by N P Hector
The man got right in her face. Adam just stood there like a dandy. Selene didn’t budge, but Romulus moved forward to stand beside her. The man sputtered indignantly, and he sent the round man a sharp look, “the lady said to move along.”
The bank owner shoved Selene’s shoulder and Romulus immediately stopped him in his tracks, “you will apologize to the lady, and you will move out of the way.”
The man quivered in his shoes and turned a bright shade of red. He huffed and then muttered, “just like that boy to do all of this the day I get back from my vacation. He knew that I’d be swamped with other work and that I don’t have time for this. He never had any respect for authority. Never.”
Selene looked at the man in horror. “Wait. The hostage taker knew that you’d be coming back today?”
She pushed in her earpiece and called for more officers. Adam seemed to catch on that something wasn’t quite right and moved to help her.
Moving quickly, she grabbed the man by the elbow and began to physically tow him towards the line of cars with Adam’s help. Seeing her urgency, Romulus brushed her aside and lifted the man easily.
Selene turned back towards the bank, “Rom, get him out of here! Maybe it’s not too---.”
An explosion rocked the bank. The entire structure was engulfed in flames and everyone watched in horror as the bank’s roof imploded and crashed inwards. The dust from the roof caused a secondary explosion as it caught fire and plumed upwards. There was a wave of power and heat and several officers were knocked off their feat, either by projectiles or by the blast itself.
She felt her back collide with a warm, strong, chest. The heat from the fire disappeared and her face cooled as strong arms wrapped around her stomach and Romulus’ stubbled chin tucked into the junction of her neck and shoulder.
A protective bubble had formed around them. She collapsed against his form as chaos surrounded them. There was no doubt in her mind that the hostages were all dead. It was done. It was all done.
The answer had come to her too late. It had clicked into place when the bank manager had mentioned that the boy had known that he would be back from vacation today. He wanted him to be there for the explosion. Extrapolating from the manager’s behavior it wasn’t a stretch to believe that the boy had wanted revenge for his dismissal or treatment.
And now all the other hostages were dead. Selene wanted to drop to her knees and scream. But this was her job so she couldn’t.
Straightening, she looked back up at Romulus. He stared at her intensely and loosened his hands. Everything had seemed to dull to a low hum, but now that the bubble shimmered away the sounds of a fire truck and men shouting filled her ears.
Adam rushed over to them, his face partially covered in soot. His hat was askew. “Selene. Are you ok? What happened there?”
Selene shook her head, “Adam, it was the bank manager. He was the trigger. How’d he get through?”
“I don’t know, but I’ll do my best to find out.”
“While you’re at it also try to figure out why we weren’t informed that he had explosives on him, okay? I don’t want that to happen again. This would have been a different negotiation had I known that he had more than a rifle.”
And if the bank manager hadn’t stormed the scene.
The portly bank manager returned to the front and pulled at his thinning hair, “my bank! Oh my god my bank!” Turning to Selene, he wailed, “you! How could you let this happen?”
He moved to poke Selene in the shoulder, and before Romulus could do anything Adam had stepped in front of her in a protective stance. “Dr. Ashford has been here for hours on end working hard, and it was all undone when you selfishly burst through. You’ll be lucky if you don’t face any charges after this.”
Selene stood there impassively, the bright hue of the flames casting shadows across her face. The man continued, “well look what she’s done! Oh my god, my building!”
The man’s statement seemed to shock Selene out of her trance. Marching around Adam she stalked towards the bank manager relentlessly. She stuck out her hand and poked him in the chest, “the bank? The bank? That’s what you’re concerned about?!”
Her voice was becoming increasingly shrill, “I just lost some of your employees! The employees who I could have saved. And all you can think about is your bank? We’ll be lucky if we can find anything for their families to bury!” She was practically shaking with rage.
She tore out her earpiece and slammed it on the table. She moved towards Adam and shook his hand quickly, “Adam, I’ll get a report to your office next week. Get your hearing checked out after that explosion, okay?”
She swiped up her satchel and marched/ ran towards the alleyway they had portaled to. Police officers nodded their heads respectfully as she passed. Romulus stalked her from a small distance, ensuring that everyone gave her a wide berth and didn’t stop her to exchange pleasantries.
He recognized the look in her eyes. He had lived it after a devastating loss to his ranks, seen it in the eyes of many commanders. It was always the sign of a true leader. A leader who understood the cost of human life and empathized with the loss of members. Those leaders could always be trusted to do the right thing-- to prioritize their people. And his beautiful Selene had just suffered a terrible loss.
Others might think that the exhaustion of being on site for so many hours had caused her to hurry away. Although he hadn’t known this Selene for long, he knew Sorcha, and he knew that she was likely striding quickly while she could. She could only hold the tears at bay for so long, and he knew that she wouldn’t dare cry in front of her cohort.
They made it to the mouth of the alleyway they had originally emerged from when she took one great big shuddering breath and burst into tears. She leaned against the wall and buried her face in her hands.
Wordlessly, Romulus scooped her up into his arms. He kissed the top of her forehead and then portaled her back to his estate.
