Shifting Time (Skull Shifters MC Book 3) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Prologue

  I hear the roar of the pipes and I look to my friends smiling huge. Our men were home. As we ran outside I didn’t see Trance’s bike at first, so I ran toward Brantley. Somehow, I ended up in the middle of everyone as I hear Brantley say, “Kris.” His voice is pained. I feel it in my stomach and I know in my heart that something is very wrong. Somehow, I found my voice to get out, “No. Please. He’s not gone. He can’t be gone.”

  I feel my legs buckle under me and a group of us hit the ground. I can’t breathe. He was my breath. How could I move on without him? I can feel my friends holding me tight as we all sit here bawling. I didn’t need a confirmation. The arms around me told me everything I needed to know. Trance was dead, and he wasn’t coming back. He was never coming back.

  I know the guys are on the outside holding our group and I try to find the strength to stand up. I feel the sobs raking through my entire body. I hear Brantley say, “Let’s get inside. A few of the guys need to see Doc including Jason. We need to regroup and I need to talk to Kris.”

  The girls and Brantley lead me into the office, and I’m not even sure that I opened my eyes. I feel everything just go dead inside of me as I think about Trance not coming back. Brantley comes back into the office and sits down as he starts to talk with, “Kris, we did everything we could.”

  Chapter One

  I wake up knowing instantly that someone is in the room with me. Six weeks. I’ve been torturing myself for six weeks thinking that Trance is coming back. I look around and see Trance standing over my bed. Great, another one of these dreams. I jump up out of bed, and before I can even get to him, he’s gone. Vanished. “He’s not here, Kris. He’s gone.” I hear a knock at the door, and just like always, Falcon comes walking in.

  I sink down onto the bed as he gets close and kneels in front of me. “Kris, I wish I could make this better for you.” I sigh, “No one can make it better. The one person that could, is gone.” He pulls me in for a hug, and just like always I feel numb. Numb to it all. I’ll never get back to sleep now, but I know I need to try and lay down. Falcon insists on lying down with me, and surprisingly, sleep does find me.

  When I feel the sunlight hit my face, I know I can finally get out of bed. I roll out and hop in the shower. I needed to go to work, but I wanted to make a stop first. Getting dressed, I grab a bag of skittles and a bottle of tequila. Falcon stands when I come into the living room, “Where are you heading?” I look up to him, “Work.” He looks down at my hands and I say, “I have a stop to make.” He nods. I don’t know if he knows where I’m heading, but I’m sure he could guess. I put the letter into my back pocket, and head out to my car.

  On autopilot, I make my way to the same spot I have for the last five weeks. The gates open, and I let myself in. Making my way through the stones, I find my bench and sit down. Looking down I see my worst nightmare coming to life. It reads, “Trance Lambert. Beloved son and friend.” He didn’t get to the husband or father stage, and now will never read anything else. He will forever hold my heart, and I have no way to get over that. I set the skittles down, and I also put the bottle of tequila there sliding my letter underneath it.

  It was his favorite, and I would forever remember the shot of tequila we all did in his remembrance at his memorial service. I feel the tear slide down my face, and just like always another one follows. I keep my dark glasses on to cover the dark circles that hide under my eyes. I see movement in front of me, so I whip my head up and look right into Trance’s eyes. Every day it’s the same thing. He stands along the wood line, so I jump up from my bench and run. I run right for him. I catch sight of something to my right, so I look at that and by the time I look back, Trance is gone.

  “Get yourself together Kristina.” As always, I hear nothing, so I turn back around and go back to my bench. When I know I’m sufficiently late for my day, I stand up and head into town. My office is right beside my best friends, and right across the street from the other. When I pull into my spot, I know it won’t take long for both of them to come in. I hurry inside, and throw my regular glasses on to hide my puffy eyes.

