Chapter 21

Chapter

Twenty-One

KEIR

Amelie had been takingthe hormone shots necessary for the doctor to harvest enough eggs for fertilization, and I knew she was uncomfortable. She’d been complaining to Lake about swollen ankles and feeling bloated. Apparently, Trent had been taking the brunt of her ire, so it would be smart of me to take him to lunch to apologize for all the hell he was going through for our benefit.

“How about I give you and Lake a spa day while I take Trent to lunch? We don’t have a guest yet, so we can all take the day off. Vale might want to go with you. He loves to be pampered too.”

Amelie threw herself at me, and thankfully, I caught her before she knocked me down. “Thank you so much! I’ll call Vale.”

She hurried to the office while I went down to the mortuary. When I arrived, the walk-in was glowing. “Fuck me.”

Dash was unreachable. Jonas wasn’t there. Scotty was assigned to other duties, and Adon hadn’t arrived at the funeral home yet, so it was just me.

I walked over to the door and took a deep breath. When I opened it, there stood Thane...again.

“Why are you here, Thane?”

“I’m here for you, my love. It seems Clegg has abandoned you, so I’m here to save you.”

Amelie was upstairs, as was Lake. Vale was probably on his way since they were going to be together. Could I count on Jonas to come with him on a Wednesday? Probably not.

“Save me from whom?” I needed to figure out how to get him out of the mortuary, so I needed to buy myself a little time.

“From Nyx. You see, she wants to destroy you, but I won’t allow that to happen. I love you, and I know that, in time, you’ll love me too. Please, leave with me now.”

I stared at him, trying not to judge him, but I couldn’t help myself. “You’re here to save me? You’ve been working for Nyx this whole time. Why? If you’re working with her, why should I trust you’re telling me the truth?”

“When I died, Nyx rescued me from Limbo and gave me a second chance. She said that killing Key was my mission, and if I succeeded, I could go to the Human Realm again and have you by my side. After she showed me how wonderful you are, I was grateful to have the chance.”

I wished to hell Dash was around, but he wasn’t. It was my time to step up and make the decision on my own. I couldn’t put my friends in danger, so I turned to Thane. “Let me go change. I was going to clean the mortuary, which is why I’m in scrubs, but I’ll put on street clothes and come back down. Wait here for me. We can go then.”

“I’ll be right here.” He stepped closer, but I stopped him by turning away and running up the stairs to the funeral home.

When I found Lake and Amelie sitting in the hospitality room, I rushed over to them. “Get out of here now, and don’t come back until you hear from me.”

I didn’t wait for them to answer. I rushed up to the apartment to change. I grabbed my phone to call Dash, but he didn’t answer, so I sent a text.

Thane is taking me somewhere. I hope I’ll get back to you but take care of Amelie and Lake. I love you.

I changed into jeans and a flannel shirt, unsure where I was going or if I’d ever see my husband again. As I was headed back down the stairs, my phone rang, so I stopped midway and checked the caller ID. “Hi, Mom. I’m sort of in the middle⁠—”

“I’m sure. Look, I have a box for you here at the house. Lenny and I are in the process... Well, I told this to Dash, but apparently, you two don’t talk. The box is full of stuff I found in the closet that was your father’s. Anyway, we’d love it if you and Dash would come to Monterey to help us weed out things. I don’t want to take everything with me into our new home.” Mom sounded quite happy.

“Yeah, Mom. We’re a little busy right now, but we’ll come visit very soon, I promise. How’s Lenny?”

I knew Thane was waiting for me, but the longer I could put it off, the more hopeful I was that I could fend him off. He wasn’t exactly other but I wasn’t sure how he fit into Nyx’s plans.

“He’s fine. Did Dash tell you? We’re moving to Cypress Hills—you know the one with the golf course community. Anyway, I’d love it if you could help us clean the place out, but if you’re busy, I understand. How’s business?” Mom had just given me an out that I was going to take.

“I need to go, Mom, but I’ll call you back. I love you. Say hi to Lenny.” We ended the call, and I pulled on my sneakers.

One deep breath before I hurried downstairs. “So, we need to go to my mother’s place in Monterey before I disappear. Do you still have living family?” Maybe appealing to his familial instincts would get me somewhere.

“I’m sorry, but no. We’re going to leave now. No going to your mother’s to warn her that you’re leaving your husband. I’m more important to you than your family.”

The fucker thought he had me hostage? Ha! “You didn’t answer me. Do you have living family?”

“No. My family died years ago after they turned their backs on me. I was presented with a second chance after my death, so I took it. All I need to do is get between you and Clegg. I’m supposed to kill him, but if I take you away from him, that should fulfill my obligation. You love me, right? Nyx told me you did. I just needed to rescue you from Clegg’s spell.”

“Clegg’s spell? Dash doesn’t have me under a spell. We love each other.”

Thane’s face showed the beginnings of anger, and I was ready for him.

“You don’t know how it feels to love someone, do you? You don’t love me. Nyx tells you to use the words so I’ll become complacent with you, but I won’t. I will die for Dashiell Clegg, and I know he’ll die for me.” I left out the part that if one of us died, the other would die too.

“I would die for you.” Thane seemed sincere, but I had to wonder if he even knew what it felt like to have someone own your soul. Dash owned mine, and I wouldn’t ever let him go.

