Isaac thought that, maybe, it was worth it to die just so he didn’t have to be tormented by the past anymore. So he wouldn’t feel this aching loneliness.
Dane stopped halfway in the street. Isaac told himself to go forward, to attack. As he was commanded to. But he couldn’t make himself move. If it wasn’t for Rune’s voice, drawing Dane’s attention back to the other house, he might have stood there until Dane had slammed the stake into his heart. But Rune did shout, words Isaac couldn’t understand.
If I see him again, I’ll kill him.
Isaac’s mouth went dry. His hands trembled. And he spun on his heel, fleeing like a rabbit before a wolf.
***
Why was he stopping in the middle of the road? Rune rushed down the walk. Not for the first time, she wished her breasts weren’t quite so heavy as they battered her ribs. A scream burst from her throat as she saw a truck whip around the corner.
“Look out!” she cried.
In that instant, several things happened all at once. Isaac ran. Dane leapt forward after him. The truck’s brakes squealed. There was a solid thud, and Dane’s body went flying.
Rune screamed again, her body still moving forward while her feet froze her in place. The result was that she toppled face-first into the cement walk. Pain ignited in her knees and palms as she caught herself. Her nose squashed flat and it seemed her whole body jarred this way then that. Dizziness spun in her head, and she lay there gasping for several seconds as she reoriented herself.
But what was happening could not be ignored. She pushed herself up, blinking at the black spots in her vision. Dane was scrambling to his feet, limping slightly. The driver got out of the vehicle, calling out to him and apologizing profusely. And Isaac, who had his bike again, had frozen once more. Several heartbeats went by when Rune didn’t hear anything, not even the driver’s apologies.
And then Dane threw himself forward. He knocked the driver aside and went for Isaac, something flashing in his hand. Isaac leapt onto the bike, started it, and peeled down his driveway. Scales spread over Dane’s skin and a pair of wings ripped through his shirt. He lunged, catching Isaac with one hand. The vampire wheeled the whole bike around, lifting it off the ground. He revved the engine, the wheels spinning wildly. They caught on Dane’s body. He went down again. The bike roared over him and Rune ran forward, darting across the road despite what had just happened.
Isaac disappeared down the road just as she reached Dane. Tire treads were on his face and he groaned with pain, but other than a scrape on his forehead, he didn’t seem to be injured. Rune checked him over, pressing her hands to his ribs, stomach, looking for evidence of internal injuries.
When she brushed his jacket open, she froze. Lining his belt were five silver stakes. She stared at them, uncomprehending. What would he need…?
The answer hit her so hard she went cold. Dizziness spun her head again. She fell back, landing hard on her rear. Dane panted, one arm over his chest. The truck driver was approaching, still speaking, but again Rune didn’t seem to hear anything he was saying. Her eyes were locked on Dane’s face. Guilt and rebellion warring on his face.
“You were going to kill him.” She didn’t even recognize her own voice, it was so flat.
“I…”
“You were going to kill him!” She scrambled to her feet as Dane reached for her. She stared at him with revulsion. How he had always acted around her… kind, caring, compassionate. What did that mean if he was so willing to kill someone? Even if Isaac had done all the things he was accused of, it wasn’t up to Dane to decide his fate! That job belonged to a jury.
And Isaac hadn’t struck back. He had been trying to get away, not fight.
“Hey, are you alright?” The truck driver was there, helping her to her feet.
“Fine,” she spat back.
“Fine,” Dane spat as well. His hands clenched. “What did you think I was here for, Rune? I have told you. He’s a murderer. Someone has to stop him!”
“But you don’t need to kill him!”
Dane threw his hands into the air. “Would you believe me if I said I was going to try to take him in quietly?”
“No.”
A flash of hurt crossed Dane’s face. The truck driver stood there, looking bewildered and uncertain. Rune backed away from Dane, seeing him with entirely different eyes. She knew that his job sometimes got violent, but she had foolishly assumed that was only when he hadn’t had a choice. But what she had just seen… Isaac hadn’t been fighting back. He had been trying to get away. He didn’t want to hurt people, he just wanted freedom. Who didn’t?
But Dane had come, not to bring him in, but to kill him. What sort of man did that make him? What sort of man would do a thing like that?
“Rune.” Dane slowly approached, pleading in his eyes. “You don’t understand. I know him. I know everything he’s done. The people he’s hurt, the people he’s killed. I can’t ignore all that. I can’t act as if nothing has happened… He nearly killed my brother. Did you know that? He’s the reason James is in that wheelchair, the reason he broke his back and couldn’t heal from it.”
“So, this was never about justice,” Rune whispered. Her eyes filled with tears.
She felt like the world had turned upside down. What had the universe been thinking? First, making her think that Dane could be her mate and then Isaac. Both killers. She’d looked up some of the things Isaac had done… that wasn’t so easily ignored, even if she did want to bring him out of that life. And this? This could not be ignored either.
“He doesn’t deserve a second chance,” Dane said, his voice low.
“Oh, but you do?” She spat out. Her hands clenched as those stupid tears increased. “After what you did? I know about Carl Mainsburg, Dane Hemmerick!”
