“I don’t want to talk about it, Rey. Let’s think about Laura, okay? I have to take care of her. Brian would want me to do that.”
Reyna nodded sadly. Burying yourself in work, in a mission, in everything except the grief was a thousand times easier than facing it.
She saw resolve on his face. Grieve when the war was over. She hoped one day they would be able to live the life they’d always wanted. And not just endure the hardships they stumbled into.
…
By the time they returned to Washington’s mansion, the roads were nearly impassable. The snow hadn’t stalled even for a minute, and the forecast read white for days. A blizzard had struck and there was absolutely nothing they could do about it. The ragged group reluctantly left the heated vehicles they’d abandoned to Washington’s garage and hurried through the rapidly building snowdrifts back to the nineteenth-century mansion.
Reyna shivered even when she was inside. A place this old didn’t trap heat in the same way as modern houses. There were strange, chilly drafts. The massive fireplaces were built high to try to combat the heating problems that a house of this size had.
“This is an icebox,” she murmured as she put her hands up to the fireplace. “Maybe we should have stayed in the city.”
Beckham kissed her forehead and retreated upstairs. The rest of his inner circle followed him. Reyna almost headed after them, but one, she was too cold, and two, even though she and Becks were a team he enjoyed his privacy. They were his people. Not hers. Not yet.
The door to the basement creaked open and Jodie appeared, dashing across the sitting room. She threw her arms around Reyna. “Thank fuck you’re back.”
Reyna laughed. “Miss me?”
“A day felt like an eternity in this house with nothing but vamps and Gabe as a shadow.” Jodie gave her a pointed look.
“Better to be safe than sorry.”
“If you leave me with him again when he’s feverish to be out with y’all, I might have to kill you.”
“Seems fair.”
Jodie sobered. “Tye radioed in when he got close enough. I heard what happened at the other safe houses.”
“Yeah.”
Reyna didn’t want to think about that. Those bodies. All that blood. The message. She shivered and it had nothing to do with the cold. No, she definitely didn’t want to relive that memory anytime soon. Harrington had done this on purpose and with her in mind.
“Stop that,” Jodie ordered.
“What?”
“Don’t ‘what’ me. I know you well enough to know when you’re blaming yourself.”
“Did Tye tell you about the message?”
“Yes. Harrington’s toying with you. It’s what he does. You know that.”
“I do. But it doesn’t change how I feel about it, Jodie.”
“If anyone knows that, I do. I fucking had blood drawn today while you were gone.”
“I know. I know.”
“I’m tired of Harrington messing with us. He wants us to fall apart. We’re not going to, okay?”
“You’re right.”
“Plus, Zoya said she’d help me find June.”
Reyna’s eye lit up. “She did?”
“Yep. She said she could take a look for me after she breaks through the last code for the final safe houses.”
