Chapter 2
She unlocked her front door and walked inside. She didn’t know why she was using the front door. Normally she would come in through the garage. She put it down to being so flustered at her current state of affairs. The men hadn’t pulled in behind her, but she knew they wouldn’t get lost. Talon had come to this area more times than he’d actually gone home.
This house hadn’t been their parents’ home but their uncle’s. And, when he died, he had passed it on to the two kids. The idea being that, when her parents passed, she’d end up with one, and her brother would end up with the other. And now? … Well, now there was just her.
She didn’t dare let her mind go down that route. The last year had been brutal. It was one thing to lose a sibling; it was another thing to lose a twin. And she knew a lot of people wouldn’t understand, but another twin would. There was a special bond. They’d always understood each other.
And she and Chad had been very close. He’d tried to talk her out of getting married but then had stood up for her when she’d walked down the aisle. He’d held her in his arms during her breakup, and then he had died and left her alone.
Without her husband, thank God; without her parents, who were traveling the world and always would be traveling the world; and without Talon. The one mainstay in her life who’d walked away from her because she’d been too needy.
What a lesson that had been. The reason her husband had divorced her, supposedly, had been because she’d been too detached, too unemotional, not invested in their marriage. The trouble was, he was right. She’d invested everything in Talon, and, when he’d broken up with her, he had left her in tiny pieces.
It wasn’t fair. She’d loved that man to distraction. And when he had walked away, it had been her brother who had helped her pull herself together. And she had built herself up bigger and stronger and better and so much tougher. She hid behind a wall so nobody would hurt her again, and, by doing so, she’d cheated her husband from feeling the full effects of her love. And she had loved him. But she hadn’t been in love with him.
She’d been desperate to not be an old maid on the shelf, lonely for someone to do things with. She’d fallen on a path that, like everybody else’s relationship, seemed to lead to marriage, to starting a family. But it didn’t spark a fire in her. He was just comfortable. She thought comfortable would be enough. And maybe, for her, it would have been for years to come. But again she didn’t get that chance. Her husband had walked out, saying she was only half of a woman. That she lacked passion; she lacked soul.
His words had hurt. Even now as they’d taken root, they made her doubt herself all over again. Two major relationships, and, in both cases, each man had broken up with her. So definitely there was something wrong. The stupid thing was, each of them had complained about the opposite thing.
The doorbell rang just as she hit the coffee machine’s button to start brewing. She walked to the front door and opened it. The two men stood there. She led them inside, into the living room. As soon as they were seated, she said, “I’ll go get you a coffee.”
She turned, leaving them as guests in the house, and went to the kitchen, where she poured two cups. She carried them to the front of the house, saying, “I hope black is fine. I don’t have any cream, although I might be able to find the sweetener for you.”
Talon didn’t say a word; he accepted the black coffee. But she knew he always used to love his coffee dark and strong.
Laszlo smiled and said gently, “Black is fine. Thanks.”
She returned to the kitchen, grabbed herself a cup, then sat on a third chair in the living room. “Now tell me what this is all about.”
Silence fell hard and heavy.
Her gaze went from one to the other, sharp, intense, confused. “Talon, what the hell’s going on?” She watched a flicker of emotion cross his face. But she wasn’t sure what that emotion was.
He lifted his gaze to her. “Put the coffee down.”
She put it down, as if his command must be met. “Is it my parents? Why haven’t the police come and told me?” she asked anxiously.
He shook his head. “It’s not your parents. As far as I know, they’re perfectly fine.”
She took a deep breath and sat back, but her coffee was still on the coffee table. “Okay, so it’s major but not that major. Stop beating about the bush. This isn’t like you.”
She felt his gaze lock on hers and sear right into her soul. He’d always had that ability. She could never lie to him. She tried hard to bring her defenses into place, so he wouldn’t see her emotions, like he always had, and knew she had failed when she saw a gentle look come into his gaze. She shook her head. “Oh no, none of that.”
Surprise had him raising his eyebrows. “None of what?”
“None of that trying to be friends. I know who you really are inside that bullshit,” she snapped. “Tell me what this is about.” She couldn’t stand the worry eating away at her. It was bad, she knew. But as long as they didn’t tell her what it was, she was making it so much worse in her mind.
The two men exchanged a hard glance. She watched as Laszlo raised an eyebrow in question.
She jumped in. “Sure, you tell me then.” Laszlo gave her a bland look, and she sighed. “You’re as bad as he is.” She turned back to Talon. “Well?”
He took a deep breath. “Chad was murdered. It wasn’t an accident. He was run down on purpose.”
She felt the tsunami hit her. Her body freezing, her heart stopping.
And then he said, “And it’s my fault.”
