Hal watched as Robin took in her surroundings. She looked like a kid at a theme park, eyes wide with excitement. The mane of red hair was swept up by the wind as he watched her take deep breaths of the fresh ocean air.

The sense of peace that had fallen over him when he took her hand to jump them here was unlike anything he’d ever felt before. It made him not want to let go, but he also knew that she needed her space, and a strange man holding on to her hand was as far from giving her space to heal as he could get.

“Shall we go into the house? You can relax and have some real food. That stuff they were passing around was hardly enough to count as a snack, let alone a meal.” He was hungry, and he hoped she was too. She looked like she hadn’t had a good meal, or a good night’s sleep, in a while. He wanted to give her both. Hell, he wanted to give her everything she wanted. There was something immensely captivating about her that made him unable to turn away.

“Sure.” Her voice was low and steady, but there was a quiver of something in it. Excitement, maybe? Or relief?

“Follow me.”

They walked to the main house. It was the first house they had built on the island, and it was massive. It had been built that way on purpose since it had to house all four of them, and they weren’t exactly small. As their time on the island progressed, Alec, Dem, and Thad had all built their own places.

They all met in the main house. It was where Hecate had stayed when they had their brief dalliance, and where he had been staying with Aster so she wasn’t alone.

Robin’s presence behind him was a constant battery against his senses. He was warm and relaxed, like standing in front of a fire. It just so happened that the fire was a woman.

“So what are you guys?” Her question didn’t surprise him, but he did wish she hadn’t asked quite so soon.

“We’re sirens, well, half sirens.” He never lied. It was something that he just couldn’t do. When he tried, he always turned beet red and stuttered, giving the game away completely.

“Really? Wow. I had no idea you guys still existed.”

Hal stopped and turned to look at her. “You know what we are?” Again, he evaluated the woman standing in front of him. Gods, she was tiny. He needed to get some burgers in her.

“Well, sure. I didn’t exactly have much of a social life the last nine years, so I read. A lot.”

“Oh,” Hal said, unsure how to respond to that statement. He wanted to know everything about her, but right now he wanted to kick himself. Who just said “oh” like that? Thankfully they were at the house, so he could use his stupid mouth to actually tell her where she was.

“We don’t have to talk about it now, but I’d love to hear some stories about where you guys came from and what you’ve been doing the last few centuries,” she said, interrupting his line of thought.

Hal nodded. He didn’t know what to say to her. She had completely upset what he thought was the normal rhythm. Alec and Thad both had to go through the whole introducing the guest to the supernatural side of life. He guessed it wasn’t such a normal rhythm, after all, since Robin seemed to be very well informed.

As they walked up to the front door, he watched her face out of the corner of his eye. She didn’t seem impressed with the house, which was different from Ellie and Cin as well. They had both been amazed at the structures the brothers had built. In fact, she’d seemed happier when they were away from all the houses and in the middle of the forest.

“This is the main house on the island.” He took a deep breath as he opened the door. “Please go on in.”

“Thanks.” She walked past him into the entryway.

Hal’s eyes couldn’t help but take in the dress she was wearing. He had been doing his best to ignore it, but now that he was home, his guard dropped. It didn’t leave much to the imagination, but at the same time, the amount of fabric that made up the skirt portion swirled around her as she walked, pale skinny legs jutting out from the slits with each step. She was mesmerizing.

“So this is the entryway. Through there you can see the living room, and off there is the kitchen. We have a small gym off to the left here, and then a movie or hangout room next to that. Upstairs there are four bedrooms. I’m in one, Aster is in one, and the other is yours for now, until we figure out how to keep you safe. The kitchen has everything you could want or need. There is a butler’s pantry and a wine cellar. We are pretty well stocked, so help yourself to anything you want.”

Hal’s phone chimed as he finished speaking. He pulled it out and was relieved to find that Dem and Alec had moved Robin’s family to the apartment above the store that Ellie ran.

“Your family is safe. Do you want me to take you to see them?”

“Not yet. I need to change and eat. Knowing they’re safe is enough right now.” Her hand landed on his arm, and a charge went through him, as if he’d stuck his finger in a plug socket. “Thank you.” She beamed at him, and his heart just about melted.

“My pleasure. Come on, let’s get you some food.”

As they walked through the house, he kept an eye on Robin. She’d been through more than any one person should, from what he could tell of her life. The fact that she was still kicking ass impressed the hell out of him.

