The Healer (21 page)

“I’m ready,” she said.

“Let me wash my hands, and then I’ll go get the truck.”

Luce couldn’t quit watching him. Even after he’d stopped by the fireplace and made peace with Hobo, she kept staring off into space, remembering how the cougar had licked Jonah’s fingers and rolled at his feet.

It was at times like these that she couldn’t help but wonder exactly what kind of man this was to whom she had given her heart.

He was more than just mortal. He was more than just a man. And yet he walked among them with the same hopes and dreams, yearning for love and a place to call home.

He had her love. It remained to be seen where home might be, but she knew that wherever Jonah Gray Wolf went, she would follow.

Jonah drove up to the diner, but instead of just letting her out as usual, he parked, then killed the engine.

“Are you coming in?” she asked, surprised that he wasn’t planning to drive on.

“I want to talk to Harold a minute,” he said.

Luce sighed. “You don’t have to—”

“Yes, I do,” he said, and reached for her hand.

“Come on. It won’t take long, and I promise not to embarrass you.”

Luce rolled her eyes, then got out and walked ahead of him into the diner with an extra twist to her step.

Jonah grinned as he watched her go, thinking that if Lucia was a bird, she would be like one of Bridie’s little brown hens, the ones that ruffled up their feathers when he reached for their eggs. At the moment, Lucia’s feathers were definitely ruffled. She just didn’t understand the depths to which Bourdain would go. After what had happened to his father and the countless men Bourdain had sent after him over the past ten years, he knew Bourdain and his thugs would do anything for money.

Lucia had already disappeared into the back room when Jonah went in.

“Hey,” Harold said, when he saw Jonah. “Come to eat some good cooking for a change, have you?”

Luce came out with her apron on and fire in her eyes.

“I heard that!” she said, and stuffed an order pad in her apron pocket.

Harold grinned, then winked.

Luce made a face, then began filling salt and pepper shakers, and making sure that sugar packets and creamers were on every table.

“I need to talk to you,” Jonah said to Harold.

The older man waved him over. “Sure. Have a seat.” He poured Jonah a cup of coffee, then sat down beside him at the counter. “What’s up?” he asked.

Jonah curled his fingers around the cup, then turned to face Harold.

“Lucia is still in danger.”

Harold jerked. “What? Did Ahern escape? I was told that they took him out of town this morning.”

“Really? I hadn’t heard,” Jonah said, then added,

“Good, that means the media will go with him.”

“Oh, I think they’re already gone. Junie Sanders had been renting out her upstairs to a couple of them. I was talking to her last night, and she said they pulled out just after the evening news. You’d think they would have waited for daylight to drive.”

“News waits for no man,” Jonah muttered.

Harold nodded. “Yeah. Guess you’re right about that. Now what’s the deal with Lucia being in danger?”

“It has to do with me,” Jonah said, ashamed to admit it.

Harold frowned. “I don’t understand.”

Jonah took a small sip of the coffee, then started to explain.

“There is a man who’s been after me for many years. Ten years ago, he killed my father, trying to get to me.”

“Lordy be,” Harold muttered, then clapped Jonah gently on the back. “I’m real sorry for your loss, but I don’t see how this puts Luce in trouble.”

Jonah’s gaze locked on Harold’s eyes. “You know what I can do.”

Harold swallowed, then nodded. “I’ve heard. It’s hard to imagine, but I know the people who witnessed it. They aren’t crazy, and they don’t lie.”

Jonah nodded. “Then, if you believe them, can you imagine why someone would want to control me? To have complete power over me and my abilities?”

“Oh. Yes. I see what you mean.”

“So in loving Lucia, I’ve put her in danger.”

“So, you telling me that you’re leaving? I guess I can understand it, but I sure will hate to lose Luce.”

“No. I won’t drag Lucia into that kind of life, and I can’t leave her behind. This is it. I’m not running anymore. We may not stay here permanently, but I’m not running from anyone again. They’ll come for me again. In fact, I’m sure someone is already here in Little Top waiting for the opportune moment.”

“Then you need to tell Sheriff Mize. I don’t know whether you know it or not, but he’s your new best friend.”

Jonah almost smiled. “I could tell him, but what would I say? I don’t know what the next hunter is going to look like. I don’t know how or when it’s going to happen, but when he makes his move, he’ll go for Lucia, not me.”

“Then I’m your man. As long as she’s under this roof, she’ll be safe. That I can promise you.”

“No, you can’t promise that. No one can. But look out for her just the same, will you?”

“Count on it,” Harold said.

“I’m going to work now,” Jonah said. “I’ll be back later.”

He got up and started toward the door, then turned around, looking for Lucia.

“Lucia…”

She came out of the kitchen, carrying a small brown bag.

“Two sausage biscuits—with grape jelly,” she added, and handed him a cup of coffee to go.

Jonah arched an eyebrow. “My favorite! Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Luce said, then stood on her tiptoes long enough to give him a quick kiss goodbye.

“Does this mean you’re not mad at me anymore?” he asked.

“Probably,” she said.

Jonah grinned. “See you this afternoon.”

“Yes…see you,” she said.

Luce stood at the window, watching him eat the biscuits as he drove toward Middleton’s Feed Store.

Harold eyed her nervously.

She put her hands on her hips and glared. “I’m fine. Go make your gravy.”

He escaped to the kitchen as Luce turned over the Closed sign on the door to Open.

With that, their morning began.

As Jonah worked his way around the feed lot, mending the fence, the chill in the air was even more prevalent than it had been earlier.

