I considered it. “Maybe.”
The officer pulled out his card and handed it to me. “If you can, please send it to me. Or if you can't, perhaps you could come to the station and work with a sketch artist. Just call me, and I'll set it up.”
“All right.” I took the card, my hand shaking.
The policeman noticed the shaking and said gently, “We'll do our best to find these people. I can't be sure that the two incidents are connected, but we'll do everything we can to investigate.”
“Thank you,” I murmured.
“Is it all right if we lock up the gallery now?” Rune asked.
“As I said, the firefighters will want to do a walkthrough with you. But then you're free to go.”
“Great. Thank you, Officer.”
“Thank you for all of this information.” He held up his notebook. “I'll be in touch.”
Rune and I went to stand beside my gallery to wait for the firefighters.
Chapter Twenty-Three
I wasn't able to assess the damage to the gallery. The firefighters didn't want us to go inside until the building aired out. I wasn't sure how it would do that locked up, but they shut all the security panels for me, and I locked the security door. The other door was only a twisted frame.
The firefighters said all the power had been shut off to the buildings in the area but it should be on by the next day and the gallery should be fine to enter by then. They suggested I contact my insurance people immediately and have an expert out to assess if anything needed to be thrown out. Evidently, smoke can seep into things and linger, making them hazardous to have around even after the smoke has cleared from the air. The good news was that my apartment hadn't been affected. They wouldn't let me go up, since I'd have to go through the gallery, but they promised they had checked and used my keys to lock up afterward.
After seeing Elaine and Simon off, I finally left with Rune. It was on the way to their house that my hands started to shake. How many years had it been since I'd witnessed violence like that? I couldn't remember. I'd grown complacent in my belief that the world had changed, that people were letting go of their hatred. But this act had been instigated by an old soul, hadn'tit? A man straight out of hell, or at least the hellish part of the Underworld. And he was after the men I was—
What was I doing? Falling in love with an entire Cerberus team? This was crazy. Even crazier than the time Hermes killed that poor giant, Argus, just to free one of Zeus's mistresses. The giant had only been doing his job, a job given to him by Hera, who was intent on keeping her husband from his favorite nymph. No one could get past Argus, not even Zeus. So Zeus asked Hermes to kill the giant. Hermes has always loved a challenge.
I snorted, wondering if that was why Hermes had wanted me so badly. I denied his advances at first. Many times. As I mentioned, I thought he was Coyote, come to play tricks on me. That pale, golden skin and bright eyes. He shone like the sun, but his smile was too broad to be real. It took me a long time to trust him, and so it took him a long time to win my affection. But if Hermes had only been after me because of the challenge I posed, he should have left after the first bedding. Instead, he kept returning. Over and over until he made me immortal. Maybe my rejections had forced him to take the time to get to know me, and then he fell in love.
Kinda like how the guys were forcing me to get to know them.
Okay, force is too harsh a word, but I was in a position where I felt as if I couldn't deny them. And that wasn't like me. I didn't let men control my life. Not anymore. The one good thing about Hermes leaving me was that I got to choose how I lived. Now, after over a hundred years of being on my own, I was in love again, and that love was taking over my life. What was with me giving up control to the men I loved?
But what choice did I have? I couldn't go back to my apartment, didn't even want to. Controlling or not, I wanted to be with Rune and Braxen. Maybe Merrick too. We'll see. I loved Rune and Brax. Two men. At the same time. The fact that I could have them both was mind-boggling. And wasn't that worth dealing with their enemies? Wasn't it worth getting to know Merrick? Maybe he'd be just as wonderful as they were beneath his less palatable personality.
Was I seriously trying to find some reason in this? It was simple. Love is crazy. I would do anything for love. Did that make me weak or strong? I didn't know and was too tired to care.
“Lora?” Rune's hand covered one of mine and stilled the shaking.
“I'm all right,” I said, lifting my head to see that we were pulling down the long driveway of their house.
“I'm sorry about your gallery.”
“I have insurance. The gallery will be fine.”
He parked the car in the garage, then turned to face me. “Will you be fine?”
“I already said so.”
“You weren't very convincing.” Rune lifted his hand to my face. “I love you. You can talk to me about anything.”
“I don't like feeling as if I'm giving up control. I know this is the best place for me, but I feel a little pushed into being here.”
He nodded. “We've been too domineering with you. I'm sorry for that. It was done out of a need to protect you. But you're the one in charge, Lora.”
I snorted.
