Repairer of the Breach (Stones of Fire Book 4) by Sarah Ashwood (reading eggs books .TXT) 📗

sat up, and, honestly, looked little worse for the wear, to Carter. He’d known already what Sean’s decision would be, so he kept to the background, observing, keeping an eye also on the emergency workers handling the scene while Sean was being attended to.

After a few more minutes of discussion, the lead paramedic finally said, “Well, sir, it’s your decision. We can’t force you to go. I would strongly recommend you have someone nearby for the next couple of days that can drive you to the hospital or call us in case it’s needed. I’m not saying it will be, but it could. Will you do that, at least?”

“I’ll be with him,” Carter spoke up. “I work for him.”

No further explanations. The paramedic looked him over as if noticing him for the first time. He raised an eyebrow at the missing shirt, but didn’t ask. Turning back to Sean, he said, “Take it easy. Nothing too strenuous for the next couple of days, okay?”

Sean mumbled some sort of response, enough to satisfy the medical personnel, who gathered up their equipment and moved on to the next person needing assistance. They were barely out of earshot, when Sean laughed, low and dark.

“‘Nothing too strenuous,’ he says. Does killing your wife and your rival count as too strenuous?”

Carter saw the expression that fell across Ellie’s features.

“Mr. Costas, you—you shouldn’t talk like that,” she reprimanded gently, and almost a little nervously, with a glance at the two cops.

Sean brushed the rebuke aside. “Why? Because they might hear?” Again, he laughed, humorlessly. “They know. That one’s been in my pocket for years, haven’t you, Tozzi?” The detective shuffled his feet, uncomfortable. His female partner shot him a piercing glance, even as Sean added, “And she’s in it too deep now to ever get out. No, Ellie, it’s no secret. And it’s not going to be when I bring hell to those two women, either.”

He looked directly at Carter now, addressing him, ignoring Ellie’s obvious dismay.

“Gather our forces. All of them. Every last one. No more nipping at each other’s heels like a pack of dogs. No more taking out the slow and the stragglers while the main pack escapes. No more guerilla warfare. We make an end of it. Now. If Nosizwe wins, she has the blood and the Stones and does what she wants. If I kill her and Ciara, then I have the Stones and the matter is put to rest.”

“Will do.” Carter rose to begin carrying out his boss’s orders, but stopped when he felt Ellie grab his hand.

“Carter, can we talk?”

He caught the exchange of glances between the cops, his employer, and Javier. Undoubtedly they were all thinking the same thing. She was the good girl, the minister’s kid, inadvertently drawn into this war. She’d never liked it. She’d never approved of the feuding, the bloodshed. She never would. She was going to try and talk him out of it now, putting him directly between his wife and her beliefs and his mentor, his people, the job he’d always done, the life he’d always led.

There he was, a central figure in the entire mess. The one whose blood had opened the doorway to the other world. The one called the Repairer of the Breach. The one given the flaming sword. He couldn’t back out. Even for Ellie. Could he?

Gently, he took her hand, pulled her up.

“We’ll talk,” he said, both hands clasping her shoulders, squeezing lightly, reassuring. “Not now. But we’ll talk.”

“Carter—”

“Ellie.” He overrode her arguments. “I can’t get into this right now. I have a job to do.”

Her lips firmed. Parted. Closed. Firmed. She was struggling with what to say and how to say it. Finally, she reached up and pulled his hands off her shoulders, saying quietly, “You know what the right thing is, Carter. Please do it.”

The right thing? There were too many things he was supposed to do and be. Too much at stake. Too many matters and people involved. Too many issues. What if he didn’t know what the right thing was? Did anyone?

The words fell into his gut like a badly digested meal and sat there churning.

Ellie turned away. “I’m going to see if there’s anyone else I can help,” she murmured.

And she walked off, leaving him, Sean, the cops, and Javier by themselves.

Heavy silence draped the group, broken by the shuffling of emergency workers in the background, hunting for bodies, hunting for victims. Sean’s people were on scene too, moving debris and throwing up makeshift supports to shore up walls. The situation here was getting back in hand, but the bigger situation—a final confrontation between Sean and his wife, his archenemy—that was only just beginning.

Chapter Twenty

I’d said I was going to look for more people to help, and I did, but the emergency personnel prowling all over the scene seemed to have that well in hand. While searching, I wound up seeing three or four familiar faces that I’d noticed around the mansion—Sean’s people—gathered around a prostrate body. My heart sank. I’d temporarily forgotten James. I made my way over and stood feeling helpless as they cleared rubble to free his body. Tears filled my eyes, and I turned my back momentarily so nobody would see my sniffle. I’d seen at a glance that he was dead. His pallor against the burn marks, the blood, the gaping wound on the side of his skull…

Carter was right. Nobody could help him now.

After a few deep breaths, I was able to face the body again, just as the young man was being lifted and moved. They carried him to a nearby bedroom in a part of the mansion that hadn’t sustained any damage, laying him out on the bed to be dealt with after the wounded were cared for. I trailed along. Nobody tried to stop me. I guess I’d become enough of a fixture around here that people accepted my presence as Carter’s wife, my lack of shapeshifting abilities aside.

“What happened?” I asked