Three weeks later

 

“I thought you would be taller.” Liv was grinning as she looked at me. “Being an Amazon and all. And the queen is even shorter than you.”

“I don’t think height is a requirement.” I wasn’t exactly tiny or anything. I was a respectable five foot six. I wasn’t petite like the queen.

“Still, I think it’s interesting.” Liv sat back on the couch. “Any word on Trent?”

The very name made my heart ache. “The last I heard he was on the run. He isn’t allowed in the normal wolf packs. They’re considered Council and apparently the word succor means help.”

Trent wasn’t allowed any aid from Council members, and that included the wolf packs that accepted protection. Pretty much all of them accepted protection. Trent was on his own and I didn’t know if he was dead or alive.

“Hey, do you two need a snack?” Gray stepped out of the kitchen. He looked wholly masculine in a clingy T and jeans. He’d chilled out exactly the way the queen had said he would with the singular exception of I wasn’t allowed to even speak Trent’s name. He was counseling the king on the upcoming negotiations, but he wouldn’t speak about our werewolf. He wouldn’t acknowledge that he’d ever existed at all.

Liv had shown up thirty minutes before, smiling and bringing me gossip and news. I’d been holed up for weeks, mourning my loss, processing what had happened. Marcus had come several times and spent hours with me. He’d talked to me like a therapist, asking me to confess my emotions and telling me about his. Somehow when it wasn’t simply me talking, I could do it. When Marcus would tell me about the girl in the painting and how she kept moving across the field, I could talk to him about how much I missed Trent.

I could feel the loss of him like a limb torn from my body, but I couldn’t talk about it with Gray.

“I’m good. Thanks, babe. But I could use another beer.” It was kind of how I processed.

He frowned but disappeared back into the kitchen. I was well aware my lack of appetite was worrisome for him, and I vowed to eat whatever he put in front of me for dinner tonight. It was the first full moon since I’d lost Trent and I couldn’t help but wonder where he was, who was after him. I knew no one was taking care of him.

Liv put a hand on my arm. “Kelsey, you two have to talk about what happened.”

“He won’t.” It wasn’t like I hadn’t tried. “He kind of pretends it didn’t happen at all. He decided to go back to work. So I’m learning what it means to be a cop’s girlfriend. Jamie shows up in the middle of the day or night and Gray will be gone for days at a time.”

In some ways, it felt like I’d lost both of them. Gray was still here most of the time. He made love to me every chance he got, but there was a distance between us.

So I spent my time working. I was in a bit of a lull. No grand murders to solve. I’d taken to training Justin to do more than play around on the computer and answer the phone. He’d helped me track down a couple of runaways, catch the kid who was stealing from the bakery on the sixth floor, and prepared dossiers on the bigwig demons who would be coming in for the contract negotiations in the upcoming months.

And yes, it totally was Lee who stole the cookies and that whole pan of brownies. He claimed he was merely trying to keep up his skills, but I’m pretty sure once the queen got over her initial freak-out, the no-sugar rule went back into effect.

I worked. I worried.

“You seem awfully calm for all this drama,” Liv said quietly.

I was. “I know he’s out there. I know he wants to be with me. And I know if there’s any way for the king to bring him back, he will.”

“Do you think that’s why you’re calm? Because you trust you’ll see him again?” Liv asked.

I ached for him, but I also knew if he could find a way, he would come back to me. “I do trust him and I have some faith that it’s going to turn out all right.”

Funny how I’d killed an angel who specialized in faith and found a bit of my own.

According to Donovan, bringing Trent home would be top on his agenda when he sat down with the demons. I trusted the king, but that was months away and anything could happen. I wanted to talk to him. Needed to know he was all right.

Perhaps it was time to start quietly looking.

“Enough about me. Tell me about how Felix is doing. I saw him right after he came out of the coma, but he’s not seeing patients again yet. I heard he took his wife and daughter on a vacation.”

Liv nodded. “Yeah, they’re on some island the royals own. I’ve talked to Sarah a couple of times and she says he’s doing well. Apparently Felicity and Oliver went to see him and they worked some things out. So now they get a new angel of faith and Felix gets on with his life.”

