“You always spoke to me,” Anna whispered against her neck.“You were the only one who ever noticed me.”
Sable laughed softly.“You used to say, ‘It’s me’ in that soft voice of yours whenever we met in that echoing stairwell?—”
“The one that stank of oil and bleach,” Anna remembered.Pulling away, she took a deep breath.“You saw me getting into the SUV.You suspected what was going on.”Her eyes shone fierce and bright.“Why did it take you so long to find us?”
“I won’t lie.I had ghosts to deal with and an elusive man to find.”
It was as if Anna Marie had only been waiting for confirmation that Sable was human too.Throwing her arms around Sable, she said, “I can never thank you enough.I hoped you’d come, because you always looked at me as if I mattered.”
“Of course, you matter.So much,” Sable said fiercely.Closing her eyes, she knew that every bridge she’d burned was worth it to be here.
Stepping back, Anna Marie studied her face as if searching for cracks that bitter experience had taught her to look for.Finding none, she nodded once, sharp and decisive.“If I can ever do anything to help.I’m nearly nineteen, you know.I should be working, not idling away my time thinking back.I want to move forward.I want to work—do something positive with my life.Work with children, maybe.”
“I do have a few ideas to run by you when everything settles down,” Sable admitted.
“Please use me however you can.I’ll never be able to repay you for what you’ve done—and not just for me.”
They pressed their foreheads together briefly and let the moment hang.It was a precious time of silent promises with theSeraphimhumming steadily beneath them.
CHAPTERTEN
Sable looked exhausted but happy.She stood by the rail with Anna Marie tucked under her arm.He was glad for the two women.The reunion had done them both good.
Wiping a hand down the front of his dirt-streaked vest, he thought they both looked a mess.Dust clung to Sable’s boots, and there was blood on her sleeve—his, probably.But when she turned to look at him, her expression held hope, and that was all that mattered.
This mission, with its personal connection, had left them both raw.The harshness Sable wore like armor had cracked wide open, revealing a new light of relief and purpose.Her eyes were red with fatigue, but she never stayed broken for long.Exhaustion was the price of the job she did.Whenever possible, Sable carried the burden so others didn’t have to.
The administrator in charge arrived to take Anna Marie aside for a discreet interview.It gave Elijah the chance to approach Sable and catch hold of her before she dropped.
“Get off me,” she scolded halfheartedly.“I don’t want your blood all over me.”
“I’m more worried about you.”
“Unnecessary,” she stated fiercely.
“Even so…”
“Even so, nothing?—”
Ignoring this, he steered her toward the door and didn’t stop until they reached his stateroom.Once inside, he allowed her to re-dress his wound.She was the best of nurses, but a little brutal at times, with what he could only describe as a no-nonsense touch.
“Do you take pleasure in dripping iodine into the wound?”he demanded at one point.
“Ouch?”she suggested in a baby voice when he flinched.
“Yes.Fucking ouch.”
She showed him no mercy until she finally stepped back to view her handiwork.“There,” she said.“You can put your top back on now.”
“My bloodied top?”
“Well, put something on,” she insisted.
Elijah’s naked torso wasn’t the only reason she needed him to cover up.The ring hanging around his neck troubled her.Why was he wearing it?It couldn’t be his mother’s; he never knew her.Whose could it be that meant so much to him that he wore it on a chain around his neck?
Why do I care?
But she did.