  “Kris, are you in here?” I don’t answer because I know they’re going to come into my office anyways. I hear multiple footsteps, so I know it’s both Mel and Sophie. As they turn the corner they both give me their best smiles, and I immediately see the pity in their eyes when they look at me. I put my head back to looking at my computer, not really reading anything on the screen. I had a million and ten emails to catch up on, and it was going to take me forever to get a schedule back in my life where that is possible.

  “Kris, do you really need to be here yet?” I sigh. Every day. “If I can’t do it I’ll leave early. I have a lot to do, and these jobs aren’t going to finish themselves.” Melanie gave me a knowing nod, and Sophie sighed. “Is there anything we can help with?” I look to Melanie, “No, I just need to try and get caught up. I have so many listings, and I need to be able to figure out which ones are priority.” Mel gives me another nod, “Well, I’m in the office for the entire day, so anything you need just let me know.” I nod, “Thanks, girls.”

  Sophie went to talk about something, and then stopped herself. I gave her a questioning eyebrow as she shakes her head. “No seriously, what’s going on?” She sighs, “I was just going to say something about the wedding, but I don’t know how to do any of this.” I nod, “Sophie, I’m unbelievably happy for you. Everything is falling together for you, and you are exactly where you’re meant to be. Just because Trance is…” I trail off, “Doesn’t mean that you have to stop your life. Both of you should be moving forward with everything.” I hadn’t told them my plans for myself for the future.

  There was no way I could stay here. In this town? With all the reminders? I hadn’t come up with a way to tell them that I was taking my office, and moving myself elsewhere. I also hadn’t decided where I was going to go. At this point, I didn’t care where I was, but I know that with the constant reminders I’ll never be able to get my shit together. I am Kristina Lynn Tessa. I was the tough one in the group. That wasn’t showing up too much in my personality as of late, and it was time that I started to get back to my tough as nails persona.

  “What about you? Don’t you have to think about moving forward?” I shake my head, “That isn’t fair. It hasn’t been that long.” She gives me a nod to tell me I’m right, and I decide it was time to get them out of here. “No offense, but I need to get back to work. I appreciate y’all coming to check on me.” They both give me a hug, and head out of my office. If Trance hadn’t died I would be planning my future with him. I was happy for Sophie, but I was also extremely jealous. I needed to work on that.

  Making it halfway through my day without a meltdown, I decided that I need to eat something. Even if it’s something little, it had been a while since I had an actual meal. At least one that someone wasn’t shoving down my throat. I make my way out of my office, and as I open the door I run straight into a rock-hard body. Craning my neck, I look up to see Falcon bracing me so I didn’t fall from the impact. “Hey, sorry. I was comin to see how your day was goin.” I give him my best smile, “I was actually just going in search of something to
eat.” He gives me a nod, and a real smile. “Good. Let’s go.” I nod as he leads me out the door and I lock up.

  I only have one employee, and she does most of her work from home. If she has to be in the office, it’s because of me, and I haven’t had her come in. I’m sure she’s been dodging clients calls and I’ve been making her life extremely difficult. It doesn’t matter. None of it matters anymore. Anything that I was working so hard for, a future, a life, I didn’t want any of it. Without Trance, none of that even mattered anymore. He was lost to me forever, and it wasn’t just a break up. No, this was permanent. I couldn’t change what happened, and I was never going to get him back.

  I had spent so much time fighting the inevitable with him, and I lost precious time with the man I loved. I couldn’t go down this road right now. No, right now I needed to eat lunch and start formulating a plan. Falcon walked me to the corner diner where I could order a sub, and hopefully settle this feeling inside of me temporarily. I sit down and he brings our food over to me.

  Settling in, I eat my food and before I know it, Falcon is telling me he’ll walk me back to work. “How long are you going to stay here?” He looks around, “Tryin to get rid of me?” I shake my head, “No, just wondering.” He nods, “As long as I’m needed, I’ll be here.” I nod at him, and decide to leave it at that.

