The Sunstone Brooch : Time Travel Romance Katherine Logan (no david read aloud TXT) 📖

a wham. And she nearly dropped to her knees. Austin must have sensed she was close to freaking out because he was immediately at her side.

“I’ve got you.”

She leaned against him, appreciating the simple courtesy and concern. Austin took her gun, ejected the mag, racked the slide, removed the chambered round, and then did the same to his before placing both Glocks on the stainless steel table.

Charlotte sucked in a deep breath. “Dear God. No wonder his mind is so distressed and agitated. But if they did all that to him, I’m as confused as David. How’s it possible JC doesn’t have a scratch?”

“If ye can figure out how that happened, clue me in. I doubt even James Cullen knows.” The color slowly returned to Elliott’s face. “Let’s carry him over to the bed.” He bent to pick up his son’s legs, but David stepped in front of him, and, with Braham’s help, they carried JC and placed him in the bed. Elliott straightened the red fabric, so it covered JC from neck to toes. “James Cullen needs some of those heated blankets from the warmer.”

“I’ll get them.” Kenzie pulled two out of the warmer, and she and Elliott, who was on the other side of the bed, quickly cocooned JC in the warm blankets.

Ensley stood there, helpless, still breathing uneasily in the aftermath of JC’s violence. Austin tightened his hold, and she tried to relax against him, and just as the heat from the warming blankets soaked into JC, Austin’s heat seemed to flow into her as well.

Elliott tilted Kenzie’s chin and studied the red marks on her neck. “I’m sorry the lad did that to ye. Erik didn’t mention James Cullen could be violent.”

“No one knows what’s going on inside another person’s head. Erik is a Viking. What’s violent to us might not be violent to him,” she said.

Braham returned to the bed with two pairs of handcuffs. “JC will be furious when he wakes up and discovers he’s restrained, but Charlotte’s right. We can’t take the risk. Sorry, Elliott.”

“Do what ye have to do.”

“How long was he with Erik?” Kenzie asked.

Elliott shrugged.

“JC left me over two weeks ago to go to MacKlenna Farm,” Ensley said.

“Why’d he leave ye, lass?” Braham asked.

“He said there was gold in your casket there. He was going to borrow a few gold bars, and then we were supposed to meet in Cleveland and travel to New York City with Mr. Roosevelt.”

“He shouldn’t have left you. That’s the number one cardinal rule of time traveling,” Kenzie said.

David coughed. “Did ye really say that, Kenz? Don’t ye remember running away from me and nearly getting yerself killed?”

“The situation was different.”

“The only difference I see is that this time it was JC and not ye.”

“Okay, you’re right. Almost getting killed is the reason it’s the cardinal rule. And I’m guilty of breaking it, but if you’d been honest with me, I wouldn’t have run away.”

“I accept my share of the blame,” David said.

She chuckled. “I love it when you show vulnerability. It makes you even sexier.”

He winked at her.

Kenzie returned the wink, and in that quick opening and closing of her eye, she telegraphed an “I love you” to her husband, and it gave Ensley goosebumps to witness the love flowing between them.

Then Kenzie turned her attention to the red fabric she was caressing. “What kind of material is this?”

“It’s like linen.” Ensley reached inside her pocket and pulled out the piece she’d found in the hem of her jeans. “Shortly after I arrived in the past, I fell and broke my foot, and it scared me to death. I went to sleep, and when I woke up, my foot was no longer broken. It wasn’t till later that I found this little scrap. It came off Erik’s cloak.”

“I didn’t notice a tear in the fabric,” Elliott said.

“I didn’t, either,” Kenzie added.

Ensley held her piece against the cloak. “The fabric’s the same. Maybe Erik had another cloak, but if he did, he would have worn it when he fought the bear.”

“What bear?”

“The bear that killed him,” Ensley said sadly.

“Erik’s dead?” Elliott asked.

Ensley nodded. “Can I tell you about it later? There’s too much going on right now.”

“Sure,” Elliott said. “But I doubt Erik has…had…another one. He seemed oddly resigned when we talked, but he was firm about James Cullen having the cloak now. And he said James Cullen was never to be without it.”

“For how long?” Kenzie asked.

A worried frown creased Elliott’s brow. “The rest of his life.”

“Did he say why?” David asked.

The creases in Elliott’s brow deepened as he considered David’s question. “No. Just that he must always have it with him.”

“Like Superman’s suit underneath his clothes?” Ensley asked. “Erik should have explained. Why would JC ever believe that?”

“He seems attached to it already,” Kenzie said, “or rather, his body seems attached to it. Did you notice the way it clung to him?”

Did I notice? How could I not?

“It has static,” Ensley said.

“Maybe it’s a shield that will protect him in the future. If I believed that, I’d never go anywhere without it.” Kenzie then crossed her arms and leaned against the stainless steel table. “Elliott, where are Meredith and the others? Did you drop them off somewhere, or did you intentionally leave them behind?”

Elliott ignored the question and walked over to the drink station, where he put a pod in the coffee machine. “Anyone want coffee?”

“No!” Kenzie snapped. “Where is Meredith?”

“And Kit and Cullen?” Braham added.

Charlotte popped her head out of her exam room. “And Emily? I could use her help right now.”

“They’re still at MacKlenna Farm,” Elliott said, stirring a dollop of cream into his cup of coffee, which Ensley thought was odd. He drank his coffee black, just like JC. Was he even aware of what he was doing?

Kenzie gasped with such force it almost sucked all the oxygen out of the room. “You left Meredith—”

“And my best friend—” Braham said.

“And Emily!” Charlotte added.

“And Kit,” Elliott confessed. “When Erik brought James