Total pages in book: 254
Estimated words: 240032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1200(@200wpm)___ 960(@250wpm)___ 800(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 240032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1200(@200wpm)___ 960(@250wpm)___ 800(@300wpm)
Henri kneeled on the hardwood floor, his hands finding my upper arms, and I leaned forward into him, right against his warm, bare chest.
“You okay?” he asked, rubbing his hands up and down my triceps.
I slipped my arms around his waist like I had its location memorized. “I’m okay,” I whispered as he pulled me out from beneath the covers. He sat on the edge of the bed and set me on his lap, like I wasn’t a full-grown adult.
“What happened?” he asked, stroking a hand down my spine as he did.
“It was the same voice. He said my name, and right before I woke up, he started to say something else, but….” I already couldn’t remember what that had been. Not that it mattered, because it didn’t. “What’d you hear?”
“Only ‘child.’ Franklin told me the other night that he could control it so only those in the clubhouse heard him, if that makes you feel better. I think he ends the dreams when they reach him.”
“I didn’t know that. We haven’t talked about this whole situation enough.” I rubbed my hand across his back, from one side of his ribs to the opposite set; his skin was smooth. It made me feel so much better. “This is pissing me off now. Franklin said they’re not immortal. He keeps this up, and I’ll find him in Alaska, and when he’s sleeping, I’ll drag him into a lake.”
A hand stroked the back of my head as his pecs rose under my cheek. “A river would be better.”
I smiled against his chest. “That’s a good idea.” I hugged him tighter, really eating up the fact he was shirtless. Was this what I had to look forward to every night? I slid my palm a little higher, from shoulder blade to shoulder blade, enjoying the feel of all those grooves and valleys his muscles constructed and the silky-smooth skin over them. “You think it’s true? About Franklin making him feel bad? And that that’s probably why he’s reaching out now?”
“I think it could be. He keeps trying.”
A grunt went through my throat. Seemed a little too late to me, and I didn’t think I was really the type of person to hold a grudge, unless we were talking about Dominic and Duncan’s would-be kidnappers.
And the Jenny Greenteeth.
“We can find him, if you want. After the snow melts next spring, the water levels will be high, and it gets flowing fast with the runoff; it’ll take him far from wherever he is. Around here, you’ll get some distance. I’m sure the rivers in Alaska are the same if not more powerful.” He paused and lowered his voice. “That’s what we do to trespassers around here.”
Was he being serious? “How many bodies have you put in it to know that?” I laughed.
“A few, but they were alive, and it was to teach a lesson.”
“Did it work?”
“They never came back.”
“So how do you know they were alive afterward?” I snickered.
He stroked my back, and I felt like a cat on the verge of purring. “I didn’t say they were alive afterward, but they were when we put them in.”
I laughed even louder. “BS. You probably fished them out a hundred feet down the river.”
Henri didn’t disagree, but he made a soft puffing sound that had to be a dry chuckle as his hand went up higher than it had before, coming up to the middle of my back. “If he wakes you up again, we’ll start figuring out where he is or how to do something about him in the spring.”
“You think we can do something about him?” I whispered.
“We can give it our best shot. We’ll talk to Franklin, see what he can do. I know a lot of people,” he replied, his hand still stroking, still soothing.
I want in. I reached for his shoulder and swept my hand downward to his wrist and back up. “That’s a good plan.” Leaning back, I pulled his arm between us and drew my thumb down one of the prominent veins on his forearm. “What happened with Franklin?” I asked.
Henri’s sigh said it all.
“That crappy, huh?”
“Franklin asked if we reached an agreement. I told him the news. He had a question about a situation we’re having with the well.”
That didn’t sound so bad. “What’s wrong with the well?”
“We’re going to have to drill for another one sooner than we’d planned,” he explained. “While we were talking about that, he got a phone call from Alaska.” His eyes met mine, and I was sure he felt my whole body freeze. “They’re coming to visit at the end of the month.”
That was two weeks from now.
I let out a long, deep breath from my nose, and Henri gave me a look. “Is that why you didn’t come upstairs?”
He blinked. “No, I didn’t want to ruin the night, but I told Franklin I would give you the news. It’s Ani’s night off, and there was an intruder that I had to help Randall with. By the time I got back, you were asleep, and I didn’t want to wake you.”