Authors: Lila Felix

His Haunted Heart (19 page)

He nearly snapped his neck, Delilah his target. “He needed to suffer like I have.”

“It’s over, Rebel. She’s gone. The necklace is destroyed. There’s nothing for you here.”

“She doesn’t forget her debts, you know. I bet you think you’re safe now—just like I did.”

“Let’s go, Delilah.”

I turned to go back into the house, extending my hand for Delilah to follow me.

He’d moved so fast, I didn’t have time to stop him.

As I turned, a roar broke free from my throat.

In an instant, his hands were curled around Delilah’s neck. As I reached out he squeezed, making her squirm.

He had my whole life in his grip.

“Don’t.”

“Or what?”

“I’ll kill you. I swear it.”

“No one has to die. Just give me what I want—what I’ve wanted all along.”

I’d give him everything if he’d just let her go. Delilah’s knees faltered, bending under the loss of blood to her brain.

“Anything. Anything you want.”

“No, Porter.” She pulled a mutinous breath through her nose and her eyes rolled back in her head.

“I said anything, you bastard!”

“I want it all.”

“It’s yours. I’ll sign the papers today.”

“Do it now.”

I shoved my hands out toward him. The sheer anger made my voice quiver. “At least let her breathe.”

With a tick of his head, he looked at Delilah as though he’d forgotten that he was draining her of life by the second. Releasing her neck, he grabbed a fistful of hair and pushed her in the direction of the house.

I thanked God my mother and June had left the house though I could still hear their voices in the front. I hoped they stayed there. I was afraid of what Rebel might do with more witnesses.

“Here.” I scribbled a pathetic statement about giving all of my money to Rebel that would never hold up in court. But he didn’t know that. I thrust it in his direction and watched as he read, little by little letting go of Delilah’s hair. Her eyes and mine stayed locked, but out of the corner of my eye, I saw her hand move—just a little.

I shook my head, telling and begging her to just go along with me.

I should’ve known better.

In a move that rivaled Rebel’s earlier swiftness, she slid my silver letter opener from my desk and flicked it around in her hand, the pointed side facing him.

He never let go of the paper long enough to see what fate awaited him.

He was too interested in the contract that would never come to fruition.

The blade, no sharper than a butter knife, knew its duty, flawlessly slitting into Rebel’s gut.

Delilah ran around the desk, launching herself into my arms with a cry.

“She…” Rebel began, now inspecting the damage.

We were too far away from town to do anything about it—even if I wanted to save him.

He deserved his fate.

And I finally received mine.

Epilogue

Delilah

Six years later

With one finger underneath the circle of pearls around my child’s wrist, I reveled in the sight of her father’s dimple at the side of her chin.

My other daughter had the same dimple.

I saw it once before she was taken from me.

Porter is enamored with Brynna, just as I had been with Katie. In secret, I’d given her my middle name of Catherine, but then changed it to Katie, because like her life, it was short yet sweet.

One child can never replace the other in a mother’s heart. A piece of my soul will always be in the possession of that pint-sized voodoo woman. Her payment was great.

My heart thumps against the remembrance. Katie’s heart beat seven times before another image in the corner took my attention on the day of her birth, with blood still clotting against her fragile skin, the woman in the corner reached out and took her payment in full.

“What are you thinking about?” Porter asks me, placing a gentle kiss to my temple.

I thank the heavens he wasn’t allowed into the room with me when Katie was born—he would’ve tried to put a stop to acts which could never be reversed.

Before she shifted into silent smoke, the woman held my ghostly child in her arms as though she’d just emerged from
her
womb instead of mine.

“She’s got your dimple.” I respond, not really lying, but not disclosing the full truth either. Hiding Katie’s death from him has been the greatest sacrifice. To the midwives that surrounded me, Katie’s death was a complication from the stress of birth. At least, that’s what they called it.

Porter was under the same assumption and I allowed him to stay that way.

His haunted heart was free.

And my haunting had just begun.

“That she does. But her eyes, those twilight blues, are straight from her mother.”

“You can’t pass down scars.”

He grunted—a noise that I associated with his disapproval.

A knock at the door gave me an out for what would surely be an hour-long discussion about how beautiful I was—I would agree just to end it.

He flung the door open and June whispered something about dinner. We’d been taking our meals when we could, around Brynna’s schedule and Eliza spoke to us several times—more like whined in a loving way about our absence.

“Tell Mother we will be down soon.”

I spoke to my daughter in hushed tones, telling her that her grandmother was jealous and wanting more time with her—which was the truth. Porter and I were downright selfish with our new family member—especially me.

“Her admirers await.” He whispered in my ear, causing a slew of goosebumps to break out over my skin. From this vantage point, Marie’s grave could be seen in the distance. We’d given her a new headstone, closer to the house. Porter thought it was creepy, but she served as a reminder that even the hardest of hearts can come around.

As far as Rebel—Porter and I had only spoken of him once—shortly after I stabbed him. The words were never explicitly spoken, but that night, the alligators in Bayou Sorrel got a hefty supper.

No one ever asked about him or his whereabouts.

There were questions that would remain unanswered. I’d become content with not knowing. Marie had her reasons for deciding that enough was enough in her and Rebel’s charade. We’d never know why Rebel allowed his greed to make such a convoluted deal with a woman whose power kept them in her clutches.

The secrets of this place were as deep as the swamp.

Somehow, I preferred them that way.

Brynna kicked in my arms, bringing me back to the present. I thought about letting her go for a few minutes and didn’t appreciate the notion. A simple sigh was my response.

“I was thinking maybe we could take a night off tonight—maybe go to the cabin.”

“That would be nice. But she’s still so little.”

He laughed. “She’s almost six months old and you haven’t left her side. What are you worried about?”

“Nothing.” I answered, turning my face away from him.

“I told you. There’s no sign of her. I’ve had people on the lookout.”

On one of his trips to the city, Porter noticed that everything about that woman, the one who held our fate in her hands, had vanished.

Of course she had vanished. She had collected her steep debt.

“I know. What if something happens and we’re too far away?”

“My mother raised me and I turned out fine.”

A raised eyebrow gave away my inner sarcasm.

“Oh, I saw that! Well, at least your sense of humor is intact. Come on, let’s not smother the beauty. Anyway, I kind of want you to myself for a change.”

“How can I deny that?”

He took our daughter in his hands, leaving me cold from her absence.

“Let’s go. We’ll decide what to do later.”

As he gazed down into our baby girl’s eyes with one hand cradling her head and the other balancing her bottom in his hands I could see who he was had shifted since I’d come into his life.

Once I thought I couldn’t bring anything to him but shame and pain.

Once he thought his life would lead nowhere.

He was the cure for my steadfast loneliness and search for belonging.

And I was the cure for his haunted heart.

Other works by Lila Felix:

The love and Skate Series:

Love and Skate

How It rolls

Down n derby

Caught in a jam

False start

The Second jam (a love and skate spin-off novel)