”

I shrug. “Maybe not the way you do, but close.”

We sit there for a moment. I want to gather her into my chest and keep her there. Part of me feels like she can heal me from that alone. Not that she needs to do any of that, but being around her is starting to feel that way. It’s starting to … wake me up.

“Have you thought about what they asked us?” she asks quietly.

“The Spirits?”

Eliana nods, tracing circles around each button on my shirt.

“I don’t know who it could be. I don’t have friends, just Wyatt,” I mumble.

“Hmm, that’s weird…”

“Maybe the bigger question is why?”

Eliana stares at me as if she see’s something I don’t in the mirror. Then she slips off my lap and saunters into the kitchen. “Do you want some tea? I’m going to make some tea,” she says, blinking rapidly to keep the tears from falling.

My mind starts whirring again. “Yeah,” I grunt. What are the pieces that make up the why? Based on the evidence I have, is the why in there?

The opening from the living room into the kitchen is wide enough I can see her walking back and forth between cabinets for cups and tea. My eyes trail up from her bare feet to her legs, to the hem of her dress, over the idea of her torturous hips to where her waist nips in.

What if this isn’t simply about me? If the Spirits are right, if Eliana and I have to become a team to defeat a serial killing foe, then it’s not too far out of bounds to assume that Eliana also has something to do with this on a deeper level.

My mind goes back to what my father said, and I can’t help but wonder if his words have to do with what’s happening now.

A servant of Satan is lurking in the shadows, and it has come to take everything you know and love. It will steal it in the night, consuming it like a sweet, always hungry for more. It will come for you! It comes for us all, hunting its prey, stalking in the night.

Beware!

Beware!

Beware!

Maybe I should tell her about what he said. The Spirits might understand it more than I do. Or maybe I need to accept that there are things in this world I may never have a grasp on and trying to figure them out is a dead end and a waste of precious time.

“Here,” Eliana says, handing me a cup of tea.

“Thanks.”

She sits down next to me on the couch, tucking her legs under her.

“Don’t you need to get back to the front?”

She shrugs and takes a small sip. “I don’t think anyone else will be coming in today.”

“I’m sorry, Eliana,” I mutter.

“Me too. More than anything else, I know it would disappoint my Grams, and it’s not fair to her memory.” She looks out the window above the couch, and another tear escapes her eyes.

Grief is full of questions, and heartache, and answers to questions you never wanted to ask in the first place.

A space remains empty in your chest, the loss.

It’s like someone went in, cut out a piece of your heart and then closed you back up.

Only the space, the loss, gets bigger. It’s widening for Eliana.

I know what that’s like, and it’s probably not attainable, but I want to stop the crack from growing.