Red After Dark (Blackwood Security #13) - Elise Noble Page 0,128

the other side and saw Alaric looming over me, and then I was in his arms, halfway in the air as he squeezed the breath out of me. I didn’t care—after the death I’d been facing earlier, it would be a pleasant way to go. He loosened one arm enough to drag Rune into our little huddle, and then we were all crying.

“Beth,” he said again, burying his face in my shoulder. “Rune. Fuck, I’ve never been so scared as when I found out you were gone.”

“My next car’s going to be a tank,” I joked, then remembered what I’d done to the BMW. “Emmy, I’m so sorry I crashed your car. Something flew at us—it looked like a log—and I swerved to avoid it, and… I’ll pay for the damage. Somehow.”

“Oh, who gives a shit about the car? You and Rune are far more important than a heap of metal. At least the airbags went off.”

“Don’t worry about anything,” Alaric murmured in my ear. “We can fix it all later.”

“I could do with some ice for my ankle.”

“You could do with going to the hospital,” Emmy informed me. “Where’s the car?”

“I brought them both up to the old house,” Alaric told me. “All the hardware’s in the Suburban—I’m assuming the Queen of Darkness’ll want to make herself scarce.”

The woman who wasn’t Emmy glared at him but didn’t argue. I didn’t know her name. Nobody had introduced her, and she’d barely said a word in the woods.

“I’ll take my leave as well,” Black’s friend said. “Don’t forget to cancel the manhunt.”

“And call an ambulance,” Emmy added as she scrubbed at her face with wet wipes. She’d already stripped off weapons and goggles and removed a belt adorned with pouches. “Now that we look like search and rescue rather than a bunch of assassins, it’s time to bring in the authorities, although I wouldn’t exactly be devastated if we left Ridley’s corpse out there to rot.”

Neither would I. A funeral was too good for that man.

Black’s friend glanced over his shoulder as he walked away, a faint smile gracing his lips.

“Won’t be much left to bury once those hogs have finished with him.”

Hogs? “What hogs?”

“Long story,” Emmy said, grinning. “It can wait until later.”

Later… I’d live to see later now, and the feeling of relief was so overwhelming I burst into tears for the second time.

Alaric quickly wrapped me up in his arms, and Rune as well. “It’s okay. Nobody’ll hurt you again. I promise.”

“I thought I was dead. Everything was fading away, but then a gunshot woke me up.”

Alaric lifted me into the front seat of one of the SUVs and reclined it so I could rest while we waited. Rune crawled into the back seat, tucked herself under a blanket, and fell asleep in three seconds flat.

“That girl,” I whispered to Alaric as he sat on the door sill, gripping my hand. “She’s the smartest, bravest person I’ve ever met. You’ve done an amazing job bringing her up.”

“It was a joint effort.”

“I know. We talked a lot in the cellar, and she told me stories. She said she has four fathers instead of one.”

“Indeed she does. That’s why I’m Alaric instead of Dad—she calls us all by our first names because having Dad, Pop, Papa, and Pappy would be confusing. Plus Ravi’s only seventeen years older than she is.”

“That doesn’t upset you? That you’re her father, yet she thinks of your friends in that way too?”

“Not at all. Why would I begrudge her their love and protection? But now… Now I’m hoping she’ll have a mom too.”

“Me?” I choked out the word, and the tears threatened to make a reappearance.

“Well, I was planning to put an ad on the internet, but if you’re interested in the job…”

“Oh, gosh. I… I… Of course I am. I’ve always longed for children, and I never thought… But will Rune want that?”

“Yes,” she mumbled from the back seat. Oops. Not quite as asleep as I thought. “Don’t get mushy, Mom.”

How could I not? The tears came yet again, and I hurriedly tried to wipe them away when Black materialised behind Alaric.

“Cavalry’s five minutes out.”

Alaric kissed me softly on the forehead before he rose to his feet.

“I know we’ve had our differences,” he said to Black, “but I need to thank you for everything you did on this search. If you hadn’t taken control of this operation…”

“As I’ve suggested before, don’t dwell on what didn’t happen. Focus on what you want to happen tomorrow.”