“No! Please don’t leave me!” Bel shoved her palms against his heart and faked compressions, her dog playing along with the drama. “Stay with me, dammit! You will live. You need to live.”
“Tell Cerberus I love him,” Eamon gasped for breath below her. “And tell Sheriff Griffin I like him, I guess. Oh… and tell Reese and your sisters that they’re the family I never had… alas! I have been murdered.” He collapsed with old Hollywood flair, his arms falling off the side of the couch before he grunted in surprise. “Hey! What was that for?” He gawked at where Bel had punched him full force in the stomach.
“’Cause you aren’t allowed to die on me, and you’re especially not allowed to die like that.” She gestured at him with exaggerated disgust. “If I’m not your last‘I love you’, I will find a witch who can bring you back from the dead so I can murder you myself.”
“Fine.” Eamon gently shifted Cerberus to the floor before yanking her to his chest. “I love you, Isobel Emerson. You are my first‘I love you’. You will be my last‘I love you’. You are my only‘I love you’.”
“God, you’re so sappy.” Bel rolled her eyes, both of them knowing just how much she loved hearing those words, especially with the uncertainty hanging between them over the still unresolved children issue.
“Then how’s this?” Eamon flipped her effortlessly, pinning her to the couch, and before she knew what he was doing, he’d relieved her of her clothes. “I love you.” His words were sweet, but his tone was filthy, and his movements proved her wrong. There was nothing sappy about him as he owned her, body andsoul, and she was more out of breath when they collapsed in a tangled heap than she’d been after the sparring session.
“So, do you feel better?” Eamon’s voice turned gentle as he brushed her hair off her damp forehead.
“I do.” She pressed her ear to his chest, savoring the god-like thunder of his heart.
“You need to take more breaks. You can’t work yourself to the bone.”
“I know. I know. You’re right. I just get so caught up. Hazard of the job.”
“What did you ever do before me?”
“Eat out of the vending machine.”
“Please don’t tell me that.” Eamon sat up, taking her with him. “Speaking of food, do you want some ice cream?”
“That sounds perfect in this heat.”
“Come on, let’s clean up and go.”
“Don’t you have some here?” she asked.
“I do, but if we stay home, you’ll try to work. So, we’re taking Cerberus into town.”
Thirty minutes later, the trio stood in the expansive ice cream line, the entire town trying to escape the evening summer heat with them.
“It’s just that this guy is smart,” Bel said, unable to help herself. “Alcina Magus shapeshifted into my neighbor. Abel left Cerberus to find you after he took me. Jax Frost liked to watch his girls freeze, which gave us clues as to who he was. Blaubart kidnapped me after I went to his office. They all did things that drew attention to themselves, but this guy? He’s learning. He’s left nothing of himself behind. Every theory points us in different directions, but they lead nowhere. I’m missing something, but I don’t know where to look.”
“You are. The problem is you don’t have enough context.” Eamon graciously engaged in the conversation instead of forcingher to remain on her break. “I hate to say this, but don’t cold cases account for around fifty percent of homicides every year? Aren’t there hundreds of thousands of murders that are never solved?”
“This can’t be one of them.”
“But it might be.”
“It won’t. It can’t.”
“Okay, okay.” Eamon draped an arm around her shoulder. “I just worry, that’s all. I don’t want this to become a cold case that drives you off the edge.”
“What can I get you?” the teenager at the outdoor counter interrupted.
“Um…” Bel reoriented her brain. “I’ll have two scoops of coffee ice cream. No toppings or cone. Thank you.”
“And for you, sir?” The teen glanced in Eamon’s general direction, the after-dinner rush preventing her from fully acknowledging him, and Bel wondered if his power had something to do with her avoidance. He’d lived in Bajka for a year now and was still widely referred to as the recluse who purchased the crumbling Reale Estate.
“Two scoops of chocolate peanut butter on a cone, and a half a scoop of vanilla in a cup, please.”
“We don’t do half scoops,” the girl said.
“Just charge me for a full one and give me a half,” Eamon said. “The kid is too small for a whole scoop.”
