Free Broken Wings by Sandra Edwards Page A

was dying. His heart was breaking. The fact
that she could actually walk away from him was killing
him.
    Bradford nudged Maggie to get on the
horse. She did it—in an almost trance-like state—and turned back
for one last look. Tears were starting to smear her vision. Even
so, she could see his stone-faced glare.
    Tajan didn’t take his eyes off her
until she and her grandfather disappeared from view. He went back
inside his lodge and emerged again, shortly. His anger was spilling
over. He mounted his horse and took off in the opposite direction
that Maggie and her grandfather had gone.
     
     
    ~~~~
     
     

PART THREE
     
    THE REVELATION
     
     
    ~~~~
     
     

CHAPTER 18
     
     
    Billy and Rio traveled the winding road
up the mountain on their way up to Lake Tahoe. Once again, he was
driving her car while she rode shotgun.
    “ Kryptonite ” by Three Doors Down poured out over the radio as
she admired the mountainous terrain. Rio sang along with the tune
while keeping her eye on a black SUV in the side view mirror. The
fact that they were being followed hadn’t eluded her. If Turner
thought it had, he’d underestimated her.
    Prior to reaching the south shore of
the lake, they stopped at Vista Point. Many years ago the locale
had been turned into a scenic spot with its gigantic boulders
scattered all around, many of which were stacked on top of each
other. The only thing that had changed since Maggie and Tajan’s day
was that modern civilization had built one guard wall against the
south side.
    Rio sat silently on the man-made
railing, gazing out over the magnificent sight before her. The lake
stretched for miles in all directions, surrounded in its entirety
by the colossal mountains of the Sierra Nevada.
    Billy leaned against a huge rock. “You
seem to be right at home.”
    “ I do like it here.” Her
eyes stayed glued to the lake. “I can’t quite put my finger on it.”
She looked at him. “But I feel a sense of comfort here.”
    “ This was probably a place
where Tajan and Maggie spent much of their time.”
    Rio wasn’t her usual spunky self and
Billy hadn’t missed out on that. She seemed preoccupied. “Hey, I’m
going to go find a bathroom. You want to come?” In his own way, he
was offering to leave her alone for a while so she could work out
whatever was bothering her.
    “ I’d like to stay here,” she
said. “If you don’t mind.”
    “ That’s okay,” he said.
“I’ll be back soon.”
    He walked away and Rio decided to
explore the locale. Almost in a daze, she wandered through the area
until, unbeknownst to her, she came to the place where Tajan had
asked Maggie to marry him and then claimed her as his
own.
    Rio climbed onto the same boulder the
star-crossed lovers had made love on all those years ago. She
examined the rock and eased down. Lying on her back, she propped up
her feet. She closed her eyes and covered them with her
forearm.
    Why couldn’t she get the warrior out of
her head? Was she losing her mind? He was after all just a face
painted on a canvas. Granted, a captivating face, but it was
nothing more than that. The man had been dead for over a hundred
years. Still, Rio couldn’t stop thinking about him.
    A chill breezed through her as she
wondered what it must have been like having Tajan looming above her
in the throes of passion. Her sexually inspired musings were
invaded by the sudden smell of an unusual aroma that seemed almost
sweet in a masculine sort of way, and quite unlike anything she’d
ever perceived even though it felt familiar.
    She could almost swear she felt his
lips brush against her cheek. Overwhelmed with the certainty that
if she opened her eyes she’d see Tajan, but she didn’t dare try it.
Instead, she savored the thought of his tongue exploring her neck
in a tantalizing way. She swore she felt his long hair tickling her
breasts.
    But how was that possible? She wasn’t
naked. Rio’s eyes sprang open and she jumped up. Tajan was not
there. In fact,