Read The Vengeance for Free Online Page B

smiled brightly at the girl and paused, looking at their hands. His body turned and a wrinkled eye winked at his colleagues. AJ became almost incensed by the man’s happiness, though Benjamin had done nothing wrong. AJ simply wanted everyone to mourn what he was about to lose.
    Rose giggled the innocent laughter of a child and then instantly sleepy, she wrapped her arm around AJ and fell against him in a new dream world; one from which she’d awaken untainted by the world AJ had brought to them. The weakened warrior carried her over to Gram where no words were said. She took the sleeping child from his arms, fully aware that in a few hours, both of her girls would awaken and neither would remember a thing.
    AJ tried to speak but his voice cracked before a single word could be uttered. One hand grappled on his hip, the other shot to his forehead to push the hair back from his face – and partly to shield his tears.
    “I’ll tell Addie we had a little accident. That she was knocked unconscious and she might have lost some of her memory. She’ll be okay. Rose won’t be any worse for the wear either, AJ.”
    The mangled words weren’t convincing, as even Gram remained unsure if that would end up being the truth.
    “I’m so, so sorry…” he managed to squeak out before dropping both hands to his knees and hunching over.
    He wanted to vomit; to purge all of the anger and sadness building within him.
    “Son, it’s not your fault,” Gram said, shifting the sleeping princess in her arms to allow one hand the freedom to brace his shoulder. “Life hands us cards. Just when we think we’ve found the hand we’d like to play to win it all, someone’s got a better hand and we have to start all over. That’s what we’ll do – we’ll start with a fresh deal and we’ll see where it takes us. No one would blame you for how you played the game. We can’t always win, no matter how much we want to. Life’s a gamble and most hands aren’t winning hands. And sometimes, even when we win, we still end up losing it all.”
    The heavy explanation didn’t help, as wise as it might have been. He didn’t want to start anew. Gram squeezed gently, nodding to the gentlemen who were now pulling away in their vehicle and leaving AJ and Max there to mourn. She let go, again shifting Rose in her arms and walking slowly up the staircase to the house.
    She turned at the top once more.
    “I know what this means.”
    AJ stood silent. He knew, too.
    “Are you staying?”
    His silence served as answer enough.
    “In the morning, when you introduce yourself, be sure this time it’s just as a friend. You’ve made your decision and it is an honorable one; a courageous one. And with it comes the even greater responsibility of letting her make her own choices and live her own life without being crushed by anything else.”
    Gram’s words reached straight to his core and shot like lightening through his heart. She was right; there would be no flirting when Addie awoke. If AJ stayed, he would remain a stranger, perhaps just a friend. That is if he stayed.
    He nodded up to her as Max wrapped an arm around his shoulder and started to lead him back to the B&B.
    It had taken over twenty years to find her and only days to fall in love with her. And in a matter of moments, it had all been taken away. Everything he had ever wanted in life was still in front of him but gone from his realm of existence, all because of a birthright he had been unlucky enough to be born into. The only results of a last glance at Addie’s house culminated in a surge of all the anger, resentment, love, sorrow, and angst he held within himself. The emotion boiled over into a silent and personal vow: to change the world one person at a time.
                 
                 

4 MEMORIES
     
    Moving swiftly through trees as a younger man, Max found it amazing that he had so quickly adapted to the life of a watcher; hiding in the thick brush to shield