Micah (25 page)

His eyes were slow coming to her, but
she had to help him. He’d done so much for her. The man would never
know just what he’d done for her, giving her these few moments. As
he came under her spell, she tried her best not to let the hot
tears blur her vision as she reached deep into his mind and shoved
all that she was into him. She sent him to his family and the
person foremost in his mind, then Angel reached for her
sister.

I’m
dying
. When she started to speak, she cut
her off.
No. There’s no time. I need for
you to find a man by the name of Micah Bentley. He has
everything
.

Where are you? I’m coming
for you
. Angel looked up just as a shadow
fell over her. The thing standing over her was neither man nor
beast, but a combination of the two.
Chris
?

I’m as good as dead. But
find him. He will help you
. The first bit
of magic that hit her mind was searching. He’d find nothing but the
conversation with her sister. There were no plans there, nothing to
lead him to her and her family, and not a bit of information about
Micah Bentley.
I love
you
.

The pain took her breath away. She
held on for as long as she could, lifting her hand while sinking
the other one into the earth saturated in her blood. With all she
had left, she hit the person who would end her life and threw him
away from her. But her body simply quit. Her only solace was that
she’d be home soon, and her sister would make sure that she was put
to rest by their mom.

~~~

Joey was sitting in his car watching
the big earth movers crush the barn. The house had been destroyed
several days ago and now lay in rubble in large containers that had
been brought in for this clean-up. As the barn fell, he got out and
watched with joy as it seemed to go down like a house of cards. As
he was about to take a step toward the big movers, he was knocked
to the ground by what felt like a huge boulder.

“
Help me.” Joey scrambled
out from under Micah when he realized who it was. There was so much
blood that he was sure that he’d been killed, but when he reached
for his pulse, Joey was relieved to find it strong and steady.
Micah asked again for help.

“
I’m calling someone now.”
He wasn’t sure what had happened, but he knew that his grandda and
two of his other brothers were on the property. He called for them
all right then. “What happened, Micah? And why the fuck are you
naked?”

“
Fuck off.” Micah moaned
and rolled to his back. The view wasn’t any better so he went to
his car and pulled out a pair of pants and tossed them to his
brother. “You’ll have to help me. I hurt like I’ve fucking been
shot.”

“
Just lay them over your
dangles, please.” Micah laughed, and Joey felt reasonably better.
“What happened? And how did you get here? I’m assuming that you
didn’t get here on your own.”

“
A woman.” Joey looked
around but saw no one. “Angel McKenzie. You sent me to talk to her.
She knew nothing, but someone came and tried to…I think she might
be dead.”

Joey sat down. He could see Grandda
coming toward him, but he didn’t want him to know what had
happened. Joey told Micah that he was near.

“
I’m getting better. I
don’t think…she did something to me. I don’t know what, but she
sort of put me in this trance-like state, and then I was here.
Check to see if I’m still bleeding. I got hit in the back when I
tried to save her.” Micah sat up with Grandda’s help. They both
helped Micah pull on his pants, and Joey was worried when he had to
rest again. “I do feel better, believe it or not. Just weak as
fuck.”

“
What did you do, fall?
Naked?” Micah just laughed. “Not funny, boy. You’re scaring this
old man. Last I heard you were in town interviewing some secretary
about a bunch of money missing. Don’t seem to me that would get you
looking like somebody went and drained you.”

“
I don’t know what
happened, to be honest.” Joey watched his brother and when he
glanced at him, he nodded. “There was a woman that was…I believe
she’s dead, and she sent me here somehow to save me from ending up
the same way. I have no idea what happened.”

“
What hurt you? Because I
can see the blood is all dried up, but you don’t appear to be
injured. Is it hers?” Micah told Grandda he didn’t think so, that
it had been his. “I see. Well, I don’t, but I guess we’ll have to
look into this. Don’t tell your momma or your grandmother. You know
how those women can be. I won’t even tell you not to tell Reggie.
She’d have my hide in a minute. That woman is a little on the
protective side since she became a momma to them girls.”

That was very true. So was not telling
the other women. But Joey knew that they’d find out. Especially
their mom. She had a way of ferretting out information better than
anyone he knew. He often thought of asking her to come work for
him.

As Micah began to move around more,
Joey felt better. The blood, as Grandda had pointed out, was dry,
and there didn’t seem to be any kind of wound on his big brother.
What worried him, however, was how he’d gotten here and where Angel
was. The woman was prime in their investigation. Joey had thought
the woman was going to close the case for them. And now she was
probably dead.

“
When do you start?” Joey
looked at Micah and when he nodded to the equipment, he realized
that they’d stop moving. “When are you going to start on the house?
I’m guessing that’s what you’re building first.”

“
Yes, the house. I’m
having it…I’ve hired on some extra help to get it up and the
outside done before it gets too cold. Then I’m going to have the
barn worked on. The fencing is going up now.” Joey looked out over
his new property. “I’m going to love it here.”

“
I bet you will.” He was
worried, but he could tell that Micah was trying his best to
lighten things up. His mom and the rest of the family were coming
out today to help him break ground, so to speak, and he was really
looking forward to it. “We’ll talk later.”

“
All right.” He and his
brother followed his grandda to the large tent they’d had put up.
It was big enough to hold several families, he supposed, but he
didn’t want anything to be left to chance. This was his beginning.
And someday, a long, long time from now, he was going to find his
mate and start a family. Joey was really looking forward to
it.

About the Author

Kathi Barton, author of the
bestselling series Force of Nature, lives in Nashport, Ohio with
her husband Paul. In addition to writing full time Kathi likes to
spend time with her eight grandkids, three children and three
children-in-laws. She writes to relax and have fun.

Her muse, a cross between
Jimmy Stewart and Hugh Jackman brings them to life for her readers
in a way that has them coming back time and again for more. Her
favorite genre is paranormal romance with a great deal of spice.
You can visit Kathi on line and drop her an email if you’d like.
She loves hearing from her fans.
[email protected]
.

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blog:
http://kathisbartonauthor.blogspot.com/