After a few weeks at the plantation, Gabriel was getting annoyed with me, or worried, which meant he had to spend as little time as possible in my vicinity. I had stopped asking questions and tried to pretend this was like any other visit, but apparently being nice and normal also unnerved him, so we settled into the most annoying silence. He might find that easier than arguing and bickering, but I felt a fight would be a welcome distraction.
That might be why I went to read on the dock instead of the balcony. Gabriel had gone off into the trees, pretending he was running security instead of running away from me. There was a possibility I would be back inside by the time he returned and none would be the wiser, but it was equally likely that he would come back and find me gone, panic, see me on the dock, come yell at me, then maybe understand that he couldn’t lock me up and ignore me. I hadn’t quite decided which outcome I was hoping for when I heard footsteps on the worn wood behind me.
I pretended I didn’t hear, as though I hadn’t been anticipating this moment all morning, waiting for him to say something first. It wasn’t until the footsteps stopped and no words came that I wondered if maybe this wasn’t Gabriel. If maybe he was paranoid for a reason and their Big Bad was on the dock, watching me, seeing I had nothing to defend myself with and Gabriel was nowhere in sight. I was cursing myself for not bringing a knife or a baseball bat or anything useful, when I heard it.
It was someone clearing their throat, with a slight cough that would have chilled me to the core if I hadn’t recognized it. I stopped pretending to read my book and turned around excitedly, finding Sam a few feet away from me, his goofy smile in place. He looked tired, and for the first time, I saw he was no longer the teenager I always pictured him as.
“Sam!” I exclaimed, jumping up to go and hug him, leaving my stuff abandoned on the dock.
“I thought you were supposed to be in the house,” he chided, but the smile told me not to take it too seriously.
“I was going stir-crazy,” I lied.
“Don’t try to upset him, Luce. He has your best interest at heart, but I think he also has a dark side,” he warned, knowing me better than I wanted him to.
“You have no idea how awkward it is. He doesn’t have you to talk to while ignoring me, so he just doesn’t talk. Asking questions annoys him, so I stopped, but I had no idea if you and Clara and Deanna were okay, I still don’t know whether Embry is on his way or dead or…”
“Can’t they not die?” he cut me off.
“They die and come back. But I don’t think it’s an exact science. And from what I gather, if the bad guy takes over, they’ll be worse than dead. He can make them do whatever he wants. Even Embry wouldn’t have second thoughts about ripping my throat out.”
“Well, I can’t vouch for Embry’s well-being, but I think Deanna has Clara convinced this is a fun summer vacation at the beach. She doesn’t understand why you can’t be there, but I figure you’d rather she be mad at you than in danger.”
“Of course,” I assured him. “Now that you’re here, I should go make those cookies.”
“A double batch might be good.” He smiled before helping me grab my stuff and walking back to the plantation house.
“Did he tell you any more than he told me?” I asked Sam once I had programmed him to be able to access the house. We were in the kitchen, with me gathering cookie-making ingredients and him pretending to help.
“Probably less. Before my mom died, she told me to listen to them, no matter how crazy it sounds, because they’re keeping you alive. I do as I’m told, but they don’t tell me more than ‘there’s danger, we’re taking her’,” he explained.
“Gabriel didn’t give you a time frame of how long he thought this would last?”
“He implied it was the biggest danger he has ever faced; the real one he’s been waiting for all these years.”
“Like their reason for being alive?” I asked, realizing this was bigger than I thought. I didn’t know if I was more terrified because this guy was terrible enough to warrant making two men immortal in order to protect me, or because if they did somehow defeat him, they would both die.
“Protecting their descendants,” Sam agreed.
“What do you mean?” I asked, confused.
“Isn’t that why they care? You’re either Gabriel’s or Embry’s great-great-great-great-granddaughter.”
“No,” I argued. “I think they both loved her, but I’m pretty sure someone would have mentioned it to me,” I said, my certainty decreasing as I thought of all the secrets no one had bothered to tell me until a couple of weeks ago.
“One of them has to be.” He stood his ground.
“No, I think they both loved and dated Annabelle, the first one, but she left town for years before she came back with a child. She died so they took care of her daughter. And then her daughter and so on.” I pieced it from the memories and what Gabriel had said on prom night, but I only knew for sure that it wasn’t Embry.
“That’s a bit obsessive, no?” Sam asked.
“They loved her.” It made sense in a tragic love story kind of way.
