Heart and Soul by Jackie May (reading list .TXT) 📗

top of her head fits snugly beneath my chin. “Shayne, you…why would you…how come you didn’t…”

“Breathe, Elle.”

She huffs. “You stayed here all night, alone?”

“It’s fine. It’s safe here.”

She scoffs with a grunt of frustration. “I’m not talking about being safe. I’m talking about being alone, which you are not.” Pushing me out to arm’s length, she pins me with a fierce look. “Any hour, day or night, rain or shine. I’m the first call you make.”

The weight on my heart eases a bit. “I know, Elle.”

She frowns. “You know, Elle, and…what?”

“And I promise I will next time.”

“Good, except there won’t be a next time, because we’re not leaving you until this is over.”

I shoot hesitant looks at Russo and Hillerman. “We’re not?”

Elle shoos my concern away with a flip of the hand. “Oh, I hope you don’t mind, but I had to lift the wards on this place. For our guests.”

Through the open doorway come two familiar faces—Rook and Wulf Winters. They both nod and say in unison, “Shayne.”

“Hey, guys.” It sounds lame and anticlimactic, but I don’t know what else to say. I’m shocked to have two powerful wolves standing in my living room, supposedly here to help. To help me—not of their clan, not of their status.

Rook takes my shock to the next level when he slightly bows his head to me. “This is your territory, Shayne. We won’t intrude any further without your express permission.”

My jaw drops. “My…what? Me?” Elle bumps me with her hip, knocking sense back into my words. “Yes! Yes, of course, come in.”

Wulf grins from ear to ear. “Good, but I think you should know, we brought a plus one.”

“The runt of the litter,” Rook jokes, “but we’ll take all the help we can get.”

In his red-checked shirt, the sleeves characteristically rolled up, Nolan steps out from behind the Winters brothers, looking very hesitant to see me. He mutters. “I understand if I’m not welcome here. If it’s inappropriate—”

I fly at him. Caught off guard, he flinches, maybe expecting an attack, but all I’ve got for him is a fierce embrace, clutching at him as though my whole family could somehow feel it through him—Mom and Dad, my sister, my Little Bunica. I’ve got so much to thank Nolan for, to discuss with him about our stupid past, so much I didn’t know or was too oblivious to understand. Now’s not the time. I’m just so happy he’s here, which is a feeling I thought might never return.

His voice is thick with emotion. “I’m here, Shayne. I’m here. For whatever that’s worth.”

“A lot, Nolan. Everything. I can’t believe you’d come here. The others can’t know, I’m sure. Ben?”

“No, they don’t know. And it has to stay that way. Ben…is Ben. He meant what he said, and he can’t take it back. If he knew I was here, he’d challenge us both.”

“I’m sorry. I…I never meant for any of this.”

I shush when he wipes a tear from my cheek. “One thing at a time. Right now, all we care about is getting Jay back.”

My heart pounds with nervous energy. A flutter of mixed emotions. Renewed hope and energy, but also dread of the unknown. What if it’s already too late?

Oliver Harrington’s voice snaps me out of my thoughts. “Room for more?” he says as he comes in, followed by Deputy Director Parker Reed in one of his crisp suits. Then, ducking under the top of the doorway, Terrance the troll muscles his way through the crowd, giving me a playful shoulder bump as he passes. Russo, in awe of Terrance’s bulk, moves beside him and mimics his stance to compare. Terrance has him beat by a half foot in both height and width. Russo raises his chin, trying to stand a little taller. Annoyed, Terrance scoots away.

As I’m reeling from the shock of these unexpected visitors, I realize a man is standing right at my elbow. I whirl, startled half to death. He’s some kind of fey, I know that much from his wicked-but-gorgeous grin. Sharpening a fingernail with the point of a gleaming dagger, he says, “Right now you’re thinking, How long has Illren been standing there? And Illren’s answer is yes.”

Illren? The Illren? Personal bodyguard of Nora Jacobs? I don’t answer him, and not only because I’m now scared, but because the hits just keep on coming: beside this dangerous assassin is, of all people, Ren. Ren from the office. He waggles his fingers at me. I half-waggle mine back.

Next to him is a charming face I don’t know. He’s blond, with dimpled cheeks and astonishing pink eyes. With an angelic smile, he wraps me in a warm hug. “I’m Charlie.”

He holds me, rubbing my back tenderly, even though I’m not making any sign of reciprocating, because, um, who the hell is this? Oh, right, duh, he’s Charlie.

Ren peels him off of me, saying, “He’s just a little puppy dog sometimes. What he means is, We’re here to help. Whatever you need.”

“Thanks, Ren. And you, Charlie person. But I…”

Ren tilts his head. “You what?”

Looking around at so many faces, old friends, new friends, all staring at me expectantly, my face heats up. “I just…you’re all here…for me?”

Elle jams her fists on her hips. “Would you stop that?”

“What?”

“This, the thing where you always think it’s you versus the world. I know that foxes are fiercely independent, but it’s time for you to get it through your thick skull that you don’t have to do everything yourself. We—all of us here—we’re in this with you. All the way.”

When she says all of us, it makes me take another look around the room. An obvious detail hits me. “Oliver, Parker, Rook, Terrance. But aren’t you all…you’re all in the Nora Jacobs deal thing.”

Terrance puffs his chest out. “You mean her clan? Don’t forget Wulf, Illren, Charlie, Ren, and Enzo.”

“All of you?”

Nodding solemnly, Charlie makes a shrewd but inaccurate interpretation of my response. “It’s okay to be overwhelmed. The odds of this many good-looking men congregating