Page 85 of A Curse On Black Lake (Black Lake Gothic Cowboys #1)

Chapter sixty-four

Killian

“Did you hear that?” I ask Wyatt.

He looks around and nods.

My truck is here, but Eliana is not.

Where is she?

I run into the house, using the hidden key, and grab my pistol.

“Killian!” Wyatt yells. “I heard another scream. It sounds like it’s coming from the lakeside,” he says from outside.

I hurry back outside with a pistol and an extra clip in my back pocket. Wyatt looks between the gun and my eyes.

“Cousin, I need you to trust me.”

He dips his chin, and we take off for the lake.

I just hope I’m not too late. I hope and pray that wasn’t a last scream, a last-ditch effort to save herself.

And I can’t consider the possibility of anything else.

I couldn’t bear the weight of more death on my soul.

I couldn’t do anything to help that nameless woman.

But I’ll be damned if I don’t save Eliana from the same fate.

My heart pounds as our boots hit the ground, and Wyatt peels off to the side as I head straight for the edge of the water.

“Killian,” Wyatt yells on my right.

When I come up on the water, the air is stolen from my lungs as her hand falls to the ground — unmoving.

His hands are still wrapped around her throat, and I don’t stop to think or devise a plan, running to them.

We’re on borrowed time.

“Get off of her! Get off of her now!” I scream with my gun pointed at his head.

Eddy’s eyes widen, but he doesn’t release her.

“Get away from her now,” I grit.

He puts his hands up, smiling triumphantly. I glance at Eliana, begging her to still be alive, but I know in my gut. I know she breathed her last.

“Put your hands up!” Wyatt commands.

Eddy steps back away from Eliana. Wyatt aims his gun at him, and I start CPR.

Pressing on her chest, I beg that heart to keep beating. I need it to keep beating. It has to keep beating.

“Don’t take another step. Get on the ground and put your hands behind your head,” Wyatt commands.

I open her mouth and breathe in. Starting chest compressions again. It feels like it goes on forever.

“Please, baby, please, wake up. I love you, please don’t leave me, please,” I beg, my voice cracking as I continue.

“Put the gun down! Put the gun down now!” Wyatt yells.

But I don’t stop.

Then Eddy yells, and gunshots echo off the water.

I keep up chest compressions on Eliana and pause to breathe into her again.

“Come on!” I scream, going back to compressions.

“Wake up!” I yell as my hands force her heart to beat.

Then she coughs, inhaling sharply.

A hoarse sob bursts from my mouth, and I watch her chest rise up and down with life as her wide eyes take in everything around her.

“Thank God,” I mumble, tucking my nose in her hair.

“You’re here,” she rasps.

“I told you I would be, baby. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I’m so late.”

“Did it work?” she asks.

She blinks at me, and I lean back.

“What?” I ask her, confused.

I look at the lake, where Eddy’s body is floating in the crystal clear water. Blood flows from the multiple bullet wounds in his body, coloring the water with the red of his blood.

The lake changed color.

“Did it, is that … does that mean?” Eliana stutters, and she bursts into tears.

Unable to process what I think she means, I keep looking between her and the water, putting the pieces together.

The curse.

“Wait, are you saying someone had to die to lift the curse?” I ask her.

“I did,” she whispers.

“Eliana, why didn’t you tell me?” I ask her, angry, yet have no right to be.

“I knew you wouldn’t like it, and …”

“That wasn’t your choice to make,” I tell her sternly.

“The hell it wasn’t,” she snaps.

“We could have found another way.”

“It was the only way, Killian. It had to be someone who loves a Radcliffe. I would do it again if it meant saving you, and I know you would have done it for me because you love me,” she rasps and takes another deep breath.

I stare down at her in shock, and she smiles sadly, rubbing her hand over my beard.

“You love me?” I ask her.

“I have for a while…” she says.