Chapter Ten
Soulmates tend to find each other during their respective pursuits of their soul missions. Creating a soulmate could be seen as a spiritual reward that we give ourselves, after pursuing many soul contracts rife with discord. – Linda Brady
They appeared back in the bedroom she had stayed in. Selene’s face was still buried in his chest. He looked down at her, “Selene, we’re back. It’s safe now.” Her shoulders were shaking as she attempted to hold back her tears. He groaned and gathered her impossibly closer, “I know, love. I know.”
He carried her into the bathroom and set her down on the luxurious padded chair by the vanity. Reaching over to the copper brushed faucets, he ran the water and tested it for warmth.
He turned around and saw that Selene was leaning forward, elbows resting on her thighs with her head in her hands. He crouched beside her and took her calf. He removed her ballet flats gently.
He brushed her hair away from her face, “Selene, I’ve run you a bath. Take as long as you need.” The head in her hands nodded and he moved away from her. He laid out a soft, fluffy robe and closed the door gently. She needed space, and he would be there for her when she was ready.
Selene waited to hear the bathroom door close and his heavy footsteps walking away. Sniffling and wiping her nose, she took a shaky breath and held it.
She focused on her breathing and enjoyed the steam rising from the luxurious marble bath. The clawfoot tub was long and deep, and she suddenly wanted nothing more than to disappear into a pool of lavender.
She rooted through the cabinet and sighed happily when she found lavender Epson salts. Pouring them into the cloud of billowing steam and warm water, she peeled off her clothes and knotted her hair at the top of her head.
She set her phone on the valet table beside the bath and dialed her friend Jamie. As the phone rang, she sank deeper into the bubbles and stretched like a cat in sunlight.
She heard Jamie answer, “Sel! I just saw the news! Are you alright?”
Selene lifted
bubbles into her hand and watched them drop back into the water, “I won’t sugarcoat it, it was a bad day.”
Her friend hummed and Selene could hear a horn blaring in the background, “Sorry-- I’m just on my way to your place now. I was thinking of grabbing you a lobster roll from that cute seafood place on 5th that you like so much--.”
Selene shot up in the bathtub, “Jamie, my place got trashed. I’m not there.”
Her friend shrieked from the other end of the phoneline “your place got what? Come stay with me!”
“I’m actually staying with someone. They work in the security industry.” It wasn’t a lie.
“You’re there willingly? You’re somewhere safe?” her friend was clearly concerned and on the edge of a vengeful spiral.
“I’m here willingly until they get the guy who trashed my apartment.”
Jamie huffed, “when they do catch him I’m gonna prosecute the hell out of his ass.”
“Well until they do, I’m here. But don’t worry, he’s keeping me more than safe. I just won’t be at boxing class for some time.”
Jamie called out an order in a crowded restaurant, “pick up for Anderson!” She pulled the phone closer to her ear, “I’m eating your lobster roll, then.” Selene heard a muffled “thanks” and then her friend was back, “so, you said he?”
Selene rubbed some rose hip soap across her arm, “I did indeed. His name is Romulus.”
“Is he a police officer? Have I seen him on the circuit?”
She sank further into the bubbles. “Definitely not. You would remember.”
“So, what’s he like? It sounds like he’s a bit more than a bodyguard.”
Selene groaned, “he is insanely attractive. And he is just so...sure that we should be together. He refuses to deny it.”
“In a stalkerish way or in a reasonable way?”
“He thinks that its fate. And before you ask-- yes, we did kiss.”
Her friend tsked, “and you’re only telling me this now? Well, do you like him?”
Selene forced herself to be honest with her friend, “he is everything I could ever want-- authoritative, sensitive, and he saved me from the blast. He even ran a bubble bath to help calm my nerves.”
“I’m sensing a ‘but’”
“But I think he’s so obsessed with the idea of us that he hasn’t bothered to be interested in me. I mean, we haven’t even known each other a week.”
“Well, do you want my agreement or my honest opinion?”
Selene groaned and admitted grudgingly, “honest opinion.”
“So, what if he thinks you’re fated? So, what if it seems too good to be true? Someone wants to love you unconditionally. I think that you’re too scared to just jump right in. If it’s right, it’s right and waiting longer won’t make it more right if you’re scared to jump right in to love.”
“You know, it is so hard to argue with a DA.”
Her friend chuckled and keys rattled as she shuffled through her purse, “I’m just getting home now, but listen. You dated Ken for three years. There is no time limit where love makes sense. It either is or it isn’t.”
“I don’t know if I can do that, but thanks Jamie.”
Selene stretched out and rolled so she was now looking at her phone. Jamie responded, “any time, and hey-- today was bad so you don’t need to make any decisions now. Just enjoy your bubble bath, okay?”
Selene smiled at the phone and turned to click it off.
Am I overthinking this?
She had only known Rom for a small period of time, but so far everything she had seen was wonderful. She had never before met anyone like him. He commanded such presence but wasn’t arrogant. He did not speak much, but when he did, he spoke with such conviction. He was completely and totally devoted to the concept of the two of them, and he had done everything to protect her. He could have locked her away in this estate, but instead he recognized her need for independence. He treated her like an equal.
