THE MOMENT THEY GOT inside the Beast, Daire let her go, locked the door, and went to sit at the dinette to spread open the paper.
“Baby, I’m so sorry,” she said, unsure how to console him.
Anguish and upset weren’t what drove him, she could see that from the determined set of his brow. As his eyes scanned the paper, he opened the burner without looking at it.
Stepping forward, she didn’t expect to have any skills to help with whatever he was doing. Still, she wanted to be with him, to do something. It was her fault he hadn’t been with his people. Her fault for taking him away from the house. She should’ve known what Zeus would do, what he’d be capable of.
“Can I do anything?” she asked, edging closer. “Baby?”
“Just go sit down,” he said, still scrutinizing the paper.
Sitting in the corner after receiving this news seemed wrong. “This would’ve happened whether you were there or not,” she said, hoping to assuage the guilt he’d be feeling. “If this was Z—”
“Just sit down, Tess!” he barked, his focus snapping onto her.
The last time she’d heard such anger in his voice was in the Olympus Beta control room. Being no shrinking violet, it wouldn’t usually be her instinct to let such an outburst go. But arguing with him wasn’t going to lift his mood. Poking at him wasn’t going to improve anything about what he was going through.
Retreating one slow step at a time, she lowered to sit in the central seat of the couch at the end of the trailer. Daire was a professional at work. Whatever he was looking for, she wouldn’t understand. No one bought newspapers anymore. No one except the likes of her who didn’t use the internet. The explosion must have happened recently to be on the news, so it probably wasn’t even reported in the paper anyway.
The media’s interest would be rooted in the explosion’s proximity to Vegas and the identity of the homeowner. If Zeus was responsible, it was a risky move. Anyone looking too deep into why Balfour’s house may have been targeted could stroll too close to Olympus. Unless it had been setup to look like an accident.
Zeus would care about Olympus being discovered. She couldn’t see past the potential loss of life. Although she didn’t know for sure, she hoped Garrick and whoever he’d taken with him were still safe in the field. Except… if Garrick and the two men he’d taken with him weren’t at the house, that increased the chances Harry could be one of the bodies recovered.
The time she’d had with her father was brief. In London, she’d missed Daire and thought about him constantly. Her father wasn’t a priority. Hadn’t been a priority. Now her opportunity to get to know the man could be gone.
Her mom had died three months ago. Without thinking, her fingers went to her cleavage, they wanted the comfort of the ashes Daire had given her, but they weren’t there.
Styx.
She raised her chin. What was she doing sitting there? With everything going on in Vegas, Daire needed to be there. They were already in Florida; he’d brought her most of the way. Styx was less than a day away. At least their rendezvous location was. Even if he wasn’t there yet, he would be soon.
Jumping up, she strode to the closet to retrieve the gym bag she’d picked up in Vegas and her carpet bag. She dumped them on the floor to switch what she needed from the gym bag into the carpet bag. Traveling light was vital. Leaving both to retrieve her toothbrush and sundries from the bathroom, she crouched to stow them and removed the shirts she’d swiped from Daire before going to London.
“What are you doing?” he asked, she guessed from the dinette.
“These are yours,” she said, pushing his shirts down the passageway toward him before searching through the contents of the gym bag for Harry’s stolen money.
Once it was in the carpet bag, she peeled off some bills, figuring it would be enough for a cab to the nearest town. Then, standing up, she put the gym bag back in the closet and looped the carpet bag onto her arm, intending to go to the door.
Daire stood up to block her way. “What are you doing?”
“You need to go back,” she said, patting his chest. “You brought me this far, far enough, and I appreciate it. Miami’s less than a day away, you said it yourself.” Her effort to move him aside was fruitless, he didn’t budge. “It’s okay.” He’d be reluctant to leave her on her own, she got it. “We’ll see each other again.”
“You’re leaving because I yelled at you. Tess—”
“No,” she said, showing him a smile. “We’re going in opposite directions. I have to keep going. I have to. But I completely understand that you want to be with your family. You have more skills than the cops or whoever, you know what to look for. You have to go back there. Find out what happened.”
“You think the danger is gone because the house went up in flames?”
“Probably not,” she said, shaking her head and spreading her fingers wider as her hand pressed into the center of his chest. “But it’s not going to be any less for me in Vegas. Z might still be there. Either him and Harry had a blow out or this is because I made him mad. Whatever it is, you can handle yourself. You have to do what your gut is telling you to do. You have to, Heart.”
She tried to slither past him, but he grabbed her arm to snatch her back. “You walk out of here, I can’t keep you safe. If you’re not in my eyeline, I can’t keep you safe.”
It was sweet of him to worry, and she understood why he did. “No expectations, remember?” she said, caressing the stubble on his jaw. “I love you wherever you are… I’m sorry I’m not more use to you, that I can’t strategize and process with you. I’m sorry I don’t have the skills or the knowledge to take him down with you.”
“I’m sorry I snapped.”
Touched, she ached for him. His whole life, his past, his history, his future, and his prospects had all just gone up in smoke. Olympus was his family. Harry his touchstone. If she could take his pain and shoulder it for him, she would do it in a heartbeat.
“I’m not going because of that,” she said. “I don’t care about that.”
She leaned in, tempting him to look her in the eye. It had been a long time since he’d avoided her gaze. Since the days just after the truth came out. She hadn’t liked it then and didn’t like it in that moment either.
Still, she smiled, because he needed support not judgment. “I’m the one you snap at,” she said. “Always. You’re allowed to talk to me any way you like, allowed to show me your emotions. You don’t have to be measured, or patient, or unfeeling with me. In fact, I discourage it… completely… Whatever the emotion is, I’m your freedom. You’re free with me. Always.” He still seemed hesitant. “I told you that I would never make you choose between me and your integrity. I am making that choice. It’s mine. I want you to go and be with them.”
Whether Harry went down or not, the survivors would get a lot of strength from seeing Daire return to stand with them, to fight with them. Like he’d said, it was about trust. They trusted him to be there. To be their leader if Harry was gone. They trusted him to be by their side in battle.
“I don’t know what went down or how it went down. We have to know if the threat is current or if it’s been eliminated.”
“Go, Agent,” she whispered, widening her smile. “Go be what he trained you to be.”
Kissing her fingertips, she touched them to his lips. His eyes closed and he grabbed her wrist to hold them there. Grief dammed her throat. He was in all kinds of agony. For what had happened. What would be. One way or another he would feel he was abandoning a mission, whether that mission was avenging Harry or protecting her.
The next time she sidestepped, he didn’t fight and let her arm slip out of his grip.
As she unlocked the door, Daire spoke. “I said never again,” he said, flat and emotionless, staring at the kitchen counter. “I said no one would ever take you from me again.”
“No one is taking me,” she said. “You have bigger things to worry about than me. This is a decision to go our separate ways… I promise we’ll find a way back to each other somehow.” Leaving him didn’t feel right, but she had no choice. Styx, if he was at Fox Den, wouldn’t wait indefinitely and those keys were more crucial than ever. “I love you, my Heart.”
After a couple of beats, his focus ascended to her. “Right back attcha.”
Showing him a final smile, she kissed her fingertips, holding them there for a second, savoring where they’d just been. Time was against them, so she opened the door and jumped down into the parking lot. From then on, she’d be on her own.
TO BE CONTINUED…
~~~~~~~~~~
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