when the quiet stretched for too long, but we never met. I didn’t see his face, and he didn’t see mine. There was a wall between us.”
Linus regarded her with healthy skepticism. “Yet he knew who you were?”
“He overheard the guards use my name.”
“This unnamed savior didn’t wish to escape with you?”
“He told me his time was coming.” Her brow puckered. “He was willing to help me first.”
“Load her in the van.” Linus prioritized their wounded over Abayomi’s interrogation. “We need to go.”
A full-fledged interrogation would have to wait. There was no time left to get to the bottom of it all here and now, and they were too exposed in any case.
Corbin swept his gaze over the carnage. “Do you want me to call the cleaners?”
“Wait just a moment.” Linus gave the store time to empty before facing him. “Are you steady?”
“This is normal.” Corbin flinched away from the word. “For me.”
Berserkers, those afflicted with rage-induced frenzies of violence, were a documented occurrence across all predatory species, but Linus had never met one. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“I’m being monitored.” His smile didn’t make it to his eyes. “I’m not a danger to others.”
All of a sudden, the gag order on him made more sense. To an extent. For it to be effective, it must apply to all his duties, not only the ones performed for the Grande Dame. Whoever handed down the order, it had an ironclad grip on Corbin. He must have agreed, despite Grier’s misgivings, to keep his berserker status, and whatever else his monitoring entailed, quiet.
“What about to yourself?”
“So far, so good.”
The mixture of shame and guilt reminded Linus of his early days learning to control his powers.
“Come on.” As dawn seeped through the windows, Linus clasped him on the shoulder. “Let’s go home.”
Fourteen
Thanks to Cletus, I had a good idea of what had gone down at the lingerie shop, but I wanted a firsthand account from Linus. An inmate connected enough to walk out of his prison, or help others escape, had me twitchy with nerves wondering what might be unleashed on us next.
Call me cynical, but I had my doubts we would find this mysterious angel of mercy until he wanted to be found.
Guards could be bought, and anyone with that much pull had the money to pay.
Woolly flicked the curtains when Moby angled into the drive, the wash of headlights strobing the wall in front of me.
“Finally.” Lethe got to her feet and stretched. “He gets to have all the fun.”
“You’re saying I’m not fun?”
“Tuck in your bottom lip before you trip over it.” She flicked her wrist at me. “You know what I mean.”
Footsteps pounded up the stairs, and Linus swept into the room with relief stark on his face.
“We found them,” he said, coming to my side of the bed to kneel before me. “They’re both safe.”
The news had already been delivered via wraith, but I got the sense he needed to say the words as much as I needed to hear them from him.
“Our healer is set up two doors down,” Lethe volunteered, “in the suite prepared for your mother.”
“Thank you.” Linus curved his lips in amusement at Lethe. “Do you have room for another guest?”
“The more the merrier.” She cackled. “I’ll help Hood get the invalids situated, then we’ll escort Abayomi to her new accommodations.”
Uncertain how I felt having my mother-in-law stay down the hall from us, I focused on being grateful she was alive.
“Go shower,” Lethe ordered Linus on her way out. “You’re bloody and stinky.”
“Lethe.”
“Your eyes and your nose work fine.” She stuck out her tongue. “Don’t tell me you weren’t thinking it.”
I was definitely a bad influence.
I really had to work on that before LJ mastered his fine motor skills.
“You’ve stayed up past your bedtime.” Linus rose to stand over me. “I’ll shower, and then we’ll go to sleep.”
“Are you sure?” Surprise jolted through me. “You don’t want to sit with your mother?”
“She’s safe, and she’s with the healer.” He smiled his littlest smile, the one that melted my heart into a puddle of goo. “I want to enjoy the final hours of being a couple with you before we become a family.”
The water turned on in the shower, and steam poured into the bedroom as Woolly got things ready.
After collecting a pair of pajamas, he entered the bathroom and shut the door.
As if sensing the turn of my thoughts, Cletus appeared at my shoulder, and Woolly’s presence drifted to the wall behind