Lost & Found (Possessed 3)

It was getting humorous watching Nick curb his language.

“I got distracted,” Ace finally responded lamely. An understanding light entered Nick’s eyes at the same time he stopped waving the smoke away.

“Come have a seat.” Holding out his hand for Snow, he hoped she would take it.

With a shy smile, she thanked him and grabbed his hand.

“What were you making?” Her quiet question startled them both. Her voice was like silk, smooth, welcoming. Unused to hearing it, he smiled back to her.

“Nothing fancy,” he answered, “just chicken alfredo.”

“And you burnt it?” Nick’s shock was clear as a bell.

He couldn’t blame the guy, really, it was one of the easiest dishes Ace had learnt to make. “Maybe you should put some pants on, Nicky-boy.” He wanted the attention taken off himself.

“What?” his cousin a

sked. Looking down, he cursed a string of words that were incoherent to the untrained ear. Apologizing, he left the room to get dressed.

Returning his gaze towards their company, her eyes were once again riveted to Nick’s ass as he walked away. Ace couldn’t help smiling.

Chapter Three

Sitting in an over-sized chair in front of the window, Snow couldn’t help but admire the beauty of the falling snow. It was thick like wool but fluffy like a marshmallow. The pristine shine from the sun beating down made it seem almost magical. Only it wasn’t. She wasn’t a princess in a castle awaiting her prince. She was broken, beaten, and left with no memory.

The crackle of the fire startled her every time a log moved.

She was always nervous.

She was nobody.

She, she, she.

No name. Or life. She was a black pit of nothingness with no hope for finding out more unless she remembered. There was only one problem… She was void of any memories. The doctor suggested that being around familiar things might help jog her mind. All they had to do was figure out where she was from.

Nick had left to check the mountains again. She’d learnt he was the sheriff in Golden and was very dedicated to his job. So much so that she felt as if he held back from the rest of his life. He was the quieter one of the two, not having much to say and always watching what she and Ace were doing. Always alert.

She felt a distance between the two of them. Like maybe Nick resented her presence in his home. She had taken over his room, but when she tried giving it back, he’d damn near thrown a hissy fit. She had also come to find out that he was as stubborn and bull-headed as a mule. He didn’t like to curse in front of her, which from all indications was harder than he thought. More often than not, he was curbing the urge to say what she presumed was fuck on more than a dozen occasions.

His relationship with his cousin was…unique. The two of them almost seemed more like one person instead of two. They confused her and fascinated her at the same time, reminding her of night and day meeting at sundown. Nick was the more serious of the duo, while Ace loved to laugh and tell jokes.

Ace seemed happiest when he was making others feel good. She loved his quirky sense of humor; she loved his dark humor. Most of all she adored the sound of his laughter. It was rumbly, right from the belly and made her insides tingle. The sound always had her laughing with him.

Despite all his light, there was a dark sadness lurking within Ace. She just had to listen to the inflections in his voice to gauge his moods. He didn’t frighten her; quite the opposite, he intrigued her. He was a mysterious puzzle she was trying to figure out.

Both men had lost important people in their lives at very young ages, and she couldn’t help wondering how that affected them. They didn’t speak much about their past and always appeared to be looking towards the future. For most, that was a good thing; however, for her, it sucked. She needed to know about her past before she could determine her future.

Which brought her back to her current state. She’d awoken in the middle of the night sweating and possibly crying if the tears on her pillow were any indication. The only clear picture in her mind when she became lucid enough to think was of snow and fire. The two elements were at war with each other, yet in her mind, they were unmistakable and crucial to her recovery.

Snow shuffled out of bed and quietly started a fire, crossing her fingers for snowfall as she and Roxie sat in front of the window. When the white flakes finally began to fall just before daybreak, she’d internally cheered as her new canine friend whined to be let out.

Standing outside with the crisp wind-chill freezing her cheeks and snowflakes landing on her face, she’d experienced her first moment of peace. There was something relaxing about being in nature, feeling it’s calm even as it stormed.

Watching the joyful dog bounce through the snow brought a burst of happiness bubbling forth from deep inside her heart. The pure, unadulterated glee in each of her leaps was priceless. Something for her to hold on to in the dark days she was sure were to come.

The fire crackling behind her added an ominous presence to her turbulent mind. With so many questions and no answers, it was hard to determine what she should do. Having been with Nick and Ace for four days now, she was restless. No matter how much they checked missing persons’ reports, someone should have reported her by now.

Unless…