Spellbound Falls (45 page)

Olivia had to grab the chair again, but suspected she was the only one who’d just felt the earth move. “You… you
sold
Inglenook?”

“Well, we didn’t think we’d find a buyer so soon,” Eileen said, her face flushing with chagrin. “And we planned to tell you as soon as we got back from our trip, so you could start sending out résumés to facilities like this one in California. I’ve found several camps that aren’t too far from where we’ll be living.”

“California?” Olivia whispered, looking at Jessica Pilsner, then back at Eileen. “You’re moving to California?”

Eileen nodded. “We planned to leave in September whether Inglenook sold or not, but the real estate agent said the new owners want to take immediate possession so they can start construction as soon as the ground is ready. So we’re going to have to start calling our guests to tell them we’re closing.” She shrugged. “It’ll be tight in the house we’ve rented, but you and Sophie can stay with us until you find a—”

“Enough,” Olivia snapped, holding up her hand. “One, I have no intention of moving to California with you. And two, I don’t have time to deal with any of this right now. Go upstairs, Eileen.” She pointed at her gaping mother-in-law. “And you stay away from my daughter.”

That said, Olivia turned and walked down the hall, glancing in each door before finding Ezra and Sophie in the last meeting room.

“Mom,” Sophie cried, throwing herself at Olivia. “What’s going on? How come you got so mad at Gram and made me leave?”

Olivia gave Ezra a thankful smile and got down on her knees to be at eye level with Sophie. “First, I want to thank
you for going with Ezra without making a fuss. You’re becoming a very wise young woman, sweetie, to know when to stand and fight and when to quietly slip away. And second, I was angry at Gram because she was going to tell you something you should be hearing from me. So that’s why I shouted at her to stop, and then asked you to come back here with Ezra.”

“What are you supposed to tell me?”

Olivia hugged Sophie to her. “I’m afraid it’s going to have to wait until I get back, baby.” She leaned away to smile at her. “But I promise it’s not something bad or anything to worry about.” She canted her head. “Actually, knowing you, I think you’re going to find some of it way cool. But the third thing I want to tell you is that I have to go away for a few hours. I should be back by midnight at the latest.”

“But it’s storming out and the ground keeps shaking. A tree could fall on the van or something. Can’t you wait until the storm is over?”

“I can’t, sweetie. Mac’s stuck up in the woods and I need to go help him find his way back.” She smoothed down Sophie’s hair. “He’s just on the other side of Whisper Lake, and I know the path really well and there’s still plenty of daylight left.” She bobbed her eyebrows. “And I’m not going to melt from a little rain. But I need you to help Peg. You’re going to have to be
me
while I’m gone, and play hostess to the Oceanuses.” She gave the girl’s shoulders a squeeze. “And you don’t go upstairs to see Gram, and you do whatever Ezra says. Understand? Can you be patient just a little while longer?”

The girl nodded hesitantly, her eyes concerned and very confused.

Olivia hugged her again. “I promise, when I get back you and I are going home and making hot cocoa, and we’ll cuddle up on the couch and have a nice little mother-daughter chat,” she whispered, giving her a ferocious squeeze. “Everything’s going to be okay, Sophie, because you and I are an unbeatable team.”

“You’ll be careful going after Mr. Mac?” she asked against Olivia’s hair. “And you promise not to get lost?”

“I lose campers,” Olivia said with a laugh, pulling away and standing up. “But I always know
my
way home.” She walked to Sam standing at the door, his rain slicker on and holding another one in his hand, and shook her head. “I’m going alone.”

“I go with you or you’re not going at all.” He stepped closer. “I’ll lock you in the cellar if I have to.”

She looked directly into his steel-gray eyes. “I have no idea who you are or what you’re doing here, much less why you’re so concerned about me and Soph—” Olivia took a step back, so dizzy she had to grab Ezra to steady herself. “Ohmigod, no!” she cried, stumbling away from the suddenly familiar eyes of the man who had abandoned her twenty-eight years ago. She turned to go after her daughter. “Sophie—”

Only she was spun back around, Sam’s grip unbreakable. “It’s not what you think,” he said tightly. “
I loved you too much
to come back for you. My job made our being together impossible and could have gotten you killed.”

“You think being raised by strangers and feeling abandoned was
better
?”

His grip tightened against her struggles. “I didn’t leave you with strangers; I left you with my parents,” he said thickly, nodding toward Ezra.

Olivia’s knees buckled. Sam kept her from falling and helped her to a nearby chair, where she buried her face in her hands, utterly insensate.

“Mom?” Sophie said, making Olivia flinch. “What’s he talking about?”

“Ohmigod, baby,” she said, turning her back to the men as she pulled Sophie protectively against her. “It’s okay. Really. I just had a bit of a shock. Change of plans, Sophie. Henry’s grandparents are going to look after you, okay?”

She stood up and stiffly led her daughter past Sam without looking at him. Reeling from the realization that Ezra and Doris were her
grandparents
, she continued into the hall even as Ezra whispered her name, fearing she’d lose what little control she had left.

She found Titus standing alone in the main room, watching the door closing on the stairs leading up to John and Eileen’s private quarters, and walked over to him. “I have a few favors to ask of you,” she said without preamble, drawing his concern. “First, would you and your wife look after my daughter while I go get Mac?”

“Certainly,” he said with a slight bow, giving Sophie a warm smile.

