A half hour later, Elaina, Alex, and Baxter hid in the darkened living room of James’s gatehouse apartment. While Alex and Baxter filled James in on the plan, Elaina scanned the yard beyond with her senses, trying to detect if anyone was watching them through the accumulating snow.
James’s girlfriend, Peggy, settled on the adjacent couch. “Can I get you anything?”
“Hmm?” Elaina relaxed her grip on the chair. “No, thank you.”
“When I was little, I used to dream my life would be perfect if I were white. Then I could be a princess and marry some rich white prince who would rescue me from a fiery dragon.” She indicated Alex and chuckled with a wry edge. “It’s not quite like the fairy tales, is it?”
Tension shot through Elaina. Did Peggy know too much? But the woman’s dry tone was more ironic than awed.
Elaina shook her surprise away before her expression revealed anything. “Fairy tales are full of lies. Don’t believe them.”
Peggy half-laughed, half-snorted. “Yeah, you’re right about that. I finally figured out that I could be the princess of my own life, no matter my color, and that I shouldn’t wait for any man to rescue me. We don’t need a fairy tale to find happiness.” Her focus shifted to James, and her dark features lit with an inner glow. “Forget the damn prince. You can’t help who you fall in love with, but he’s the right man for me.”
Elaina followed her gaze to the men, who hunched on the floor over a large map with a red-tinted flashlight. Just like with his businesses, Alex was in his element here, preparing, detailing, and coming up with plan A, B, C, and D. Plans that were more complicated than necessary because of her inability to defy Alex and simply take off and never look back. She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t hurt him like that.
Despite everything—despite the lies and the hurt and the impossibility—she still wanted to be with him. She still wanted to give them every possible chance.
“No,” she agreed, “you can’t help how you feel.”
Peggy plucked a twig from Elaina’s jacket. “Did you crawl through the bushes to get here from the house?”
She rolled her eyes. “Almost.”
The woman’s easy-going manner made her feel as though they’d been friends for years. The kind of friend she could ask for advice about men.
Or more specifically, a man. The only man who mattered.
“Do you mind if I ask why you and James aren’t married?”
“You mean, if I love him, why aren’t we married yet?” Peggy gave her a sideways smile. “There’s more to marriage than just love. My grandparents celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary last year. They said the secret to their happiness was commitment, respect, and being each other’s best friends. James and I have most of that, but we’re working on the respect thing.”
“He doesn’t respect you?”
“No, it’s not that.” Peggy pulled her cloud of textured dark hair back and secured the bun with a band from her wrist. “I’m finishing my associate degree. Then I’ll be able to get a real job and won’t just be ‘the girlfriend’ mooching off him. I’m more independent than that.”
“I understand.” After all, that same reason was a big part of why she wanted the jewelry appraisal business to succeed.
Peggy bent closer like a conspirator. “Are you hoping Mr. Wyatt will ask you to marry him?”
Elaina rubbed her gloved palms together, and the fabric hiding the ring on her finger squeaked. Too bad that friction warmth couldn’t make a dent to the cold stiffening her hands.
“He’s already asked.”
The woman’s eyes widened and then narrowed. “You haven’t said yes yet?”
After Elaina didn’t disagree, Peggy wagged a finger. “Smart woman. Money doesn’t buy happiness.” She patted Elaina’s knee. “He definitely seems to love you though. See if you can get that ‘commitment, respect, and best friends’ thing going. Then you’ll know.”
Elaina’s insides flipped over at the woman’s innocent comment. Alex had complained about how her unusual self-education and old neighbors had corrupted her concept of relationships. Was love not the end-all, be-all determining factor?
Alex caught her staring at him and grinned. “Ready, beautiful?” Confidence filled his tone again, evaporating another layer of her anger.
“Say the word.”
Baxter checked his watch. “It’s been almost twenty minutes since George and Madge left in your car. Hopefully, anyone watching would have followed the car to the airport.”
