Saxton twisted around so he could see out the back of the truck’s cab. As the two human men approached Ruhn, they were on a saunter—until suddenly they weren’t, their bodies rushing forward in a coordinated attack.
“The hell I’m not calling,” Saxton muttered as he fumbled with his phone.
As soon as he sent the text, he flipped his eyes up just to make sure Ruhn was still alive—and caught the rather alarming sight of one of the men flying through the air, ass over teakettle. The guy landed in a heap on his head, flopping over like a loose bag of potatoes.
Ruhn grabbed the other one and slammed him face-first into the side of the truck. Then came the hits: to the gut, to the jaw in an uppercut, to the groin. Ruhn’s fists were controlled, vicious weapons and he used them as if he had a repertoire of offensive and defensive moves so vast, this was just child’s play.
The bag of potatoes rallied and got up on loose legs, his drunk-walk back to the fray suggesting he might better head in the opposite direction. What wasn’t a joke? That knife in his hand.
Saxton pounded on the rear window and then lunged for the driver’s door, throwing it open and jumping out.
Ruhn was already on it. He glanced behind him at the human and then refocused on the one he was working on, bending the man’s arm at a weird angle—and driving the lower part of it down onto the high, hard edge of the bed. The bones broke instantly and Ruhn was smart enough to clap a palm onto the mouth that cranked open, to muffle the scream.
Throwing the man to the side like litter, Ruhn spun around.
He wasn’t even breathing hard.
And he was not the male Saxton had just had dinner with, that was for sure. His eyes were cold and curiously flat, as if his warmth and shy kindness had given his wheelhouse over to a serial killer. In fact, his face showed no expression at all. It was a frozen mask of the features Saxton had loved staring at over the French cuisine and the candlelight.
The human with the blade staggered over, a trail of bright red blood drops behind him in the snowpack. Clearly more aggressive and angry than competent, one got the sense this was not going to end well for him.
And it didn’t.
Ruhn overpowered him instantly, grabbing on to the wrist that controlled the knife, and spinning the human around, so that he also banged headfirst into the side of the truck—and instantly, the knife was down in the snow.
The human was not far behind. Ruhn forced the man to the ground, mounted his back, and grabbed on to the sides of the man’s head.
He was going to twist until the neck broke. Saxton saw it clear as day.
“No!” He jumped forward. “Ruhn, stop!”
At the sound of Saxton’s voice, Ruhn went statue, nothing on him moving even as he was poised to snap that cranium right around.
“Let him go. We don’t need the police involved—and there could be a lot of eyes on this.” Saxton glanced up at the apartment over the restaurant. “Come on, we need to go.”
The shades were all still down on those second-story windows, and the upper floors on either side of Premier were dark. But all it would take was a single set of curious eyes, drawn by an unusual sound, and there were going to be complications all over the place.
Saxton reached down and touched Ruhn’s shoulder. “Come with me.”
God, the male wasn’t even breathing hard. Even as those humans were panting from exertion and pain, great puffs coming out of their mouths like steam from old trains, Ruhn was a robot, something mechanical that did not have to concern itself with oxygen.
“Ruhn, look at me.”
Beneath the male, the human was straining, grunting, begging, his coarse face red as a neon beer sign.
“Ruhn.”
Ruhn’s head cranked around and those matte eyes focused for a moment—and chilled Saxton to the bone. Who could ever have guessed a demon was behind that placid, timid exterior? This was another personality entirely.
From out of thin air, Rhage and V arrived on scene, the Brothers dressed for fighting in black leathers and jackets that held arsenals of weapons. The surprise on their faces? He totally understood.
Rhage stepped forward and addressed Ruhn. “Hey, son, what are we doing here?”
The human in that hold was struggling to breathe, spit and blood running out from between his crooked teeth, but it wasn’t as if Ruhn seemed to notice or care.
Rhage got down on his haunches and started to talk quietly to the male. Meanwhile, V closed in from behind.
“You need to step off, Hollywood,” the Brother said. “We’re done with the chatting.”
After a moment, Rhage nodded, and V went into action, going behind Ruhn, snagging a hold under each of his arms, and yanking outward so that the grip was broken. As the human’s face landed in the snow with a bounce that reminded Saxton of a plate hitting the kitchen floor, Ruhn was dragged off onto his ass.
Now came the breathing.
Like a spell had been broken, Ruhn started to inhale and exhale in great pumps, his hands coming up to hold his head, a strangled sound like a moan leaving his mouth.
