“I don’t know when I’m returning to rotation,” Boone said. “But I’ll go back to Pyre and keep an eye on things until then.”
“We’ll add you to the monitoring list, son. Beginning with midnight tonight, we’re going to have brothers and fighters on-site there every hour that place is open. Just in case.”
“So people will be safe,” Helania said with relief.
“It’s for vampires, first and foremost, although, of course, if they see something affecting a human, they’ll intercede as a secondary priority.”
“Good to know.” Helania slid out from her chair. “I’m going there tonight.”
Butch frowned as he stared up at her, and she braced herself for a load of let’s-be-reasonable.
“I don’t think that’s necessary,” the Brother said. “And it’s risky, given how connected you are with the investigation.”
“I’ve never been in danger there.”
“Do you know that for sure? Someone could target you just because you called the killings in.”
“But it’s a confidential line.”
Shaking his head, the Brother got to his feet. “I apologize for sounding paranoid, but I don’t trust anyone with my witnesses. Things can go in directions nobody can guess. I want you safe, so please stay out of Pyre’s Revyval.”
Boone stood up as well. “We have no right to tell her what she can and can’t do. She’s not a suspect or a person of interest. She’s a witness, you just said so.”
“And that’s why I’d like to keep her on the side of the living and breathing.”
“How about she can go if she wants, but I’ll be there with her.” The Brother looked back and forth between them. Then he picked up his pad. “Okay. That I can live with.”
“I won’t let anything happen to her.”
Helania would have argued the self-sufficiency line again, but the Brother had a point. She wanted to help the investigation . . . as the closest representative of Isobel. But maybe there were risks at the club that she couldn’t assess? And why be stupid about that. Besides . . .
As her hand went to her lower abdomen again, she knew there might be another reason she wanted to stay alive—
For some reason, it was at that moment that she realized Isobel would never know any young she might have.
With a fresh wave of sadness hitting her, Helania said, “I really hope we find whoever is doing this.”
The Brother’s eyes were grave as he tucked into the neck of his silk shirt and took out a heavy gold cross. “I swear on my Lord and Savior that I will never give up until whoever killed your sister is found and dealt with properly. This is my vow to you and your Isobel. I will not quit and I will never abandon the search—and God will show me the way. He always does.”
Helania stared up at the male. And then, even though she should probably have kept things professional, she threw her arms around him and hugged him.
Pulling back a little, she looked into his surprised face. “You treat every victim like it’s your sister, don’t you. And every perpetrator like it’s her murderer.”
The pain that flared in his eyes was hard to see—because she had the same thing in her heart. “Yes,” he said. “Every one of them is my sister.”
“You’ll find the male.” She glanced at Boone. “And we’ll work together with you.”
The Brother gave her a hard embrace and then stepped back. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“Believing in me.”
She eyed his cross. “It’s all about faith, isn’t it.”
After Boone said goodbye to the male with a clap of the palm, Helania stepped out of the room with him and the Brother strode off down the corridor.
Boone took out his phone. “I just need to text Fritz that we’re ready to go.”
“No hurries.”
Settling back against the cool concrete wall, she found herself wondering if she would be coming here often. For appointments. As her belly got bigger and life grew inside of her.
A quiet, tentative excitement kindled deep in her heart.
A young. Someone to love. Something to focus on other than herself and her grief over Isobel—
Down the way, just past the exam room she’d been in, a door opened and two males filed out of what had to be a weightlifting facility. They were shirtless and sweating, and they paid no attention to Helania or Boone. They just walked off in the opposite direction—
Helania straightened, her body moving before her brain told it to change positions. Flaring her nostrils, she took a stumbling