Twisted Miracles (33 page)

* * *

That evening, the church in Briny Point made the local news. I watched with a mixture of satisfaction and anger as Dominic Geary stood in the center of the stage and read from his printed speech. I already knew what it said, having written it myself, but it was different to hear it coming out of his mouth while flashbulbs went off like popcorn all around him.

“I am deeply sorry for the pain and suffering I have caused. I take full responsibility for my actions and I will be donating the entirety of the proceeds from the sale of the church to the New Orleans Rebirth Fund. Thank you.” He backed away, refusing questions, just as we’d told him to. Good. That meant we wouldn’t have to follow through on our threats.

After everyone was back from the hospital, I’d gone up to Geary’s guest room and explained the conditions of his release. He’d never promised anyone anything in return for the money he’d collected at the church, so we couldn’t get him on fraud. Besides, the truth of what went on there wasn’t something we wanted the general public to know. We decided to let the believable lie stand. Fear was obvious in Geary’s eyes through the news cameras, and I was glad. I’d done a thorough job of explaining what would happen if he didn’t go through with it.

“That bastard’s getting better than he deserves,” Shane said, echoing my thoughts.

“And wouldn’t it be a wonderful world if we all did.” Lionel was propped up in an armchair, his broken leg stretched out in front of him on an ottoman.

“How do you feel?” I asked him. I could tell he was still in pain.

“I’m all right. Just need to mend, now.”

The news switched to footage of a sailboat race, and Shane flipped it off. Mina went up to bed, and Lionel left not long after, Bruce helping him slowly up the stairs. Shane and I were left sitting on the couch together. I polished off my beer and sent the bottle floating into the recycling bin in the kitchen.

“Ready for bed?” he asked me.

“Yes,” I said, and we went upstairs together.

Afterward, when I was lying against his shoulder, spent and happy and listening to his heart, he sat up a little and turned me on my side to face him.

“There’s something I want to ask you,” he said.

“Okay.” I propped myself up on my elbow, and he turned on the light on his bedside table. “What is it?” I prompted when he didn’t speak.

“I’ve got some money saved up, from working at Charlie’s.”

“Yeah?”

“And I haven’t had much reason to do anything with it until now.” He paused again.

“Where is this going?”

“I found a condo in the Marigny, just a one-bedroom. It’s a great little place.”

“You want to move out?” I sat up. “Really?”

“Well, yeah. I mean, of course I’ll come and help Lionel when he needs me, but I don’t want to live here the rest of my life. Lionel knows I don’t want to run this place, and Charlie says I can work for him full-time if I want.”

“That’s great.”

“You think so?”

“Of course.”

“That’s good. Because I’m not going to take it unless you come with me.”

“What, like move in together?” I must have looked shocked, because he laughed.

“Why are you so surprised?” He brought my knuckles to his lips. “Like you haven’t been sleeping in my bed for days now.”

“No, I guess—” I stopped, and looked at him. Warmth spread through my body from my chest to my toes. “Yes.”

He pulled me close and kissed me. “Yes?” His smile curved against my mouth, and I smiled back, opening the mental connection between us. I felt the frisson of nerves and the bloom of hope in his head. I let him see the way it matched mine. I let him see everything I imagined for our future but couldn’t put into words.

“Yes.” I laced my fingers among his. Of all the decisions I’d been forced to make in the past month, this one was the easiest.

* * * * *

Coming Soon

Watch for DANGEROUS CALLING by A. J. Larrieu
Book Two in
THE SHADOWMINDS
series
Coming in Fall, 2014

About the Author

A.J. Larrieu grew up in small-town Louisiana, where she spent her summers working in her family’s bakery, exploring the swamps around her home and reading science-fiction and fantasy novels under the covers. At one point there really was an alligator in her backyard, but it was a small one. She attended Louisiana State University, where she majored in biochemistry and wrote bad poetry on the side.

Despite pursuing a PhD in biology, she couldn’t kick the writing habit, and by the time she graduated, she had an addiction to writing sexy urban fantasy and paranormal romance. The first book in her Shadowminds series,
Twisted Miracles
, was a finalist in RWA’s Golden Heart competition.

A.J. lives in San Francisco with her family, where she works as a biochemist by day and writes sexy supernatural stories by night. She loves to chat with fellow book lovers, so please drop her a line at
[email protected]
, follow her on Twitter at
@ajlarrieu
, or visit her at
www.ajlarrieu.com
.

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ISBN-13: 9781426898136

TWISTED MIRACLES

Copyright © 2014 by A.J. Larrieu

Edited by Deborah Nemeth

All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

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