Jaimie: Fire and Ice (The Wilde Sisters 2)
“Maybe?”
“It’s—it’s too soon.” It wasn’t, and she knew it. She was in love with her Zacharias, deeply in love, but she was old-fashioned enough to want to hear him say it first. “The thing of it is, I’m happy.”
“Ah. Well, I’m happy for you. You sound, you know, better than when we talked at Thanksgiving.”
“You mean, when I told you about that man.”
“The stalker. Yes.”
Jaimie nodded as if her sister were in the room and could see her. “I haven’t even thought about him. I certainly haven’t seen him. I told Zacharias all about Steven Young and he said he would protect—”
“Who?” Lissa said, her voice rising. “Who?”
“Young. Steven Young. That’s the name of the man who—”
“Not him. The other one. Zacharias. Who the hell is he?”
“Zacharias Castelianos. My—my—the man I’m living with. I told him about what was happening and he said he would protect me and—”
“Holy shit, James! You’re living with Zach Castelianos?”
Jaimie stiffened. “You know him?”
“Ex-Marine. Ex-Special Ops. Ex-spook. Runs a high-tech security firm. Damn right, I know him. Or I know of him. Jesus H. Christ, James—”
“Stop cursing. And tell me what you’re talking about. How could you possibly know my Zacharias?”
“I don’t know him. I know of him. And he’s not ‘your’ Zacharias. He’s Caleb’s.”
“What are you talking about?”
Jaimie heard her sister take a long, long breath; heard her expel it. It was an old habit of Lissa’s. It was what she did right before she dropped bad news on you.
Jaimie felt a cold chill race along her spin.
“Liss. I said, what are you—”
“You won’t like it. You won’t like any of it, James. Not my part, not Caleb’s—”
“Goddammit, Lissa…”
“You were so upset at Thanksgiving.”
“I wasn’t. OK, I was, but until you started pestering me…” This time, it was Jaimie who drew a deep breath. “Just get to it. What do you know about Zacharias?”
“You swore me to secrecy. About the Young guy.”
“And?”
“And, once I knew what was happening to you, I got pretty upset myself.”
Jaimie put her elbow on the counter and lay her hand flat against her forehead.
“Go on.”
“You won’t like this.”
“You already told me that. Go on. What did you do?”