Yearnings: A Paranormal Romance Box Set (107 page)

Then disappeared right before her eyes. Right out of thin air. But not before Leigh saw Jacob do so, too. “Where did you take him, Jacob?” she yelled.

Jacob rushed forth, trying to soothe her.
Wolf.

Leigh pushed her hands through his ghost body. “No! You bring him back here now, Jacob.” Tears streamed down her face. “I will not let you take him from me.”

Tristan
.

Leigh fell to her knees. “Grant found Tristan?” she said, hoarse.

Tristan...
Jacob vanished again.

“
What?” Beatrice said, coming to Leigh’s side and taking her by the shoulders. “Where? Where is my baby?”

“
I don’t know,” Leigh said, helpless. She didn’t know what to do or to think. If Grant or the wolf had freed Tristan’s soul, where was he now? Where was Grant? He was wounded, damn it. Didn’t Jacob care about that? About her heart tearing apart? Beatrice shook her. Leigh looked up in her face and realized her heart was not what mattered right now. She wrapped her arms around Beatrice and rocked her back and forth. “Tristan is free. Now we just have to find him.”

On a sob, Beatrice nodded. “How?”

She didn’t know.

“
Holy shit!” Nick shouted.

Leigh turned around as Beatrice got to her feet. “Oh Jesus,” Leigh gasped. Grant! He lay in a heap, covered in blood, shivering naked on the floor behind the sofa. Right in the pile of shards Samuel had sent spraying to the rug when he’d smashed the vase and come for Leigh.

Banishing the memory, she crawled to Grant.

Nick hollered orders to the servants, and a doctor was sent for. Leigh put his head in her lap and stroked his hair, watched his face while she also tried to feel for his spirit close by. She’d seen his spirit leave with his mother. She’d witnessed his fight to regain control of his physical form, and then helplessly watched the wolf spring into shadows before Grant disappeared.

She helped Nick get a sheet under him but wouldn’t let them move him. He was still bleeding. His head rested in her lap. “Grant please. If you can hear me, please come back.”

Beatrice had a knuckle of each fist in her mouth and Leigh feared it was to keep from screaming. Where was Tristan now if his soul had been freed? The unspoken fact hung in the air. The servants had removed Samuel’s body at some point, and Hilda verified that the children peacefully slept upstairs with Duchy, oblivious to the raucous danger downstairs, thanks to an ingenious idea from Nick. The moment he’d seen Samuel coming for Leigh, he’d shouted in glee about a pots and pans party.

They’d all rushed upstairs banging away like thunder. On top of everything else, Leigh couldn’t tolerate scarring Eliza’s children by exposing them to such violence. If only Eliza had stayed with her children. As much as she appreciated her and her daughter’s help, Leigh saw her as an outsider here. She wiped Grant’s brow. His skin felt clammy. Cold. She rocked back and forth and called to his mother with her mind. She called to Jacob. She prayed to God.

But none answered.

Silent tears streamed down Bea’s face. Eliza’s looked just plain shocked. Leigh wished they’d both just leave. She looked away, refusing to cry. Crying meant she didn’t believe he’d come back. If she loved him this much, imagine how much they must love him. They’d known him all their lives. They’d seen him young and naive. They’d seen him before being broken and filled with self-blame. Would she never get the chance to see him whole, to feel what she’d only glimpsed in his eyes?

A long breath escaped him.

“
Grant, no,” she said. It no longer mattered who was in the room, who could hear her. “Come back. Don’t you see? We need you here. I need you here.” She bent over him and kissed his cheek. “I love you. Please don’t leave me, when I didn’t even get the chance to tell you how much I love you. Please come back, so that I can tell you all the reasons why.”

She shut her eyes and laid her forehead on his chest, counting the seconds between the slow, slow beat of his heart. One second. Two seconds. Three? Damn it! She sat up and cried out her anguish, smacking his chest. “You don’t get to run away! Come back! Now!”