And that kiss. Wow, that kiss.
There was no denying the fact that she was attracted to him. He made her heartbeat in a way that no one had before. The air between them was positively electric. She definitely wanted to “jump his bones” as Jamie would say.
But just as she felt herself on the edge of just following her heart blindly, she winced. Rom believed that she was Sorcha, back from the dead and fated to be with him for eternity. But deep down she felt that she was not this “Sorcha.” She felt that if she really was his long lost love she’d feel a pang of recognition when he spoke of his woman.
Perhaps that attraction I feel towards Rom is recognition.
While that could be true, she felt no affinity whatsoever for this Sorcha woman. Joan had spoken briefly of her, and it seemed that everyone had known Sorcha in one way or another. Rom had practically kept the estate as a shrine to her, and so even those who had never met Sorcha felt as if her ghost roamed the estate.
An Indian Prince had built the Taj Mahal in his wife’s memory. Romulus had shaped his entire life and dedicated himself to captaining The Order to avenge Sorcha’s murder. There was something heartbreakingly romantic about it all. And as much as she longed for that commitment, it was not rightly hers.
She had dated Ken for three years. And while everyone figured that they would marry after they both graduated, she couldn’t bring herself to commit.
He didn’t light her soul on fire. And there was a part of her that worried that she was wary of commitment. Ken had just wanted an engagement. How could she commit her entire soul-- her very being-- to Romulus?
The door to the bathroom slammed open and Selene chirped and ducked further under the fading bubbles, “Joan! What the hell?”
Joan was dressed in a leather jacket, heels, and tight jeans. She had two glasses in one hand and a bottle of dark red wine in the other. Her jeans looked tight but she plopped herself beside the bathtub and made herself comfortable, “I heard about your shitty day. I had a lot of those when I was leading with a banner, and some more recent ones with the Order. This calls for wine.”
Selene smiled in thanks and took the offered glass, taking a savory sip, she moaned and saluted her friend, “you saw the news, then?”
Joan took a big gulp from her own glass and relaxed against the vanity, “I saw the news. I also saw a very panicked Rom. He’s down in the kitchen now freaking out and trying to figure out what he should give you for dinner. He kept waving his hands and shouting ‘comfort food’ at the chef.”
Selene chuckled and extended her glass for more wine. Joan poured a generous amount. “sounds like one shitty day. You holding in there?”
“It was a bad one. I lost some of the hostages and the bank manager was a pompous ass who could care less.”
Joan shook her head. “Asshole. But Rom mentioned that you managed to get some people out?”
Selene’s heart had crawled its way up to her throat. She took a thoughtful sip of her wine and nodded.
Joan lifted a few bubbles and blew them upwards, “I know that it doesn’t make it any better. And I think you know that too.”
Selene smiled softly, “every once and a while there’s a bad day. It happens in this line of work.”
Joan nodded and regarded her friend thoughtfully, “do you want to talk about it or do you want to wallow?”
“Wallow. Most definitely wallow.”
Joan finished her wine and grabbed the edge of the vanity to amble to her feet, “ok, but we’re going to need more wine. Stay here.”
Chapter Eleven
When you’re in love, you’re capable of learning everything and knowing things you had never dared even to think, because love is the key to understanding of all the mysteries.
- Paulo Coelho
The sun had set by the time Selene had dragged herself out of the bathtub. Joan had offered to linger to cheer her up, but Selene waved her away and told her that she’d chat with her later that evening if she was still feeling up to it.
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br /> She slipped into some leggings and an off the shoulder cream sweater. Her makeup had been washed away by her tears and the warm water of the bubble bath so she was fresh faced. Before she left, Joan had told her how to get to the library.
She was intrigued at the thought that Romulus had challenged her to a library meeting every night. She had tried to persuade Selene that Romulus would certainly understand if she wasn’t feeling well enough for a library visit. But Selene had assured her that everything was fine.
Surprisingly enough, she found that depsite the awful day she had, she actually wanted to see Romulus. There was an urge to talk with him, to be comforted by him. She wanted to see him not because he had challenged her to, but rather because he was a warming presence.
She still didn’t think that it was a soul mate connection. Instead, she figured that they just clicked. Some people just clicked. It didn’t mean that fate had forced them together.
She opened the heavy wooden door and slipped down the hallway. The soft carpet muffled the sound of her footsteps and she eased her way around the corner and to the top of the grand staircase. She wasn’t hiding from anyone, but she wasn’t really feeling up to making idle chit chat with strangers.
She hopped down the stairs and navigated to the library. The library was guarded by two french doors. They let in enough light to make the wood of the bookcases and the stone of the mantle more airy. Paired with the big glass windows it was a bookworm’s paradise.
Now that it was later at night the wall sconces and fireplace cast a warm glow throughout the room, bringing the soft mahogany coloured leather to life and highlighting the rich tones of the furniture. She slowly creaked open the french door and stepped in.
Romulus was seated in a warm leather chair. He was reclined and reading a book that had been read so many times it was falling apart at the spine. At her entrance, he carefully set the book down and turned to face her. His voice was smooth velvet, “you came. I didn’t think you would.”