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

cross his feet, grab his jeans at the ankles, and lift on the count of three. JL, clear a path.” Then to Remy, he said, “Let’s move toward my right.” Tavis counted to three, and they lifted Austin and carried him to the aisle. Tavis walked backward toward the entrance.

“Get the door, JL.”

When they reached the hallway, Remy took the lead. They exited the house and hurried to the truck parked nearby, where they placed Austin in the bed.

“You drive, JL,” Tavis said.

As soon as JL reached the barn, she drove down the center aisle to where Connor and Kevin waited with the horses.

Kevin opened JL’s door. “How’d it go?”

“I was going to use the stun gun, but Tavis got antsy and went with the chokehold. We only have another minute or two. Let’s get him in the saddle.”

“How do you plan to do that?” Kevin asked.

“Lay him over the saddle.”

“No, wait,” Connor said. “I’ll bring the horse next to the truck, and you two can set him in the saddle.”

With everyone working together, they got Austin in the saddle, and Connor adjusted the stirrups.

“He’s going to fall off,” JL said. “Tie him to the saddle, or one of you has to ride with him.”

“I’ll sit behind Austin and hold him up.” Remy climbed on the back of the horse and wrapped his arms around Austin’s waist. “Let’s go now. If he wakes up, he’ll pitch me off the horse.”

Connor gave the reins to Tavis.

Tavis wrapped the reins around his saddle horn. “If we get separated, let’s meet in Medora.”

Kevin tied the third horse’s reins to a D-ring on Tavis’s saddle. “Don’t break the connection between Remy and Tavis, or you’ll end up in different locations.”

Austin groaned.

“He’s coming to,” Remy said. “Let’s roll.”

JL jumped up into the bed of the truck, leaned over, and kissed Austin’s cheek. “Take care of him, please. And if you have to wean him off painkillers, don’t let him suffer.”

Tavis rode around to the rear of the truck and grabbed JL around the waist. He pulled her onto his horse, hugging her tight. He lightly brushed her damp cheek to whisper in her ear. “I’ll take care of your boy and will bring him back to you. That’s a promise.”

JL kissed Tavis’s cheek. “Can I take that to the bank?”

“You sure can.” As soon as the words left Tavis’s mouth, he had a vision of the Council members, but there was an empty chair at the round table.

He didn’t have time to analyze what he saw. He’d do that later. He set JL back on the truck bed and dug the amethyst brooch out of his pocket.

“We’ll go outside,” Tavis said. “I don’t want to take anything else with us.” He rode outside, leading the other two horses, and recited the chant from memory.

“Chan ann le tìm no àite a bhios sinn a’ tomhais an’ gaol ach ’s ann le neart anama.”

The brooch didn’t heat. It didn’t spark. It glowed a bright purple, and a cloudlike substance swirled around them. There was no smell of peat, no twisting, no turning, just a floating sensation. And while the weightlessness was slightly disorienting, the horses reacted with only a snort or two.

The ride was blissfully smooth, without rough roads and potholes. After a moment or two, in less time than it takes for a high-speed elevator to go from one floor to the next, the weightless sensation ended, and the cloud slowly evaporated until only a thin veil surrounded them.

“What the fuck is that?” Remy asked as he reached out to touch the veil. His hand went straight through the thin barrier, and he wiggled his fingers on the other side.

Tavis had made dozens of trips back in time but never experienced anything like this. The dramatic landscape on the other side proved they had gone somewhere. But were they in the Badlands? He clucked and squeezed his legs to cue the horse forward, and they breached the veil as if walking in and out of a light rain shower.

The rock formations, towering spires, and sprawling grasslands answered his unspoken question. It was Dakota territory, all right. The indigenous people called it “mako sica”—welcome to the Dakota Badlands.

“Where are we?” Remy asked. “And what the hell happened to the roller-coaster ride?”

“I don’t know,” Tavis said. “I heard once that there was an easy way to get where you wanted to go, but only a few had ever been that way. I thought it was through the door in the castle cave, but it looks like I was wrong.”

“It’s another brooch mystery we’ll never understand,” Remy said. “Let’s get Austin on the ground before he regains consciousness and throws me off.”

“Keep holding him. I’ll come around and get him in a fireman’s carry,” Tavis said. He tied all the reins to a tree branch first. “Okay, tip him toward me, and I’ll carry him to that other tree.”

Remy tipped Austin sideways until Tavis had a good hold, then Remy slid off the horse and grabbed Austin’s legs. It was awkward, but they got him to the tree and propped him against it. Remy straightened Austin’s arms, legs, and head and then took his pulse.

“Is he okay?” Tavis asked.

“It’s lower than I’d like it to be, but for a professional athlete, a forty-five resting heart rate isn’t abnormal.”

“You sure all those drugs aren’t to blame?”

“He has a trainer and paramedic on duty twenty-four seven and a physician on call. If they were alarmed, they would have admitted him for a workup.”

“Well, keep an eye on him. I’m going to get the map and compass and figure out where we are.”

“I hope we’re close to that town. What’s it called?”

“Medora.”

“Yeah, that’s it. It’s close to Roosevelt’s place, right?”

“Close enough.” Tavis collected the map and compass and spread the map out on the ground. After making a few mathematical calculations, he drew a circle and tapped the marked area with his pencil. “We’re about five miles from Elkhorn Ranch unless it’s