Nick pulled her away. Beatrice rushed to her side. Eliza slipped out the door covering her mouth, looking ready for an asylum. Good. Let her go. She had no business caring for this man who she didn’t know any more.

Shhhh.

Leigh felt Jacob before she could see or hear him. A sob escaped her. She scanned the room for him, and then he was there, in front of her, holding her face. His dark eyes shone bright. “You came back,” she said.

“
Always,” he said, brushing a stray lock of hair off her cheek.

“
I’m so sorry. I saw you take him and now....” Another sob escaped. “Grant.”

Jacob nodded solemnly.

“
He...he got hurt again. He tried...to find Tristan?”

Jacob’s eyes welled with such sorrow. “The wolf,” he said.

Leigh shook her head. It couldn’t all be for nothing. She watched him struggle for the right words, a look she’d known all her life, trying to show her the pieces of the puzzle.

“
Underground,” Jacob said.

“
What is underground? Who? Tristan? Where?”

Frustration contorted his features. “Under. Floor.”

“
A basement? A cellar?”

“
Yes,” groaned Grant from the sofa.

A collective gasp filled Leigh’s ears as she watched Grant ease up. Her legs were rooted to the ground, even though she wanted to hurry to his side. Bea and Nick did in her stead. On wobbly legs, Leigh stepped closer, around the front of the sofa so she could see his face. Jacob hovered close, sending her the familiar comfort she hadn’t realized how much she’d missed until this moment.

She had to face this on her own, though, this fear and vulnerability. This insecurity that stumbled through her head making her question if she’d seen Grant’s true feelings or imagined it all. “Levitt, Tristan is in the cellar. Bea, wait. Promise me you won’t go down to get him.”

Bea snorted through her tears and rushed out of the room, Nick on her heels. Leigh didn’t know whether to stay or to follow. Grant decided for her. He took her hand. “Go. She’ll need you.”

“
But you....”

“
I’m not going anywhere, princess.” He smiled weakly “Promise.”

Leigh kissed his knuckles, let him go and quickly located Nick and Bea. Together they treaded down steep stairs where rows up on rows of beds filled with small, sleeping forms silhouetted the room. In one, ten beds down the second row, one form sat upright. Nick shone the lantern higher, casting an eerie glow, but illuminating a shaggy-haired boy sleepily rubbing his eyes. Bea rushed to the bed and gently sat on the edge. She wiped her eyes and nose with her sleeve.

“
Mom?” Tristan’s voice quavered. He tucked his chin down when it trembled.

“
Yes, honey. Momma’s here,” Bea said and delicately touched his arm. “Momma’s here now.”

“
I had a really bad dream.”

“
Oh,” Bea gasped and scooped him into her arms. “It’s all right now, honey. No more bad dreams. You’re safe now.” She rocked him gently, her eyes closed. Tristan shut his eyes and laid his head against her. His skinny arms held fast to her. “You’re safe now.”

Nick helped Bea stand, lowering the lantern when Tristan winced at the light. “Take him upstairs. The physician will be here soon. I’ll bring him up.”

Beatrice nodded, kissing her son’s head and carrying him the stairs with care. A servant, eyes watery, rushed to help, blocking and dimming light as they made their way to the stairs and went up them. Leigh faced Nick, the shock of the evening’s events creeping up on her. “It’s over?”

Nick ran a hand over his face and through his hair. “It feels like I should knock on wood here first, but, yeah. I think it is. Or maybe the hard part is just beginning.” He shook his head. He cupped her shoulder and squeezed. “Try not to overthink it.”

Leigh nodded.

Overthinking had never been her problem when it came to Grant Connel. More like over- feeling. The emotions waiting in the recesses of her heart and mind terrified her. No. That wasn’t true. Her feelings didn’t scare her as much as the idea of living with them alone. She hesitated about moving from the spot she stood on, but worry over Grant one out. She made her way to the sitting room.

The last thing she expected was the spike of jealousy over finding Eliza fawning over the man who stole her heart. Leigh cleared her throat. Eliza stood abruptly, ringing the cloth she’d been pressing to his forehead.