The living room was his least favorite area. It was crowded with antiques and things that were well past the realm of antiques and more like historical marvels at this point. One of his greatest fears was knocking something over in here that caused a chain reaction, destroying all the family heirlooms.

She wrapped her arms tightly around herself. Something was off. She’d been fine outside, but now, in what most people considered a beautiful home, she was uncomfortable and maybe even scared. Hal didn’t know what to do. All he knew was to keep putting one foot in front of the other until she told him to stop. And right now, the next step was food. She relaxed slightly in the kitchen. Her hands didn’t have the same white-knuckle grip on her arms as they did a moment ago.

“I’ve got some lasagna that Thad made—he’s a really good cook—some salad stuff that Aster likes, or some leftover pizza. It’s meat lovers, so, um, sorry if you’re vegetarian.” He held open the fridge door as he examined the contents. He really should get more food in here. He’d forgotten how much different feeding two people was instead of one, and now if he was feeding three people, he really would need to go grocery shopping.

“Pizza sounds amazing. Is it deep dish?” Her eyes lit up at the question.

“No, sorry, but it’s handmade and has a nice yeasty crust.”

“Sounds good.”

Hal busied himself reheating the pizza. He figured starting her off with two slices was good. He didn’t want to make her feel bad if she wanted more and he only gave her one slice, but he also didn’t want her to feel like a pig if he assumed she wanted three or four slices like he was having. Gods, he was thinking about this too much. It was just pizza. With a beautiful woman. Who just escaped from captivity, so not exactly on the market. He sighed as the timer for the microwave went off.

“Here you go. I figured two slices could get you started, but feel free to have more, if you want.”

“Thanks.”

Hal threw his own plate into the microwave and watched as Robin blew on the hot pizza. She took a big bite and sighed as she chewed. “This is amazing,” she said around the mouthful of food.

“Glad you like it.”

He retrieved his plate from the microwave and set it on the table. “I’m just going to offer Aster some food. I’ll be right back.”

Her eyes widened, and her face paled. “Okay.”

Hal went toward the movie room. It was where Aster had been spending her time recently. He suspected that she wanted to escape reality, and his large collection of movies and TV shows certainly allowed her to do that.

“Aster? You hungry?”

He found her snuggled up on the couch, covered in a big blanket, fast asleep while some buddy cop movie played. Squatting down in front of her, he gently shook her shoulder.

“Aster, sweetie, wake up.”

A groggy eye opened and peered at him. “Hey,” she croaked.

“You hungry?”

“Starving.”

“You forgot to eat again, didn’t you?”

“I fell asleep. It’s not like I did it on purpose.” She sounded insulted, but he knew it was just how she was right now. She had taken the whole being abducted and tortured thing pretty badly, plus her sister, Cin, wasn’t exactly around to help, through no fault of her own. The woman had just found out she was a fury and had to be a contract worker for Hades. It was a lot to deal with, for both of them.

“Come on, up you get. I’ve got some pizza with your name on it, if you’re interested? Oh, also, Robin’s here. I hope that’s okay?”

Aster’s eyes lit up. “Really? That’s amazing!”

Hal hadn’t expected that to be what motivated her to get off the couch, but whatever worked. He watched as she ran her hands through the bird’s nest that was her hair and pulled her yoga pants and T-shirt straight. She wanted to look somewhat decent for Robin, and he was happy to see it. Maybe if Robin stuck around for a bit, she’d be able to help get Aster out of her funk.

Aster bounded into the kitchen with a spring in her step that he’d never seen before. “Hey!” She waved at Robin. “I want to hug you. Is that weird?”

Robin wiped her mouth with a paper towel and smiled at Aster. Hal looked at the two of them. They had to be fairly close in age, given their appearances.

“A hug would be nice,” Robin said as she stood and came around the side of the table.

“Dayum, girl. Look at you all dressed up. You look good. Like whoa, good,” Aster said as she wrapped her arms around Robin.

“Oh, uh, thanks.”

Robin tucked some hair behind her ear and sat back down to finish the second slice of pizza.

“I’m so glad the guys were able to get you out. I can’t imagine what your life must have been like living and working there.”

“How did you . . . ? Never mind. Are you recovering from everything?”

Aster took a huge mouthful of one of the slices he’d warmed up for himself. Hal sighed and went to the fridge, grabbing a few more slices and putting them into the microwave. His mind wandered as he listened to them talk. Aster explained what had been going on since Robin had rescued her.