Dane froze. He had been coming forward still, slowly, the way you approached a spooked horse. Now he took a step back. His eyes widened. Arms fell limp to his sides. His breathing became shallow and ragged and all he could do was stare at her.
She didn’t regret her words. “If Isaac doesn’t deserve a second chance, then how can you?”
Dane’s eyes closed. His massive shoulders slumped, and he rose a trembling hand to pass over his eyes. It was only then that Rune wondered why she had said that. Was she really so angry? So horrified? Her throat went dry and she desperately reached out, trying to find something from the universe to tell her how to fix this. What was she supposed to do? Was she supposed to have this pain in her life? What had she done to deserve falling for two men who hated each other, both of whom had killed people… Was she really supposed to be able to forgive them for it?
I could forgive Isaac. He didn’t have a chance. But Dane…?
He lowered his hand and looked up at her with hollow eyes. “How did you find out about Carl?”
“I always research my potential clients,” she mumbled in response. “I made the mistake in the past of not researching them and I put myself in potentially dangerous circumstances. So when the dating agency put us together, I did a google search on your name. It wasn’t hard to find.”
“And how long have you known?”
“Since before our first date.”
Dane let out a shaky breath. His whole body drooped, and Rune felt the urge to rush to him, to support him. But she didn’t move. After all, she was still angry at him. How could he think that killing Isaac was the best way? If he was just thinking about protecting people, it’d be one thing…
Revenge was another matter entirely.
“There’s more to the story.” He shivered, looking vulnerable for such a huge, muscular man. Even his voice was limp. “It’s not what the newspapers say… there is more to it. I made a mistake. I made a terrible mistake… but there’s more to the story…”
“And you think there isn’t more to the story with Isaac?”
He dropped his gaze.
“Answer me.” Rune stepped forward. She wanted to shake him, to make him look her in the eye, to
force him to tell her what she wanted to know. But all she did was say it again. “Answer me.”
“I… I don’t know. I… Yes. There is more.” He lifted his head, meeting her eye. The scrape on his forehead was already scabbing over. “There is a lot more. More that I know, that you don’t. I know Isaac, Rune. We were best friends as kids. We were both raised to be weapons. I was meant to protect, he was meant to destroy. And he has destroyed. He destroyed our friendship, he destroyed so much… And it’s my responsibility to protect people from him. All the blood on his hands is on mine as well, because I failed to protect them.”
Her tears returned, sliding silently down her cheeks. “But you’ve made mistakes, too.”
“I made a mistake. I didn’t turn against the people I was supposed to care for. I didn’t go around hurting innocent people. What happened with Carl…” He breathed deeply, then froze.
Slowly, he turned to stare at the truck driver, who stood by his vehicle while nervously watching the two of them. The driver had a cellphone in his hand. Rune flinched. She had forgotten about him entirely. What must this look like to him? He hits a man who starts fighting with another man and then all this as well…? It must look bad.
“This might be better to continue at my apartment,” Dane mumbled. He headed across the street to his vehicle. Rune followed silently, not knowing if she wanted to hear what he was going to say.
Chapter Eight
“Carl Mainsburg.” Dane felt the weight on his tongue as he spoke the name. “This was five years ago. I had just started my freelance security business. I was struggling, trying to take care of my brothers. The three of them were all in school. I was a teenager myself. I should have been in school, but I had to drop out. I needed money. Every day, I was worried that social services would take them away from me. Our parents were dead, the agency that had taken us to train us as weapons had been destroyed. I needed the money, and I thought my training would be enough.”
Rune sat on the couch, watching him silently. Her hands twisted in her lap. Dane could not meet her eye. The memories came over him powerfully, reminding him of just how badly he had messed up.
“I had been hired by a widow to find the man who killed her husband. The police had a strong suspect, Carl Mainsburg. He had the motivation, means, and opportunity. They just didn’t have enough evidence to get him. Well, I thought that was unnecessary. All the evidence pointed toward him, what they had at least, and I was determined not to let her down. I hated the idea of someone like that getting off the hook.”
He glanced back at Rune, who still sat there watching him. There was no judgment in her eyes, which gave him the courage to continue.
“When I found him, I had every intention of bringing him in alive. I thought I was going to be a big hero. I thought… Well, I thought that in some way I was going to get justice for my own parents. I thought I could do it, because Isaac and me, we had taken down the agency that raised us.”
“You did?” Rune leaned forward, her eyes widening. “I didn’t know that.”
“It’s not highly publicized. It was illegal, it was small, and we…” Dane shook his head. Those memories would only bring pain. That was when they worked so smoothly together it was like they had one brain. “We brought it down, anyway. I thought that I knew enough that I could take care of this one man by myself.”
“But it didn’t turn out like that.”
“No.”
Rune stood and crossed the room to him. She slid her hand in his. “Go on.”
The warmth of her hand gave him courage again. The anger and disgust he’d seen in her eyes when she accused him of being there to kill Isaac was gone, replaced by sympathy and understanding. Dane took a deep breath and continued. “When I arrived, he assumed I was there to kill him. So, he attacked. He was a bear shifter and nearly got me. It quickly turned into a battle of life and death. I had no choice…”
Rune drew in a ragged breath.
