Hale laughed again but kept any further thoughts to himself as they reached the top of the steps. Karissa pushed open the door without the alarm going off, which was only possible because she’d arranged this little visit to the roof with hotel security earlier. Apparently, the money that Patterson spent here gave the head of his personal protective detail a lot of leeway.
When they stepped out into the late-afternoon sun, Karissa stopped and glanced around like she was looking for something only she wasn’t sure what it was.
He had to admit that he’d been a little surprised when Karissa announced out of the blue that she needed to go to Patterson’s hotel barely five minutes after Lorenzo had walked out. When he’d asked if there was a problem, she’d merely shrugged and said, “Maybe.” The fact that Deven hadn’t even batted an eye at her peculiar behavior didn’t do anything to make him feel any better. Thankfully, when he’d suggested going with her, Karissa hadn’t put up a fuss.
Hale wasn’t sure if that was a good sign or a bad one.
“So,” he said casually as he continued to followher around the rooftop, watching as she circled the big HVAC units and then leaned out over the metal guardrail at the edge of the roof to glance at the ground far below them. “Is there anything in particular you’re looking for? I could help search if I knew what it was.”
“I’m not sure what I’m looking for,” Karissa admitted, glancing at him as she wandered around. “I’m simply following my instincts. And right now, they’re telling me I need to be on this roof.”
Hale remembered Karissa telling him about her instincts and how she followed them without hesitation. The fact that she’d followed them across town in time to save his butt from Darijo Tamm told him everything he needed to know about trusting them.
“You think Bagley might be coming here to attack Patterson?” he asked, going with what seemed to be the most likely threat.
“Possibly. I thought Patterson was going to be at city hall all day, but he might have come back here for something,” she said, then shrugged. “Though admittedly, the god of dread hasn’t shown much interest in Patterson over the past few days. Then again, it’s just as likely that a meteor will hit the building in the next fifteen minutes or that aliens will arrive to probe everyone on the even-numbered floors. My instincts aren’t very specific. Theygive me general warnings about bad things happening and let me handle it from there.”
Hale snorted. “As superpowers go, these spidey senses of yours leave a little to be desired.”
“I won’t disagree with you on that,” Karissa said with a laugh. “But I’ve learned to work with them. Athena has a habit of putting me in the right place at the right time and then let’s me worry about the details.”
Hale only shook his head because in the end he couldn’t really say much about it. How many times had he and his fellow werewolves run headlong into danger simply because their inner wolves had screamed at them to act first and ask questions later?
“You think Lorenzo will cause any more trouble?” he asked as they checked behind a squat brick structure that probably housed the equipment for the main elevator shaft. “Or that he’ll really call your parents?”
“I have no doubt he’s called them already.” She sighed. “It’s also extremely likely that my parents are either on a plane right now or at least headed to the airport this very minute. There’s too much money involved for them to risk me walking away from the company.”
Hale’s heart began to thump harder at the admission that she was thinking about leaving her parents’ security company. Would she really cut ties with her family to stay with him?
“What kind of money are we talking about?” he asked, not wanting her to know how incredibly off balance her words had put him.
“Patterson is paying my family half a million dollars for this job,” she said, guiding them toward the far edge of the roof. “None of which Deven and I will likely ever see. It turns out I’ve never been anything more than a meal ticket to them…and they’re keeping all the food.”
There wasn’t much he could say about that. It wasn’t like he was going to tell her that she was wrong. He’d always thought her parents—and older brothers—were shitty human beings.
“Just once I wish I could have normal parents,” she said after several moments of silence. “That they were a mom and a dad who were simply content to see their kid happy and healthy. But no, all my parents see when they look at me are dollar signs.”
“Well, I’d offer you my parents as replacements, but I’m not sure you’d find them to be any kind of upgrade,” he said with a soft chuckle, leaning against the metal guardrail to look out over the edge of the roof at the ground a dizzying distance away. “Plus one of them is still in prison.”
Karissa laughed as they turned around and headed to the last side of the roof they’d yet to search. “I appreciate the offer, but I’m good.”
“Would you do it?” Hale asked after anotherfew minutes of wandering around, unaware he was going to ask the question until the words were coming out of his mouth. “Walk away from your family, I mean? Not Deven, of course. But everyone else.”
“If you had asked me that even a week ago, my answer would have been a resounding no,” she said softly as she glanced across the roof toward the crisp blue sky. “But now, knowing that I’d be giving up my family to be with you, the idea doesn’t sound so scary.”
Hale had once read something about not realizing how heavy your burden was until you set it down. At that moment, he finally understood the concept because it seemed he was finally able to breathe for the first time in ten years. He’d always assumed that crushing weight on his chest was normal.
He didn’t delude himself into thinking that everything was rainbows and unicorns now. There was still the soul mate issue to deal with, and talking about leaving her family to be with him wasn’t the same thing as actually doing it. But still, right then, a future seemed possible.
“But, you know,” Karissa added slowly, “just because I leave my family doesn’t mean I’ll stop being a Paladin. Would you be okay with me running out all the time to save the world?”
Hale almost snorted out loud, realizing that thiswas the exact same conversation he’d had with the guys earlier. “I won’t lie. When you go somewhere on your own, I’m probably going to worry my ass off. But I imagine you’ll be worried too when I go off to do something dangerous with SWAT. So we’ll both have to promise to be careful and always come back to one another.”
“Deal,” Karissa said with a smile. “By the way, Deven might have to live with us for a while. There’s no way he’ll go back to Chicago if I don’t, and it’s not like he can stay in a hotel forever.”
Rational thought fled at that point, Hale’s head spinning at the fact that Karissa had clearly already been thinking about moving in with him. He definitely wasn’t against that idea, even if Deven came with the deal, but he had to admit he was starting to think this was too good to be true.
“Deven can stay with us as long as he needs to,” Hale said before taking a deep breath, deciding it was time to get this soul mate thing over with, even if it ruined the good vibe they’d just established. “But before we get too far ahead of ourselves with this, there’s one other subject we need to talk about. It’s something I’ve been a little hesitant to bring up until now.”
