Page 125 of Blood Stone

Chapter Twenty-Seven

The silence that gripped the trailer as they stared at the pile of tumbled coasters was eloquent.

Garrett could hear Nial’s heart thudding, too.

“Kate really did dig the stone up when she was in Turkey last year?” Nial asked.

“I thought she did, but it’s not anywhere here in the studio,” Roman replied. “I’ve been over every inch. She doesn’t have anywhere else secure enough to keep it.”

“That’s what you do at night, then,” Garrett mused. “How do you explain that one away to her?”

Roman scowled.

“So she doesn’t have it,” Nial concluded.

“But if Khurshid is here, then Menes believes Kate has it,” Roman replied.

“Cyneric probably factored you being next to her as the convincing argument for that, you realize?” Nial pointed out.

Roman’s scowl deepened. He got to his feet. “Dawn in about thirty minutes. I’m heading back to the trailer before she stirs.”

Nial stood, too. “I’m curious. All your wives. Did any of them know what you were?”

Roman looked amused, but the expression didn’t reach his eyes. “Humans don’t know how to keep secrets.”

“So,” Nial continued thoughtfully, “Garrett is the only one to ever know you. Truly know you. And you sent him away.”

Garrett got to his feet. His heart was back to squeezing and throbbing again. It had been another one of those nights.

Roman’s scowl was back. “There have been humans in your life, Nial. Are you telling me they knew you for what you were? And they stayed, anyway?”

“They knew, they stayed and they loved me, anyway.”

Garrett cocked his head. “Point of fact, Nial, didn’t Winter know you for what you were and hate your guts,beforeshe met you? And now you’re married.”

Nial smiled. And it wasn’t just a polite smile. Garrett saw his gaze focus inwards. It might have been turning in on memories, or the thought of Winter, or the sensations/memory/idea of his love for her. But Garrett could literallyseethe difference in Nial as he thought of her and what they shared. “Yes, now we’re married,” he agreed.

Roman’s scowl had gone as he watched the change in Nial as he thought of his wife.

Garrett tried one last time, knowing he was probably appealing to a stone wall. “Roman, you’re playing Russian roulette by not telling Kate you’re of the blood. You know that, don’t you?”

Roman pulled his gaze away from Nial to glance at him. “I’ll think about it.”

“You may not have—”

“After everything you’ve just heard, Calum, you’re going to break my bones about not changing on a dime?” Roman’s eyes were haunted. “Just…give me time.”

Garrett relented. “Time is not mine to give. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. There’s no exit door this round. And the clock is ticking.”

* * * * *

“We’re here, sir.”

Garrett looked up from his paperwork and around the neighbourhood they were in, curious. So this was where Kate lived. “Which one?” he asked Jerry.

“The Spanish looking one on the right.”

Garrett packed away the papers and locked them up. He stowed the briefcase under the seat. He had fallen behind on his Boston affairs and briefly, guilt stirred. But only for a moment. “Why don’t you call it a night, Jerry?” he suggested. “Take the car back and tuck it up. I’ll catch a cab back.”