“
I just need to check on the girls,” she said, and quietly left.

Jacob on the other hand, hovered. Clearly, he wasn’t about to give them privacy.

Leigh folded her arms and came to stand in front of Grant. “A doctor should be here soon.”

“
They found him?”

“
Yes. Bea and Nick are upstairs with him now.”

“
Is he...?”

She hugged herself. “Skinny. He needs a haircut. Pale. But alive. He thinks he had a nightmare.”

Grant wiped his wet eyes and exhaled loudly. Everything about his demeanor changed. Years of guilt and pain seemed to fade before her eyes. He’d probably need some time to heal. To recover. Space. The last thing a man wanted was a woman nagging him as he tried to work a thing out. How many times had her dad said so to her mom?

It would be so good to be home. To see her mom and hug her tight. If only her dad were home, too. Maybe one day.

He’s home.

Leigh turned to Jacob. She shook her head.

“
He means your father. Your father is home,” Grant said.

Leigh spun back to Grant. “You can see him?”

“
Not right now. I can hear him, though. Or, the wolf can. They’re quite bonded. Come from the same stock, so to speak.”

She sat next to Grant, shy. “My father is home?”

“
Apparently.”

“
Wow,” Leigh breathed and that same change she saw in Grant, she felt in herself. A weight of worry lifted. “I can’t believe it.”

“
Believe it,” Grant said, and tucked a finger under her chin so that she looked up. “Do you mind?” he asked, addressing Jacob. The ghost tipped an imaginary hat and vanished. “He’s nice enough, but I’d rather have you all to myself for a minute, if that’s okay.”

Leigh nodded, rapt in his stormy gaze. “I’m a little bit stuck with him. But he grows on you.”

“
Liar. You love him, and you know it.”

“
Yeah, I do.”

“
As much as you love me?”

Her cheeks burned. “Just as much, but thankfully, in an entirely different way.”

Another layer of worry eased away from Grant’s expression. “Thank God. I don’t know how I’d ever compete with a ghost, but I’d spend every day of my life trying.”

“
Grant?” she hedged. “Are you sure? You’ve been through so much—”

He hushed her with a finger to her lips, and then caressed her cheek. “There’s no question, Leigh. It’s because of what I’ve been through that I have no doubts. I won’t waste a single day thinking I don’t deserve you because instead, I’m grateful for you. Don’t you see, Leigh?” He kissed each wet cheek and her forehead. “All this time, all the hell I’ve faced, it was all to get to you. You were meant for me, Leigh. All along. I was just too stubborn to see.”

With all her might, she kissed him full on the mouth, her heart soaring. He chuckled low and she did, too. “So you love me?”

“
With everything that I am yesterday, today, and tomorrow. I promise you this, Leigh. I am the man you deserve. The man who will love you ’til your dying day, and back again. And I’m willing to spend the rest of my life proving it.”

“
You already have, Grant.” She kissed him again. “You already have.”

~~~

Epilogue

Grant sat at the bottom of the stairs watching the light of dawn filter in through the only basement window. The shock of the last twenty-four hours all hit him full force. How had Samuel done all of this? How had no one ever noticed?

Leigh was upstairs sleeping like the dead. Beatrice was too, curled up next to Tristan, so close but not touching, as if she feared breaking him. The doctor had noted Tristan’s severe malnourishment, but otherwise stated he would recover, given time. Nick had found a sofa to pass out on and Eliza, he assumed, took a guest room. Exhausted as he was, he couldn’t sleep. Too much had passed and far too much still lay ahead for his mind to rest, even for the few hours his body desperately needed to recover.

The weak shaft of light might be the first these children had been exposed to in years. Years. So many unanswered questions. He wished the wolf had spared Samuel. Then Grant could throttle the truth out of his old friend. How had these children gotten here? How had he gotten involved in soul trafficking? Samuel had been a practical type that laughed at superstition, yet had become a purveyor of black market goods that would challenge even the most imaginative believer.

Why?