“It was only after that I learned that the widow had killed her husband and framed Mainsburg. That she had hired people to go after him. I did exactly what she wanted. Killed him.”
“It was in self-defense, though. He was trying to kill you.”
“He thought he was defending himself.” Dane pressed both her hands to his chest, an empty, hollow ache inside of him quickly filling with shame and disappointment with himself. “I’m supposed to be a protector. But that made me question everything.”
***
Rune wanted to comfort him, but how? The guilt that he felt over that mistake five years ago shone so clearly from his face that it took her breath away. Even though what he said was true, that the only reason he’d had to kill Mainsburg in self-defense was because Mainsburg was also fighting for his life, that didn’t change that it had been self-defense. He was manipulated and had been just a kid, really.
“Dane…”
He turned his face away from her. “Are you going to tell me I could be mistaken about Isaac?”
“Since you’re the one who brought it up, I think you’re wondering about that already.”
He didn’t respond.
“Dane, look at me.” Rune pressed her hand to his cheek and redirected his gaze. The thoughts she had had on the street seemed to fall away. There was more to this story than she knew. And she remembered how he had stopped in the middle of the street. If he had been serious about killing Isaac, he wouldn’t have walked toward him and then stopped like that. “You need to tell me why you hate Isaac so much. This is personal, isn’t it?”
Dane closed his eyes and ran a hand through his hair. “I forget how much I told you.”
“I was a little distracted anyway. I’m not really sure I understood what you did tell me.”
He sighed and sat down. “I’m not sure I can tell you that right now. I already feel like I’m standing naked in front of you. And not in the good way.”
Rune had to smile at that. She sat beside him and put an arm around his waist. Dane seemed to sag against her. He was always so strong and confident that she wasn’t certain how to take this new, venerable side. But he was right. He’d showed a great deal of trust in her already to tell her about Carl Mainsburg.
“I wish I could go back in time,” Dane whispered. His eyes were closed, and his jaw tightened. “Isaac was always the strategizer between the two of us. If he hadn’t… Then maybe I wouldn’t have gone after Mainsburg. But I did, and an innocent man’s blood is on my hands.”
Rune took a moment to consider what had been shared. He and Isaac had been friends once, she knew that. What exactly had followed, what happened to drive them apart, she wasn’t certain. Sometimes her brain was like that, forgetting important details. She wasn’t certain that Dane even told her yet or if she had just gotten a few pointed vibes from the universe.
“What happened with Mainsburg was a mistake,” she said slowly, trying to say what she needed to say without making it sound like a dig at him. “I already knew about it. I read about it in the newspapers. They weren’t overly kind to you, but I knew there had to be more to the story than they were repeating. And I’m not going to hold this mistake against you. Everybody deserves a second chance.”
Dane snorted. He lifted his head again and his eyes had gotten hard once more. He shook his head, a look of fierce determination on his face. “No. Not everybody deserves a second chance. If you have someone—"
“Everybody,” Rune interrupted. “Everybody deserves a second chance if they show real remorse. Some people deserve a third, fourth, even a fifth chance. Not everybody does, but everybody deserves a second chance. And I do mean everybody. That doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to forget what they did or let them back close to you. Their right to a second chance doesn’t overpower the right to your safety and emotional being.”
Dane frowned at her. “That doesn’t make any sense. A second chance means giving them a clean slate.”
“Not to me, it doesn’t. It means not hating them forever.�
�� Rune nodded her head with determination. “It means forgiving them for that first time. But forgiveness doesn’t mean that you just let them back as though they hadn’t done anything, especially if they don’t show any remorse.”
Dane hummed under his breath. “I don’t really get what you’re trying to say, and I don’t agree with you. Forgiveness, for me, means erasing their wrongs from your mind entirely. Never bringing it back, never bringing it to mind again. Some people just don’t deserve that.”
Rune sighed as she leaned against him. “That isn’t what I’m saying at all.”
“I don’t want to argue about this. And I don’t think I’m in the right headspace for a deep philosophical talk right now. Please… can I just hold you?”
She didn’t want to have a fight, either. So, she put her arms around him. He wrapped his arms around her, too, and pulled her in close. He pressed his face into her neck. Rune held him, wanting to give him comfort. That was a heavy burden to carry about. And she wondered if, maybe, his anger toward Isaac was more anger at himself, directed outward because he didn’t know how else to handle it.
For a long time, they sat like that, not talking, just taking comfort in each other’s presence. Rune was starting to get sleepy, the emotions she had been through during the day leaving her feeling drained, when Dane shifted. He pulled away from her and smiled. It was half-embarrassed, half-relieved.
“So… how did you find me earlier, anyway? Did you talk to Keith? He was the only one who knew where I was going.”
Rune shook her head. “No. I didn’t talk to anybody. I just got into the car and told the driver where to go. It was from the universe. You can check with Keith,” she added, narrowing her eyes. “Since I know you don’t believe in my abilities.”
Dane grinned at her, his dimples flashing. “Darling, I don’t know if I believe it or not. I would like to believe it, though. To have someone who can sense what path we’re supposed to be on.”
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