Page 169 of Walking in Darkness

“Rate is $115.99 a night, plus tax, bringing you to a total of $263.19.”

I dug my hand into my pocket, and I pulled out the one credit card I had to my name. The one that would mark me as having been in this spot.

And I had no trepidation about doing it.

Because we were no longer running.

We were no longer hiding.

He ran it, then told me about the free happy hour and breakfast in the morning before handing me two little folders with our keys. “Hope you enjoy your stay.” He gave me a genuine smile. “Glad you made it out okay.”

“Yeah, me too. Glad it didn’t hit here,” I returned, voice gravel as I thought of what could have happened. How what had happened in that town could have spread out.

Far and wide.

How life as we knew it could have been eradicated. The sheer number of those who would have perished. The evil that would have roamed the earth.

Ruled it.

I stepped back outside, and immediately my gaze landed on Dani’s little red car, attention focused on Aria, who watched me through the windshield.

God, the number of times I’d walked out of a motel lobby to find her just like that. Watching me with those eyes. With that love she always held for me. Embracing it without shame. Sharing it without reservation.

Chasing it when I’d been so fucking afraid.

When I’d been terrified of what returning her love would mean.

Terrified of what it would cost.

Turns out, that love had given us everything.

A chance at a life that neither of us thought we could have.

I moved to the driver’s-side door and climbed in, and I passed a key card back to Timothy. “Room 212,” I told him.

“Thanks, man.”

I’d left the car idling, so I drove around to a spot near a side door.

Timothy slipped out, then ducked back in to help Dani out. He swung her directly into his arms. I didn’t know if she was spent or wounded or too full of grief to walk, but he knew what she needed.

For so long, I’d wondered if Aria and I were the only ones who shared the scale of this connection. I knew better now. Recognized what we’d been taught was a sin was actually a gift.

Timothy didn’t say anything—he just carried Dani up the sidewalk before they disappeared through the door.

I moved to the trunk, grabbed our duffels, then wound around to Aria’s side.

She stepped out the second I got there.

Everything about her was overpowering. So perfect and right that a knot tightened at the base of my throat.

We didn’t say anything, either, as we made our way up to our room, as I touched the key card on the reader and let us in to the warmth that billowed from within.

We slowly—carefully—undressed each other, ridding the other of tattered clothes marked with the carnage of what we had faced.

She gently brushed her fingertips over the wound on my chest. A gash that had clotted over, the jagged seam sealing with the belief she, Timothy, and Dani had poured into me.

I took her hand and led her into the bathroom, and I turned on the shower. It took only a second for it to heat, and the second it was warm enough, I stepped in and helped her inside.