Saxton stepped back as the humans were packed off by the Brothers, the two men scrambling for that truck that they had parked around the corner. There was a good chance short-term memories were being erased, and Saxton didn’t want that. He wanted them to be scared into leaving Minnie alone.
But he had other things to worry about.
With eyes that were now dazed, Ruhn looked up at him. “I didn’t want you to see this part of me,” he whispered.
Staring down at the male…Saxton had no idea what to say.
Saxton left the scene about twenty minutes later, dematerializing to…wait, where was he going?
As he re-formed in a stand of pine trees, he looked around, and was nominally amazed he’d been able to pull off the disappearing trick at all. Ah, yes. Minnie’s farmhouse. That was right.
Walking through the snow to the front door, he recognized he was ruining his loafers, but he didn’t care. And it was a relief that things were opened up for him before he even mounted the steps.
The female who stood in the doorway was the one from the portrait in the parlor, the younger version of Minnie, only taller and without the laugh lines. With dark hair that was long and straight, and a lithe body in jeans and a Syracuse sweatshirt, she was casual—until you met her pale eyes.
This was a very sharp, very protective female. And he liked her instantly.
“Hi,” she said. “Welcome. I’m Minnie’s granddaughter, also called Miniahna—but I go by Ahna.”
As he approached her, he tried to reconnect with his purpose here, his job, his reality. It was so hard. He kept seeing Ruhn’s mask-like face, and with that image in his mind, it was hard to focus on anything else—impossible not to obsessively try to reconcile the violence he’d witnessed firsthand with the rest of what he knew, and liked, about the male.
“I am Saxton,” he said as he stepped onto the stoop and bowed low. “It is my pleasure to be of service to you and your granhmen.”
“Thank you so much for all your help.” The female dropped her voice. “This has been a nightmare like you can’t believe.”
“We’re going to take care of this,” he affirmed in equal quiet. “Oh, there you are, Minnie.”
He smiled at the older female as he entered the parlor. “How are you?”
“I am well, thank you.” Minnie glanced at Ahna from her seat. “But I don’t see why I have to leave. What happened? What’s changed?”
Saxton went over and sat down beside her on the sofa. “As we discussed, I went and spoke with the humans. I don’t want to alarm you, but there was, shall we say, a bit of an altercation.”
Read: Ruhn almost decapitated one of them. With his bare hands.
“And in light of that, we feel as though you should stay with your granddaughter for a couple of nights.”
“I can’t leave the house unattended.” The female shook her head, her eyes worried and sad. “This is all I have in the world. What if they—”
“I could stay here,” he offered. “If you’re worried about the property, it would be my pleasure to stay in a guest room, or even sleep here on this sofa, so that you are assured all is well in your absence.”
Minnie looked at Ahna, and the granddaughter was right on it. “Granhmen, be sensible. Come downtown. It is a most generous offer by Saxton. Most generous.”
Miniahna refocused on Saxton. “I cannot ask you to do that.”
“Madam, you did not. And if it will give you peace of mind, that is all the repayment I shall ever need.”
Besides, it wasn’t like he was leaving his own home behind. More like a hotel suite with an elevation.
Ahna went over and dropped down to her knees by her granhmen. “Please. This has gone on long enough. I’m so exhausted losing sleep, and with everything that is coming up in the next few weeks, please. I’m begging you.”
Minnie’s fallen shoulders were answer enough. “All right. If I must.”
“Well done.” Saxton got to his feet. “Now, perhaps there are some things you’d like to gather? If there is much to be transported, I shall summon a car.”
Fritz might have his hands full running the Brotherhood’s lives, but there was nothing that doggen liked better than a problem to solve.
“Come, Granhmen, let’s get you packed.”
“But I could come back. Shower and change here each night and—”
“Granhmen.”
Minnie rose from the sofa and looked around. With her white hair and another version of the same loose dress she’d had on the other night, she seemed every one of her years, not just old, but worn out and discouraged.
“I’m worried that if I leave…I won’t ever come back.”
“That is not true,” Ahna said. “This will always be your home.”
“You want me to move in with you.”
“Of course I do. But I’m not going to make you leave here for good. This is about safety, not because you’re frail and can’t live independently. You will absolutely come back if that’s what you want.”
It took some more cajoling, but then the females were heading for the second floor. In their absence, he took out his phone to call for the butler to send a car. And then he cursed. He had to work all night, yet he’d promised to babysit the house.
As if on cue, his phone rang and he answered it without checking to see who it was. “Hello?”
There was a pause. And then Ruhn said, “I’m so sorry.”
