Crimson Dahlia (13 page)

Lila’s
eyes lit up as they drove into the town of Keswick and parked the car. The town
was a lovely place nestled on the shores of Derwentwater in the Lake District
in England. The views were breathtaking and the town charming. It had the feel
of a small English village but was still large enough, and touristy enough, for
strangers to blend in easily.

“Let’s
explore a little first,” Lila suggested.

He
cast her a sideways glance, but didn’t say ‘no,’ so Lila took that to mean
‘yes.’ First they headed down to the lake near the boat launch. Seeing a sign,
they walked to the Friar’s Crag and enjoyed the spectacular views of the lake.
Then they wandered into the heart of Keswick, where the Market Place centered
on Moot Hall, and explored all the little shops and vendors along the street.

Finally,
Lila, an impish smile on her lips, tried to drag Ramsey into a tea room.

Ramsey
balked. “Tea? Seriously?” He looked at the cozy restaurant with a skeptical
grimace.

“Please?
I’ve always wanted to try a traditional English tea. You know… scones, and
clotted cream, and little cucumber sandwiches, and…”

“Tea?”

Lila
narrowed her eyes. “Was that sarcasm?”

“No,
ma’am. I wouldn’t dare.” Ramsey looked around again and then heaved a sigh.
“Didn’t you drink tea when you lived in Europe before?”

Lila
shook her head. “That was France. Very different food in France, especially
over a hundred years ago.” She batted her eyelashes at him. “Pretty please with
sugar on top? I’ve been stuck in a hole in the ground eating only gruel for
almost two months.”

“Oh,
fine. Let’s get this over with. But you laugh, and I’m outta here.”

“No
sir. I wouldn’t dare.” She grinned.

Once
they'd finished their tea and gotten some grocery shopping done, Ramsey drove
them home to their little cottage on the other side of the lake. They had to
make multiple trips from the car to the house to bring in all their loot, and
every time Lila brushed the hair from her eyes or flashed him a smile, Ramsey’s
pulse raced. How the
hell
was he going to make it through the night
without jumping her?

He’d
really enjoyed these past several hours with Lila. They’d fallen back into the
easy camaraderie of their early days together…almost as if the walls she’d put
up between them had come down, if only for a while. But other times, the
wariness would fill her eyes again and her walls would go right back up. And
what really killed him was that he knew it was all his fault. He’d pushed her
away for too long. Made her believe he didn’t care. What did he expect?

So
win her back,
some part of him argued.
Break down those walls and then see if she’s really
as closed to you as she seems.

"I
told you we got too much," Lila called from the kitchen, interrupting his
thoughts.

"What?
It won't fit?"

"Not
without quite a bit of creativity. It'll be like doing a jigsaw puzzle every
time we need to get something out."

"I'll
handle that," Ramsey said as he entered the kitchen. "Why don’t you
go set up a movie."

"Sure.
Do you want to cook dinner tonight or do you want me to?"

"My
turn, I think. I know you want to dig into some of those books you
bought."

Lila
wrinkled her nose. "Am I that obvious?"

"Only
to those who love you," he said. He almost laughed when her eyes widened
and then quickly narrowed with suspicion. Ramsey turned his back on her and
started smashing things in the fridge.
That’s right, Lily. I’m not giving up
on you, and I’m not going to back down this time.

He
kept on putting groceries away, acutely aware that Lila was watching him. After
a moment of silence, she turned and left the room. Ramsey blew out a breath he
hadn't realized he'd been holding. Years ago, Lila would’ve called him on that
statement. Part of him had hoped she would this time.

Once
he’d finished organizing, Ramsey got busy making one of the only dishes he knew
how – spaghetti with meat sauce – and mentally formulated his plan of attack on
Lila’s mental defenses.

A
few hours later, after dinner had been prepared and eaten and the dishes all
washed and put away, Ramsey and Lila got comfortable on the couch in the den.
North
by Northwest
was one of Ramsey's favorite movies, and it usually held his
attention. You couldn’t go wrong with Hitchcock and Cary Grant. But tonight, as
they sat there in the dark together, the only thing he could think about was
the girl beside him. She was gorgeous even in the flickering light of the TV.

