Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 86702 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 434(@200wpm)___ 347(@250wpm)___ 289(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86702 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 434(@200wpm)___ 347(@250wpm)___ 289(@300wpm)
Eli blinks up at him, looking a little lost. Cam must have him pumped up on a boatload of drugs, because he simply says, “I love you. I couldn’t lose you.”
Abel opens his mouth, no doubt to deliver a blistering lecture, but then curses and closes the distance between them and kisses Eli. It’s quick and thorough and when he lifts his head, he growls. “Don’t you ever do some bullheaded shit like that again.”
“I make no promises,” Eli says faintly. He looks at me and holds out his hand. “The compound?”
Trust him to gather his wits about him faster than anyone I’ve ever met. “Broderick took care of it. Half the team tried to infiltrate the walls—I think they were headed for the supplies—but they didn’t have a chance to harm anything.” From the contents of their packs, they planned to poison us. Which means there will be questions for the Mystics at some time in the future; if there’s a poison in Sabine Valley, it’s sourced back to their faction. I’m sure Fallon will have some thoughts on that as well, which is an unexpected boon. Shifting the Mystic Brides’ allegiance in our direction would have been impossible yesterday, but today, one of their own decided that they were expendable. Dropping that information…
I shake my head. We’ll figure it out later, once we’re home and have had a chance to get Eli looked over. “We need a doctor on staff.”
“We need a lot of people on staff.” Abel sinks onto the edge of the bed next to Eli. “But yeah, doctor takes precedent.”
“I have someone I can call,” I finally say. “I don’t know if they’ll do it, but I can ask.”
Abel passes me his phone. “Go for it.”
It takes two minutes to make the call, and Rae surprises me by agreeing to come check Eli out and consider the position, which means they’re between jobs again. Not surprising given their attitude—every surgeon I’ve met has a god complex, but Rae is on another level. It doesn’t help that they’re something of a prodigy. Or they were when they were a teenager.
It takes a few more hours before Cam announces Eli fit to travel the short distance back to the compound. Abel gets things arranged with his brothers, and there’s a convoy waiting for us as we help Eli into a wheel chair and get him out the back door to the street that runs parallel to Old Town. Abel lifts him into the middle truck despite his protests, carefully setting him on the bench seat. I climb up after him while Abel goes around to the driver’s seat.
I lace my fingers through Eli’s. I can’t stop touching him, can’t stop trying to reassure myself that he’s real. “I was really worried about you,” I say quietly.
“I know.” He squeezes my hand. “I’m sorry.” He waits for Abel to put the truck in drive before continuing. “I promise to loop you both in on any meetings or plots in the future.”
It’s the best offer we’re going to get. I squeeze his hand again. “Good.”
“I’ve half a mind to whoop your ass once you’re healed.” Abel follows the lead truck around the corner and toward the compound. “But I guess your promise will suffice.”
Up ahead, the compound comes into view. Something in my chest eases. I used to feel like this place was a cage, but for the first time in years, it feels like a physical representation of safety and security.
It feels like home.
That feeling has nothing to do with the place and everything to do with the two men in the truck with me. I twist to look at them. “I love you. Both of you.”
Eli gives a faint smile. “We love you, too.”
Abel grunts. “Look, it’s a three-way of love and all that shit. Can we talk about this once we have the doors shut and locked behind us in the compound?”
“I want to make the compound home. A real home.” I reach over Eli and brush my fingers over Abel’s knuckles where they’re whitened on the steering wheel. “Someplace that’s really safe for us and your brothers and their Brides and your people. I also want to expand that home to the entire faction in a way we’ve never tried to do it before. So that everyone is safe.”
“Why stop there?” Abel replies. The shadow of the top of the compound moves over us as we drive through the doors. “Why not make all of Sabine Valley home?”
I give him a look. “Isn’t that what you’ve been planning from the beginning? Sabine Valley under Paine rule?”
He opens his mouth and then huffs out a laugh. “Yeah. It is.”
Eli shakes his head. “I knew it.”
It would be smart to tell him no, to redirect that ambition to peace. But you know what? Fuck it. Abel’s already put his plan in motion, and we have a year to lay down the foundation to enact it. Not a lot of time in the grand scheme of things, but with the three of us putting things into motion? It’s possible.