Justice had been done. Neil Roberts was safe. Felix was well and whole again. The plane was free of angelic influence.

My dad’s secret was safe for now.

“Everyone wins.” Except Trent.

Liv seemed to know what I was thinking. She leaned over. “I can try to find him for you.”

I shook my head. She could get in serious trouble for doing that. Trent was my responsibility. Besides, I had another job for my bestie. “I need you and Casey working on that other problem.”

Finding the wizard known as Myrddin. I wanted to know everything about the man who had plotted to kill my father, and I definitely wanted to know about the prophecy that had led him to do it. Only Liv and Casey knew anything about my quest to find Merlin, and I intended to keep it that way.

For now.

We talked for another twenty minutes and then I hugged my friend. She was going to a meeting with the higher-ups in her coven. Liv was going places after stepping in for Sarah Day.

I closed the door with a sigh. It would be another long night, broken up only when Gray would reach for me and I would forget for an hour or so.

Well, not forget, but if I closed my eyes I could feel Trent there with us.

“Don’t lock that,” Gray said. He stood in the doorway dressed in slacks and a Western shirt. He’d put on a bolo tie and his cowboy boots. He picked up his Stetson and the keys to his truck.

“Are you going to work?” Those neatly pressed Western clothes were perfectly acceptable uniforms in the world of the Texas Rangers.

“I’ve got a couple of open cases that need some attention, but I thought I’d take you out first.” He settled the hat on his head and opened the door.

I sighed. The night would be far longer than I’d thought. Perhaps I would go back to the office as well. “It’s okay, babe. Like I said. I’m not hungry.”

Or I could go down to Ether and see if the queen needed a drinking buddy. We’d gotten a lot closer in the last couple of weeks. Funny how violence and a hidden history could do that for a couple of girls.

Gray stopped, turning my chin up so I had to look into his eyes. “I know and that’s why I’m doing this. Come with me, Kelsey mine. Please.”

It was the first time he’d asked me for anything since the arena. I couldn’t turn him down.

I found myself following him, sitting beside him in the cab of his big F-150. I hummed along to Luke Bryan and watched as we left the city. For some reason I didn’t question him at all. I let the miles roll by as we moved from concrete to suburban perfection to the wild thicket of the forest. An hour and a half passed before he pulled off the road and onto a dirt path.

“I don’t think there’s a restaurant out here, Gray.” But my wolf was breathing in the pine scent of the air. Was he going to try to run with me? Was he taking me to the pack for the night?

He stopped the truck. “No, but he is. I’ll be back to pick you up in the morning. I love you, Kelsey mine. I can’t talk to him. But I’ve made sure he has what he needs because I know what it would do to you if he died.”

I sat up, my heart starting to pound as a shadow pulled away from the tree line and I saw Trent for the first time in weeks. I turned to Gray. His face was tight and he looked ahead.

I leaned in. Now I was the one who forced him to look at me. “I love you, Grayson Sloane. Thank you.”

He nodded. “Be here at dawn. Tell him he better keep you safe and I’ll have another shipment with me.”

“Shipment?”

He shrugged. “The guy’s gotta eat. He’s staying at a cabin I bought a few years back. It’s only because you would worry if he was in a tent somewhere, and the food is practical. People will talk if they suddenly see a bunch of dead deer carcasses lying around.”

Sure it was. My heart surged with love for them both. “Thank you, Gray. I’ll be here at dawn.”

I kissed him and practically jumped out of the car. This was why I’d been calm. Deep down, I trusted Gray. I finally understood that he loved me and he would do anything for me. Including hand me off to the other man I loved.

I ran and Trent caught me in his arms. He pulled me into a hug that nearly cracked my spine, but I didn’t mind. His mouth found mine and he kissed me.

By the time he was done, Gray’s truck was gone. But again, I could feel him there with us.

“Wanna run with me?” Trent asked.

I nodded. I took his hand and we ran, the forest all around us and the full moon above.

I ran with my love and for a moment I was free.

 

Kelsey, Gray, Trent, and the whole Thieves family will return in Outcast.