WindSwept Narrows: #2 Cassidy, Abby & Mia Read online

  Cassidy Parker

  Abigal Murray

  Mia Santori

  WindSwept Narrows

  Book Two

  Karen A. Nichols

  Copyright 2011 by Karen A. Nichols

  Smashwords Edition

  Published by Karen Nichols. Copyright, Karen Nichols. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author.

  This is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents and dialogues in this book are of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is completely coincidental.

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Chapter One

  “No! No, no, no!” The female voice ordered confidently and frantically at the same time. “To the left! They’re coming at you from…”

  “Aww…hell…goddamnit!” Came the male growling response. “Where the hell’d they come from? Who’s supposed to be watching for patrols?”

  “I got ‘em! Your other left, Mac!” She commanded through a gurgle of laughter. “The other…”

  “Let’s go do an instance, Mac, she says,” he droned in between each swing with his weapon. “We can easily handle it two man…it’ll be a great experience…think of the loot we’ll get…”

  Various other voices came across the headsets, laughing and hooting wildly.

  “Warrior up, Mac!” The female commanded through her laughter. “This is serious! We almost…”

  “Keep me alive, woman!” He growled, interrupting his reminiscing.

  “Nag, nag, nag,” she rolled her eyes, her character easily tossed a protective shield around him before sending spells out to heal him, bringing his life bar back to full. “The girl is magic…”

  “I swear to god I’m sending you the repair bill for this one!”

  "You fret too much…you need to relax more…play a few games,” she chuckled with the others. “Pfft…I know what those raids net you in loot and gold…you can afford a paltry repair bill.”

  “You two are better than comedy central at times,” came one of the listening voices from their guild.

  “Shut up, Toby!” Was the dual response from the two at the center of the attention.

  “Hah! There! I told you,” she declared in satisfaction at the symbol that appeared on the screen. ‘Achievement earned’.

  “Jesus, Cassidy, you have any idea how frazzled you make me?”

  “What? I told you it would be a walk in the park,” she said with a deep chuckle. “Ya gotta have a little faith in your healer.”

  “Walk in the park my ass,” groaned the low male growl.

  “You fret too much.” She repeated with a chuckle, collected her share of the loot and hit the exit button on the dungeon. Fingers moved easily over the keyboard, guiding her character into the repair armor shop and sorting through all the goodies the dungeon had net her.

  A smile creased her small naturally pouting mouth when the text she had colored pink to mean a private massage appeared at the bottom of her monitor.

  “Switch to private channel, Cassidy.”

  She shrugged and did the sign in for the channel they had created for themselves. “Hi, Mac…all private now…no audience.”

  Cassidy Parker continued her routine actions that always came after she completed an instance. Clean packs, repair armor and resupply food and water for the next time. She mailed off items to her various other girls and exited, looking over who needed to be advanced next.

  “You really do make me nuts,” came the rueful male tone through her headset.

  “Aww…bet you say that to all the girls,” she teased with a chuckle, selecting another character to drive through some daily quests, making money and gaining reputation with the various factions.

  “Are you kidding me? I don’t have life left for any other girls when you finish with me,” T. Mackenzie Lawson chuckled warmly.

  “It was a good run,” Cassidy said firmly. “Only got a little dicey…” She ignored the gurgle from the other end of the “phone” line.

  “Only…we seriously need to set a parameter for what a little dicey means, lady,” Mac grumbled, wincing at the repair bill, pretty much following the same routine she had after a long battle.

  “Hmm…well, if you die, that means you’ve exceeded the limit,” she told him with an unseen but decidedly cheeky grin. “It’s a game…it’s supposed to be fun and dicey…something to take your mind from the grind and stress of the day.”

  Mac groaned. “It’s Friday night and I’m equipped for a long run…”

  Cassidy laughed brightly, her voice a softly female sound that sent ripples of delight through him.

  “Mac…can we talk a bit…” She heard the low groan through the phone. Sitting in the comfortable office chair cross legged, Cassidy stopped thinking for a long minute. She wasn’t accustomed to the jittery feeling. She was confident and self assured in most of her life. Then Mac had stumbled inside her defenses.

  “Cassidy…we have a glorious first weekend of summer ahead of us. Tonight is Friday. Tomorrow morning,” Mac spoke the words firmly. “We are meeting. Face to face.”

  Cassidy looked around the small room she was renting temporarily on the Sound just slightly to the South of Seattle. She’d only been there two weeks, having left her job in Las Vegas to accept a new and exciting position with the resort being built.

  “I know we talked about it, Mac…”

  “Talked about it?” He repeated gruffly. “It’s been a long damn six months, Cassidy Parker. I lived in San Diego and you were in Vegas. Our jobs were always getting in the way. There was always some excuse after another.”

  “Okay, okay…I know all that…” Deep dark silver grey eyes closed, pale lashes holding herself safe behind them.

