Brian grabbed it greedily. “Easy now. Just sips, yeah?” He had never tasted anything as heavenly. He looked at the man, certain that he was one of the ones who had saved him and what was left of his team. A brief glance to the right showed one of his men sitting up, giving him a thumbs-up. The other was still prone, but he appeared to be awake and talking to someone.
Brian turned his attention back to the man beside him. His jet black hair, too long for standard military. Black cargo pants, skin tight black T, Celtic tat with the scales of justice on a substantial bicep. But it was his eyes that really drew his focus. There were a unique shade of blue, at once fiery and cold.
He looked around again. The guy talking to his buddy on the other side of the room had the same outfit, the same build. So did the one talking on a SAT phone, his fingers flying over the keys of a jet black notebook computer. And the two standing guard at the door, looking more like archangels than men.
“My brothers,” the man said quietly, catching his gaze. “Your extraction team.”
“Who are you?” Brian’s voice was rough, unused for so long and permanently damaged by the screams he hadn’t always been able to contain.
“Shane Callaghan,” the man answered. Callaghan. Brian knew that name. It was the name of a family from Pine Ridge.
From home
.
“How’d you find us?”
“Your sister,” Shane said, smiling, and Brian knew in that moment from the look in the guy’s eyes that he was more than a mere acquaintance.
“Lacie...” It could have been Corinne, but Brian knew with certainty it had been Lacie that found him. Moisture pooled in his eyes. He should have known she would never give up on him.
Shane nodded, confirming his thoughts. “She refused to give up, said she knew you were out there, waiting for someone to come get you.” He grinned. “Sorry we’re a little late.”
“No problem,” Brian answered roughly. He had all but given up hope of ever being rescued alive. “Better late than never, right?”
“Right.”
“So.”
“So,” Shane echoed.
“My sister.”
“Yeah.”
“Do I need to shoot you, man? ‘Cause I have to tell you, I don’t want to.”
Shane chuckled. “Not unless you don’t want to be invited to the wedding.”
“L
acie, it’s good to see you again.” The multi-hued blonde offered a warm smile as she wiped down the bar and pulled out two bottles. It was only then that Lacie realized her feet had carried her into Jake’s Irish Pub. Shane had been gone more than a week. Lacie supposed her subconscious led her here, needing to be close to him.
Lacie nodded, accepting the light beer. Her eyes were drawn once again to the familiar green eyes of the dragon tattoo that seemed to stare at her over Taryn’s shoulder. “You, too, Taryn. Missing Jake?”
“Guilty as charged,” Taryn answered. Lacie looked closer. Taryn’s violet eyes captured and fractured the lights hypnotically.
“Are those contacts?” she asked before she could stop herself.
“Nope,” Taryn grinned. “They’re the real deal.” She leaned in close so Lacie could get a better look. “They drive Jake wild,” she winked.
Lacie couldn’t help herself. She laughed, the first time since Shane kissed her goodbye.
They sat in companionable silence for a few minutes, each on a different side of the bar. Taryn got up a few times to tend to a customer, but other than them there were only a few guys watching the game being rebroadcast and shooting pool. Anyone stupid enough to eye Lacie with interest received a lethal warning look from Taryn. Lacie realized she was every bit as tough as the men.
“So,” Taryn said finally. “You and me, we’ve got something in common.”
Lacie bowed her head. She’d thought she was ready to talk about it, but now that the moment was here, she wasn’t so sure. At least until Taryn leaned closer and said quietly, “Thank God I’m not alone anymore.”
Lacie’s head snapped up as Taryn grabbed a set of keys from behind the register. “Hey Dad, you okay if Lacie and I make scarce for a bit?”
An older man on the far side of the bar smiled and stood. Lacie knew immediately she was looking at the patriarch of the Callaghan clan. His hair, now woven liberally with silver, still boasted a fair amount of blue-black. And there was no mistaking the trademark Callaghan eyes, now looking at her with fondness.
“So this is the young lass that has stolen my boy’s heart,” he said, smiling warmly. “I was wondering when I would get to meet you.” He held out his hand and Lacie took it, expecting a handshake. Instead he brought it to his lips in an old-fashioned gesture.
