Sighing, Dolly patted me on the arm. “I understand, dear.”
She didn’t, but that was okay. Dolly wanted to subsist in her vicious circle, and though I’d given her ample opportunity to leave it, she was like an ostrich with her head in the sand.
Apollo said she’d come around eventually, but I wasn’t so sure.
My energy levels spiked when she left, and though guilt at how I always felt better when she wasn’t around made them plunge a little, I still had ample energy to head out of my office and down the hall to the elevator so I could make my way to the pool in the basement.
I waved at kids as I walked, peering into rooms here and there to make sure all was well.
This building was Apollo’s and we’d gutted it and renovated it completely. The charitable foundation that supported it was overseen by Tor personally, and my pregnancy had gotten in the way of opening a second one.
This was my vocation.
I knew it, and so did my men.
I’d thought the burn unit had been it for me, but I’d been wrong. Working with kids like me, kids who’d been tossed around the system, who’d been mistreated and were scared for themselves and their loved ones? I got them. I understood, and it was my life’s work to make shit better for them. To give them hope, to give them a future.
It was, I also realized, the means in which another God would find his wife, and I guessed that was what the Fates wanted.
Everything was interlinked, and there was no place their influence couldn’t be felt.
Rather than begrudge it, I found I was content about the situation.
After all, without them, I wouldn’t have my men. Cressy would be alone too. I wouldn’t be carrying a daughter or a son, and Cressy wouldn’t be the mom of twin boys.
Things had a way of working out for the best, and I could only hope that was the case for Holly.
She needed some luck on her side, and I intended on giving it to her.
In spades.
❖
Farrah
The girl was small. Tiny. All fragile bones in a body that was too thin. I knew from Holly’s file that she was only eight, and though pity filled me at her state, I refused to let it overtake my dealings with her.
She didn’t need my pity. She needed my strength. She needed me to rock the shit out of my job, to make it so that she could move on from her horrendous past. Together, we’d look ahead to the future, and we couldn’t do that if both of us were hung up on her history.
But, I conceded, I’d have been a monster if I hadn’t accepted that what had happened to her affected me. I embraced my feelings then let them fly free because that was what I had to do.
For her.
She stood by the edge of the pool, looking into the water as though it held the answers to life itself.
I’d been watching her a while, if I was being honest. Harriet, one of Cindy’s assistants, had dropped me here and ran when her phone had buzzed, and the child hadn’t seemed to hear the ringer. She’d just stared into the water, endlessly, ceaselessly, enough that it made me wonder if she wanted to go swimming.
The House of Waif and Strays—the title made me cringe and wonder what the hell Cindy had been thinking of by calling it that—was the ultimate orphanage. Long gone were the days where Ms. Hannigan ruled the roost. This place made a five-star hotel look cheap.
I had to admit the House idea was cool, and when I looked at the kids, over eighty percent of them seemed happy. There were always the few who weren’t, and that was undoubtedly down to their pasts, but the way she’d set them off into two teams? It was ingenious. I’d seen the rotations too, and that was an even better idea.
Every week, each House had a challenge, and then there were random competitions they undertook to best each other.
It was like no ‘Home’ I’d ever come across, and for Holly’s sake, with her past? I was damn glad about that.
I heard footsteps down the hall and wondered if it was Cindy or the Doctor she’d brought in to deal with Holly’s physical ailments.
Cindy’s husband had insisted upon Dr. Jericho’s attending my first meeting with Holly, and I didn’t mind. Holly had met the doctor first, and friendly faces all around was imperative when it came to situations like these.
I turned, hoping to see Cindy again. We hadn’t had much chance to talk since I’d arrived, and she was heavily pregnant and looked like she was going to pop any day now. What with Holly’s situation and then her regular workload, I knew she was busy.
But when I did turn around, I didn’t see Cindy.
I saw a man being shepherded down the hall by another of my new employer’s assistants.
The man was like no other I’d seen. He had a head of hair that could only be described as a mane, and his beard? Crap, I’d never liked beards on a man before, but his?
He was the walking, talking lumberjack fantasy come to life.
When he averted his attention from Dana and saw me, he came to a halt.
Literally.
He stopped. Everything. Talking, walking. He even dropped his case on the floor as he stared at me.
For a second, the entire world seemed to swirl around me, and as he penetrated me with his eyes, pinning me in place as though I were a butterfly to be displayed on the wall, I felt my heart start to slow.
This feeling?
It was like that odd sensation of déja vu except a thousand times stronger.
Did I know the man?
Had I met him along my career path?
No. I was certain I would have remembered him; there was no way I could have forgotten him.
One thing was for certain now…
This guy was forever in my memory banks. Today? This second? This moment? It was a marker. That whole BC and AD crap? This was that for me.
Call me nuts, tell me I’m a freak, but I knew, God help me, that this was the start of the rest of my life.
TO BE CONTINUED
Also by Serena Akeroyd
I’d love to see you in my Diva reader’s group where you can find out all the gossip on new releases as and when they happen. You can join here.
Until I see you there, here are more of my books for you to read…
HawkRidge High
Dare You To Love Me
Five Points, Hell’s Kitchen
A Screwed Duet
Screw You
Screw Me
Filthy Feckers
Filthy Hot (COMING SOON)
FourWinds
Queen of the Vamps
Kingdom of Veronia
Perry & Her Princes
Her Highness, Princess Perry
Long Live Queen Perry
QUINTESSENCE
Charmed by Them
Healed by Them
Worshipped by Them
Protected by Them
Loved by Them
QUINTESSENCE: The Sequels
Sawyer
Andrei
Kurt
Anchor Pride Series
Claimed by Caden
McKinnon’s Mate
The Corsakis
Three’s Never A Crowd
Old Enough to Know Better
The Federation
A Menage Made on Madison
La Belle sans La Bete Series
Menage Material
A Thoroughly Modern Menage
Forever Theirs
Secrets & Lies
The TriAlpha Chronicles
Origin
Trinity
Triskele
Triad
Triumph
Trierna
TriAlpha
Los Lobos
The Raw Touch
The Salsang Chronicles (written with Helen Scott)
Stained Egos
Stained Hearts
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The Sun Revolves Around Apollo (The Gods Are Back In Town Book 2) Page 30