the Brother’s relief was so extreme, it was hard to comprehend. But there was no reason to question its sincerity. And Murhder was more than willing to be patient with all the emotion. Even though he and Tohr had had their conflicts lately, how could you not give the guy a break?
Eventually, Tohr eased back. Stepped back. Scrubbed his face.
When he refocused on Murhder, he looked a thousand years old. “I lost one young. I lost … one son.” His voice cracked. “I couldn’t have withstood losing another. I know John was Darius’s by blood, but he’s mine in my heart.”
“Wait, he’s Darius’s son?”
“Yes.”
“God … no wonder.” He thought of the male emerging from the darkness in that alley … and how he had mistaken the son for the sire. “He fights like Darius did. And, ah, I didn’t know … I didn’t know that you and Wellsie …”
Tohr wiped his shirtsleeve over his eyes. “They killed my shellan. The lessers did. And she was pregnant with our son when they put their bullets into her body.”
The strangest feeling came over Murhder, a combination of ice-cold numbness and hellfire passion.
“Oh … shit. Tohr … I didn’t know.”
“John is the only living son I may ever have. That’s why … when I found you out with him in the field when he was injured as he was—that’s why I lost it. I’m sorry about that. My emotions got the best of me.”
Murhder reached out and put his hand on the warrior’s shoulder. “It’s all forgiven. I totally understand.”
Absently, he was aware that Xhex had joined them in the hall. No doubt the symphath had felt the disturbances outside John’s room, and now she was on the sidelines, watching everything.
Down at the far end of the corridor, by the parking area, the steel door opened and Fritz came in, his hoppy little stride as he approached them suggesting that he remained full of youth in spite of his deeply lined face. And his approach seemed to reset the emotions in the group, everyone reining themselves in.
“I have brought the car around for you, sire.” The butler smiled as he stopped in front of Murhder and bowed. “When you are ready.”
“Thanks, Fritz.”
Xhex looked at Sarah. “Do you have everything?”
“Yes. Except I left my backpack in the—”
“I’ll go get it,” Murhder said, and ducked into their room.
There was an awkward moment. And then he was back with her things.
Sarah seemed to force her smile at Xhex. “Doc Jane and Manny know everything I do. Havers is on call to consult if there is any change. But I really think everything’s going to be fine.”
As those names rolled off her tongue—like she’d known the cast of characters for her whole life—Murhder was struck by a profound sadness.
Then there were hugs. Between the two females. Between him and Xhex. Not the doggen, though. Fritz would have fainted at that kind of attention. There were also official words of thanks to Murhder from the King, from the Brotherhood. To Sarah, as well.
Next thing Murhder knew, he and Sarah were walking off alone. Heading for that steel door. Leaving the rest of them behind.
He could feel the stares on his back, but he didn’t turn around.
Instead, he reached for Sarah’s hand. At the same time she reached for his.
When Sarah and Murhder drove out from the training center, she took solace in the fact that the drive from Caldwell to Ithaca was a good two hours. At least. One hundred and twenty minutes. At least. Seven thousand two hundred seconds.
At least.
And yet, all that time later, as she pointed out her little house on her quiet street, and he pulled into her short stack driveway, and put the fancy Mercedes in park … it seemed like the trip had taken only a nanosecond. No longer than a blink or the beat of a heart.
“So this is my house,” she said. Stupidly.
Except even as she spoke the words denoting property ownership, she felt like she didn’t recognize anything about the arrangement of windows, the peak of the roof, the bushes which she herself trimmed once a year in August.
Had she really been living here? Had she actually bought the place with Gerry?
God, Gerry. Her life with him was a century ago. Or longer.
“Do you want to come in—”
“Yes,” Murhder said. “I do.”
They got out together and walked up to the front door. She’d cleared the pathway a couple of days before she’d left and there was new snow buffering