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The red robes, and the striking face, were exactly what she’d seen on the previous feeds from the night Gus had been brought home—
All at once, her guards froze, as if they were a unit with a single brain. And then the roles were reversed. Now the figure was the one who was closing the distance.
“What the hell are you doing?” She tapped the computer screen—like that was going to help wake the guards up? “What the fuck are you…”
Her voice drifted off as the man in the robes walked through the lineup of uniformed, weaponed guards, and as soon as he was on the other side, the squadron turned, reholstered their guns, and followed him in a little line. Like they were ducklings after momma.
The red-robed figure walked to one of the sets of doors of the back terrace. And then her head of security went to the keypad—and punched in the access code. Of course he was denied entrance, because everything that had happened in that field had been seen by the security detail inside.
But as he tilted his head and spoke into hisshoulder communicator, the red-robed figure looked up and cocked an eyebrow at the camera. Like he couldn’t fathom the delay.
Cathy told herself to stay put. But then she remembered him bringing back the man… she loved.
Without thinking, she burst up and ran back out of the study. Triggering a hidden door off to the side in the hall, she entered the master code, the one that nobody but her knew, the one that did not require secondary approval. As the seal breached, she jogged a short distance, pushed a panel release, and jumped free to land on the terrace.
Alerted by the noise, the man in the red robes turned around, and as curls of cold air swirled about him, it was as if he were about to take flight.
“Who are you,” she asked.
“Forgive me,” he said in a heavily accented voice, “for my trespassing. But I am here for Daniel Joseph. Is he in?”
Cathy shook her head. “I… what?”
“Daniel—”
“No, I got that. I just—who the hell are you? And you brought Gus back. And—”
The man glanced over at her head of security and gave a nod. Without any hesitation, like a trained dog, the guy she had hired to coordinate everything in a time of conflict and chaos backed off some.
And took everybody else with him.
“What have you done with them? What are you—”
“Worry not, I have come in peace.” The robed figure indicated the lineup that was retreating. “And I figure you would prefer those back inside?”
“Who… are you.”
“As I told you, I am a friend who has come in peace… who has something Daniel Joseph needs, desperately.”
Lydia’s first clue that Daniel might possibly be coming around was a tightening of their entwined fingers—except then she wasn’t sure whether she had shifted her grip or if it had been him. Lying beside him in the hospital bed, she listened to the beeping that was not quite even and then reminded herself that there was no alarm going off. She might not understand what all the monitor was showing, but she knew when there was no screaming noise.
Gus was right, no alarm was good.
“Knock knock,” she whispered as she stared at Daniel’s eyelashes as they rested on his cheek. Then she filled in his response. “Who’s there. Feisty. Feisty—no, that isn’t right. What was it again?”
The joke totally derailed because she couldn’t remember which part came next, and was confused about the punchline—and besides, as she had losther partner in the back-and-forth, what did it matter anyway.
And this was pretty much what the rest of her life was going to be like… without Daniel.
“I love you,” she whispered as her eyes teared up. “What am I going to do without you?”
What she really needed—whattheyneeded—was a miracle—
The door to the patient room swung open, and at first, all she saw was red—and her brain misinterpreted both its placement and its source: For a split second, she thought Daniel had somehow bled out. But why would what belonged in his veins be upright and standing in the doorway—
“Blade?” she asked as she sat up on her elbow.
“May I come in?”
