Sapphire Nights (Crystal Magic Book 1)(102)
Sam replayed Walker’s words in her head as she showered. She longed for family. She wanted to believe she was the one who could fill the empty place in his heart, make a family with him, build the life they both craved. There hadn’t been time enough to grasp what she was feeling, but it was much stronger than sex. She could easily love a man as thoughtful and caring as Walker. But was she twisting his promise to suit her needs?
Exhausted, rattled, and thrilled that Walker had come for her, Sam dreamed an impossible future while scrubbing off a mountain’s worth of dust. How could they make a life here, where her only family lived, after what they’d just experienced?
She still couldn’t process what had happened. Had Daisy’s lamassu actually stopped an avalanche? Had the positive energy she’d felt in her staff been real or just her imagination?
Was there a study she could conduct to test physical energy around what everyone called a “spiritual” vortex? What if ghosts were part of that spirit energy?
That’s how tired her mind was.
When her bathroom door opened and a filthy, disheveled Walker entered, she forgot thinking entirely. He’d been magnificent out there today, with his shirt stripped off, his shoulders and biceps bulging and covered in sweat while he shoveled and hauled with the rescue crews. But inside that muscled body existed an inquiring mind and a huge heart, a heart he was currently protecting from harm after a merciless bruising.
She didn’t know if she could heal him, but she welcomed him into the shower with all she had to offer. Until Walker had come along, she’d felt like a lost child. Despite his ridiculous need to protect, he made her realize she was a grown woman capable of accomplishing anything she set her mind on. Her mind wasn’t on anything except him right now.
They made passionate, bone-jarring love in the shower, then tumbled between the sheets in sheer exhaustion.
“Did Mr. Gump survive?” Sam asked in a sleepy whisper.
Walker tugged her into his arms. “Not long enough. I couldn’t wish that level of agony on anyone. What the rocks didn’t crush, the rattlers poisoned. We didn’t even try to make sense of his curses, although he seemed to be blaming Xavier and half the world for not doing as told. He wouldn’t admit wrong, even at the end.”
“Proof he was a self-serving ass, but not that he killed your father,” she said, understanding. “I’m sorry. Do you have enough information to lay the case to rest?”
He hugged her closer. “Cass took Xavier in, promising to work her voodoo and see that he stays clean. We’re hoping he’ll talk. And we’re thinking Gump has been threatening Francois about the gun. We’re hoping he will speak up. We’ll see. But other than details, I have a good idea what happened and why. It’s enough.”
She nodded against his broad shoulder. She could already hear the distance in his voice. He was thinking of the time ahead, when he returned to his real world. This was the point where she had to make herself vulnerable, strip away the immature Sam, and become the woman he needed.
She kissed his shoulder and tilted her head to kiss his bristly jaw. “I’m not ready to give you up,” she murmured. “I don’t think what we have is just physical.”
He hugged her closer. “That’s what I’m afraid of. You make me want to live again—which terrifies me. I should let you walk away, find a better man, but I want to find a way to keep you. I want to see what we can build together. If that’s selfish, I won’t apologize.”
“It’s not selfish to follow our dreams, our instincts.” She snuggled against him, reassured that she wasn’t the only one dreaming here. “As long as we’re honest with each other, we can do this one day at a time.”
“Come with me to LA then. You won’t have to be a waitress. I can take care of you while you decide what you want to do next.”
She punched his biceps instead of kissing it. “I can’t believe you just said that.”
Chapter 33
Striding into Hillvale the next morning, Walker rubbed his bruised arm and studied the gardens of colorful flowers decorating the boardwalk and every vacant alley. Heavily blooming pink roses had seemingly sprung up overnight, spilling over what had been a broken, faded fence by the town hall. In addition to the playful barrels on the boardwalk, baskets displayed an array of blossoms dangling from the sagging overhangs of several stores.
Sam had turned the tired town from faded gray to a bouquet of vibrant color and fragrance—just as she was bringing him back to life. If he believed in magic, he would call her enchanted.
The men waiting inside the town hall were not in the least magical.
Walker had persuaded the sheriff that Xavier and Francois were more likely to talk if they weren’t intimidated by badges and uniforms. Monty was there as witness. He’d brought in more chairs from the lodge, and the two older men had aligned themselves in front of the mayor’s desk. Walker pulled the last chair to one side so he could watch faces.
Xavier no longer wore a green jacket. Someone had provided him with a navy blazer that he wore over an open-necked white shirt. Clean-shaven, back straight, with his graying hair trimmed, he almost looked like a lawyer again.
Francois had removed the epaulets from his livery, but his brass buttons still shone with polish. His face was lined and yellowed by years of smoking, and he hadn’t done more with his thinning gray hair than tug it into a rubber band at his nape. His brown-stained fingers shook as he reached for a cigarette that wasn’t there.