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“I want to talk to Addy first. She’s a medic and worst-case scenario, she can call her mom about Elena’s mom. Elena said heart trouble, but they don’t have a doctor up there.”
“Okay. So, you want to see if they can help her mom?”
“I know they’ll help her. And I’ll cover any costs. But I want to make sure that moving her won’t cause a heart attack. That would be a shit way to start out a relationship.”
“Yeah, it would.” Spencer scratched his chin. “Then what?”
“I want to talk to Emmy and Chase.”
“You mean from RAPTOR?”
“Yeah. Chase is a doctor, but he’s also a scientist. What if he could work with Elena and she could make a form of the elixir to help people. He could help her with it.”
Spencer sat up straight. “That’s actually a great idea, Aid.”
“That’s what I’ve lain awake all night thinking about.”
“Where did you go with her?”
He took a deep breath. “The rental. It’s still under lease with us for another month. It was the only place I could think of where we could talk without being seen.”
“So, answer this and know I don’t care as long as you’re safe. Was that Elena you snuck out of a container the other night?”
He swallowed. “Yes. It was after a security check, I saw her across the road watching for me. I didn’t know where we could talk without being seen, so I opened the container and we stepped in there.”
Spencer sipped his coffee. “Aid, how long have you two been seeing each other on the sly?”
“It started last fall the night of the Bourbon Ball.”
Spencer whistled. “That’s something. I had no idea.”
“I guess that’s good. It means we’ve been careful.”
He laid his elbows on his thighs. His coffee cup was held in his left hand, the thumb on his right hand absently brushed the bracelet Elena had made him.
“If you’re asking me, I think your plan is good, Aid. Speak with Addy. Then Emmy and Chase. But for god’s sake, be careful. You are not well-liked up there and if they catch you with one of their women, they’ll kill you, and that’s not being melodramatic. Especially if they want her to marry and have babies. You’re messing with an asset. The only one up there who brews their elixir. You’re stepping into a big nasty pile of shit here.”
“I know, Spence. It’s all I’ve been thinking of.”
“One last thing, then I’m going to eat Lara’s cookies. If you are successful in bringing her down here, you won’t be able to stay. They’ll make life hell for you both. And us for good measure.”
“I’ve thought that too. It helps that Myles will be here in a week. You won’t be shorthanded. But I do know things will get dicey.”
Spencer slapped him on the shoulder and strode back to the house.
Aidyn sighed and followed him to the house. Or, The HOG. He grinned, he liked it. HOG.
ChapterTwenty-Six
Her thoughts were all over the board. She wanted to march out there and kick over the still and tell Craig to shove his dick up his ass. It satisfied her to think of saying it. But, as she moved her jaw, and the pain shot to her ear, she wasn’t sure she was ready for a beating. So, she put on her apron, kissed her mom on the cheek, and strode out the door.
She stared ahead as she neared the brew house, eager to get busy and let the words of this morning roll off her back. But she carried a new determination in her belly to leave this place. She could clean houses in town. At least, once she learned how to turn on showers and all the things she’d need to learn about living in an actual house. Aidyn had opened her eyes last night, to many things. One of them being, she loved him. That was the biggest one of all the things.
She knew it in her gut now. But she didn’t know how he felt about her. She pushed back her feelings of inferiority. It didn’t matter that she’d never seen a toilet—she wondered if he knew how to brew a healing elixir. No, she didn’t know how to turn on the shower, but she’d bet he didn’t know a mandrake from a chamomile flower.
She read books. Mostly things about plants and flowers, but she’d learned. She could read and write, and she could think.
But time was running out now. She built the fire under the still and began pouring in her emulsified plant extracts and water into the top. She set a clean bottle under the spigot, and she lined up her other bottles to transfer them out as needed today.
