Turned out Roxy didn’t have much in her apartment. I fit her clothes—even her nursing scrubs—all in the same huge Samsonite suitcase, and threw her massive texts books in a box I found in the closet. She had an old laptop but no internet access. She didn’t even have a television.
There was a single picture on the wall. Five people, Roxy sitting at the feet of a weathered old woman. Her family.
I packed that too.
By the time she emerged from the bathroom I had everything already lugged down the stairs to the street and packed in my camper. Thankfully I’d cleaned out the empty tequila bottles, or there wouldn’t have been enough room for her, not to mention her box of things and her one piece of luggage.
Seriously, what woman ever had so few belongings?
But when she came out of the bathroom dressed in an old t-shirt, faded jeans and her long hair wet and combed back from her face, I lost my breath and suddenly couldn’t say anything.
Maybe my brain turned off.
But my heart started banging in my chest hard enough it felt like it was ready to pop right out of my ribcage.
Damn…
Roxy stopped in her tracks, a carry case of her toiletries in her hand, and looked around her apartment. Her eyes were wide if not sad. “Like I never lived here.”
“You travel light, I guess.” I stood there as her eyes swept over the apartment. I didn’t like the look in her eyes. She was thinking too much. And those thoughts were probably not good ones.
“Once we’re on the road you’ll feel better.”
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Then she opened her eyes and stared a hole right through me. “So where are we going?”
Good question.
“Nonna? Where are we going?” the old woman had went poof after Roxy went into the shower.
“She knows the way,” she said, now standing at the windows facing toward the street.
“She says you know the way.”
Roxy blinked and then frowned. “No. I’m not leading those assholes to my family.”
Nonna made an irritated noise. “She’s just like her sister. So stubborn!” She looked to me and gave me one of her patented get off your ass looks.
“Go hold her hand.”
My brows shot up. “What?”
“Go hold her hand, or touch her somewhere, anywhere—as long as it’s skin on skin.”
“Nonna…” I had to laugh. She was incorrigible. “This isn’t the time for you to start matchmaking.”
Roxy gave me a hard look and then looked over to where I was directing my conversation with Nonna.
Nonna snickered. “The matchmaking has already begun. You’re behind there, boy.” She walked over to me, stopping right beside me. “I think she’ll be able to see me if you touch her. It’s a magic thing, and like it or not, magic’s in your blood. So go touch her so I can talk to her without having to have you relaying the message. Okay?”
Leave it to Nonna to make sense, even when she was talking bat-shit crazy.
She glared at me.
Yeah, I know you can hear me.
Her mouth tightened as she pursed her lips.
She was winding up.
Not good.
“Okay…” I said, jumping up and walking over to Roxy. “We need to hold hands. She thinks you’ll be able to see her if we do, and then she can talk to you.”
Roxy gave me a strange, thoughtful look. “Because of your magic, right?”
It was my turn to look at her thoughtfully. Beautiful, tough as hell, and full of surprises.
I nodded.
She looked down at her hands and then held one out to me. “Okay.”
Okay…
My heart was drumming against my chest, I was sure she could hear it, as she placed her hand in mine.
It was like touching a live wire.
Instant.
Devastating.
Overwhelming.
Every inch of me was vibrating with happiness, with an electrical charge of want.
I wanted her.
I needed her.
Mine… spoke my bear as I’d never heard him before.
When she looked at me her eyes were a beautiful glowing green. Her cat was staring at me through her. Both staring at me, hunger in their eyes.
I gulped, knowing my bear was staring through my eyes as well. They were probably gold.
“If you two are done,” Nonna said sarcastically from where I’d left her standing. “I need to talk to her and then you two need to hit the road.”
Roxy gasped and her eyes dimmed to their regular faded green. She was staring at Nonna, her eyes wide and shocked.
“There will be time for you two to bond on the trip.”
Roxy shook her head. “I told you, I’m not—”
Nonna cut across her. “Yes, I heard you. But do you have a clan or pack in mind that will be big or strong enough to handle twenty plus shifters?”
I didn’t. “But there’s just my sister and your grandson there.” She looked to me, her eyes beseeching. “They’ll be killed.”
“Yes, there’s your sister, the mighty medicine woman and werepuma who has defeated both a dark fae and a skinwalker, her werebear mate, her brother the werewolf, his crew of fifteen-odd shifters, not to mention your Gram, who is still rather powerful on her native soil—and me.”
I laughed and Roxy glared at me. “Sounds like an army to me.”
Nonna came closer and looked up into Roxy’s eyes. “It’s your only hope. Wolves are pack hunters, and with numbers like they have, they’ll feel emboldened. And since you left their members hurt like you did,” she winked at me, “They’ll have more than enough reason to track you down.”
Roxy shook her head. “So I’ll run. I’ll run away as fast as I can, as far away from my family as I can. They’ll either catch me, or they’ll lose interest after a while.”
God, she was sexy when she got all self-sacrificing.
“Nobel, really,” Nonna said, “But I’m afraid they have help in finding you.”
“Help?” I said just as Roxy did.
Nonna looked sad as she swallowed and said, “The skinwalker still lives.”
The muscles in Roxy’s arms tightened and she pulled herself from my grasp.
I stood there panting, staring at her. There was wild, uncontrolled fear in her eyes. And the green of her puma was burning bright.
I thought she was going to jump through one of the apartment windows.
Her breathing was ragged and I could hear her heart beating savagely in her chest, like a bird beating itself to death on the bars of a gilded cage.
She clenched her eyes closed and gritted her teeth, and slowly bent her neck to the side.
She was forcing herself and her cat to calm down.
Such a powerful, wondrous woman…
She licked her lips and opened her eyes to me again. She strode to me and put her hand in mine again.
Ah, the relief of touching her again.