Page 99 of Till Death Do Us Part

I looked down at the body, a bloodied mess, face blotchy and swollen. “Guess he got lucky, then,” I said, turning back to Elaine, who rushed forwards and threw herself on me, wrapping her arms around me.

Even like this, covered in blood and sweat and grime, she held me. Like I was the most precious thing to her.

I had to get rid of these feelings.

Because right now, I wanted to marry her all over again.

Chapter 49

elaine

“I don’t like this,” Vera said, pacing the room.

“I know,” I whispered, sitting on the foot of the bed.

She sighed hard, raking her hand back through her hair, and she leaned against the window, rain streaking against the glass, twilight spilling purple ink on the horizon. “I don’t like Whitecliffs.”

I stood up with her, stroking her back in the way I knew calmed her down. She closed her eyes with a tortured sigh. “We can trust Yulia,” I said.

“I trust that Yulia’s motives are… temporarily… aligned with ours,” she said. “I don’t trust the Whitecliffs. In general.”

I nodded, resting against her side. I was apprehensive about it too—with the manor compromised, we had to get out somewhere to see if they would make another attempt on the manor, and Yulia offered a Whitecliff safehouse.

I still remembered the night the Whitecliff assassins surrounded me, artificial light gleaming on the metal of their handguns.

But I also remembered the night Yulia had saved us all from Quayle.

And right now, we didn’t have a lot of options.

But it was different for Vera. She’d grown up thinking they’d killed her mother and, in a way, killed her father too. She’d grown up fighting them tooth and nail at every corner.

And now here she was, working with the Whitecliffs, while it was her own family that tried to kill her.

“If anything happens, we’ll be ready,” I whispered. “But for now, this is the safest place we can be.”

She gritted her teeth. “Glenn… first he took my mother from me. Then he took my father from me. Then he took me away from me. And now if he wants to take…” She glanced at me, and she sighed, pushing off from the window and heading for the bathroom. “I’m getting ready for bed.”

I knew when she needed a minute. I nodded, and I sat in bed in my nightrobe waiting for her. When she came back to bed, dropping in next to me, I draped myself on her side, and she immediately moved an arm around me, holding me into her.

“Are you okay?” she whispered. “You were held hostage…”

I pressed my face into her shoulder. “I wasn’t afraid. I knew you’d come for me.”

She sighed, a heavy, anguished sound, and she kissed the top of my head. “I’m sorry… I left you in danger.”

“If I’d gone with you, I’d have been in more danger. And if we never did anything about the Blackbirds, that would be worst of all. This was the best we could have done.”

She held me tighter, kissing the top of my head again, and my chest swelled. “I’m glad you’re okay,” she whispered.

“You’re so stressed, Vera…” I ran my hand over her front, feeling the tense knot of muscles in her abdomen. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Just tense. A lot out in the field. And then knowing we were going back as fast as we could and all I could do was wait…” She clenched her fist against my back.

“I’m okay. I promise.”

“Just a lot of tension.”

“Do you…” I blushed, burying my face in her collar, and I hesitantly lifted the hem of my nightgown. “Do you want any help with the… tension?”