  “The universe has decided it’s time, Cassidy,” Mac said quietly.

  “Doesn’t have anything to do with the universe,” she grumbled.

  “What do you call it? Fate? Destiny?”

  “Those are game words, Mac,” Cassidy declared flatly. She was now in the mood to destroy something and took her character into the game. Just plain old kill and destroy, she thought, glaring at the screen and deciding where to take her girl.

  “You don’t believe in destiny?” Mac sat back in his chair, hands up and cupping his head. He kicked his feet up on the edge of the desk. “Oh, wait…the great healing angel is afraid? Nervous?”

  “Don’t call me that,” she threw back with a growl.

  “What are you afraid of, Cassidy?” Mac had never been on a ranch, but he knew how to calm a nervous filly. And despite the bravado he heard in some of her words, Cassidy Parker definitely fit the term from time to time. “We talked about this for weeks. Ever since you took the new job and I decided to take on a new position, too.”

  “I know we have,” she said simply, catching her reflection in the monitor.

  “
Then what is it? Come on, give me a chance.”

  “It’s just…this is…it’s…”

  “Safe?” Was the soft, sad answer.

  “Yes…no, that’s not only all it is,” she answered quickly. “It’s nice…we’re friends because of the game…and because of the words that…that just kind of built who we are.”

  “Alright, I understand that,” he said gently, soothingly. “You can get a pretty good feel for a person when all you have is words. Especially when they’re honest words and you have the faith to believe.”

  “Exactly…meeting up involves…well, it means the person you created in your mind becomes a physical being…”

  “I’ve sent you my photo. You know what I look like, Cassidy,” Mac looked at the screenshot he’d posted of the character she favored. That was how he saw Cassidy, he realized, knowing just what she meant. “I promised you I’d never lie to you.”

  She didn’t send a photo. It bothered him a little, but not a lot. He wasn’t afraid to meet her. Not after getting into her head for the last six months and allowing her inside his. They had started out meeting and chatting in text. Gaming together, her dry sense of humor, her logical approach to the game and even her choice of toons fascinated him.

  The woman fascinated him. They’d spent a couple weeks chatting in text before it moved to voice. He could listen to her for hours. Her voice was light and airy; laughing, giggling and commanding all at the same time. They would talk for hours once they’d gotten to the in-game communication program.

  Cassidy sighed thickly. She knew she was running out of excuses. Some how, some unseen force had chosen to throw them both into the same city.

  “I know…and I should have sent you a photo…I can’t say I have a lot, but I guess I could have snapped one with my phone,” she admitted grudgingly.

  “I don’t care what you look like, don’t you get that? I’ll wear a blindfold, if that’ll make you feel better,” he promised, relaxing when she giggled softly.

  “I told you what I look like,” she exited and looked at her favorite character. An elf priest with long white hair, deep clear eyes and tall.

  “You’re an elf?” Mac responded with a laugh. “I can live with that, too. I’m a relatively adaptable kind of guy. I’ve spent many happy hours with your elf.”

  “I don’t want to lose our friendship, Mac,” Cassidy wasn’t sure where the fear came from. She’d spent a lot of her time alone by choice. Her hair had turned a beautiful silver when she was barely twelve, at the onset of puberty, the doctors had said to her mother. They’d tried coloring it. It never lasted long, her hair was very thick and coarse and wouldn’t hold the color. Finally she gave up. Add to that the height that had struck at the same time. She listened to the taunts and high school humor until she just learned to stay off by herself, throw herself into her computer games and then into her college and jobs. “Maybe I’m still a…a gangly twelve year old…I don’t know…”

  “I’m pretty sure that’s not going to happen, Cassidy. I’m six foot three point seven,” Mac reminded her with a smile in his words. “So a five eleven woman doesn’t scare me off.”

  “Three point seven,” she repeated, slowly shaking her head. He had such a buoyant, positive nature. “Alright. Fine. Point Defiance Park at ten in the morning by the Asian pavilion. See you there,” Cassidy signed out, closed down the game and stared at the normal computer desktop. She couldn’t talk to him anymore tonight. She didn’t want to talk herself out of meeting him.

  She pushed herself to her feet, pacing the room, bare feet silent on the hardwood floor. Well, if you’re gonna do this, at least do it right, she told herself, finding her shoes and small pack and keys. Cassidy was at the grocery store for an hour, finding just what she wanted. She really did know a lot about him, she mused when she carried the grocery bags into the apartment. She glanced around the apartment with a happy sigh. It was a forty-five minute drive to the new job, but she had views of the Sound from three of four sides and good friends close by in the computer store.

  Cassidy finished her prep work, everything in the fridge and ready to go in the morning. She sat on the sofa, long legs crossed beneath her, just staring out the large thick glass windows. It was eight at night and the sun was resting on top of the still snow covered peaks that comprised the Olympic mountains to the west.

