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Two Escalades and my little Audi were parked outside. Dean set me in the backseat of one of the Escalades, then rushed to the driver’s seat.
“I’ll meet you there,” Brenna said and shut my door.
Dean quickly got us on the road heading toward New Haven. “Is there a reason we ditched him?”
“It was undoubtedly a bitch move, wasn’t it?” I said as I adjusted my hold of the tiny, sleeping being in my arms.
Dean didn’t respond.
I smiled a little to myself. “Did you become friends while I was away?”
Through the rearview mirror I saw him roll his eyes. “He hasn’t relaxed since you were taken. He’s been doing everything to find you. I don’t know how he’s still standing.”
I stared out the window. “I can’t let him save me. Even if it’s driving me home. I don’t trust him not to lord it over me. Him and Stefan.”
Dean didn’t say anything to that, but I could sense something was off.
“You think I should forgive him?”
“When you choose to forgive him is up to you,” he grumbled. “I figured you should know.”
“I know he loves me, Dean. I’ve never doubted that. It’s the trust that’s broken between us.”
The drive was quiet after that as we made our way to a home I’d run away from not once but twice. The first time, Stefan had let me go for six years. The second, I’d run away for almost four months. Somehow, the four months away felt longer than the six years. Everything felt different now.
* * *
“Pull around to the guest house,” I told Dean as he drove up the long cobblestone driveway of Quinn Manor. Brenna followed us in my Audi.
“I can walk,” I told Dean after he parked and opened my door. He stepped back so I could slide out of the car on weak legs. I just needed to get into the house, deal with seeing Stefan, and then I’d kick everyone out so I could finally breathe.
Each step I took was brutal as I made my way to the front door of the guest house. Everything fucking hurt. The only thing keeping me going was that I was almost to a hot shower and a comfortable bed.
When the door was within reach, the back door of the main house opened. Stefan and Brody came out in a rush. I paused for only a breath before continuing on. I didn’t have the energy to just stand there and wait.
“Maura,” Stefan called me.
I made it three steps inside before my legs gave out. Brenna and Dean caught me by my upper arms and helped me to the room I had claimed before I’d taken off. Sitting on the edge of my bed, I focused on breathing for a minute so I wouldn’t throw up.
“I’ll get you some water,” Brenna said as she dashed out of the room.
Dean moved to stand against the wall and out of the way just as Stefan walked straight into my room with Brody right behind him.
Stefan’s eyes bounced over the injuries on my face and neck and the blood that had dried to my skin and clothes. He knelt in front of me with his hand hovering over my face as if wanting to touch me, but refrained out of worry of hurting me. Instead, he ran his fingers through my messy, shoulder-length hair by my ear. “Christ, Maura.”
Brody gently stroked the back of my head. “Dr. Ben will be here any minute.”
Both of them seemed to see the baby in my arms at the same time.
“Whose…” Brody started to say before trailing off.
Stefan’s forest-green eyes met mine and I could see that he quickly put two and two together. “Where’s the mother?”
“Dead,” I answered.
He didn’t ask if I’d killed her. He probably didn’t care. “And the father?”
“Do you think I would have called Brenna to come get me if he wasn’t?” I snapped.