A cry escaped as she stared at him, wordless. Every ounce of control she’d had in finding her way back from her brother’s death shattered into a million pieces. She shook her head. “Dear God, please, no.” She glanced over at Laszlo. “Please, tell me that’s not true.”
Laszlo took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. It’s true.”
There was no easy way to tell her. He had to just come out and say it. But, as he stared at her, the look in her eyes, her knees pulled up to her chest as she rocked back and forth, the tiny whimper in the back of her throat, he couldn’t stay separated from her. He hopped up from his chair, reached out, and scooped her into his arms. He sat back down in her seat and tucked her in close.
Laszlo, once again being who he was, went outside to the front step. Talon could see him through the living room window. Talon just held Clary. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered. “I’m so sorry.”
She was like this block of ice, locked down, unable to move. But, at his words, she burst into tears. Her agony was mixed with anger. She reared back and smacked him hard across the face, then started pounding him on the chest.
And he let her. He would like to have done the same. Beat himself to a pulp for having caused her this pain, for having taken away such a generous soul as Chad.
When tears overcame her, she curled up in his arms and bawled. He gently stroked her back and just held her close. God, it had been such a long time. His reason for coming here was shitty, his reason for staying away probably even worse. But, for this moment in time, he was just grateful to have her here in his arms.
Finally she ran down, but she didn’t move, as if exhausted and without any further energy. She’d always been like that. Everything she did was 100 percent. Her temper, her laughter, her passion.
There was no artifice about her. She’d been so damn real. But everything he’d seen of her so far in this last hour made him realize how difficult the last years had been. There was a hardness to her that he didn’t like. He had no reason to judge her, no right to criticize her because he was no longer the same idealistic young man who would go off and save the world either.
Finally she lifted her head, looked up at him, and croaked out, “Are you sure?”
He nodded. He reached for her cup of coffee. He picked it up and held it to her lips. “Take a drink. That’ll make your throat feel better.”
She drank eagerly, like a child, and managed a good half cup. He put it down and tucked her against him. It was a sign of how exhausted and shocked she was that she let him. He fully expected, when she got her balance back, she would turn around and hit him again.
At that point, Laszlo walked inside and sat down. He placed his empty cup on the coffee table and waited.
She sniffled and wiped her nose with her sleeve.
Talon chuckled. “You’re still doing it that way.”
She shot him a look and muttered, “There isn’t a tissue available.”
Laszlo got up. Talon watched as his friend crossed to the side table and brought her a box of Kleenex.
“Thank you,” she said, taking one to blow her nose. As she did so, she realized where she was sitting. She crawled off his lap, picked up her coffee cup, and disappeared into the kitchen.
Laszlo said, “That went well.”
“Of course it didn’t. But then there was no easy way to tell her, was there?” Talon said in a low tone.
Just then she returned, her coffee cup filled. She sat down in Talon’s original seat. “When did you find out?”
“Yesterday,” Talon said quietly. “We only found out yesterday.”
“You’re sure?”
This time Laszlo answered. “Yes, we’re sure. Chad was run over by the same guy who ran down my father in Norway during his evening walk.”
She gasped. “This man killed both of them? In two countries?”
For Talon it was yet another reminder of how much her world didn’t touch the much darker, deeper world he lived in.
Laszlo said, “My father is still alive. At seventy-four, he’s doing remarkably well, considering the damage done to his body. But it was because of him that we went to see if it really was an accident or if it was attempted murder. We tracked that same asshole back to Santa Fe and found out every one of us in our old military unit has lost—or, in my case, almost lost—a family member. Talon had no blood family to lose, but he’d lost Chad, his best friend.”
“And the next best thing to family that he had,” she said, nodding in understanding. “That’s a lot of hate. What did you guys do to this guy?” she asked, her gaze going from one to the other.
Laszlo said, “We have no idea. Quite possibly your brother was the first. We don’t know.”
Talon spoke up. “No, Badger’s parents died six months after the accident.”
“What accident?” she asked.
Talon froze. He hadn’t meant for her to know about it.
She stared at him, and her voice deepened. “What accident, Talon?”
Again Laszlo stepped in. “The same accident that injured all seven of our unit, including Talon, and killed one of our members.” His voice slowed as he said, “That was two years ago.”
She stared from one to the other. “How bad was the accident?”
Laszlo glanced over at Talon. “There’s no point in hiding it.”
Talon knew this was yet another turning point. But there was no help for it. He wasn’t the man he had been. Slowly he took the glove off his prosthetic left hand for her to see. “Bad enough,” he said quietly. “I’m also missing my lower left leg and foot.”
She stared at him in shock and then burst into tears yet again.