“But love isn’t…”
“I’m not your daughter but you’ve been raising me and keeping me safe,” I cut him off, knowing I had him. After losing all of my blood relatives before my sixth birthday, I had to rely on people loving me, or I would currently be being raised in an orphanage.
“That’s for the money,” he teased, which would have hurt if I hadn’t known it absolutely wasn’t true.
“You think that’s funny, but it’s just mean,” I pointed out.
“Come on Luce, we grew up together. For all intents and purposes, you’re my sister. I love you to death and would do almost anything to keep you safe. If you have kids I’ll love them too, but I don’t think I would spend lifetimes protecting your line,” he argued as if just the idea of it were insane.
“I look like her,” I reminded him. If ever I someday met someone who looked exactly like my mom, or Mrs. Boyd or anyone I had lost, even if I absolutely hated that person, I still couldn’t watch them die. It would be like losing my person all over again. I couldn’t imagine how hard it had been on Embry and Gabriel to keep having to watch Annabelle die over and over again. Plus, it wasn’t like they could spend years protecting Beth, Cassie and Rosalind without caring about them as well.
“That’s still weird,” he acknowledged. “Especially if they both loved her. If she only loved one of them, the other is wasting his time, and if she loved them both, then she was playing them.”
“I’m not saying it makes sense, it’s just what they do,” I defended, knowing from the memory that she had loved them both, and wasn’t playing either of them.
“Well, I’ll be happy when all of this is over, and this weird danger is no longer trying to find you,” he said, sticking his finger into my mixing bowl to eat some of the cookie dough.
“When you said to make a double batch…”
“Yes, I want half of it raw,” he agreed with a smile.
“It’s not good for you. Raw eggs and all,” I repeated what Deanna kept telling us, but I didn’t believe a word of it.
“I’ve seen how much dough you leave in that mixing bowl when you make them. Deanna thinks it’s sweet that you always offer to make the cookies and do the dishes after, but I know it’s because you like eating the raw cookie dough and muffin mix and cake batter and...”
“Who doesn’t?” I asked, taking a spoonful myself, before Gabriel came in and found us laughing and sticking our fingers into the mixing bowl.
“Is everything okay?” Gabriel asked Sam. He looked relieved that he wouldn’t be forced to deal with me for a few hours.
“Yeah, we’re all good. The beach house is great, Clara loves making sandcastles, and you know what they say, ‘Happy Wife, Happy Life’.” Sam smiled as if Gabriel knew what he meant. Or even cared.
“Has there been any trouble? Anyone casing the house, approaching you, watching from afar?” he asked, implying this Big Bad might be going after them as well, or using them to get to me. I thought they went to the beach house to be safe, so I wasn’t exactly thrilled.
“Are we worried about spies, or an attack?” Sam verified, but at least he seemed to have been expecting the second option. It was the spies that worried him.
“An attack. But he’ll most likely send someone ahead to find out where she is,” Gabriel explained.
“Unless he has Embry,” I pointed out. I liked how Sam was getting him to talk, but Sam might not think to ask about Embry, and Gabriel wasn’t being forthcoming.
“Embry is taking longer to get here because he thought he was being tailed and has to mislead and avoid them. He should be here within another week or so,” Gabriel answered my question, but directed the answer to Sam.
“And why is this guy so interested in Lucy?” Sam asked like it was the millionth time and he still didn’t understand. We were rich, so he understood the threat of kidnapping for ransom or blackmail, but he couldn’t wrap his head around villains wasting their time to acquire me. Neither could I, to be honest.
“It’s a long story,” Gabriel said dismissively. “And you have to get back to your family.”
“Lucy is my family too, remember?” Sam pointed out. He didn’t appreciate being left out when I was in danger.
“I understand your concern,” Gabriel agreed, his jaw set. “But this isn’t about Lucy, this is about ancient history, which I see no benefit in sharing it with you. Why isn’t important. All that matters is that he wants her, and we can’t let that happen.”
“Because he loves me so much, you know,” I said sarcastically, reinserting myself into the conversation.
“If he gets you he wins. And that wouldn’t be good for anyone,” Gabriel spoke to me that time, but it did not make me happy, or feel like a victory. A chill ran down my spine and I was a little relieved when he went back outside.
“And you say he’s always this fun and bubbly?” Sam gave me an apologetic smile.
“I think he might be friendlier when he doesn’t talk and pretends I’m not there.”
