Repairer of the Breach (Stones of Fire Book 4)

by Sarah Ashwood

  Thinking back, I knew it had been a while since I’d last eaten, but I also found I simply wasn’t that hungry.

  “A piece of toast, please,” I said, my throat dry as I sank into the offered chair. “Where’s Carter? Is he okay?”

  Detective Ewing shrugged one shoulder. “I hope so. Let me start back at the beginning…”

  Which she did, explaining everything that had occurred since Carter and I passed the gap between the two worlds and made it back home, including their battle to get out of the warehouse where she’d been imprisoned and the Stones kept. My eyes bugged out while listening; I couldn’t believe I’d stayed unconscious through a shootout, and that neither she, nor Carter, nor I had been seriously injured. When she reached the end of the story, where Carter had left, deciding to visit the Costas compound and confront Ciara and Sean himself, I felt my stomach sink like a lead balloon, while at the same time heat crept into the back of my neck.

  “He went there by himself?” I demanded, tightening my grip on the mug of hot tea Detective Tozzi had placed in front of me. “And you let him?”

  Neither police officer appeared particularly guilted by my accusation.

  “He’s a big boy, Ellie,” Candace pointed out. “We couldn’t stop him. And that man of yours does what he wants.”

  “Yes, he does, but what he’s doing could be incredibly dangerous. Didn’t anybody consider that? At the very least he could’ve taken me with him.”

  “Um, Ellie?” Detective Ewing tapped her nails against the porcelain sides of her coffee cup. “That’s why he didn’t take you with him. He asked Gary and I to keep you safe. You and your family. He also said to tell you he loved you.”

  She delivered Carter’s message with a straightforward gaze and unembarrassed air. I supposed she was hoping—as Carter had been—that Carter’s words to me would soften the blow of his actions and blunt the edge of my anger, making me more pliable. Boy, was he—were they—mistaken. My chest tightened. I wasn’t simply angry. I was afraid. Afraid for him. Afraid for us, and what I would do if I lost him now. I hadn’t even told him I loved him yet. I knew I did. The perspective I’d needed to fully realize that had come while seeing him kneel there on the country club grounds, willing to die for me, but actually speaking those words aloud hadn’t happened yet. I wasn’t going to lose him before I told him.

  I looked directly at Detective Tozzi. “You’re a policeman, so you must have handguns around here. Do you have one I can borrow?”

  His thick eyebrows flared. “Why? What do you think you’re planning to do?”

  “I’m planning to go after my husband,” I said, breathing deep to force an outward calm I didn’t feel. “I’m planning to go to the Costas home and be his backup. We’re in this together. I think he’s forgotten that.”

  “He didn’t forget anything. Ellie, you can’t go in there guns blazing after Carter. This isn’t some old-time western. And you’re no gunfighter,” Detective Ewing reminded me sternly. “Stay here and wait.”

  “Would you stay here and wait if it was your partner’s life on the line?” I demanded, jerking my chin towards Tozzi.

  He cleared his throat uncomfortably. “She’s got you there, Candace,” he murmured.

  “No, she doesn’t. I wouldn’t run into some situation half-cocked to save your sorry hide,” Candace flashed back.

  “Ouch.”

  “I don’t believe that,” I said, breaking into their banter, trying desperately to appear stern and competent. I knew my physical appearance and even my profession wouldn’t give most people the idea that I could handle firearms, that I could handle myself in a fight, but I could if I had to. “It might interest you to know,” I said, unable to believe I was even admitting this, “that scene in the Botanic Garden last November? The one that put you on our trail? I shot and killed a shifter that night. She was about to get Carter, and I took her out. I may not look imposing, but I can promise you I’m not helpless.”

  Weighted silence met my confession. I’d known I was taking a huge gamble admitting my part in a shooting death to two homicide detectives. However, considering what Candace and Carter had done last night to free themselves and get out the warehouse, I was certain we were all in this together at this point. What was my one shooting in self-defense that long ago night, when there was no body to prove it, compared to how many they may have killed? Candace and her partner exchanged looks. She firmed her lips in thought, her facial muscles bunching up, her hands tightening on the handle of her mug. Then, blowing out a sigh, she released the tension from her body.

