no. Yes, I’m aware I have no job at the moment.” She smiled at her friend’s joke. “But I’ve been working straight through since grad school, and while I realize that was the plan, I just need a break. Where? I don’t know. I could stick in New England or I might look into something totally new. Teaching at the college level. Maybe an even bigger change. I guess I just want to get off the hamster wheel and see how I feel.”
“Sarah,” the voice on the other end said. “You’re on the cusp of a major career. I know that hamster wheel is hard, but if you leave now, you may never get back to where you are. You have greatness ahead of you. I’ve always seen it in you.”
Sarah blinked. “You’re kind to say that.”
“I’m not being kind here. Don’t throw away everything you’ve worked for.”
After some further back and forth, they changed the subject by mutual agreement and Enzo returned to being his usual self, supportive but gently needling—and when it came time to end the call, she promised to look him up if she changed her mind.
Pondering what the man had said, she wondered how much of it was hyperbole … and how much of it was a truth she had never recognized about herself. Enzo had always been a straight shooter. He was ten years older than she and Gerry, but a fellow Harvard/MIT program alum in Sarah’s field, which was how she’d gotten to know him. He’d been impressed with Gerry—God knew everyone had been—but he’d been more interested in Sarah.
Just professionally, that was. And she could remember being flattered that he’d pursued her for work. It had been a nice change from being in Gerry’s shadow. Not that she’d ever resented Gerry back then.
No, the resentment had come later. And not because they’d been competing for jobs or notoriety.
Was Enzo right? Was she letting everything go if she took time off? She had spent a lot of time downplaying her accomplishments—because she hadn’t been on Gerry’s level. But maybe that was more her own insecurities, as opposed to an accurate assessment of her professional standings.
Getting up, she rinsed the plate she’d eaten dinner on and put in it in the dishwasher. Nothing else to clean up because she’d had one of those Lean Cuisines out of the freezer. So actually, she could have just put her plate back in the cupboard because it had functioned more like a china tray for the plastic tray she’d put in the microwave.
Heading for the living room, she debated binge-watching something, but she’d never been all that into TV and had no frame of reference for the shows people were talking about now. Ozark. Supernatural. Making of a Murderer 2. And what the hell was a podcast, anyway?
Sure, falling into the vampire world had been a shocker, but like she knew much about the human one she supposedly lived in?
At university, she had studied all the time. And after her degree, during her employment at BioMed, she had worked all the time. And then Gerry had died. So she’d worked even more than all the time.
Yes, that was possible.
There had to be another way for her. And there was certainly going to be a different place to live.
She’d already mourned the loss of one man in this house.
She was not going to do that here again.
“Does everyone understand their positions?” Tohr asked the brothers as everyone gathered in the mansion’s grand foyer. “Is everyone clear?”
He was aware of a sense of foreboding creeping up the back of his neck and he rubbed his nape, trying to convince himself that he’d just slept funny.
“Actually, I’m confused.” Rhage bit down on a cherry Tootsie Pop. “Am I devastatingly handsome tonight facing here to the left.” He shifted to the other side. “Or the right? Left … right. Left. Right—”
“I’m going to break his nose,” Vishous said. “I swear to God, I am going to bust his fucking septum just so we can stop this conversation.”
“I think left and right,” Rhage announced. “I think there are no bad angles.”
“You sure about that, Barbra Streisand?” someone called out.
The voices of the Brotherhood filled the space as much as their huge, leather-clad bodies did, and Tohr let them all go with the verbal jabbing. It was typical nervous energy bubbling around, and he knew better than to try to quell the chatter.
Instead, he went over to his half brother. Xcor was still