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* * *
How could Echo sleep with him knowing who he was? She knew very well what he had been and what he could be again. She’d seen it, had peeked inside his dark past. She saw, felt, even experienced, things even he had forgotten, and yet she remained here. She trusted him enough to sleep.
When Echo relaxed completely into his spine and settled into easy, even breathing, Rye moved away from her. Carefully, so as not to wake her. He should leave the bed, leave her be, get away from her influence. Instead, he settled in and watched.
She was beautiful. More than beautiful, she was the embodiment of good, of everything he was not. Echo was beautiful inside and out, an angel to his devil. Light to the dark that was trying so hard to win.
He’d been right to sense the danger when she’d first walked into his pub.
He watched her sleep for a while, then he nodded off himself. It was not a restful sleep. His dreams were vivid and disjointed, and they felt so damned real.
When he woke the sun had risen. Echo was awake, still naked, still beautiful. She was watching him as he had watched her last night for a while.
“If you tell me again that you love me, I’ll break something.”
She laughed and rolled out of bed. “In that case I’ll restrain myself.”
“Thank you.”
“For now,” she added. How could there be humor in her voice? Why was she not running from him? This was not her home to defend, not her family to protect. And yet she stayed.
As he watched her gather her clothes, Rye had the thought that when he and Cassidy left Cloughban, Echo could go with them. Cassidy would need a woman to take care of her. She was only eleven, after all, and there would be many difficult years before she was an adult and could get by on her own. During her early teenage years she’d become volatile and overly emotional, and her powers would be unpredictable. Help would be a good thing. Female help would be best.
Rye accepted that he needed his daughter with him—she possessed so much power, and there was still more to come—but that didn’t mean he wanted to be her caretaker. Echo would serve a real purpose, and it wasn’t as if he didn’t like having her in his bed.
It was the perfect plan. Echo could take care of Cassidy by day and him by night.
She wasn’t shy about walking around the room naked. He got hard, watching her. Did she know what she was doing to him? Of course she did. Tease. She was using him, manipulating him. He’d show her, and this time he wouldn’t be so gentle...
“Go,” he said, fighting the darker urges.
“I told you, I’m not...” she began as she turned to face him. She stopped when she saw him. Her easy smile faded. Whether it was her empathic ability or simple female instinct, she recognized that at the moment he was more dark than light. “I could use a shower and a change of clothes,” she said. “Maybe I’ll run back to my room at the boardinghouse for a little while.” She dressed quickly, more efficient than he’d ever seen her. “I have a phone call to make first. I’ll use the phone in the kitchen, if that’s okay with you.”
“Just leave,” he said, and then he turned his back to her.
He had another thought as the door to his room opened and closed. He should leave Cloughban on his own. Alone. A child and a woman would be too damn much trouble, no matter how powerful either of them might be.
Echo was a real danger to the man he needed to become.
* * *
Cassidy frowned into her porridge. That man who looked like her da but was really only part of her da had done something to her. He’d said it was for her own protection, but she couldn’t travel out of body to check on him and Echo.
She couldn’t complain to her granny or to Mr. McManus. Her grandmother had long ago forbidden her to use that power. Granny said it was rude to pop in on people unexpected and unannounced. She was also afraid that at some point Cassidy might not be able to return to herself, that she’d be stuck in two places unable to become one again. Cassidy knew that would never happen, and at the moment she wasn’t at all worried about being rude. This was different! This was important!
“Don’t worry, dear,” Granny said from a short distance away. “Everything is going to be all right.”
Cassidy looked up. Her granny did know some things, but she didn’t see all, not the way Cassidy did. “You don’t know that. I don’t even know that!” She should know, but there was a lot that had to happen before she could be sure.
Sometimes the immediate future was set in stone, but usually a series of decisions led to any outcome. It was the reason so many visions of the future came right before they happened. While some events to come were meant to be, those instances were rare. The right decision at the right moment—or the wrong decision at the wrong moment—could change everything.
Her da’s protection spell had done more than take away her ability to travel at will. All her powers were dampened. Some were sleeping entirely. Was that a side effect of the spell he’d cast to keep her from visiting, or had he purposely bound her this way?
At the moment she knew only one thing with any certainty: no one but Echo Raintree could save her da from the curse that threatened him.
* * *
Showered and dressed, Echo walked toward the town square with coffee and pastries on her mind. She wasn’t quite ready to return to Ryder. The expression on his face as she’d left him a couple hours ago...that look had scared her. What if her plan didn’t work?