The conversation seemed too one-sided to Hal’s ear, but they were both eating. Robin was just so different from Aster—quiet and thoughtful instead of extroverted. The beeping of the microwave pulled him from his thoughts.

“So you worked directly for the guy who owned the company?”

Robin nodded. Her face seemed paler than it had been a moment ago. Hal sat in between the two of them and inhaled his first slice of pizza. He was hungrier than he’d thought.

“Did he treat you okay? When we were all in the office together, he seemed okay, but he was also trying to sweet talk me.”

“Yeah.”

Hal’s neck prickled. Something was wrong. Robin had gone down to nonverbal or one-word answers.

“Aster, give her room to breathe.” Hal smiled at the petite blonde woman. He’d heard her talk more in the last ten minutes than he had since she’d been living with him.

“Sorry, I’m just excited. Plus, I feel like now I can do something to really thank you for getting me out of there.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Robin smiled at her, but it was forced. Hal could see the strain behind her eyes, the thinning of her lips. He tried to send out calming energy into the room, but it didn’t seem to help. “Hal, would you mind showing me where I’m sleeping? I’m more tired than I thought.” She smiled softly at him.

It wasn’t forced this time, but there was something immensely sad lurking behind her eyes. He knew he would have to get her to open up if he wanted to help her heal, but now wasn’t the time to worry about that.

“Of course. Come on.”

He stood and held his hand out to help her up, not that she needed it. He was honestly surprised when she took his hand. That charge ran through him again, followed by the sense of serenity. He would have to figure that out as well.

Once she was on her feet, he let her hand go and led her up the stairs and to the bedrooms.

“The one at the end of the hall is mine, and Aster is in the room next door,” he said, pointing to the door at the end of the hall. “You can pick whichever room you want. I think they are both fairly clean.” He hadn’t thought about preparing a room for her. Getting her out and safe had been his focus for the last few days. Anything past that he hadn’t even considered.

“There’s this one.” He opened the door to what used to be Alec’s old room. The walls had been painted a navy color and were dotted with framed photographs that Alec had taken. They were some of his favorites.

“And there’s this one.” He opened the door to Thad’s old room and immediately wanted to kick himself. He’d forgotten just how many books Thad still had here. Apparently his brother must have been looking for something recently, because there were books everywhere. They covered every surface, including the bed.

“Uh, sorry. I didn’t realize it was messy. I can clean it, if you want?”

“No, that’s okay, I’ll just sleep in the other room.”

Hal nodded. A secret part of him was pleased, having wanted her closer than Thad’s room. He berated his selfish side for wanting to keep her close. More than anything else, he should want her to be comfortable, and he did. He just also wanted her to be comfortable close by.

“Do you, ah, do you have something I can borrow to sleep in?”

“Let me grab something of Aster’s. Hang on.”

Hal ferreted around in the bag of clothes he’d just bought for Aster. There were some shorts and a T-shirt that looked comfortable enough.

“Does this work?” he asked, coming back into the room to find Robin sitting on the bed with tears rolling down her face.

Squatting in front of her, he tossed the clothes onto the bed and tried to meet her gaze. “Everythin’ okay?”

“Yeah. I just can’t believe I’m here.” She seemed to shake herself. Her hands rubbed over her face, smearing makeup all around her eyes. A moment later, she looked at him, and his heart wanted to break from the pain that shimmered under the surface of her gaze. She forced a smile. “I’ll be fine.”

“It’s okay. Take all the time you need. You’ve got your own bathroom there, if you want to shower or something. There are towels and some stuff in there.”

“Thanks.”

“If you need anything at all, if you can’t sleep, if you have a sudden craving for waffles, if you want to go see the Statue of Liberty, just knock on my door, okay?”

“Okay.”

“I mean it. I’m here for you, Robin. If I can help, let me.” She nodded at him as he stood and went to leave. “You want this closed?”

“Please.”

He smiled and closed the door behind himself as he left. Gods, he just wanted to hug her and tell her that no one could ever touch her again without going through him first, unless she wanted them to, of course.

Back downstairs, he finished his pizza alone. Aster had vanished, probably back in the TV room. He didn’t mind being alone—in fact, he usually preferred it—but right now, he just wanted to be with Robin, to make sure she was safe and okay. It was taking all his willpower not to go and sleep outside her door, because that would be creepy, right?