Page 151 of Dancing for the Minotaur

Terra’s heart gave a painful little twist. She wished she could bring the big Monstrum home with her—he deserved to be thanked for what he had done.

But Taurex shook his head.

“Not this time, youngling. Your grandmother needs to see you and know you are safe.”

Cody looked disappointed but nodded.

“O—kay,” he sighed.

Terra gathered the children and walked with them toward the door.

Taurex followed, opening it for them and standing aside as Cody and Lisa stepped into the foyer.

Terra hesitated for an instant and then she turned back.

“I just can’t thank you enough,” she said. “If there’s anything I can do—anything at all…”

“There is nothing I wish for in repayment,” Taurex interrupted gently. “It is enough for me to know that you and your family are safe.”

Terra swallowed hard.

“All right. Well…thank you,” she said awkwardly.

Taurex inclined his head.

“Goodbye, Terra.”

The finality of the words hit her almost as hard as “Have a beautiful life” had before. He was basically saying they weren’t going to see each other again.

And why would he want to see you again? whispered a mean little voice in her head. You rejected him and hurt him. Why would he take another chance on a single mom with no prospects? He’s richer than God—he could have any woman he wanted. He could have someone young with no kids to worry about.

“Goodbye,” she whispered. Then she followed her children into the elevator.

As the golden doors slid shut, Terra caught one final glimpse of the big Monstrum standing alone in the doorway of the enormous penthouse. He didn’t wave or call after her. He simply watched until the doors closed between them.

Terra should have been nothing but happy—her children were alive, Orlov was gone, and her nightmare was over.

And yet as the elevator carried them downward and Lisa tucked her small hand into Terra’s while Cody leaned against her other side, Terra felt a hollow ache growing beneath the enormous relief in her chest.

She had gotten her children back, but somehow, she had a terrible feeling that she might have lost Taurex for good.

39

TERRA

The weeks after Orlov’s death—or disappearance, as Terra still sometimes thought of it when she didn’t want to face the exact reality of what Taurex had done—were strangely quiet. Too quiet, really.

The danger was gone, Cody and Lisa were safe, and Terra could walk out to her car without scanning the street for Viktor Orlov’s black sedan or wondering if someone was watching her from across the road. She ought to have felt free, and in some ways she did—but the relief came with an emptiness she hadn’t expected.

Taurex didn’t call. He didn’t text. He didn’t appear at her house or send another absurdly generous payment or find some business excuse to bring her back to the penthouse like a hero in a RomCom or a romance novel would have. He had told her there was nothing he wanted in repayment for saving her children, and apparently he had meant exactly that.

Unfortunately, Cody and Lisa refused to let her forget him.

“The Bull-man would know how to fix this,” Lisa announced one afternoon when the chain came off her bicycle.

“The Bull-man could probably lift our whole car to see what the problem is,” Cody said the next day when Terra’s Honda made a particularly alarming grinding sound in the driveway.

“The Bull-man let us have Double Stuff Oreos,” Lisa informed Lucy at dinner, as though this were a deeply important fact about him.