“Why didn’t you say it?” I need to know why. I need to understand why she was okay with my heart being ripped out every second of the day she didn’t tell me, despite the fact I could see it.

“I knew it would make it harder for you to move on, and I had no interest in prolonging your suffering.”

I wiggle my nose trying to ignore the burn, but I can’t. I pin my lips together as the tears fall silently on their own, and lean my forehead against hers. “What makes you think I wouldn’t suffer if I lost you?” I rasp.

“You know why,” she whispers.

“If you died, I wouldn’t have had much to live for anymore. You don’t get it, do you? You’re my anchor. You showed me how to live again despite your own grief. If I lost you, I would have died of a broken heart.”

“I never wanted to break your heart,” she says.

“Say it again,” I tell her.

“I love you,” she says and wipes a tear from my cheek.

“Kiss me,” she commands.

I slam my mouth against hers, so relieved that she’s alive it rights my jagged soul.

She pulls away, taking deep breaths.

“Sorry,” I mutter.

She shakes her head and wraps her arms around my neck. “If anyone takes my breath away, I want it to be you,” she says.

“Can you stand?” I ask her.

She nods into my neck.

We get to our feet and look at Eddy floating in the water.

“Can you help me get him out?” Wyatt asks.

I snap my head to the left. I forgot he was here.

Eliana pales. Dipping my finger under her chin, I look down at her. “Be right back.”

She takes a few steps from the water, glancing between me and the body in the lake.

We wade in and lift Edward out of the clear water, laying him in the dirt.

Wyatt glares at his body.

“It was a good shot, Wyatt.”

He doesn’t look up, still staring at the clear lake.

“If it wasn’t you, it would have been me,” I tell him.

“Yeah, he had a gun,” he rasps. This isn’t Wyatt’s first time, but I think this case has him rattled to the core.

It’s shaken the town for years.

“I really thought it could be you,” he says.

“That’s exactly what he wanted,” I mumble, going back to Eliana. She stands there with her arms hugging her midsection. Exhaustion covers her face, and I hate that we had to go through any of this. But it’s over now, so maybe we can move on. I come up to her and dip down, sweeping her into my arms.

“We’re going to have to question both of you,” Wyatt says.

Eliana stares at him and doesn’t say a word.

“I’m taking my girl home,” I tell him.

“We still don’t have proof, Killian,” Wyatt says.

“He told me everything, and he tried to kill me. I feel like it’s pretty open- and -shut, Wyatt,” Eliana says, and coughs a couple of times.

“That may be, but that’s not how this works. People want answers. I have to put a face to the crimes,” Wyatt says.

“Fine, but give us a bit,” I grunt.

He shifts his hat on his head. “I can do that. I have some guys coming out to start crime scene documenting.”

Starting up the hill from the lake, I carry Eliana all the way home.

“Are you sure you don’t want to go to the hospital?” I ask her.

She levels me with a knee shaking stare.

“Yes, ma’am,” I mumble and continue towards the house.

“I know, maybe you’re right,” she whispers.

“What?”

“The Spirits didn’t leave. They weren’t there when you … when you brought me back.”

“Maybe they wanted to give you a minute,” I mumble, kissing her temple.

She nods against my shoulder.

When we get to the house, I take her upstairs to our room, and set her on the bed.

“Let’s get you cleaned up.” Kneeling at her feet, I pull her boots off one by one, and reach for her belt, sliding it through the loops and drop it to the floor.

“Talk to me,” I say.

She stands and reaches for her shirt, pulling it over her head, and unbuttons her jeans, pushing them over her curvy hips.

“I’ll give you a minute,” I tell her and step back.

“No,” she says, almost panicked, grabbing my wrist to wrap around her ribs. She hugs my waist, then she shatters.

A sob rips through her, and she clings to me like I’m about to be taken from her again.

“I’ve got you, darlin’,” I whisper, rubbing her back.

“Come on,” I murmur, tugging her to the bathroom.

