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Check mate, I thought.I’ve won. But the sense of victory came with a discomfort like a thorn digging into my chest.
If there’d been any other way to save my guys, I’d have taken it.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Rose
Itook a sip of my tea as if to compose myself. The honey-laced jasmine flavor did actually settle my racing pulse a little. I brought the cup back to the saucer on my lap and gave the Assembly investigator who’d arrived a half hour ago a pained smile.
“I’m sorry there isn’t more I can tell you. Even though he seemed so worked up about his ‘artifact’ when he got back from Cairo, and even more distracted than usual, I thought it was just excitement about the deal. I never would have thought he’dhurtanyone.”
It wasn’t hard to work a wobble into my voice. I really hadn’t thought Dad could be that cruel, not up until the moment when he’d lied so blatantly to my face about his hopes for my consorting.
“Thank you for speaking with me all the same,” the woman said, brushing her fawn-brown hair back behind her ear as she considered her notebook. “You’ve been able to shed some light on his behavior leading up to this incident, at least. I’m sure it’s quite a shock, especially when coupled with your— Well, with everything else you’ve been facing.”
My broken engagement, she meant. I bowed my head. Or maybe that was two broken engagements now. Killian had been tended to by a witching doctor and then hightailed it out of my life, thank all that was lit and warm. Enslaving an innocent witch, no problem. Tying himself to a potentially crazed father in law, no thank you. I guessed he had his priorities straight, anyway.
“It’s been a difficult few weeks,” I said. “What’s going to happen to Dad now?”
“We have to wrap up the investigation, and then we’ll continue to examine him. There will be reparations to be made, restrictions placed. I expect it’ll be some time before we feel he’s safe to return to regular society.” Her mouth twisted sympathetically. “It’s unlikely he’ll return home until at least a few months have passed. You’d be best off not waiting for him, Miss Hallowell. While he’s in Assembly custody, this estate is under your authority. You should go on with your life as well as you can.”
“I’ll try,” I said. But as I walked her to the front door, a glow was already spreading through my chest. She got into her car and drove off down the road. The sun beamed down over the front gardens, warm and bright. The breeze was rustling through the gardens.
I had no one and nothing to answer to, at least for a short while. I’d even dismissed Mrs. Gainsley this morning. I’d acted distraught, told her I blamed her for not noticing that my father was up to something sinister. It had felt pretty good to say a few cutting things to her even if they weren’t exactly the most accurate cutting things. She’d protested, but, like the investigator had said, my word was the law here now.
It didn’t even matter if the Assembly decided Dad was ready to come home in just a few months. I’d be twenty-five then. As the only living female Hallowell, now of age, all the family properties would officially belong to me. I’d still have to keep my magic hidden from him, but I could send him off to Portland or wherever else, and there’d be nothing he could do to challenge me.
I was free. For the first time in who knew how long, I was really and truly free.
A smile stretched across my face as I leaned into the sunlight. Then Gabriel came out of the garage, and my lips curved even higher.
I came down the steps to meet him. With Mrs. Gainsley and her husband gone, no staff here on Sunday except a couple of security guards and the woman who handled our weekend cooking and cleaning, there was no reason I couldn’t reach out and take his hand.
He ran his thumb over my knuckles with a gentle pressure that sent a pleasant shiver over my skin. “Miss Hallowell,” he said in a teasing voice. “I thought I’d see if you’d be interested in taking a drive.”
“You know,” I said, “that sounds lovely. I know just the place.”
I got into the front seat of the Buick next to him, because why not? We weren’t likely to pass anyone on the way, and if we did, it wouldn’t look all that strange. At least, from what they could see from outside the car. After Gabriel turned onto the road outside, he let his hand drop from the steering wheel to rest on my leg. The warmth of his hand bled through the thin silk of my dress, and heat spiked up my thigh.
The old farmhouse looked different from even when Seth had shown it to me just last week. For one thing, it looked even less old. The clapboard slats had been painted a pale yellow like the porch, a hue that matched the sun’s glow. A porch swing hung on gleaming chains beside the front door. And a tall hedge had been planted in a wide rectangle around the back of the house. Voices carried over it as we got out of the car.
A wooden door opened in the hedge and Seth’s head poked out. His expression brightened when he saw us. “You made it quickly. Come on back. It’s probably about time we took a break.”
“You wouldn’t be giving us a break if Rose wasn’t here,” Damon muttered as we slipped into the yard. He stood up from the bed of flowers he’d been planting and wiped his dirt streaked hands on his jeans. “This guy is a slave-driver, just so you know,” he said to me, but there was a playful gleam in his dark eyes.
It did look like the bunch of them had been working hard. Kyler set down the bag of mulch he’d been laying along the base of the hedge and grinned, swiping at the sweat-damp curls sticking to his forehead. Jin had been trimming a lilac tree near a wrought-iron bench with a sheen of sweat on his bare shoulders. Seth knelt down to finish assembling the matching chairs. The whole yard smelled like freshly turned earth, the prickly evergreen of the hedge, and the musk of my guys at work.
“Looking at this place, I’m starting to think I’ll have to give up that garage apartment after all,” Gabriel said. “Good call on the hedges. Tall enough forlotsof privacy.” He tipped his head toward the wall of dense, dark leaves beside us and slung his arm around my waist. Casually, but I felt all four of my consorts mark the gesture in an instant.
“So you finally decided you’re joining us, huh?” Damon said, not exactly friendly but not exactly not either.
“If there’s room for one more in this group,” Gabriel said, holding Damon’s gaze. He offered the words like a question.
“As far as I’m concerned, you never left,” Jin said as he straightened up. He ran a hand through his blue-streaked hair and shot us a smile.
“I think we all figured it was just a matter of time,” Seth added. He tugged the last screw tight with his wrench and set the chair upright.
“Yeah,” Kyler said, with an arch of his eyebrows and a wider grin. “What took you so long anyway?”