  She heard the voice in her mind. You are thirty-four years old. Sometimes it sounded like her mother. Her friends never said anything. Some were like her. Buried in their work, enjoying just being by themselves. You have faced down people with guns, knives and anything else they could make into a weapon. So what was so frightening about meeting up with a thirty-three year old very cute, intelligent and funny guy?

  She let her head fall to the cushion, her eyes closed. She’d checked him out on the computer. It was one of her skills. She knew he was single. Knew he’d never been married. Knew he worked in programming computers and knew he was who he said he was…she had his school transcripts and history. So she knew she wasn’t meeting up with an axe murderer.

  Chapter Two

  T. Mackenzie Lawson left the hotel suite with a deep breath. He checked his breath, checked his pockets for wallet and phone and keys and lastly checked his reflection. It had been a long damn time since he found a girl who interested him this much. She was smart and funny and simply fun, whether they were gaming or just talking. Her voice was melodic and soothing; her giggle soft and infectious and it made him smile just listening to her.

  He was in the sports car headed along the highway when he looked in the mirror with a sigh. He was used to shaving once a week just because the dark shadowy growth had simply become part of what he saw when he looked in the mirror. And it had been in the photo he sent Cassidy, so it wouldn’t be a total surprise to her. The hair at the sides of his head was a little past his ears, but it wasn’t shaggy, just longer than normal for him. Sometimes he still saw the kid in the mirror. Arrogant but not confident; intelligent but sometimes not too smart. People definitely treat you differently when you get some height to go with the brain trust.

  Mac parked along the curving road leading into the large park, locked the car and tucked his keys into his pocket. He walked toward the pavilion, dark eyes scanning the various people, searching for a single woman who looked like an elf.

  Abruptly, he slowed his pace.

  About twenty feet ahead of him was a woman struggling with a large picnic basket. She had the most startlingly long silver hair that curled down her back in a tiered cut, ending in a point. She wore shorts, comfortable, simple sneakers and what looked like a couple of layered tank tops. He could see two colors, black beneath with a bright pink on top. She had a soft golden tan and was long limbed and tall. Trusting his instincts, he loped forward, his hand out to take the handle of the basket she was carrying. It startled her, a sensuous mouth puckered and taking in a large gulp of air.

  “Can I help you with that?” Mac offered politely, coming to a stop when she did. His eyes went straight to her face. He felt trapped in the wide, deep grey eyes filled with trepidation. Her neck was long and slender, her cheeks high and tinted a pretty pink from the surprise. She had bangs that fluttered over her eyebrows, the sides of her face framed by that incredible color of silver in a feathery, wispy cut. And she did not look thirty-four years old.

  “Hi, Cassidy,” he held the basket in one hand, his other rising to draw one finger down her cheek before leaning down to kiss her softly. He’d dreamt of doing that for months and was not disappointed.

  Cassidy swallowed hard and blinked. She ordered her muscles to move and was completely ignored. His mouth was warm against hers and there was a tiny sound that came from deep in her throat. He looked just like his photo, the shadowy growth on his face framed the strong chin and solid bone structure. His chin was squared and she knew from some of their arguments, stubborn.

  “Hi…Mac…”

  Suddenly he felt like that awkward sixteen year o
ld the year they’d created their first game. His friends and partners each married incredibly beautiful girls. He was only interested in creating code. But this girl had entered his brain, found a place in his blood. And he wasn’t sixteen anymore.

  They stood beneath the early morning first weekend of summer sun, filtered by the massive trees around them and oblivious to the joggers, kids and dogs beginning to fill the popular park.

  All he heard in his mind was…she is real. She is more than a voice through a computer MMO game.

  “We never seemed to run out of stuff to talk about before,” Mac took her hand and began walking toward the pavilion.

  “Yeah…I know…” She looked down at the strong fingers holding her hand, listening to the voice yelling that she was NOT fifteen!

  “So what’s in this thing? It weighs a ton,” he said honestly.

  “Oh, warrior up, Mac, it’s just food and stuff to drink,” Cassidy burst into laughter. “For a minute there…”

  “I noticed,” he said with a cheerful chuckle. “Just like normal, nag, nag, nag…”

  “Here,” Cassidy pulled her fingers free just before the chain link fence, stopping and turning to look out over the expanse of open water and mountains. “It’s gorgeous here. I love it.”

  Mac set the basket on the ground and lifted the top. It didn’t surprise him that there was a large, thick cotton cover for the ground, shaking it out and spreading it while she walked to the fence, long fingers curled into the links and just staring. She was lean, slender and very nicely tall.

  Cassidy felt him beside her, his fingers touching the hair over one ear. She turned her face toward him with a small frown.

  “Checking for points,” he answered with a shrug. “You made your priest to look just like you.”

  “Not quite…I have a little more round to my hips and…and other parts than the character,” Cassidy said with a shake of her head, ignoring the flush that struck her cheeks.