  “Well,” she said. “Well, I wasn’t expecting that. All this time I thought—”

  “I know. You thought Carter did it. Wrong. It was me. More than that, I’ve seen enough blood and death by this point in my life that I’m not going to run screaming the other way if things go south. Carter needs me. He doesn’t think he does, but he does. And I’m going after him with or without your help.”

  Again, silence. Exchanged looks. I’m pretty sure neither of the police detectives knew quite what to think. I didn’t either, except I knew we’d barely started to figure out our relationship, our marriage. I couldn’t let it end now before we’d had the chance to build an actual life together. I couldn’t let it end before I’d even had the opportunity to tell him I loved him.

  “So,” I said, taking turns meeting both of their eyes, “are you going to help me or are you going to arrest me? Because that’s what it will take to stop me from going.”

  Detective Ewing studied me for a long, uncomfortable moment. I was half-afraid she was going to call my bluff, then she shrugged.

  “You’re a grown woman. I can’t stop you. Well, I guess I could by arresting you, but I’m not going to, especially since I have no evidence tying you to anything. Here.” She picked up a plastic shopping bag from the floor in the corner of the room. “Gary bought a few things for you while you were sleeping. Clothes. A toothbrush. That sort of thing. Get dressed. Those clothes you’re wearing now—” She gestured at my strange combination of attire “—Not exactly what I’d recommend for going to confront a bunch of shapeshifters.”

  I glanced down at myself. “What would you recommend? Leather pants, high-heeled boots, and a bralette?”

  “That’s only in the movies and on book covers,” she laughed. “Here. Something a little more practical and comfortable. Get dressed, come eat something, and we’ll go.”

  “We?”

  My confusion was echoed by her partner’s, who also echoed me by asking, “We?”

  She pinned him with a stern look. “You really planning on letting this little thing go into battle against a pack of deadly shapeshifters by herself?”

  “This isn’t our business, Candace. I’ve tried to keep you out of it since day one.”

  “And we see where that got us. At this point, what have we got to lose, Gary?”

  “Let me see: our jobs, our careers, our pensions, our lives…”

  “And if Ballis manages to stop a war, maybe—maybe—we get out for good. We’re not tangled up in this crap anymore. We’re free.”

  “Do you really want to run that risk?”

  He stared his partner dead in the face. She stared back, unflinching. “Don’t you?”

  He sighed, rubbing his chin, his beard with a palm as he weighed the options. Just as I started to say, “You don’t have to do this,” he relented. “What the hell. I know when I’m licked.” He turned to me. “Better do what she says, young lady. Get dressed. Grab a bite to eat. Or you can eat in the car on the way over. Whatever you decide to do, make it quick. Carter left a good twenty to thirty minutes ago. We’ll have to hammer down to catch up.”

  I felt my insides wrench as I considered how far ahead of us Carter was and what he could already be facing. What if we didn’t reach him in time? What if he were already dead? What if—

  “Hello? Earth to Ellie?” Detective Ewing was waving her hand in front of my face. I blinked several
times, realizing I’d been standing there staring, lost in all sorts of horrible thoughts. “You sure you’re okay? You sure you want to do this?”

  Confidence crept into my spine, mingling with the fear. I owed Carter my life several times over, but it wasn’t merely that. We were married. We’d decided to take what was meant to be a temporary, dissolvable union and make it real. This was what marriage meant—backing each other up. Taking care of each other. That bond couldn’t die before it had a chance to strengthen and grow.

  “Yes,” I answered. “I’m sure. I’m absolutely sure.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  James met Carter outside the front door of the mansion, on the edge of the circular driveway. Walking up the driveway towards his friend, the one person Carter hoped he could trust to have his back right now, Carter studied the scene, letting it take him back to that November night where he’d stood behind Ellie in the doorway of the mansion, watching an autumn breeze tease her blonde hair, watching headlights splash off her. He’d been momentarily caught off guard and unprepared for the vicious attack that had followed. Amazing how the course of your life could hinge on literally one second. That one instant had changed him and who he was and what he would do forever. It had set him off on a path he otherwise would never have taken. All because of her.