A small fox had come up to the barn, only to pause near where Jonah was working. His little black nose was twitching, as were the whiskers over his eyebrows.

Jonah frowned. “No chickens here for you, Brother Fox…and no mice, either. Try the next farm, please.”

The fox stood for just a moment, then turned and slipped back into the forest the same way he’d come out.

Jonah nodded with satisfaction. Bridie’s little brown hens and Brother Mouse were safe for one more day, at least.

A lone snowflake drifted past his nose as he tied off the last bit of broken wire; he tried not to let it concern him. It would be just like one of Bourdain’s hired goons to take advantage of bad weather to make his play.

He dropped the wire cutters into the toolbox, then loaded up the scattered fencing equipment. He was in the truck and on his way back to the shed to unload when he heard a high-pitched scream, then saw Bridie come running out of the house with her dress on fire.

There was no time for shock to set in.

No time for remorse.

He had to get to her before her heart stopped beating.

The tires spun on the damp ground as he stomped the accelerator; then they finally caught traction, sending him toward the house at breakneck speed.

By the time he got there, Bridie was on the ground. Her legs were jerking as if she were having a seizure, and her tiny hands were beating at the air, as if trying to put out the flames. Even before he got out of the truck, he was sick to his stomach, thinking of the torture she was enduring.

Seconds later he was at her side, beating out the flames with his hands. After they were out, she lay moaning and shaking, begging to God to let her die.

“Not today, sweetheart,” he said softly, then clenched his own hands, healing the blisters that had already started to form. Moments later, he laid his palms flat on Bridie.

Her eyes were rolling back in her head, and there was a fleck of bloody foam at the edge of her mouth.

“Bridie! Bridie! Look at me, honey! Look at me!”

Jonah’s voice drew her from the edge of insanity to the intensity on his face. Then they locked gazes, and somehow the pain began to fade, like a bad memory in the middle of the night.

Jonah grasped her face with both hands as he willed her to a place where this horror did not exist. When she had ease, he began scanning her body for the extent of the damage. She had third-degree burns on her left leg and up the left side of her body to that same arm, and then up the left side of her neck.

She was going into shock. There wasn’t a second to waste.

He laid his hands on her chest.

The silence on the farm was telling. Somehow the animals knew that their mistress was in terrible distress.

Jonah inhaled, letting his mind slide past the scent of burning cloth and flesh, and then he closed his eyes. Moments later the air thickened, charging with an energy not unlike the power of a lightning bolt being born within a storm.

Then the earth began to tremble.

One of the pumpkins on Bridie’s front porch teetered, then rolled off the hay bale onto the ground, bursting open and scattering seeds as it fell.

Brother Mouse buried his little nose beneath his tail, while every living thing on Bridie’s farm seemed to hold its breath.

Then the healing came, spilling from Jonah into Bridie in a flow of brilliance that pulsed with a rhythm matching that of Jonah’s heart.

Nerve endings reattached. Blood veins that had exploded and fried became whole again, while layer after layer of burned flesh sealed over, healing completely, until Bridie Tuesday’s skin was smooth and whole. The hair that had singed on her head became soft. The eyelashes that had been melted grew anew.

Bridie was still on the ground when the next flakes of snow began to fall, feeling as if she’d been born again under Jonah Gray Wolf’s hands.

Jonah knew when it was over, because he felt a surge building in her lungs. She opened her eyes at the same time that she took a deep breath. The scream hanging at the back of her throat never came out, as she found herself looking into Jonah’s face.

“Am I dead?”

He picked her up in his arms. “No, dear, but you need to change clothes.”

Her lower lip suddenly trembled, and her eyes filled with tears. “I caught my sleeve on fire.”

“I know,” Jonah said softly, as he carried her into the house, then down the hall to her room.

When he stood her up on her feet, she clasped her hands to her bosom to hold her sagging dress in place. She looked at Jonah once, then turned to stare at herself in the dresser mirror.

“I was on fire,” she repeated, and kept staring at her blackened clothing and pale skin in disbelief.

She could see Jonah in the mirror as he stood behind her. His shirtsleeves were scorched, and one cuff was blackened. But his hands were as smooth as her skin.

“What did you do?” she asked.

“I put out the fire.”

She looked down at her arms, then her hands, then her legs.

“I felt the fire. I smelled my own flesh a-burning, and yet there’s not a blister on me.”

“I told you…I put out the fire,” he said softly. “Do you need help cleaning up?”

Bridie sat down on the side of the bed with a thump.

“Well, I should say I do,” she said. “I’m too old to be settin’ myself on fire.” Then she sighed. “But I never thought I’d live to see something like this. Maybe you could hand me that blue-denim dress hanging on the inside of my closet door before you go?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Jonah said. He handed her the dress. “Do you need anything else?”

“No.”

Jonah started to leave, when Bridie suddenly called out, “Jonah!”

He turned. “Yes?”

“God has blessed you highly.”

“Yes, ma’am. That He has.”

“I’m proud to know you,” she added.

A slow smile spread across his face. “Well. Thank you…and I’m proud to know you, too.”

Bridie made a face. “Land sakes…I haven’t done a single thing in my whole lifetime that would hold a candle to what you can do.”

Jonah shook his head. “Oh, but that’s not true. You make the best custard pies I’ve ever eaten.”

Bridie managed a grin. “Well, there
is
that.”

“You get changed. I’m going to clean up the kitchen,” Jonah said.

Bridie’s lip trembled. “I guess I made a big mess of the noon meal.”

“Never mind,” Jonah said. “After what just happened, I think you’re due some special attention. How about we go down into Little Top and let Harold feed us today?”