The
couch was more like a loveseat, and Lila had tried to stay on her own side, not
touching. Ramsey had pretended to relax and let his body settle into the
middle. He’d pressed up against her, shoulder to thigh. Lila had just about
shot to her feet in agitation, but she’d stayed seated, squished as much into
the side as she could. She was probably cramping up holding herself in that
awkward position. Ramsey casually stretched his arm across the back.

She’d
glared at him. “What’re you doing?”

He
raised his eyebrows. “Getting comfy. This isn’t exactly roomie. Am I crushing
you?”

Lila
leaned over and saw that he was still touching the other side. With a little
huff, she said, “No. I’m fine.”

Hiding
a grin, Ramsey turned his attention back to the screen. From the corner of his
eye, he watched every breath she made, every reaction to the scenes on the
screen, every little shift. He reveled in the feel of her slim body pressed up
along his side. However, while he’d succeeded in his plan to make her
uncomfortable, he hadn’t banked on the fact that he’d get rather uncomfortable
himself. He’d never let himself get physically close to her, and now his body
was reacting strongly. Ramsey shifted a little bit, trying to relieve some of
his tension.

Finally,
about halfway through the movie, he couldn't take it any longer. "I think
I'm going to bed," he said gruffly. He stood up and started heading for
the stairs.

"You
never go to bed this early," Lila commented.

Ramsey
paused and rested his hand on the banister. "Must be jetlagged."

Lila
gave him a confused glance before returning her full attention to the movie.
"All right. Good night."

Feeling
deflated, Ramsey turned and headed up the stairs.

…
Keep
trying. It took sixty years to build up those walls of hers. You won’t break
them down overnight.

*****

A
week later, Ramsey awoke to the smell of fresh-brewed coffee. He dragged a hand
over his haggard face, pleased with himself for making it through one more
night. That was eight more nights than he'd imagined he could survive. And he
was still no further along with Lila. But stubbornness was as much a part of
his nature as it was of hers. And Lila was too important for him to give up on.
He’d win her trust and affection again. He just had to figure out how.

After
he took a quick shower and got dressed, he made his way downstairs to find Lila
at the kitchen table digging into a plate of fluffy scrambled eggs. She nodded
at the pan on the stove. "Help yourself."

"Looks
good. We have any bacon to go with it?"

"I
haven't fried any up, but there's some in the fridge."

“No,
that’s okay,” he said. He scooped some eggs on a plate and then sat down at the
table beside her.

"You’ve
been awfully grumpy in the mornings. Anything wrong?" Lila asked in
between bites.

Ramsey
only grunted in reply, and Lila just shrugged and kept eating her breakfast.
After they cleared the table, she disappeared upstairs. Ramsey took advantage
of her absence to hop on the computer and do some searching. An idea had been
swirling around in his head since finding Lila in the dungeon.

In
Northern California, where Ramsey had found Lila, Maddox had taken advantage of
the natural cave formations to start his network of prisons and underground
buildings. Now that the installation had been discovered, Ramsey guessed that
Maddox had moved his people to a similar place somewhere else in the world.
He'd been researching which areas, particularly in North America, might have
comparable geography.

"I'm
going on a hike," Lila announced, interrupting his search.

Ramsey
looked up from the screen and frowned. "Give me a second and I'll come
with you."

"You
don't have to."

"I
wouldn't mind a hike,” he insisted. “Besides, you shouldn't go out alone. What
if Maddox kidnaps you again?”

Lila
rolled her eyes and sighed. As much as she wanted to rebel against having a
constant shadow – especially if that shadow was Ramsey – she knew he was right.
She'd always said how characters in books or movies who were in danger, but
then proceeded to wander off and get caught anyway, were total idiots. He knew
she wouldn't be
that
girl if she could help it.

"You
sure you're interested in a hike?" she asked.

"Sure."
He kept his expression carefully neutral. “I’m going stir crazy too, you know.”

"All
right. I'll meet you outside when you're ready."

About
five minutes later, Ramsey appeared in the front yard where Lila was waiting.
The day was overcast and a little bit chilly. She looked adorable in her red
parka, with a matching cap pulled down over her blonde hair.

"Ready
to go. What's your plan?"

"No
plan. I figured we’d just wander where the wind takes us." Lila gestured
to the surrounding hilltops.

"I'm
game," Ramsey said. "Lead on McDuff."

They
walked in comfortable silence for quite a way with no rhyme or reason to their
wanderings, turning down lanes wherever their whims took them. Even with the
gray skies, the landscape was truly spectacular. No wonder so many artists and
writers had been drawn to this area of England for so many years. The views
were nothing short of inspiring.

