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But now I could see the tangles in his hair and the exhaustion in his eyes.
His face and chest were splattered with blood.
Abruptly, my heart twisted. I glanced back into the dark of the Impala, but it was empty now. Denny and Dylan weren’t with him.
Xander had brought Ryder back alone.
“Whose blood?” I rasped.
“They’re alive, Cheeks. That’s all matters.” Xander glanced at the crowd that had formed on the front porch and shook his head. “Let’s just get the boys upstairs, okay? I know everyone will want to celebrate, but… I can’t. Not right now.”
He placed his arm around me, and I hugged Ryder closer to my chest. The crowd parted, staring at us in awe as we climbed the porch steps. A few people reached out to touch us as we moved past, as if we were something holy. Relics that would bless the faithful. Living saints. But no one tried to hold us back.
Without another word, we retreated inside together.
Back in our room, Nana Jordan sat on the bed. Rylan’s bassinet was next to her, and he was sleeping soundly inside it.
Nana looked Xander up and down, then glanced at Ryder in my arms. She gave Xander an approving nod.
“Welcome back. I’ll leave you to it.” She rose and headed for the door, pausing only to press a kiss to Ryder’s stocking cap, and another to my cheek.
She closed the door behind her. For the first time since the boys were taken, our little family was all in the same room together, alone.
Xander had gone quiet. He helped me get Ryder into a fresh diaper and a clean onesie, then excused himself to take a shower. As thrilled as I was to have Ryder back, it was tempered by the unanswered questions of what had happened to Dylan and Denny, and why Xander had come home splattered with blood.
“Come here,” he said when he emerged from the bathroom wrapped in a towel. He sat down on the bed, then patted the mattress next to me. “Sit with me for a little while.”
I moved to him, doing as he’d asked.
“Are Dylan and Denny okay?”
“Dylan’s fine,” Xander confirmed. “Not a scratch on him. He’s with Denny at Evergreen General right now.”
“Denny?”
“He’s been in better shape, but he’ll survive.”
“Is that whose blood was on you, then? Denny’s?”
“A little. Mostly, though… It was Lizbeth’s.”
“Fuck. She was there?”
“Samuel assigned her to nursemaid duty. I’ve got no idea what she ever saw in him, but… Well, she won’t be seeing anything in anyone now.”
I frowned, trying to make sense of his words. “You blinded her?”
“No, Cheeks. I killed her.” Xander’s voice was ragged, somehow deep and high all at the same time. He leaned forward, bowing his head. “I’m not proud of it. It felt like shit, even as I was doing it. But she shifted and pounced at me. Denny… he jumped in front of us. He took the blow. Then they were on the floor. He was using half his strength to keep her jaws shut so she wouldn’t make any noise, and the other half trying to keep himself from crying out as she clawed at him. And I… I couldn’t let her kill him, Cheeks. It was kill her, or let him die, so I made the choice.”
I reached up to his temple, brushing his hair away from his face. “It was no choice at all. You did what had to be done.”
“Maybe so, Cheeks. I just…” He choked on his words and had to swallow before he continued. “I don’t wanna keep things from you. Understand that. Just, maybe, if it’s okay with you, you could just let me hold you for a while. And maybe we don’t talk about this again.”
“It’s okay with me,” I said, placing my arms around him. “I understand.”
* * *
The next few days were trying, though they should have been some of the best days of our lives. Somehow, the story broke that we’d recovered both of the boys. Reporters descended on the lodge, enough of them that Xander had made the call to stop using the pack to keep them off our land, and had simply called the police instead.