  “James.”

  He stopped in front of his longtime colleague. In typical James fashion, his hands were in his pockets and his shoulders hunched, as if from the cold. It was chilly this morning, but that was simply James, whether it was the middle of summer or winter.

  “Carter,” James nodded back. His black eyes scanned the area behind Carter. “You walk here or something?”

  “Hired a car. Let me out at the gate.”

  “Ah. Gotcha.”

  “Yeah. So…do they know I’m here?”

  “Not yet. At least, not that I know of. Tried to keep it quiet, like you said, to give you a few minutes to prepare. On the other hand, I can’t say who Dave may’ve told.”

  James had spoken to Dave after signing off with Carter back at the gate, ordering the man to keep his mouth shut. Whether he had or not remained to be seen. However, nobody was here with guns, blades, fangs, or claws to fend him off, so maybe the man had obeyed. James didn’t look like it, but he wasn’t somebody to cross. You had to keep on your toes around him. Most folks didn’t want to mess with a guy possessing James’ particular skill sets.

  “If it’s quiet right now, that means I may have a few minutes,” Carter surmised, “but not if we keep jacking around.”

  “Get inside and get ready, then. I’ll give Sean a heads up.”

  “Thanks. Where’s Ciara?” Carter inquired as they made their way to a side entrance where he was more likely to go unnoticed.

  “She left about eight this morning. Errands to run. I didn’t keep up with it. That’s Darla’s department.”

  Darla was Ciara’s personal assistant and bodyguard, a phoenix shifter.

  “Is Darla here?”

  “No, I think she went with.”

  “Probably to meet Nosizwe then, or something,” Carter growled. He opened the door to his own suite and passed inside. James followed.

  “Maybe. But it works for you, wanting to see Sean.”

  “Yeah, but if they get those Stones…”

  “What can they do with the Stones as long as you’re here and they’re there?”

  Carter paused in his hasty search of fresh clothing. “True,” he acknowledged. He next fetched a couple of the weapons stashed in his room. With precise motions he checked clips and ammunition, making sure he wasn’t walking into a potential battle unarmed.

  “Surprised Ciara didn’t take those,” James observed from his perch on the arm of the oversized armchair.

  “Probably didn’t think about it. She also probably didn’t think I’d be coming back from wherever the Stones sent me. At least not this soon.”

  “Where did the Stones send you?”

  “Damned if I know. Looked like—I don’t know. Like ancient Greece or Rome or some similar civilization. Or a movie set. If I didn’t know any better, I’d swear it was.”

  James narrowed his eyes. “Rome? Greece? You don’t think it was…”

  “Was what?”

  “Atlantis?”

  Carter’s eyes narrowed. In the back of his mind, he recalled standing in the city streets of wherever they’d been while Ellie was still in the cottage, asleep. Feeling like someone was there. Catching glimpses out of the corners of his eyes, but nobody was around. Practically hearing the whispers of human voices, seeing the ghostly forms of human shapes.

  Something close to a shiver slithered down his spine, but he rolled his neck and shoulders to brush it off.

  “That’s what Ellie thought,” he admitted to James, “but it sounds pretty crazy to me.” Weapons secure, he gathered up his clothes and headed for the bathroom.

  “Watch my back while I clean up. Out in five.”

  It wasn’t a request. While he was in the bathroom, the shower, for those hasty five minutes, his mind spun in circles so fast he could hardly catch one thought before another struck. What if that’s what this was all about? The Stones, reconnecting shapeshifters to their origin. Atlantis, lost to human civilization, but still existing—somewhere. Either back in time or in a parallel universe. His blood, a bridge between what had been and what was now. The Talos, the key to it all. What kind of responsibility did that mean he bore towards his fellow shifters if he had the ability to bring them home? Or guide them back to their original destiny? Was he required to sacrifice himself to open the way? Should he open the way? And what about the humans, like Ellie, that were bound up in all of this? What if those presences and voices at the edges of his consciousness were real, live people—people like him, shapeshifters—living at the fringe of reality? Was he tied to them too? Duty-bound to release them or find them? Why him?