“I’m sure you think you would, but we both know you don’t really love me. Let’s quit playing this game, Thane. You’re supposed to kill Dash to stop us from thwarting Nyx’s attempt to take over the Human Realm and the underworld. What’s in that for you? Me? No. I’ll never love you the way I love Dash.” It was the truth.

I could see I’d pissed him off for sure, but I didn’t care. He came at me, and I did something I’d never done in my life. I punched him in the face and sent him flying across the mortuary.

Thane shook his head and came at me again, so I hit him square in the nose, knocking him to the ground before I heard a loud popping sound. I straddled his prone body and wailed on him, taking out all the anger I’d pushed down due to all the shit Dash and I’d been through.

There was a gentle hand on my fist as I cocked it back to land a knockout blow. I tried to pull away until I was physically removed from Thane.

Once on my feet, I spun to see Scotty with a gentle smile. “You’ve broken your hand, Keir. We don’t want permanent damage. Your hands are meant for compassionate duties, not angry punches.”

Suddenly, pain surged up my arm, and I cradled it against my chest. I hadn’t even felt it, though I was guessing I’d heard it when it happened.

“Jay, come here, please.”

Jay Frick stepped out of the walk-in and hurried to where I was standing—or rather, being held up by Scotty. I was light headed and felt as though I could puke.

“What happened?” Jay picked me up and carried me to the empty stainless table I used for my guests.

Scotty grabbed three of the sheets I used to cover bodies and rolled them into a ball, putting them under my head. I could hear Thane groaning from his spot on the floor. It echoed off the walls.

“Do something with him, Jay.” Scotty glanced in Thane’s direction.

Jay nodded and walked over to Thane. “What’s Nyx’s plan? I can take away the pain if you tell me the truth.”

“She’ll kill me.”

Jay picked him up and held him at eye level. “Well, you don’t have to worry about that.” In a flash, Jay ripped Thane in half, which was gruesome to witness.

Scotty then stepped in front of me, blocking Jay from my sight. “You don’t need to see the rest of it. Are you okay? Thane will never bother you again, and he can’t be brought back. He’s gone.”

I sat up just in time to see Jay with an enormous pointed tongue cleaning the blood off himself. I really didn’t need to see that. “That’s new.”

Jay glanced at me and laughed. “Sorry, Keir. We heard Thane’s arrival and came right away.”

“Thank you. I was determined to beat him to death. Where’s Dash?”

“We need to get you to the hospital to get this hand looked at. Jay can go find Dash.” Scotty then stared at Jay, who nodded and stopped to give me a quick hug before ducking out through the walk-in.

Scotty grabbed the keys to my SUV and took me to Sutter Medical in Elk Grove. Two hours later, Scotty drove me back to Dearly & Son with a shiny new splint for a boxer’s fracture—a break in the fifth metacarpal bone.

The Ulnar gutter splint isolated my pinky and ring finger on my right hand, allowing movement of my thumb, index, and middle fingers. My hand throbbed like a mother fucker, but surgery wasn’t needed.

Just fucking great.

Dash was gone, and I didn’t know where. I had broken my hand, which sucked, but Thane Nyxon was out of my life for good.

I calledAmelie that night before I went to bed, and we planned to meet at the fertility clinic in the morning. Her eggs were being harvested, and Dash was supposed to be back so our mixed semen could be collected for fertilization.

Lake, like Amelie, had been taking medication to enhance the possibility of a successful implantation, and I had no idea how we would ever thank them. In this instance, they were our angels.

Once I hung up with Amelie, I phoned Lake. “Hey, Keir. What happened earlier today?”

I chuckled. “A gas line burst down in the mortuary. I had to hurry and get you out of there because you didn’t need to accidentally be exposed. I’m sorry if I scared you. The company came out and capped it, and they’ll come repair it tomorrow.”

“Are you safe there?”

Yeah, it was a hell of a lie, and I was less than thrilled it rolled off my tongue so easily, but I’d discussed it with Scotty while he was driving me home, and we decided it was the best reason as to why I rushed the two women out of the house.

“Oh, uh, yeah. I opened the windows and aired it out for the afternoon, so it’s fine now. I accidentally fell getting out of the basement, and I broke my hand. It’s in a brace, so I’m going to call Eric Ferndale to see if he can take any calls we get until we’re all able to work together again.”

Eric Ferndale was a mortician I’d met when I was dropping off a body at Steinbeck’s Crematorium. Eric’s business, Ferndale & Matson Funeral Home, was located about seven miles from Reardon. It was relatively new, in that the owners, Eric Ferndale and Bruce Matson, only knew my father by reputation. They’d agreed to a reciprocity arrangement with me, for which I was grateful.

“That’s good. How bad is your hand?” Lake sounded worried, which was sweet.

“Two metacarpals are broken but not displaced. I’ll be in the brace for a month to six weeks. It hurts, but I’ll be fine.”

“Do you need me to cook dinner for you and drop it off? Are you sure staying at the apartment is safe? When does Dash get back? Oh—tomorrow’s the retrieval and fertilization. Would he miss that?”

I wanted to say no with everything inside me, but I couldn’t. Since I didn’t know where he’d gone, I couldn’t say if he’d return in time, but I was still going through with it. I just prayed I didn’t have to raise the child on my own.

“Not if he can help it, I promise. Anyway, I’m going, so it’ll be fine.”

That lie rolled easily off my tongue as well.