He answered.Of course, he answered. Because that's what Talon does—he shows up.
Riley:Staying at my dad's house feels like a hotel now. Too big, too empty.
There.She said it. The truth she hadn't even admitted to her therapist. That the place that’s supposed to be home feels like anything but.
Talon:That's normal after trauma. Familiar places can feel foreign.
Her therapist had saidthe same thing. She frowned down at the screen. There was so much more to Talon King than he let people see. That scowl of his hid a heart of gold, too.A person who didn’t have such kindness would have never volunteered to text with a stranger, would they? But she wasn't a stranger anymore, was she? They'd moved beyond that without her even realizing it.
Riley:How do you know that?
Talon:Experience. It gets better.
Experience.The word carried weight, spoke of battles fought and survived, maybe of other people he'd helped through dark times. She wasn't his first rescue, and she probably wouldn't be his last. But somehow, that didn't make her feel less special. It made her feel … understood.
Riley:Promise?
God,she sounded like a child. But she needed to hear it, needed someone who'd been through it to tell her there was light at the end of this endless tunnel.
Talon:Promise.
And just like that,she believed him. Because if there was one thing she'd learned about Talon King, it was that he didn't make promises he couldn't keep.
Riley set the phone down on the polished glass coffee table, her fingertips lingering for a moment against the smooth surface. The house was still silent, still cavernous, but it didn’t feel quite as hollow.
She leaned back into the pristine cushions, letting her head rest against the arm of the sofa. Talon’s single word,promise, still pulsed through her, quiet but steady. It was a warm presence.
Outside the tall picture windows, the manicured gardens stretched toward the water, the neat order of the hedges at odds with the tangle of her thoughts. A shaft of late-afternoon sunlight cut across the room, dust motes drifting lazily through the air like tiny flecks of gold.
The house was the same as it had been an hour ago—too big, too empty—but it no longer pressed in on her quite as much. Because she wasn’t alone. Not really. Not when she could reach out across the miles and someone would answer.
Her hand drifted to the phone again, fingertips brushing the screen before she pulled back with a faint smile. No. She’d let his words settle. Let the silence stretch. Talon’s promise was enough to carry her through the rest of the long, quiet Sunday. Calling was out of the question. His securityrequired the texts to be encrypted and bounced from point to point. He’d told her that. It sucked, but she’d take the connection anyway she could get it.
September
Talon:Question: What's the weirdest thing you've eaten?
Riley liftedan eyebrow and looked up at the woman who was helping her with her wrist and hand exercises. Another random question from her mysterious guardian.She loved these moments—when he pulled her out of the monotony of recovery and into his world of strange experiences and casual observations.
"Could you excuse me for a moment. I need to answer this."
"Sure. We can take five." The woman walked over to her bag and grabbed her phone.
Riley moved to the corner of the room, suddenly protective of this conversation, this connection that had become so precious to her.
Riley:Why?
Talon:Currently staring at something called balut in the Philippines. It's a duck embryo.
Her hand flewto her mouth, and she gagged a bit at the thought.Dear God, that sounds disgusting.But also …he’s sharing this moment with me.Of all the people he could text, he chose to tell her about this bizarre culinary experience.
Riley:Oh god, no. Did you eat it?
Talon:Had to. Cultural respect and all that.
Riley cringed,and a shiver ran through her, raising goose bumps all over her arms. There was no way she would have eaten it. Respect be damned. But that was Talon, wasn't it? Doing what needed to be done,even when it was unpleasant. Even when every instinct probably told him to run.
Riley:You're braver than me. Weirdest I've done is escargot.
