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

JL stared at Rick. “He’s your nephew, goddamn it. Tell Pops it’s a horrible idea.”

“He’s getting worse, JL. We’ve all visited the ranch to talk to him,” Rick said, “and he’s not listening to any of us. Connor goes out there two or three times a week. A few days ago, Austin told Connor he planned to change the code to the security gate if Connor didn’t stop bothering him.”

“What’d Connor say?” Elliott asked.

“He laughed and reminded Austin he was VP of Global Security, and if he couldn’t get past a locked gate, then he should be fired.”

“Great, just great,” JL said. “That shows you how messed up he is. He loves you guys. He’d rather spend time with Rick, Connor, Shane, and Jeff than anyone else in the world.”

“He’s messed up,” Pops said. “That’s why I want him to go with Tavis.”

“But, Pops, if Austin goes cold turkey off pain meds, it could get ugly. No, it will get ugly. He’ll need to be near a hospital,” JL pleaded. “This is a horrible idea. I don’t like it, and I vote a big, fat, hell no.” She looked from Rick to Pops and back again. “Don’t do this. Kidnap him and take him to a treatment facility, but sticking him in 1885 might just kill him.”

“Jenny Lynn,” Pops said, “you know how much I love Austin and how much your mother loved him, too, but he’s on a destructive path, and it’s time we did something. I believe this trip is exactly what he needs.”

David knocked on the table to get everyone’s attention. “If this is what ye want for Austin, it’s time for me to share his secret that I swore never to mention, but if he’s going on this adventure, there’s something ye should know. It could make matters worse.”

“I don’t see how that’s possible,” Pops said.

“This might set him off more than being kidnapped.”

“Oh, God, David. You’ve got everybody’s attention now. So what’s so bad?” JL asked.

“Austin wrote a book about his accident and recovery. I gave him the name of an agent who might shop the manuscript for him. The agent received rejections from a handful of editors. One editor, in particular, wrote the agent back and said the author’s situation was unresolved. Until he decided what he wanted to do with his life, the book would never have a purpose.”

“I’m sorry it didn’t work out for the lad,” Elliott said.

“That’s not the point,” David said.

“Shit!” Kenzie groaned. “Say it ain’t so.” When David didn’t say anything, she said, “The editor was Ensley, and Austin was probably more pissed by what she said than her rejection.”

JL said, “If you kidnap him and drop him in the Dakotas to rescue her, all hell will break loose, and he’ll never forgive any of us.”

“No reason to panic,” Tavis said. “We won’t tell him. We’ll only mention JC.”

“Elliott,” Meredith said. “You and Pops want to use tough love. I get that. But this isn’t the way to go about it.” Then to Kevin, she said, “You haven’t said anything. He’s your stepson. What do you think?”

Kevin took JL’s hand and kissed the back of it. “There are enough decision-makers at this table—mother, uncle, grandfather—that I don’t need to weigh in unless you want me to make the final decision. In that case, I’ll choose what I believe is best for Austin and his mother.”

“I don’t know what decision ye’d make, but ye and JL had best be on the same page. Austin loves ye, and I’d never want ye to do anything that might destroy the trust ye built up with the lad. And I don’t want JL, Rick, or Pops to feel the sting of his anger, either.”

Elliott paused and sipped from the mug in front of him. The tension in the room was higher than the cathedral ceiling. He had to make a decision. Now.

“Austin joined this family when his mother married Kevin,” Elliott continued. “He was seventeen, and now he’s thirty-two. That’s almost half his life. Since he considers himself part of the MacKlenna Clan, then I’m ultimately responsible for his welfare.”

Elliott sat back in his chair and clasped his hands across his abdomen. “This is the way it’s going to be. Tavis and Remy, I want ye two to go to Colorado and invite Austin to go with ye to rescue Ensley and James Cullen. If he refuses, use whatever force is necessary to get him into the fog. If he cusses ye out and wants to kill someone, tell him to take it up with me when he gets back.”

Elliott pushed away from the table. “This meeting is adjourned.” Then he left the room.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” Meredith said, hurrying to catch up with him. “Never saw that one coming.”

25

Elkhorn Ranch (1885)—Ensley

Ensley sat in one of the rocking chairs on the veranda of TR’s ranch house, gazing sleepily at the fast-moving Little Missouri River while sipping coffee and watching the sunrise bloom over the Badlands. Golden streams of light stretched outward into the vibrant blue sky, and she chuckled at the raspy chatter of a black-billed magpie, sitting on the fence post like he owned the place.

Who are you talking to, little birdie? I can hear you.

It was all so extraordinary.

But this wasn’t her first insanely gorgeous Dakota morning. Not by a long shot. And she never failed to appreciate its invitation to enjoy a brand-new day, even when she’d been struggling alone with only her little knife and birchbark bowls.

She rocked while she looked for patterns, shapes, and faces in the weird-looking buttes across the river, their sharp outlines slowly growing more distinct in the multicolored sunrise.

The hairs on the back of her neck suddenly twitched, and her spine snapped to attention. She jerked to find JC gazing at her from the corner of the veranda.

She rubbed her neck to calm her nerves, wondering why she was jumpy now when she