threatening my family, I will hunt each one down and kill it. I have the manpower, if that term reasonably extends to The Order, to launch a full-scale offensive now.” Adam leaned forward, his eyes narrowing. “As for the good doctor, I leave her to the tender mercies of the wraiths. Without her connection to Segue, all she’s good for to them is food.”
“So you’re letting her walk,” Custo repeated. Gillian would be running scared for the rest of her short life. Inevitably, the wraiths would catch up. “Does Talia know?”
“Yep. I can’t keep anything from her. She wanted to gift wrap Gillian for the wraiths with a shiny red satin bow. Her words.” Adam smiled slightly. “Impending motherhood has, shall we say, intensified her temper.”
“Sounds like it.” Talia had always been such a quiet, studious thing. Except when she screamed, that is.
Adam put his elbows on the desk, his expression clearing. “Luca and his Order wouldn’t stay here, so I’ve put them up in the Annex building. Unless you have any objections, I’d like to give him the go-ahead to renovate the loft on the top floor. Neither Talia nor I want to live there, and it could be a usable space again.”
Custo shrugged. If anyone could excise the memory of his death from the loft, it was The Order. “That’s fine. It’s past time for that place to get a new paint job.” And windows. And elevator doors.
“You could have gotten all this from my head,” Adam said. “So what did you come to talk to me about?”
Custo heaved a sigh. The air became thick to breathe, but he forced it in and out of his lungs. It was past time for this, too. “I’m leaving Segue.”
The silence filled the room.
“I guess I knew that was coming,” Adam said, but he looked tired. Older.
Of course Adam knew. Custo was joining The Order. With his new abilities, the scope and strength of which he’d yet to fully explore, he was needed now more than ever. Plus he had a lot to learn.
“Are you going to become as unreasonable as the rest of them?” Adam asked.
Custo smiled, playing along. “No, you cannot have access to their…
“You let Shadowman have the hammer,” Adam pointed out.
“And I will have to take responsibility for whatever chaos he creates with it.” But if Shadowman could use the tool to retrieve Kathleen, the exception was worth it. Custo didn’t have to read Adam’s mind to know that he would second that opinion.
Adam shook his head. “Unreasonable.”
Since Segue and The Order would be working together a lot, Custo figured he’d be hearing that same complaint from Adam often.
Adam lifted his eyes just as there was a soft rap at the door.
Custo turned to see Annabella. She had her enormous dance bag over a shoulder, her dark hair pulled severely back into a tight ponytail. Her eyes were fairy-tale big and bright.
“Rehearsal starts in an hour,” she said with a token “sorry” wince.
Custo knew the expression was fake. She wasn’t sorry. She wanted to go right now. The light was shining in her eyes; she wanted to dance.
“You coming back here tonight?” Adam asked.
Annabella darted a look to Custo. He guessed that meant,
A nice hotel, with all the luxuries. After the last couple of days they more than deserved it. Later he’d have to scout out some place for them to live. A comfortable, but secure apartment not too far from The Order’s new headquarters and her ballet company. When Luca had mentioned living discreetly among humankind, Custo didn’t think he meant living with a human woman. But then, Custo had never lived by anyone’s rules before. He wasn’t about to start now.
Custo stood. He didn’t have the words for everything he wanted to say to Adam. For being there most of his life. Saving his ass over and over. “It’s been…”
Adam cleared his voice. “Yeah. It’s been.”
They clasped hands over the desk and held. Custo’s chest tightened uncomfortably. He would still be seeing Adam regularly, but this was good-bye.
Outside the office, Custo dropped his arm on Annabella’s shoulders while they walked down the long hallway. She squeezed him around his waist. Perfect fit. He moved away from his past and headed toward his future.
“So…” Annabella began.
Custo hit the elevator button to take them to the exit level. The drive would take an hour into the city. He’d drop her off at rehearsal, then hit the Annex building to tell Luca how the renovation should be done. Whoever dictated the construction of the tower had relied on the angels’ ability to mask the place from humankind’s perceptions. These were dangerous times; the Annex building’s security needed to go beyond illusion. And, of course, their policy against modern weapons needed to be challenged. If the wraiths were armed, The Order needed to be as well.
“Custo! You’re not listening to me.”
He kissed Annabella’s head. “Sorry. You were saying…”
She made a face, then said, “You know in the Shadowlands…”
“Yes, I’m familiar.” And growing more so.
Annabella shot him a cool, narrow-lidded glance.
Okay, she wasn’t kidding.
She bit her lip, taking a deep breath. “Do you remember when you said, ‘Make an honest man of me’?”
Custo groaned inwardly. She was quoting him again. “Yeah?”
“Well…did you mean it?”
He frowned. What was she getting at? She had a cute worry line forming between her eyebrows, which he smoothed away with his thumb. She had nothing to worry about but her performance. He’d take care of everything else.
“Of course I did,” he answered. Annabella was the best thing that had ever happened to him. The truest. Recent events proved that.
“What I mean is…”
Custo sighed. This would be so much easier if she’d let him read her mind.
“Well…” She blinked rapidly, but he caught the shine of tears.
Oh. She wanted the happily-ever-after. Marriage, a home, and little babies like Adam and Talia were going to have. In his head, he was already married. She was it for him, and no piece of paper would make that more or less true. And the home? Would have to be centrally located. But, yes, every night he was remotely able would be spent in bed with her. Could he even have children? He had no idea. Good thing he believed in miracles.
Annabella was wringing her hands, still hedging around what she wanted to say. “The phrase is usually associated with
Scenarios? Custo almost laughed aloud. He gathered her in his arms, fitting her into the Annabella-shaped spot against his body. She was soft and smelled fresh from her shower. He’d fight for the rest of her…scenario, but of one thing he was absolutely certain.
“Death can’t part us.”
Other Leisure books by Erin Kellison:
Copyright
A LEISURE BOOK®
August 2010
Published by
Dorchester Publishing Co., Inc.
200 Madison Avenue
