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“Yeah, and she always seemed fine with that. A lot of Catholics don’t care about that kind of stuff anymore. They shouldn’t, anyway.”
“I totally agree. What else can you tell me about her?”
“She was just…nice. The way I put it to Buck was she was the Miss Congeniality of our team.”
“I see. So you really don’t think it was her even though she had the most to gain.”
“Yeah, it would really surprise the hell out of me if it turned out to be her.”
“So what makes you think it was a teammate?”
“Because we were headed to New York for a game, and I started feeling sick after we got off the plane at LaGuardia. So sick that I didn’t go to dinner that night. I stayed in my room, and the next thing I know…”
“You are in that damned concrete room,” Katelyn finishes for me.
“Give the girl a gold star.” I smile.
“It’s good to see you smiling, Aspen.”
Funny. I have been smiling a lot the last couple of days.
“Oh my God,” Katelyn says.
“What?”
“You’ve been having sex, haven’t you?”
My eyebrows nearly fly off my face. “How did you do that?”
“It’s that look. You look exactly the way I felt. It’s kind of like you never thought you’d want to have sex again, and then you meet someone— My God, is it Buck?”
Warmth flies to my cheeks.
“You’re blushing. It is Buck.”
“It doesn’t mean anything.”
“It doesn’t have to mean anything. But I can tell you that Buck is a great guy. He protected me… Gosh, I guess there’s a lot I have to tell you.”
“There sure is. How exactly do you know Buck?”
“I’m sure he told you part of it.”
“A little, but how do you know he’s such a good guy?”
“You know he was a Navy SEAL right?”
“Of course.”
“I told you Luke turned out to be an ex-drug kingpin. Or rather, the right-hand man to a drug kingpin who is now in prison, thanks to Luke and Buck. Anyway, the kingpin had me kidnapped—”
My heart nearly stops. “No… Please don’t tell me you were taken again.”
Katelyn takes a sip of water. “I was. And I was scared out of my mind, but Buck… Buck helped me.”
“What was Buck doing there?”
“He was looking for Luke. He wanted revenge. It’s a long story.”
“Yeah, he told me. Part of it anyway.”
“Anyway, King, the drug kingpin—”
“His name was King?”
“Yeah. Coincidence. His name is actually Kingsford something. Anyway, to get at Luke, King had me taken.”
“Oh my God, Katelyn. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay. That’s how I met Buck. Buck had gotten captured by King as well when he went looking for Luke. It’s because of Buck that I didn’t lose hope, and it’s also because of…”
“Because of what?”
“You’ll never believe this, but it was because of Moonstone.”
I raise my eyebrows. “What do you mean?”
“I had to become Moonstone again. I didn’t want to, but I had to.”
“I get it.” And I do. I understand completely. The island was treacherous, and if I could go back in time and change it for all of us, I would in a minute. But for those of us determined to power through, it gave us an endurance—even for me, as a pro athlete—we wouldn’t otherwise have. I can’t say I’m grateful. Not at all. But the strength is there, for me and for Katelyn, and it’s because of what we went through.
“Do you think you can become Garnet again?”
“It’s different with me,” I say. “Garnet isn’t that much different from Aspen. She only looks different. I had to use all my strength, all the moves I learned as a professional athlete. I was never Garnet, not inside. I was always Aspen.”
And I’m still Aspen.
I’m just a different Aspen than I was before I was taken.
Old Aspen was naïve.
Aspen now is no longer naïve.
Aspen now understands how evil people can be, and she wants to make sure they pay.
35
BUCK
I squint.
Sure enough, I see him.
Lucifer Raven. He looks a little different now. His hair is no longer dark. It’s a sandy blond.
He stands—wearing Levi’s and a button-down, his hands shoved into his pockets—near the doorway to the restaurant.
Clearly he’s doing the same thing I am. He’s keeping watch over his woman.
Damn him to hell.
It’s hard to accept that people change. Damned difficult, if you ask me.
The man abused my sister. My little sister. There’s not enough forgiveness in the world for that.
But he seems to have shed the feathers of the Raven, gotten clean from his alcohol abuse, and worked a deal with the Feds so he no longer has to be in hiding and he retains immunity from all of his transgressions.
Yeah, having an old man who’s worth hundreds of millions of dollars is quite a boon.
Our gazes meet.
He doesn’t like me anymore than I like him.
But, if I end up needing his help to figure out who ultimately led to Aspen’s abduction, I’ll take him up on his offer.