"It’s
so beautiful here," Lila murmured. “So different from what I’ve been
looking at the last year or so.”

“Yeah?”
Ramsey asked. “We haven’t talked much about your time away. Tell me what you
were up to.”

Lila
gave him a sideways glance. “You really want to know?”

“Of
course.”

“Well…”
Lila paused and gathered her thoughts. Ramsey kicked a rock down the road as he
waited for her to speak. “We went to Louisiana first,” she began. “Marcus
wanted to update the entire clan about everything that’d happened at the
castle.”

Ramsey
nodded.

“We
spent quite a bit of time there initially. You know how much I
love
meeting
new people." Lila rolled her eyes expressively.

Ramsey
chuckled. While Lila wasn't shy necessarily, she took a while to warm up to
people. In fact, Ramsey still wasn't sure why she’d seemed to take an instant
liking to him when they’d first met.

"They
have a very large group. Believe it or not they live in the swamp. I mean right
in the middle of it."

"What
was that like?"

"Wet,"
Lila said in such a dry voice that Ramsey laughed out loud. She wrinkled her
nose. “Seriously. Louisiana is humid to begin with. But throw in living in the
middle of the swamp, and… well… you get the picture.”

"I
can imagine."

"I
will say that there are incredible trees in the swamp. Marcus said they were
cypress trees. Tall and thick, but the amazing thing was their roots…they came
right up out of the water, almost as if you could see the bottom of the tree
with the dirt cleared away. They fanned out in these intricate shapes, like
fingers splaying down into the pools of swamp water.

"I've
seen them in pictures," Ramsey said. "But never in person. They do
look really interesting."

Lila
nodded. "And the Spanish moss that hangs from the trees in great
grey-green curtains. It's actually a little bit spooky.”

“What
about the alligators?” Ramsey asked.

Lila
laughed. “One of Marcus’s men can shift into an alligator. He’s massive in that
form. None of the other real gators go near our camp. Apparently they’re
territorial. Although one little female sticks around. I think she hopes Beau
will make an honest gator of her.”

Ramsey
grinned, though he noticed the “our camp” statement. Lila had obviously become
quite attached to her new friends. The question was,
how
attached?
Especially to Marcus.

"So
where’d you go after Louisiana?" he asked.

"First
we traveled around the United States, starting in the South, making our way
north and then heading west from there. We don't have a tracker likes Sheila,
but through rumors and some amount of luck, we were able to meet up with a
couple of different clans of Svatura. We told them about everything that Ellie had
showed Marcus. I would share with them my own history with the Vyusher and with
Selene."

"Did
they believe you?" Ramsey asked.

Lila
shrugged. "Most of the time. A couple of the groups required a little
convincing. Pretty much none of them wanted to join us or get involved in any
way. But at least they won't stand against us."

"So
it sounds as if you were successful," Ramsey said.

"In
the States we were, for the most part. But once we started traveling further
south, we had a harder time."

Ramsey
bent down, picked up a stone, and tossed it down a slope. "Where were you
when you were captured?"

Lila
didn’t answer immediately. She stopped walking, and Ramsey followed her lead.
They looked out on the rolling hills, some points peaking to mountains, with
tendrils of mist curling around everything. Below in the valley, the blue of
the lake couldn’t be eclipsed by even the gloomy skies. Everything was lushly
green with the darker shades of the trees looking like deep shadows against the
lighter emerald of the grass. Lila could just imagine sinking into the soft,
inviting lawns.

"Nowhere
like this place," she finally murmured. "We were in São Paulo,
Brazil. We’d had our first meeting with the large Brazilian tribe that Maddox had
already reached.”

Ramsey
caught the bitterness in Lila's voice. "I take it the meeting didn't go
well?"

"You
could say that." Lila shook her head at the memory. "As soon as they
realized that we stood with the Vyusher, they had their teleporter pick us up
and drop us right back in the middle of the city.”

"Hmmmm…
I bet that was frustrating."

Lila
only responded with a slow nod.

"So
what was São Paulo like? I've always wanted to visit, especially at
Carnival."

Lila’s
eyes twinkled. "It's an incredible city, full of color and sound and life
in many different forms. Marcus said he's been there in the middle of Carnival.
He said it’s like Mardi Gras but on a whole different level."

