Page 79 of Defenseless
He watched her frolic in the water, her lithe body gliding through it. It was hard to believe that four months ago, he’d been forcing himself to accept that she’d never be a part of his life in the way he wanted. But all that was well and truly behind them now.
The day before, Jacobs had signed a plea agreement. He’d pled guilty to the murder of Emer Houseman and to several financial and elections crimes. In exchange for a reduced sentence for those misdeeds, he’d given up a lot of names. Names of the police officers who’d helped hide his crime and names of the crime syndicate he’d been working with for the past several years. He’d even blabbed about the connection between the syndicate and Sweet River, the security firm he’d sent to kill Sabina.
Chad and Sabina were pleased with the outcome. Even with his reduced sentence, Jacobs would still be behind bars for at least forty years. That is, if he lived that long. The men he’d ratted out might have something to say about that, and that possibility didn’t upset Chad—or Sabina—at all.
In fact, they’d had a little celebration that night. First with the family, then just the two of them. Now he hoped they’d have even more to celebrate.
Shucking his own clothes, he went to his favorite rock and dived in, rising out of the water beside a laughing Sabina.
“I’m guessing you know the spots that are okay to dive from and that I don’t need to worry about you breaking your neck?” she asked, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and her legs around his waist as he treaded water.
“You do not,” he said. “I’ve been coming here since before I could walk. There isn’t a rock or ledge I don’t know well.”
She raised her head and looked around. She seemed happy to stay attached to him, and he was happy to have her there. “Is this really Mystery Lake?” she asked.
He nodded.
“You knew about it all along?”
“This is where I’m skating a thin line, and I know it,” he said. She dropped her gaze to him, and the look in her eye suggested he explain. “You always either asked if I knew where the name came from or why the town was named Mystery Lake. I don’t actually know why they picked the name or where it originally came from. Honestly, it always seemed a little crazy that the founders picked it, since they also went to all this trouble to keep it a secret.”
“You don’t know where it came from or why it was picked, but you did know there was an actual lake?”
He made a face and nodded. Then hoping to distract her, he kicked his feet up and backstroked to a rock. Sliding to a sitting position on the slick surface, he gripped her waist in a gentle hold, her skin soft and silky under his palms. Water swirled around their chests and bodies, but his weight kept them anchored.
“Who knows about this place?” she asked, her eyes once again drawn to the grotto-like beauty of it.
“That’s a bit of a weird story,” he started. She glanced down at him, but her gaze drifted away again. “I’m sure you know from your research that there are four founding families of Mystery Lake. The Warwicks are one. Oscar and Angelica’s family is another,” he said, naming the owner of the Dirty Boom and his daughter. “You met a few members of the other two families at Gramps’s Halloween party, but you might not remember them.”
She dropped her eyes to his, and his heart started to thud. He had her complete attention. It was what he wanted. But even so, his heart rate kicked up.
“At some point after they discovered this lake, all four families agreed that it would be something they’d keep among themselves,” he said. “I don’t know why they made that decision, but it’s been that way since the mid-eighteen hundreds.”
“Only members of the four founding families know about it?” she asked.
He nodded. “There are about seventy-five of us alive,” he continued. “But there are only four keys to the gate. One for each family.”
She made a face. “That’s kind of elitist, isn’t it?”
“In a way, yes. But the lake is on Warwick land. Land that’s been in the family since before the gold rush days. We wouldn’t have to letanyoneuse it if we didn’t want to.”
She seemed to consider this then nodded. “I have to believe that over the years, someone has leaked the secret. Unless you take a blood oath or something?” she teased.
“If anyone has leaked the secret, we haven’t discovered it. And now there’s no way anyone other than one of the family members can get in. They might try, but they wouldn’t succeed.”
“But to keep it a secret…”
“It’s tradition among the families. Once you know about it and are old enough to talk about it, it’s stressed that it isn’t something youshouldtalk about. Every one of us knows that only members of the four families are allowed to use it.”
Her blue-green eyes held his. “I’m not family, though, Chad,” she said, her voice tinged with curiosity and confusion.
This was it. The moment he’d been planning for three weeks. He took a deep breath. “But will you be? Will you be my family, Sabina? Will you let me be yours?”
She blinked and damned if he didn’t see moisture gathering in the corners of her eyes.
“Are you asking me to marry you, Chad Warwick?”
He swallowed and nodded. “I am,” he said. “I love you. I want you to be my family, and I want to be yours. I want my family to be yours, and I want Kara to think of me as her brother. And maybe, if we decide to, and we’re lucky, we can start a family of our own.”
