“Then let’s meet. Anywhere you choose. Anytime you choose. We have to end this.”
“I’ll think about it,” Elizabeth said slowly. “I’ll call you when I can.”
“Okay, just… think quickly,” Maeve whispered before ending the call.
“It’s a trap,” David said roughly, his somber eyes flicking to hers. “First Gordon tried with James, and now they’re trying with you.”
“Probably,” she admitted quietly. “But what if it’s not?”
“What do you feel?” Bryn asked from the back seat.
“I don’t know,” Elizabeth answered honestly. “I just don’t know anymore. Danger, of course.” She took her hand back—needing to concentrate, not obsess over David’s Shadows—and closed her eyes.
She sifted through everything Maeve had said, everything she hadn’t said, slowly reaching a conclusion. “The thing that really worries me is that I didn’t expect her call, and I didn’t sense anything while she was talking.”
“She’s warded,” Bryn surmised.
“I think so.”
“This is just the next stage of their plan,” David said, tension still vibrating off him. “And you’re the target. As soon as we reach the others, we need to work on a plan of defense.”
“Probably,” she admitted. But she also knew there was more to her constantly churning fear. She looked over at the man who had shaped so much of her life, both by his presence and by his absence. The man she’d never forgotten. “David, there’s something I have to tell you.”
He glanced at her for a moment before focusing back on the road. “You can tell me anything.”
“The vision I had yesterday… I saw James.” She hesitated for a moment, and then she put her hand back on his leg. “But I also sawyou.”
David nodded slowly. “I thought so.”
“You did?”
“You said you saw two men. You didn’t say who the other man was.”
He shot her a wry half smile, and Elizabeth swallowed her rising emotion, not knowing quite what to say. He had always known her so well—maybe he genuinely still did. In the end, she settled for murmuring, “Please be careful.”
David shifted his grip on the wheel to one hand and settled the other over hers, interlacing their fingers. “I love you, Elizabeth. I will do everything I can to keep us all safe.” His Shadows poured over hers, a stream of steady support. “I realize I’ve been terrible at showing my love—to you, and to Kay, Zach, and James—but you should know that I won’t let you down again.”
She curled her fingers to hold his. Their hands joined as if it was natural. And their Shadows swirled together, dancing slowly, as if decades hadn’t passed since they last held each other.
Could she trust his feelings for her? Maybe. But she didn’t have any doubts about his feelings for the three Guardians in his Circle. And she also didn’t doubt that he would do everything he could to keep his family safe. Even if it cost him everything.
ChapterNine
Riley feltrough.She’d spent the night twisting and turning, swinging between aroused, angry, and miserably guilty.
Half of her regretted breaking the kiss. She should have pulled James down to the couch and let him hold her. Let him give her the dizzying pleasure he always offered. It would have been powerful, potent, and thrilling. And then it would have been over. She could have held her Shadows and her feelings tight against her chest and taken the chance for closure. For a real goodbye. And, when it was done,shecould have walked away fromhim. Let him feel what it was like to be an afterthought. To be the “oh, hell no” moment.
The other half of her—no, truthfully, it was far more than half—knew that plan was a crock of shit.
She hadn’t walked away yet, and she would stay until he was safe. Until they all were. And there was no way she could hold herself back from James like that.
Damn. She leaned against the faded oak-effect laminate of the kitchen counter and took a long sip of hot coffee, trying to clear her thoughts. Hoping to blow away the fog of exhaustion and confusion.
Kissing James had been a terrible mistake. Wrong in every way. Precisely because it felt so right. Precisely because his body, his mind, and his Shadows all fitted with hers. And because she still wanted him with a steady, bittersweet yearning.
She had wanted to lose herself in him so badly. When he wrapped himself around her, all she’d thought about was getting her hands on his skin, pulling him into her body, joining with him again. And then he’d whispered that she was perfect and ruined it all.
She had known it was a lie. Just like all the other things he’d whispered in the height of passion, only to turn his back on her at the first opportunity.