"We'll
have to go sometime," Ramsey murmured.

She
gave him a demure look. "I think that would be fun."

"You
and Marcus seem to have gotten close."

Lila
was silent for a moment. "He reminds me a lot of Alex. And he told me once
that he’d had a little sister a lot like me. She died a long time ago."

Ramsey
wasn't sure what to think about that. Was she telling him that Marcus was like
a big brother to her? God, he hoped so. The thought of her being so close to
another man made him sick to his stomach.

"So
what about you?" Lila asked.

"What
about me?"

"What
did you get up to while I was gone?"

"I
got a lot of schoolwork done," Ramsey said. He just barely kept the wry
note out of his voice. There was little else he had to do.

"Have
you picked a major yet?"

He
was about to answer when something landed on the top of his head. He looked up,
in case it had been a bird flying above him. There weren’t any in the sky, but
he did feel another raindrop splash his face.

“Ummm…
Lila?"

"What?"
She looked directly into his eyes, and Ramsey forgot for a moment what he was
going to say. He had an uncontrollable urge to tuck a stray lock of hair back
behind her ear.

He
gave himself a little mental shake. "Did you happen to bring an umbrella
on this little walk?" he asked. They had to be at least three or four
miles from home at this point, and they hadn't seen any other houses on their
walk so far.

Lila
made a face. "I didn't think about it. I should have… this
is
England." She looked up at the darkening clouds. "I guess we should
turn back for home."

They
turned and started walking back at a slightly faster clip. Another few
raindrops splashed down. Big fat ones.

"I
think we’re about to get wet," Ramsey muttered.

Just
as he said that, the sky released its deluge. Ramsey and Lila took off at a
run. The cold rain was like little needles as it hit their skin. Ramsey heard
Lila giggle beside him.

"What
on earth are you laughing at?" he called as they ran.

She
just giggled again, and Ramsey saw childish glee written all over her face.
Despite the cold, her enjoyment of the sudden downpour was infectious. Ramsey
just started chuckling when something hard whacked into his head.

"Ouch!”

"What
–
ow
!” Lila exclaimed. They looked at each other.

"Hail,"
Ramsey said. Lila groaned and they ran faster.

Then
the ice balls started coming down in earnest. "We've got to find
shelter!" Lila shouted. As they ran, they kept an eye out for a place
where they could hide from the weather. Finally, Ramsey spotted a rock overhang
beside a cluster of trees.

“Over
there!”

Once
they were safe from the pelting of ice, they practically fell over, clutching
their stomachs as they tried to catch their breath. Ramsey heard a snigger and
looked over to see Lila with her hand clamped over her mouth, her eyes dancing
with merriment. She tried to hold it in, but hilarity bubbled up and out of her.
After a moment of incredulous silence, Ramsey felt his own laughter rising up
inside him. It started out as a dry chuckle, and then he found that once he'd
started, he couldn't stop. Together they laughed until their sides hurt. It
felt good to laugh together like this.

Without
thinking, Ramsey reached out and tucked that stray strand of Lila's wet hair
behind her ear. "Who walks around in England without an umbrella?" He
grinned at her.

And
just like that, they were in each other's arms. Their mouths sought each other
with a kind of heady desperation. This wasn’t a tender coming together, but a
fierce need that had them clinging to each other. As though she wanted to
burrow inside his skin, Lila ripped open the buttons of his shirt and splayed
her fingers over the taut muscles of his stomach. Her touch was not timid or
shy, but bold and hungry.

Ramsey
groaned against her lips. He knew that she could feel how aroused he was. He
pulled back and framed her face with his hands. “I want you,” he said, in a voice
raw with desire.

A
flash of doubt lit her eyes. Before she could reply, he was kissing her again.

A
moment later Lila pulled back slightly, passion in her eyes. “What do you
want?”

“I
want you… in my arms, in my bed, in my—” Ramsey had been about to say ‘in his
life’ when she cut him off.

“I
don’t think …” Lila frowned.

“You
think too much,” he murmured. This time he placed a tenderly sweet kiss on her
lips. He put his mouth to her ear. “Let’s go home and set each other on fire,”
he whispered before he nipped at her earlobe.

Lila
shivered, and he could feel the desire moving through her. Ramsey pulled back
enough to look into her eyes.

Lila
gulped. And then she nodded.

“Take
me home.”