Saxton closed his eyes. “Are you all right?”
“Yes. I am uninjured.”
Are you who I thought you were, Saxton amended in his own head.
“Where are you?” he asked.
“I’m in the truck, going back to the Brotherhood’s compound.”
“I’m sorry I left without saying anything, but I was concerned about a retaliation against Minnie—I’m at her house now. She’s leaving with her granddaughter as soon as she has some things gathered.”
“Good. That’s good.”
There was a pause. And just as Saxton was trying to re-form the “are you okay?” thing, Ruhn spoke up. “Listen…I want to explain things to you. I know that you are shocked, and I just…I’m not that person. I mean, a part of me is. But…” The male took a deep breath. “I am very good at something I hate, and I used that skill for a number of years for my family. That is not me anymore, however—and I don’t want it to be. That is my past. It stays…in the past.”
Saxton thought about the male who had sat across from him at that little table. The one who had been so careful as he had eaten things he could not pronounce, but had loved. The one who had sheepishly tried to tackle escargots à la Bourguignonne and ended up with one shooting off onto the floor. The one who had sipped white wine and held the delicate glass as if he were afraid he would break the stem.
Then he thought of the lover who had bent him over in the kitchen.
Passion. But not rage.
That could be a thin line to walk, however.
In the end, he had to go with his gut. “Could you do me a favor?”
“Anything.”
“Can you come to Minnie’s? We need to transport her stuff downtown. She and her granddaughter can dematerialize to the address, but if you could bring her things to them, that would be great.”
“I’m on my way.”
“See you in a bit.”
“Thank you. Yes.”
As the call was ended, Saxton took the phone from his ear and stared at it.
“Everything okay?” Ahna asked as she came down the stairs.
“Yes, indeed. Is that suitcase all?”
“She has a carry bag, toiletries, and some pictures of my grandfather she would like to bring.”
“Perfect.”
He got up and walked around the little parlor, coming to stand in front of the fireplace with its blue and white tiles. As he thought of the love that had brought the pieces of art across a vast, dangerous ocean, he wanted that force of grace and warmth and stability in his own life.
But it was hard to find the courage to open oneself again. There was such risk involved, and though the reward was great, the chances were slim.
Funny…that this was occurring to him as he considered Ruhn.
Clearing his throat, he said, “Can you please tell me how to operate the security alarm? I work nights, but if it goes off, I can be here, with reinforcements, in an instant.”
“But of course. There’s a pad over here in the kitchen.”
As they went in, and she wrote various codes and cell phone numbers and her address down, he looked around and noticed that there was a light out in the recessed fixtures in the ceiling. And the faucet was dripping over at the sink. A whistling by the back door onto what he assumed was a porch suggested some weather stripping had to be replaced.
It had been two years since Minnie’s hellren went unto the Fade, if he remembered correctly.
If he were handy with these things, he would help her.
“Let me go check everything is in order downstairs in the guest quarters.” Ahna headed for what had to be the cellar door. “She’s going to need to make sure everything is in order as she wants you to feel like the honored guest you are. But I don’t want to waste time or backslide.”
“I will be fine.”
“I’ll be right back.”
After a minute, Minnie came around the corner, pulling on a coat the color of mulberry wine. When she saw the basement door open, she became flustered. “Oh, I must go down and—”
Ahna appeared at the head of the stairs. “Everything is in order, Granhmen. Come now, let’s go.”
Minnie looked around as if she were saying a good-bye that tore at her heart. “I, ah…” She glanced at Saxton. “Your friend is more than welcome to stay here as well?”
Saxton covered his own awkwardness as he bowed. “You are most kind.”
It took another ten minutes to get the older female out of the house, but then she and her granddaughter left her things by the front door and dematerialized from the closed garage. Left by himself, Saxton returned to the kitchen, took off his coat, and started up the Mr. Coffee machine. As the unit burped and hissed, he got out one mug. Added a second. And then sat down at the circular table in the alcove.
Funny how each and every home had its own smell, its own accent of creaks and groans, its singular impression. And as he looked around, he saw the Old Ways preserved…and old love enshrined. It was a sad commentary on the relentless progress of life that there was visible decay and aging happening, one half of the happy couple trying desperately to sustain that which had been a two-handed carry.
He thought of Blay and his time with the male.
And was still locked in his memories when he heard a truck pull up to the front of the house.
Ruhn, he thought, as he got up and headed for the front door.
Or perhaps the shady developer had sent reinforcements.
His heart pounded equally over either.