Alex subtly tipped his chin, indicating the yard, and she gave a slight shake of her head. Her sensory range didn’t extend far, but no one with a watch, cell phone, keys, or weapon was hiding around the entrance to the manor’s grounds.
The group crept down to the garage and lined the suitcases along the sides of James’s truck bed. Alex climbed up and piled blankets in the back of the pickup between the rows of luggage.
Peggy scrutinized the space, her lips pressed tight, and gave Elaina a friendly hug. “Good luck, girlfriend.”
“Thank you.” Maybe someday she’d come back and find a way to fit in—really fit in—with the rest of these humans.
Alex helped Elaina onto the truck bed. They nestled into the blankets, lying down in the back of the pickup.
Alex wrapped her in an embrace. “I’ll do what I can to keep you warm.”
Cold seeped into her bones from the metal beneath them. She didn’t tell him it was a lost cause. Whatever damage this exposure to the weather triggered wasn’t his fault. She was the one who’d made the decision to go along with his plan.
Peggy crawled over the suitcases and tucked the blankets around them. She squeezed Elaina’s shoulder. “Be safe.”
The woman probably didn’t hear Elaina’s reply of “Thanks,” muffled by Alex’s chest and layers of jacket and blanket, but Alex echoed the sentiment for her.
Then the dim light in the garage disappeared, blocked by the material James attached to cover the back of his truck. Only Alex’s arms and the whisper of his breathing remained in the world.
A moment later, the truck engine roared, and even Alex’s steady breath was lost to the rumbling darkness. A drone accompanied the garage door opening, and the truck backed out onto the driveway. The movement previewed the motion sickness she feared would crop up with this escape. Her finely tuned sense of balance needed more input than unchanging blackness.
Peggy called over the noise of the truck. “Fine. Have fun on your stupid hunting trip. But if you’re not back in time for dinner with grandma tomorrow, you’re going to wish you hadn’t given me a matching shotgun for Christmas last year.”
Elaina’s amusement at the woman’s performance vanished when the truck pulled onto the road. Motion sickness became the least of her issues. The blankets provided little cushion against the cold, much less the bumps of the pavement.
Normally, jostling wouldn’t be a problem. Her scales protected her from a hell of a lot, and her natural healing abilities made blunt force trauma a non-issue. Too bad tonight was different.
She snuggled closer to Alex and buried her face against his neck. Maybe this was sending mixed messages about the state of their relationship, but she was too desperate to care.
It didn’t matter. Even the skin-to-skin contact didn’t help. Her cheek registered his warmth, but it didn’t sink into her bones like usual. How could she fix what was broken when she’d never understood how the bonus of his heat worked?
The truck hit a pothole, and the punishing impact damaged the muscles underneath. Her body acted as though she’d lost her claim on a good chunk of her treasure, far more than she could afford. How could she be so fragile right after gaining the ruby pendant?
Was the cold to blame? No doubt, the icy thief was stealing much of the extra oomph from the necklace. Something—maybe the bitter temperature or maybe something more—was destroying her inside, leaving only a vulnerable shell.
Whatever the cause, bruises formed on top of bruises, and her body’s efforts to keep her warm and heal itself drained the energy she still possessed. From being at her strongest ever to becoming dangerously weak, it had been a hell of a rollercoaster day.
She only hoped she’d survive to tomorrow.
Miles zoomed by under the truck’s tires. Occasionally, a hard swerve would send Alex and her rolling, the suitcases sliding and squishing them together. Sure, they were laying together in the dark, but there was nothing romantic about this.
Hour after hour passed in the noisy, freezing, jolting truck bed. Her uncontrollable shivers were interrupted only when potholes bounced her around, and with each landing, she slammed her skull, shoulder, and hip against the unforgiving metal.
Repeat. Endlessly.
How much longer would this torture last? She hadn’t seen the route Alex and James had decided on.
Exhaustion finally caught up to her, and she passed out—unconscious, and closer to death than she dared to admit. Not to Alex, and especially not to herself.