  Falcon lives in Louisiana. He was only here to temporarily help our guys. His charter apparently doesn’t mind lending him out to us on a temporary basis, because he hasn’t left for a while. It’s nice to know that he’s around, but it also means in order for him to get back to his life, I have to get out of here. Once I’m gone, he can go back to his old life.

  “I’ll meet you at home after work?” I look up to him, “You don’t have to stay with me.” He nods, “I don’t have to do anything. I want to be there for you if I can.” I close my eyes. “Is this about how it all went down? Falcon, Trance’s death isn’t your fault.” He nods, “Just let me do what I gotta do.” Great. I nod, but I know that he’s feeling guilt for all of this. I head back into work after a quick goodbye.

  It doesn’t take long for me to find myself thrown into work, and I look at the clock and see that it’s almost eight. Way passed a normal time that I would have been home. Falcon was probably freaking out, and I had been so busy I didn’t even have time to look at my phone. Grabbing it, I see that in the last fifteen minutes I had seven missed calls. Before I have time to even call anyone back, I hear the loud ringing of pipes, and then a knock at the front door. When I came back from lunch, since I wasn’t expecting anyone, I had locked the door.

  Turning the corner, I see Brantley standing in the doorway. Great. Brantley is Melanie’s husband, and if he was here, then that means I’m in for a lecture. That also means that Melanie has become worried to the point where he has noticed it, and since it’s affecting her, he assumes it affects him. Putting my head down, I hit the lock and turn back around to grab my bag.

  “Kris, we gotta talk.” See. I don’t respond, I just grab my bag and turn back around to meet him in the main space of my building. I give him a look that says I don’t want to talk and he reads it because he says, “Too bad. I know it hasn’t been that long. Not even two months. We’re all worried about you, and none of us know how to make any of this better. I do know that you need to pull your family closer not push them away. As far as I can see, you’ve been doing a great job of pushing everyone away.” I close my eyes, “I don’t have the brain capacity to have this conversation right now.” Looking up to Brantley, I can tell by the look on his face that I wasn’t going to win.

  “Kris, we all love you. We all love Trance.” I stop him right there, “Loved. Brantley. Loved.” He runs his hand nervously through his hair, “We all loved Trance. It’s hard for all of us. We all need each other. I’ve seen the way you’ve been looking around at everyone, and I’m here to tell you, if you’re planning on leaving Missouri, you have another thing coming. None of us are going to let you leave.” Ha. As if he had a choice. “I’m a grown woman. If this state isn’t working for me, then I’m gone.” He nods, “Let’s not forget the unspoken threat out there. If you’re not here we can’t protect you.”

  I shake my head from his words, “None of it matters anymore. If something happens, then that’s what happens. At least then I could see Trance again.” Brantley gets close, “I never want to hear you say that ever again. Ever.” The tone on his voice left no room for argument. That’s why I find myself looking at the ground and holding back tears. This isn’t me. I’m not a crier. And yet, for the last six weeks I’ve cried myself numb. “Hey. Kris, we’re here to help, I just need to know what you need.”

  This was my opportunity. The one chance I would have to make it clear to Brantley where I needed him to stand. “What I need? You can’t give. What I need from you? I need you to back off. I’m doing the best I can, and I’m sorry that that isn’t enough for all of you, but I don’t know any other way to handle any of this.” Before I could finish my thoughts, I had to turn and run to the bathroom. Throwing up until I’m dry heaving. I had hoped that Brantley would leave, but when I turn my head to the side and see his boots, I realize I’m not that lucky. Go figure.

  “You okay?” I get myself together brushing the hair out of my face and I stand. “Yeah, sorry I have no idea where that came from.” He nods. “I’ll follow you home. Everyone has been worried when no one heard from you. Just so you know, what we were just talking about isn’t over. We need to work all of this out as a family.” I shake my head, “You don’t have to pretend that with Trance gone, I’m still a part of the family. I get it. Trance was my connection…” Before I can finish Brantley puts his hand up, “That’s just not true. Melanie was your connection, Trance just validated it more.” He was done with the subject. The reason I know this is because he turns on his boot and walks out the door.