“Well, at least I know where Shane gets his gentlemanly charm,” she said. Jack Callaghan chuckled.
“Aye, you’ll do just fine,” he said, his blue eyes sparkling. He turned to Taryn. “Well, go on then. Be off with you. No need to hurry back.”
Taryn grabbed Lacie by the hand and tugged. “You ever ridden a Harley before?” she asked.
Uncertainty flickered in Lacie’s eyes. “Uh, no.”
“Awesome. You’re going to love it.” Taryn fitted Lacie with a helmet, then showed her how to straddle the bike and hold on. “Hang on tight,” Taryn advised, kick starting the machine with one powerful down stroke. Before Lacie could catch her breath, it was stolen from her completely.
––––––––
“T
hat was ... amazing!” Lacie said half an hour later, reaching absently for a French fry. She and Taryn sat on a rock overhang high above the valley, digging into the bags of take-out they’d picked up at a drive-thru on the way.
“I know, right?” Taryn said, grinning. “It’s such a rush. Jake broke down and got me my own bike for my birthday,” she told Lacie, “but I’m only allowed to ride it when he’s not around. He says I make him nervous, if you can imagine that.” She laughed and rolled her eyes; Lacie felt as though a tiny bit of weight had lifted from her shoulders. Though it was hard to imagine Jake Callaghan being nervous about anything. A few minutes in his presence was enough to convince Lacie that he was a force of nature.
They ate in silence for a little while, enjoying the view. “It never goes away, you know,” Taryn said finally, wiping at some ketchup on the side of her mouth. “But you learn to live with it. You use it to make you stronger, to appreciate everything more because of it.”
Is that why Taryn was so strong? Because she had been through hell and fought her way back?
“What happened to you?” Lacie asked. She hadn’t really expected an answer; it was meant more to deflect the conversation from her own painfully recent experience. But Taryn told her. Everything. Beginning with her life as the privileged daughter of an aspiring US Senator with presidential hopes, through the assassination and murder of her entire family. The six months of torture she’d endured at the hands of an obsessive psychopath – a man who had been like family to her, who had been her protector. Her dramatic escape and subsequent rescue by a saint of a man named Charlie. She ended with her fateful unplanned stop in Pine Ridge and the erasure of her previous identity.
Lacie was speechless. “I’ve never told anyone the whole story before,” Taryn admitted when she was finished. “Jake and the others, they know pieces of it. Even Nicki, who had it worse than I did. Think they know all of it, but they don’t.” She looked at Lacie; silent understanding passed between them. “I think it would kill Jake if he knew everything.”
A long time passed in relative silence, nothing but the soft susurrus of the wind in the full leaves and the occasional squawk of a circling hawk, spotting its next meal down below. Finally, Taryn took a deep breath and spoke again. “Thanks, Lacie. I’m sorry I spewed all over you like that. You don’t know how long I’ve waited to tell someone.”
Suddenly Lacie’s arms were around Taryn, and they just held each other. Taryn was the first to pull away, wiping a tear from her eye. “If you tell anyone I cried, I’ll have to kill you.”
Lacie laughed through her own tears, swearing an oath of silence.
“Maybe someday I can return the favor,” Taryn offered.
“Maybe,” Lacie said, sighing heavily. “I can’t talk about it. Not yet. But this... it helped.”
“I understand,” Taryn said, and Lacie had the feeling that she was one of the few people who really did. “Besides, there’s no rush. We’ll be sisters soon enough, then you’re stuck with me.”
Lacie turned away, gazing back at the beautiful view. “I don’t know about that, Taryn. I’m having trouble accepting what’s happened, making my peace with it. How can I expect any more from Shane?” She drew her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. “For all I know this sudden trip of his is his way to put some distance between us, re-evaluate things. I can’t blame him.”
Taryn gasped. “Lacie, that’s not what you really think, is it?”
Lacie shrugged, afraid that if she voiced it aloud it would make it one step closer to being a reality.
Some things should never be spoken of.
Did that include her fear that Shane was already having a change of heart but was too honorable to come right out and say so? That he was just biding his time until she got herself together enough to move on?
“Shane told you that you were his heart, didn’t he?”