Olivia bent to hug her daughter. “Sweetie, go in the kitchen and help Miss Peg and Carolina now, okay? Remember, you’re the hostess while I’m gone. You know where everything is and how everything works.” She kissed her cheek. “I won’t be gone long, I promise.”

Sophie threw her arms around her. “You have to stop at home first and put on your hiking boots. And take your headlamp in case you don’t get back before dark.”

“Good idea. I’ll do that. Now go on. I need to talk to Mac’s dad. I love you, baby,” she said, nudging the girl on her way. She straightened, waiting until Sophie disappeared into the kitchen before turning to Titus. “Two more favors and a question.”

He silently nodded.

“I assume you can manipulate locks like your son can, so could you please make sure Sam doesn’t follow me?”

“It’s already done, Olivia. They’ll be in that same room when you get back.”

“Okay. Thanks. And could you make sure Eileen doesn’t get anywhere near Sophie while I’m gone?”

“Done. And your question?”

God, the man was scary calm. “Um, I guess I’m just curious as to why you aren’t stopping Mac from doing what he’s doing.”

“Because I’ve been waiting centuries for a woman like you to come into his life. And truthfully, I was beginning to fear it would never happen.”

“A woman like me?”

“I’m not stopping Maximilian because I would be doing the same thing in his shoes.” He chuckled, nodding toward
the kitchen. “I pulled more than one crazy stunt to impress that beautiful woman in there, trying to persuade her to marry me.” He touched Olivia’s hair. “And now, for the first time in his life, Maximilian is experiencing the full force of true passion. My son has spent his entire life fighting his destiny, drifting in a sea of indifference in search of a reason to care. That is until he met you.”

“But I’m
nobody
.”

“Ah, Olivia, it’s the perceived nobodies who have the power to move mountains.”

“But Mac is destroying an entire state with his… his passion. You don’t think ruining beautiful lakes and a good part of Maine’s economy is a little extreme?”

Titus shrugged. “Change is the one constant in the universe and the price of progress. There’s nothing to say altering the ecosystems of a few lakes won’t in fact prove beneficial in the long run.”

The lodge shook on its foundations violently enough that books fell off shelves.

Titus grasped her shoulders. “Be brave, Olivia. Have the courage to love my son for
what
he is as well as who he is. Now go,” he said, leading her to the front door and opening it. “I will keep all of your loved ones safe.”

Olivia reached up and pulled his head down as she stood on tiptoe, and gave him a big noisy kiss on the cheek. She turned away from the startled man with a laugh and stepped out onto the porch. “Anything you want me to tell Mac when I see him?”

“Yes. Tell him… tell Maximilian that I’m proud of him,” he said gruffly as he softly closed the door.

Olivia immediately grabbed the knob to tell Titus that
he
should be the one telling Mac he was proud of him, only to find it was locked.

“You sappy old poop,” she muttered. She turned to face the storm, took a fortifying breath, and ran toward home to get her hiking boots and rain gear and headlamp.

Because really, she wasn’t putting
all
her faith in a piece of jewelry.

His arms stretched upward to hold back the energy pulsing to be freed, Mac kept his mind’s eye on Olivia making her way up the cliff path toward him. He smiled at her curse to Poseidon when she slipped in the mud, then scowled when she started muttering curses at
him
. Yet she bravely continued putting one foot in front of the other despite the storm and ground-shaking tremors, her fierce determination to reach the precipice overlooking Bottomless making him wonder if she wasn’t more anxious to give him hell than return his jacket—which he knew she was wearing under her rain slicker.

Mac was forced to turn his focus to the raging energy when it began attacking the very mountain he was standing on as it attempted to reach the lake. Wrestling it back under control, he then returned his attention to Olivia to see what was taking her so long. Sweet Prometheus, getting the woman to stay on the path was like trying to herd mackerel. If he didn’t know better he’d swear she was deliberately daring the wind-whipped trees to fall on her, as if she were testing the bracelet’s protection.

Mac sighed, realizing Olivia was so busy having a conversation with herself that she wasn’t watching where she was going. She was also bawling so hard it was a wonder she could see at all. Yet Mac sensed she wasn’t crying because of him, but that something else had a dark grip on Olivia’s tender heart.

Had his old man said something to deeply wound her feelings?

Or Eileen? He knew the Baldwins had returned; had they already told Olivia they’d sold Inglenook? Or had Eileen finally exposed the full extent of her son’s deceit?

Then again, maybe Sam had revealed who he really was.

Dammit to Hades; Mac needed Olivia to focus on
him
right now.

A rogue burst of powerful energy suddenly broke free, flinging Mac off his feet and forcing him to drop what was left of his mortal façade to wrestle it back under control. Which is why when he stood, not even the feet he planted firmly on the trembling ledge were recognizable as he lifted beastly arms to redirect the energy down through the ice covering Bottomless. He forced it into a narrow laser of heat, aiming it toward the deepest basin, and cut a twenty-mile-long seam in the bottom of the lake.

The vast expanse of freshwater rushed free, and Mac sent it splintering in a multitude of directions, making sure the gushing streams sucked all the fish with them to bubble up in several surrounding lakes. The thick ice the water had been supporting collapsed in a series of long thunderous booms, and the underground river cutting a relentless path toward the south end of Bottomless finally burst into the empty basin.