Page 85 of Triple Threat

“Nothing,” I lied, then followed it with a bit of truth, “Just an old ghost rising back up to haunt me.”

“I’m afraid ghost busting isn’t one of my many talents, babe. Do you want to talk about it?” he asked.

I forced a brighter smile onto my face and shook my head.

“No, I really don’t.”

“Okay. You know you can tell me. I’m the last one who would judge.”

My smile grew genuinely brighter at that. “Yes, I know.” That was absolutely true. Always had been, and I believe always would be… especially now. How could anyone throw stones when they killed people for money?

* * *

When we returnedto the resort, it wasn’t back to our room. Instead, we ate a pleasant lunch and when that was through? A car was waiting for us to take us back to the airport to go home. I was surprised.

“What about our suitcase?”

“Already handled, babe. Just bring your purchases.”

I smiled and nodded and slid into the back of the car, Kyle slipping in behind me. He wound his fingers between mine and held my hand on the seat between us as I watched the island pass by the car’s window.

It was winding on toward afternoon and I wasn’t exactly looking forward to going through the motions of security and all of that. It had been a long trip to get here and leaving this late in the day meant we wouldn’t be landing until very late at night if not the earliest hours of the morning.

“Where are we going?” I asked as we drove through a back gate of the airport well away from the main terminal.

“A final surprise for you,” Kyle said easily as we were taken into a hanger. “Roan chartered us a private jet, a direct flight home.”

“Oh, wow, are you serious?” I balked. That must have cost a fortune! Of course, everything my two men did for me seemed to be beyond extravagant… I sat with that thought wide-eyed as we approached the plane, our suitcases being carried aboard as we rolled to a stop in front of an official looking person at a podium.

Kyle opened the car door and held down a hand for me and I took it.

I looked up at him and he smiled down at me and there he was, the boy who did sweet things and yet said such awful ones sometimes. The boy who hurt my feelings, then slipped into my room at night to hold me as I cried, making silent apologies with offerings of food and pretty bits of things.

The boy who had stolen my heart forevermore no matter how difficult he made it to love him back.

I did love Kyle Lachlan, differently and for different reasons that I was falling in love with Roan for… and I don’t think I ever stopped loving him in the intervening years between when we’d last seen each other.

In some ways, that was a relief. In others, knowing what he was, how he operated now, it brought another wave of something akin to shame… perhaps because I just didn’t understand. I mean, I would like to think that was what it was. I certainly couldn’t talk to Kyle about it, but maybe I could speak with Roan.

“Papers,” the man at the podium asked in thickly accented English. Kyle presented our passports, and the man looked them over and looked us over. I stood silently, a bundle of nerves, waiting for questions as I had at the airport on the way here, but none came. He simply handed them back and gestured for us to walk down the actual red carpet that was rolled out beside the plane leading up to the steps.

Kyle smiled down at me and tucked my hand into the crook of his elbow leading me down that swath of red carpet to the portal to the craft that would take us home.

Home…

I felt a sudden spurt of deep emotion at the word and realized of all the gifts that Roan and Kyle had given me over the last several weeks…months?The greatest one they provided me was an actual sense of home.

The sensation ofexcitementfilling me at the prospect of returninghometo Roan and the mansion at Bootlegger Head was worth more to me than any dress, scarf, or pirate coin bauble. My hand in Kyle’s, the knowledge that I would return to be folded into Roan’s arms in one of his soothing and wonderful hugs.

That waseverything.

Heaven on earth.

To finallymatter…was it any wonder that tears slipped down my cheeks unbidden at how overwhelming it all was?

“Sad to go?” Kyle asked, a bit of uncertainty in his eyes.

I smiled and sucked in a shuddering breath and told the truth.

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