Kelly Meade - Black Rook

No matter what, his family would carry on.

The front door squeaked open. Footsteps shuffled down the entry toward the main room, lighter than Father’s, but heavier than Rook’s.

Bishop eased into view, hands deep in his jeans pockets, shoulders slumped as he scanned the room. He didn’t seem surprised to see Knight up on the dais.

“Thought I might find you here,” Bishop said.

“Why’s that?”

“Because when you were a kid and you wanted to be alone, you came here.”

Knight raised an eyebrow. “So naturally you came to keep me company.”

He shrugged as he approached, taking slow and measured steps, like he thought going too fast might spook Knight into running. “Maybe I wanted to be alone.”

“Do you?”

“I haven’t been great company this afternoon. Jillian almost punched me in the eye a few minutes ago.”

“Really?” Knight stared at his big brother, both shocked and impressed he’d managed to get such a violent reaction out of the even-tempered woman. “What did you say to her?”

“You don’t want to know.”

“Hell yes, I want to know.”

Bishop eased his tall frame into a front-row seat and stretched his legs out. “Trust me, I was being an asshole and she didn’t deserve it.”

And all because of Knight. He sighed. “I’m sorry.”

“Me, too.”

His brother’s love sifted through Knight’s mind and buoyed his courage.

Their eyes met, and a dozen things were said in silence. Apologies for not finding a different solution; for never taking the time to go fishing like they’d planned; for every fight, every slight, every misunderstanding. Nothing had to be said. With Bishop, he’d always spoken a simple language. Things either were or they weren’t, because that was Bishop’s way. This was happening. Bishop could hate it, but he wouldn’t waste words trying to change what couldn’t be changed.

With Bishop, not saying good-bye was easy.

Rook was an entirely different story.

The atmosphere in the McQueen house was that of a deathwatch, and as afternoon waned into evening, Brynn hated that she couldn’t do anything to ease the pain of father and sons. Even though her body still hummed with delight over those precious hours with Rook in her bedroom—and later in the shower—her mind kept turning to the awful task fast approaching. And she couldn’t prevent small doubts from creeping in alongside her joy—Rook forgave her today, but would he feel the same tomorrow, when Knight’s sacrifice was no longer hypothetical?

Supper guests not part of the plan—Jillian, Devlin, Dr. Mike, and a handful of enforcers whose names Brynn still hadn’t memorized—seemed confused by the subdued level of conversation over Mrs. Troost’s platter of barbecued ribs and corn salad. The mood could be blamed on the continued threat of the hybrids, or for those in the know, the recent confirmation of Shay Butler’s trust fund.

The trustee was a small holding company in Albany, New York, that was created three days before the trust agreement was signed. Brynn had confirmed without hesitation that the holding company handled private Magus financial matters—the name had appeared on her tutoring pay stubs. The information supported Fiona’s claim about the trust, but the timing of the company’s formation supplied reasonable doubt about Andrew Butler’s complicity in his wife’s disappearance. And with Andrew three days dead, they had reached a dead end with finding those answers.

Despite their churning thoughts, supper and dessert passed in peace, coffee was poured, and then the group broke up.

Keeping Jillian Reynolds in the dark was akin to stopping a speeding train.

She followed Brynn onto the back patio, where Brynn had hoped to escape with her coffee and watch the lightning bugs dance. Instead, she found her view of the backyard blocked by Jillian and her intense stare.

“You know what’s going on,” she said without preamble.

“You’ll have to be more specific than that,” Brynn replied.

“You know why Alpha McQueen and the others are acting strangely. It has something to do with your excursion to Philadelphia this morning.”

Brynn didn’t want to lie to Jillian, so she said nothing. She wasn’t certain what, if anything, Jillian had been told about the plethora of new information that Brynn had brought back. Everything would be revealed to Jillian, her father, and the other Alphas in the morning. Until then, Brynn would not break her promise.

“I know it’s not my place to question Alpha McQueen’s decisions,” Jillian said, “but I’ve been privy to everything else. I don’t like being kept out of the loop on this.”

“Jillian, if there is a loop that you’re outside of, then there must be a good reason for it. You just need to be patient.”

“I have no patience when loup are being attacked and murdered, and when I don’t know when to expect the next assault.”

Brynn wanted to reassure the woman that no assault should occur tonight, so she could rest easy, but she didn’t. Even that seemed like giving away too much. “I wish I could help you, I really do.”

Jillian huffed, which blew her straight bangs up from her forehead. She flattened them back out with an annoyed swipe of her palm. “I know. It’s inappropriate of me to be asking you to defy the Alpha’s confidence.”

“But you’re worried.”

“I am.”

“Things will be much different tomorrow, if you trust in Alpha McQueen and be patient.”

She worried her bottom lip with her teeth, then said, “I only hope the change is a good one.”

Brynn had no answer.

As the evening passed and eleven o’clock approached, Rook made one last ditch effort to corner Knight, who’d done an amazing job of avoiding Rook all night long. He wasn’t stupid. They knew each other too damned well. Knight didn’t want him to try to change his mind, or to take Father’s idea and lock him into the quarterly room in the basement to prevent him from going to Fiona.

Not that Rook would stoop to kidnapping his own brother. No matter how much Rook hated it, this was Knight’s decision.

He used his nose to track Knight down and found him on the roof of the Smythe Building, in almost the same spot Rook had stood with Brynn the day before. He climbed off the fire escape and followed the path around. In the light of the three-quarters moon, all of Cornerstone spread out in front of them, dotted here and there with the occasional house light. So deceptively peaceful.

He stood next to Knight, his brother and best friend, and gazed out over the town they both loved so much.

“I’m glad you have her,” Knight said.

Rook didn’t have to ask who or what he meant. Knight would be able to sense the shift in Rook’s emotions since making love with Brynn—the joy of finding his mate, even under all of the anxiety and sorrow surrounding tonight’s plan. “Me, too.”

“Bishop will make an excellent Alpha.”

“Yes, he will.”

“And you’ll support him.”

“Always.”

“Do me a favor?”

Rook swallowed, wanted to tell Knight to take his favors and shove them because he wasn’t leaving. “Sure.”

“Play your guitar for Shay once in a while. I think music will help.”

Something hot pressed the backs of Rook’s eyeballs and he blinked hard. “I can do that. Maybe a nice folk song.”

“Good idea. When she’s well, I bet she and Brynn will have a lot to talk about.”

“For sure.” It wasn’t every day that you found out you had a long-lost half-breed half-sister. “When she’s stronger. And we’ll leave out Fiona.” Even saying the name sent a blaze of hate through Rook’s guts.