  Again, he remembered Ellie telling him long ago that he was self-sacrificial in what he did. That the very core of her religious beliefs hung on one person sacrificing himself for everyone else. She’d claimed to see a glimpse of that spirit in him.

  Carter snorted, shut off the water, and stepped out of the shower. Ellie was crazy. Idealistic. He’d been willing to die for her because he loved her, but he sure as heck didn’t love all the shapeshifters in this world or the people he didn’t even know in some other. He wasn’t about to play the martyr, the messiah, for everyone.

  Dressed, he exited the bathroom to see James still there, still perched on the arm of the chair. He swiped his hair out of his face, glancing up from his phone.

  “I just confirmed with Sean. He’s in his third-floor office. He’s got a few minutes to spare.”

  “Did you tell him I was coming?” Carter asked, raising his brows.

  “Nope. Left that part out. Thought it might make a nice surprise.”

  “It’s going to be a surprise, alright. Not sure about nice.”

  Carter had never felt nervous to face his employer. Not in years. He was now. Rare anxiety gripped his senses as he jogged up staircases and strode down hallways, ignoring the shocked expressions of those he and James passed. Obviously whatever tale Ciara had concocted had spread, and that didn’t make Carter feel any better.

  It wasn’t that he feared Sean personally; the Talos could take on a Minotaur. It was the fact that it was Sean who had stood in the role of a father, a mentor all these years. The past half-decade he’d dedicated his own life to Sean’s personal protection. Now he was facing the person he most respected to inform him that his beloved wife was a traitor.

  One of the Ito brothers kept the office door. His eyes got big as Carter and James approached, but he didn’t offer a challenge. Taking a breath, Carter steeled himself before rapping on the door with his knuckles.

  “Come in.”

  He and James exchanged glances before James turned the handle and opened the door, entering first. Sean was seated in an armchair u
nder a lamp, a laptop balanced on his legs, his reading glasses perched on his nose. His tie was loosened. Papers were spread across the table beside him. He didn’t look up as he said, “What is it you want, James? I’m very busy right now. Carter’s absence has left quite a hole to fill.”

  “Um, that’s just it, sir.” James cleared his throat, shifting his weight to reveal Carter standing behind him. “Carter’s not exactly absent anymore.”

  “What do you mean by tha—”

  His boss broke off as he glanced up and saw his head of security standing there.

  For several long seconds he stared, and Carter felt the tension ratchet up. He quirked his shoulders, and still Sean didn’t speak. Out of respect, Carter waited for him to go first. Finally, Sean closed the laptop and laid it aside on the table, placing it on top of the papers. Removing his glasses, he placed them on top of the laptop, then he steepled his hands in front of himself.

  “Carter.” His voice was blunt. Not warm, not cold. Just direct. Hard to read. “I wasn’t expecting this,” he admitted.

  “No,” Carter agreed. “I didn’t figure you would be.”

  “Ciara said you’d gone rogue and went after the Stones yourself. You and Ellie.”

  Carter shifted his weight, uncomfortable with Ellie’s name being brought into the conversation.

  “Ellie had nothing to do with this, sir. And I did not go rogue. That would be someone else.”

  “You mean Ciara.”

  Carter blinked. Once. Twice. Did his boss know? He and James exchanged side glances, silently asking each other the same question. Did he know? How? And for how long?

  It was James who nerved up to ask, “You—you know, sir?”

  Sean chuckled, but there was no humor in it.

  “Do you think I could be married to the woman, share a bed with her, a child, and not know she hated me and was plotting behind my back? I’m not a fool. I may be getting older, but I still have a brain to use, and, yes, I was thinking with the brain inside my head.”

  He said it like a reprimand, like they shouldn’t have doubted him, or should’ve been ashamed for believing he could be fooled by his beautiful younger wife. Neither Carter nor James argued. Sean went on. Rising, he went to the decanter on the side table beside the wall-to-wall bookcases.