“Lara.” I tore my mouth away, the words sitting right on the tip of my tongue. “I—”
“And they say I’m the savage,” Creighton’s deep voice mocked, and I turned, only to be greeted by my brother’s smirk. “At least I put up a sign.”
According to Colby, one time she’d gone to visit him at his apartment in town, there was a piece of paper nailed to the door that readCoitus in Progress.
Lara ducked into my chest, and I carefully lowered her feet to the ground.
“Creighton—”
“Who’s in Dad’s room?” he demanded, his scowl deepening.
“Lara’s sister, Rachel,” I answered. “We found her this morning. She’s resting.” He didn’t need the details.
A deep crease of confusion furrowed his brow. More than me, Creighton looked completely boggled by our father’s decision to offer up his bedroom to a virtual stranger.
“Interesting,” he remarked, dragging stained fingers through his long hair and then disappearing into his room.
Lara caught her breath, resting her head on my chest.
“Tell me what I can do,” I said, trailing my knuckles gently along her cheek.
She lifted her eyes to mine. “I killed him, didn’t I?”
“No.” My jaw locked. “He was dead before he could bleed out.”
Was it the truth?Honestly, I didn’t know and I wasn’t sure even the best medical examiner would be able to determine which injury had been the cause of death: the two slugs I’d fired into him, center mass, or the traumatic blood loss from where she’d stabbed him.
“You’re sure?”
I nodded. I hadn’t taken an oath to save lives, and I didn’t have a problem killing when the circumstances warranted, and for those things alone, I would assume the responsibility for Ben’s death.
“I wanted to kill him, though,” she confessed in the smallest whisper, not sounding like she felt guilty for the thought but to prove she was strong enough to have it.
“I know.” I kissed her forehead. “It’s over now. You’re both safe.”
She angled her head higher, her mouth orbiting for another kiss, but then she drew back. “I need to shower and get back to my sister,” she said softly.
“Yeah.”Of course.This ... us ... was a priority, but it would have to wait. I would have to wait and live with the tightness in my chest for several more hours.
I couldn’t take my hand from hers as I guided her to the bathroom she’d used the other night. “I’m going to check in with Callum.”
And I needed to figure out how to tell Lara how I felt ... and what the hell I would do if she didn’t want to stay. Not because I couldn’t leave. I could. I could live anywhere. But the possibility had just then occurred to me: What if she didn’t want me to come with her?
She turned in the doorway and I kissed her again. “I’ll have Colby bring you some clothes.”
“Thank you.”
My hand wore a path along my beard as I walked to Callum’s. He hadn’t followed through on his threat to change the locks on his door, so I let myself inside to Twister’s welcoming committee.
Stationed in his chair at his computers, Callum greeted me without turning. “You’re alive.”
“Yeah.” I went to stand by him, Twister circling my feet. “Thanks for all your help ... with this.”
Callum didn’t take gratitude well. Actually, he preferred to not take it at all by ignoring the sentiment. “I wasn’t expecting to hear Lara’s voice on the phone this morning, worried about you. Is the great Calder Stone losing his touch?”
She worried about me.I tried not to let the thought sink in too deep. It didn’t change the reality that her life was back in Phoenix.
“Things didn’t go as expected.”