Lacie nodded. “But that was before... everything.”
Taryn shook her head vehemently. “Doesn’t matter. If you believe this is something that will change, something that Shane – or you – can simply walk away from, then you really don’t understand anything about how this
croie
stuff works, girlfriend. That line about ‘for better or worse’? Honey, you have no idea.”
Though Taryn’s words filled her with hope, Lacie still had her doubts. She wanted Taryn to be right, but was too afraid to believe. With everything else that had happened, she couldn’t bear to pin her future on a man who might – with great cause – believe that a serious relationship at this point just wasn’t worth the hassle. If she did, and she was wrong, it would destroy her, more than anything Craig Davidson had ever done. And she already knew it was something she would never completely recover from.
The trip back down the mountain was a lazy one. Lacie discovered she loved riding on the back of a motorcycle. In return for her oath of silence and agreement to do this again sometime, Taryn promised to teach Lacie how to drive one.
When they returned to the Pub later that evening, they were surprised to see Jake and Ian there, talking to Jack. Taryn ran into Jake’s arms; he held her as if he had never held anything so precious.
“Shane’s out looking for you,” Ian told Lacie. “He was headed over to your parents’ house.”
Lacie couldn’t get there fast enough. Her feet covered the fairly short distance quickly, and soon she was sprinting up the steps and bursting through the door. What she saw stopped her dead in her tracks.
It couldn’t be. And yet it was.
“Brian?! Oh my God,
Brian
?!?” Lacie couldn’t take another step forward, afraid that if she did, he would disappear. He turned around, flashing her that familiar grin and she held her breath. He was so much thinner than she remembered, a shell of the big, hulking mass he had once been, but there was no mistaking that smile or his favorite way to greet her.
“Hey, brat,” he said.
Lacie flew into his arms, crying hysterically. He laughed and held her tightly, as if he had never thought he’d do so again. “Missed me, huh?”
It was a long time before she allowed herself to step back, but she continued to hold on to his shirt. Tears coated her face, dripped onto her clothes and his. “Only a little,” she sniffed. “What happened, Bri?
He wiped carefully at her tears. “Our location was compromised. The Bastards took us by surprise. We never knew what hit us. How about you? You okay?”
She nodded, taking a deep breath. “I will be.” And for the first time, she actually believed it.
––––––––
“H
ow did you do it?” Lacie asked later, sitting on the front porch swing with Shane. She was drinking hazelnut coffee – decaf. She wasn’t sure she would ever be able to stomach another cup of tea.
He shrugged. “It was your files that gave us the starting point we needed,” he said. “Ian was able to figure out the rest.”
“How?” She’d felt like she’d been running around in circles for the past few years. Everyone she talked to said there was absolutely nothing that could be done. Yet within the span of a few weeks, Shane and his brothers managed to locate and rescue Brian and what was left of his unit.
He winked. “Family secret. One I can’t share with you yet.”
“But you will, someday?”
“Oh, yes.”
“When?”
“As soon as you say ‘yes’.” Before the words could fully take root in her mind, Shane Callaghan was on his knee before her, holding a small box opened to reveal a stunning diamond. “Lacie McCain,
a croie beloved,
will you marry me?”
Lacie stopped breathing. Both hands flew up to her mouth as she sat frozen, staring at the ring.
“This is where you say yes, brat,” Brian said from the doorway.
Lacie’s mother swatted him, her father cleared his throat, and Corinne giggled.
“Will you, Lacie?” Shane said, looking up at her with so much love in his eyes she thought she might start crying again. “Will you be my wife and fill my soul?”
“Yes,” she whispered, even as the first tears fell. She slid off the swing and into his arms.
It felt just like coming home.
T
hree Months Later
Patrick Callaghan left his mother and father behind in the hallway, proudly taking the hand of his new teacher in one hand and his cousin Riley’s in the other and, like a true Callaghan, escorted both women into the room.
Riley dropped his grip the moment they entered, zeroing in on the life-sized princess dollhouse at the far end of the room. Lacie paused, looking around the room with a practiced eye. It looked the same, but so much had happened since she’d last been here. She was not the same person she had been then. The events of those few weeks had changed her forever.