“If he keeps you safe, I can’t complain,” Sam said, kissing the top of my head before eating another scoop of dough. I laughed, because I knew it was what he was trying to do, to make me smile, but all I could think about were Gabriel’s words, and how as soon as the cookies were done, Sam would be gone, and I’d be alone with Gabriel again.
We kept almost half of the dough, so while the cookies were baking in the oven, we took the bowl out to the porch swing and Sam dug in while I stared blankly off to the creek.
“Earth to Lucy,” he said after a while, moving his spoon up and down in front of my face.
“I’m just thinking,” I defended, curling up into a ball and leaning my head onto his shoulder.
“About what?” he asked with his mouth full, putting the spoon down to wrap an arm around me.
“I never wanted you guys to be in danger,” I admitted. “If something happens to you or Deanna or…Clara.” I had to swallow before the last name, and couldn’t finish my sentence. The faceless danger hadn’t been real to me the other night. At least not real enough to be able to hurt the ones I loved, but Sam looked worried.
“You never wanted any of this,” he reminded me. “You were born into this messed-up world, just like I was. And contrary to what I said earlier, I am not here for the money.”
“But you have a family.”
“I do,” he agreed. “And it includes you. When my dad died, they explained it all to me. I understood that they weren’t exaggerating about your life being in danger and people wanting to kill you. I told Deanna she could leave with Clara. That I couldn’t abandon you, but I couldn’t stand putting them in danger either.”
“Why didn’t she go?” I asked.
“Well, aside from the fact that she loves me and doesn’t want to live without me, she said that if I wanted her to leave, I shouldn’t have made you part of her family too.”
“Are you guys safe at the beach house?” I asked, looking up at his face, so I could see his eyes and know if he was lying to me.
“We are,” he told me. “The house is almost like this one. As long as we don’t go out, we’re safe.”
“But you do go out,” I argued. He had mentioned sandcastles, and every time we went to the beach house before, Deanna and I spent half the time shopping at the outlets.
“But we’re not the ones being hunted. You are.” He tried to make it sound comforting as opposed to reminding me I was the root of all of this evil.
“They’ll use you to get to me,” I said, knowing it was true and hating myself for not realizing this earlier, when I was upset about missing orientation and having to defer university.
“Which is why keeping us safe keeps you safe. No matter how hard we try to stop you, if they got Clara, you would try to give yourself up,” he said, looking at me like he was trying to convince me not to do that, although he was never going to ask. As much as he loved me, none of us were ready to sacrifice Clara for me. Except maybe Embry and Gabriel.
“Your point is that they won’t hurt her or Deanna or you, they’ll just dangle you in front of me to make me do whatever they want?” I summed it up.
“That is what I’m saying,” he agreed, holding me close. “Smells like the cookies are ready.” The smell was wafting outside, an overwhelming scent of home that reminded me of his mother more than anything else, but he was also trying to change the topic of our conversation.
“I could forget about them, so they burn, and you’ll have to stay while I make more,” I suggested.
“I have to get back to my daughter,” he said, making no effort to get up, letting me decide if he would get his cookies or not.
“Well, I promised Clara,” I said, sighing as I stood up.
“We’ll be back at the manor before you know it.” He stood up as well and wrapped his arm around me while we walked back to the kitchen. I didn’t look into his eyes for that lie, deciding I’d rather not know the truth.
My egg timer went off as we walked into the kitchen, so I took the cookies out of the oven and prepared a basket while they cooled. I took my time lining the wicker basket with a checkered cloth, then some wax paper, before piling the cookies in.
“Do you want to keep some for you and Gabriel?” he offered.
“He doesn’t deserve cookies,” I said, realizing I sounded like a spoiled child. “I’ll make more if he decides he wants some,” I amended, hoping I wasn’t coming off as bitter, considering what Sam was giving up, and the danger he was putting his own family in to keep me safe. I didn’t have a right to complain or be upset that I had no one to talk to.
“Clara thanks you,” he said, kissing the top of my head.
“Give her and Deanna a hug and a kiss for me,” I said, so he held me tight one more time before leaving.
I watched him go until his body melded with the trees and I could barely tell where he was. Gabriel came out of nowhere, silently and without showing any signs of hurrying. Still, he caught up with him effortlessly. He escorted him out, and I hoped Sam might remind him that I am a person in addition to being Annabelle reincarnate.