  Following him, I lock up, and as he climbs on his bike I hop in my car. He followed me home, and waited until I got inside before taking off. When I do open the door, Falcon is standing in the foyer. Awesome. “Hey, before you start the lecture, I’m fine, I just lost track of time.” I hear him take in a breath and let out a sigh. Seems I was going to be spared the lecture.

  “I just don’t see how hard it is to check in.” I close my eyes. No such luck. “Listen, I don’t know why you feel like you owe something here, but no one is asking you to be here. I’m an adult, and the last time I checked, if I needed to work until eight I could work until eight. If you’re here as a babysitter, I don’t need one.” I walk passed him knowing that I was being a bitch. It was time for me to get back to me, and that was me to the core. A bitch.

  Chapter Two

  Waking with a start, I fight the sob that breaks through. Before I can even get myself together I felt the bile coming up my throat. Jumping out of bed, I run to my bathroom. Emptying the contents of my stomach, I feel a cold cloth hit my neck. I lean my forehead on the toilet seat, and gather myself. I see a bottle of water being placed into my line of sight.

  Pulling in some water, I settle my stomach as I look up to Falcon. He has a look on his face that tells me he’s thinking. The wheels are turning, and I had no idea what he was thinking. “This is the fifth day in a row. Are your nightmare’s getting worse?” They weren’t. Not that I knew of. I told him honestly, “I don’t remember them most of the time.” He gives me a slight nod, “Do we need to get you to talk to someone?” I shook my head. “No, I’m fine. I’ll get a handle on it. How much longer are you gonna be here?” To this he smirks, “Ya know, the only time you ask that is when I’m pissin you off.”

  I shake my head at him, “I’m used to being on my own.” He gives me a look that says he doesn’t believe me. I start to tell him, “Listen, I’m ready to get out of here. I’m not gonna stay here, so if you’re worried about me getting back to my life here, I don’t need your help. I won’t be living that life.” He gets close, “If what I think is going on, is what is actually going
on, then yeah, I’d say you aren’t leaving town.” I give him the weirdest look. What could possibly be going on that would keep me here.

  “No way.” It was more of a whisper. I looked down at the stick in my hand. This wasn’t possible. I was in my office for the day, and I had a little epiphany. I thought it was due to stress, but I was really late. So late, that I stopped at the drug store and bought a test this morning. Trance had made it to the father stage, we just hadn’t realized it yet. I was probably two months pregnant, and Trance had been gone for a little more than six weeks.

  I had a piece of Trance with me. Growing inside of me. This wasn’t real. I semi fell to my knees, and looked up to the ceiling. “How could you leave us? How could you do this to us?” It was more of a cry, and I don’t know that the words actually came out that way. I was sobbing. I also was sitting here thinking about anything I had done that could’ve hurt my baby. Our baby. My fatherless baby.

  This made up my mind for sure. I needed to get the heck out of Missouri, and I needed to do that immediately. Locking up the office, I headed home, when I knew that Falcon wouldn’t be there. He would be tending to club business while he thought I was working. Seeing that I didn’t have any kind of loud pipe tail on me, I went straight inside to start packing my stuff.

  I didn’t need much. I had plenty of savings to start over somewhere, I just needed to be sure I got to a doctor immediately. I needed to do everything in my power to protect this baby. I couldn’t think about that right now without freaking out, so I pull my head from those thoughts and focus on the task at hand. Packing.

  I had the basics, and I had left enough to make them think that I would be back. Falcon would look, hell all of them would. Once they realized how much easier things were without me, they would give up. They all had been taking pity on me, and I was dragging them all down. They needed to be able to move on, and that was something I just couldn’t do. Especially now. Carrying a piece of Trance with me, I headed out to my car with my suitcase.