She flips on the water, letting it get hot while she finishes undressing.

Her hands come to my shirt, and she flips the buttons and stands on her toes, pushing it over my shoulders.

I haven’t showered in a couple days. I’m sure I smell terrible.

She reaches for my belt buckle and glances up at me with tear-stained eyes.

I dip my chin, even though she never needs permission from me. She unhooks it and flips the button of my jeans. I push them down, and she steps into the hot shower.

“It’s going to be a tight fit,” I tell her.

“I don’t care,” she says.

I get into the tub and hold my hand out to her.

She steps in and goes back to laying her head on my chest.

I hold her while the water rains over us.

“I love you, Eliana. I’m sorry it took me so long,” I say, rubbing her back.

She leans back, gazing up at me, and my chest expands. I am forever taken with this woman.

There are so many things I want to say, but I don’t know where to start. I’m not even sure I understand what happened between Eliana and Eddy.

“You can ask me,” she mumbles and leans her head back under the spray.

I slip my fingers into her hair and massage her head.

“We don’t need to do this now,” I tell her, reaching for my shampoo.

“Are you mad at me?” she asks.

My hands pause in the suds on her head. “Why would I be mad at you?”

“Because I didn’t tell you,” she whispers.

“I told you I wasn’t happy about it, but I’m sure you had your reasons.”

“Did … did he hurt you? Other than…” I can’t bring myself to state the obvious, even though I spotted a small cut by her neck, and saw blood. I’d kill him again if I could. I finish rinsing her hair and reach for my bar of soap, rubbing it between my hands to lather it over her body.

“You don’t have to do that,” she mumbles, watching me draw my hands over her shoulders and arms.

“Let me take care of you,” I tell her.

“Yes,” she says.

I freeze.

“You probably noticed the cuts on my neck,” she mutters.

“I did,” I tell her, through a breath.

“He didn’t do what you’re probably thinking, though,” she whispers.

“I love you regardless,” I tell her.

“I know, but he didn’t. I would tell you,” she says. “I know it had to happen. I had to die. But what he said…” she trails off and shivers.

“It’s a lot to work through,” I say and drop to get her legs and feet.

“He killed those women because he wanted me,” she says, her voice breaking on the last words.

I look up with her foot still in my hand, and she loses balance, catching herself on my shoulder.

“Why couldn’t he just kill me? All of those women would have lived. It’s my fault they’re dead,” she says, crying.

I drop her foot and stand to my full height, pulling her into me again. “Don’t you dare carry that Eliana, that’s not your burden to bear. He chose to kill those women.”

“He said it was because of the curse. He also said he was a Rochester — your cousin,” she says.

I’m shocked for a moment, and push it to the side. “He was no family of mine, blood or not.”

“I think it’s how he justified everything in his mind. He thought I belonged to him.”

“Did he know someone had to die to lift the curse?” I ask her.

“I’m not sure. I didn’t tell him. It had to be a coincidence. He made it up in his mind, and it happened to be the truth. But he said he read about the curse in the journals, so maybe he assumed,” she says.

“Well, I—”

A fist bangs on the front door, echoing through the house.

Eliana looks up at me with panic in her eyes. “They aren’t going to take you again, right?”

I kiss her nose. “I don’t know,” I mutter, and we trade places so I can finish washing up.

She steps out and dries herself off before disappearing into her room. I dress quickly and wait for Eliana at the top of the stairs.

She comes out of her room in another pair of jeans, and one of my t-shirts.

“Whatever happens, it’s going to be okay. Alright?” I tell her, grabbing her hand.

She nods while nibbling on her lower lip.

I drag my fingers under the edge of the collar of my shirt on her. “I like you in my clothes.”

She gives me a look and shakes her head as a blush spreads across her tired face.

“I love you, little witch. Nothing is going to change that.”

“I love you too,” she says, and we go down the stairs hand in hand.