Page 63 of Forensics of a Fable

Bel found herself in a dim secondary cellar, and she paused as her eyes adjusted. She was in a generic basement, boxes and shelves occupying half of the storage space while the other side was bare save for the single green blanket on the floor. It looked like a nest… large enough for a woman, and nausea roiled her stomach at the realization. Drie, Kolm, and Gold hadn’t set foot inside her room, but they’d been here, and Bel prayed Olivia was still alive. Had he let her go, or had he killed her to keep his secrets? She knew which answer was more likely, but she couldn’t focus on that. Not yet. She needed to figure out where she was and contact the sheriff. Then she would panic about her lost partner.

Bel raced up the basement stairs, the wood creaking with age, and she burst out into a living room. She paused as she took in the space. The room had been frozen in time, the seventies still alive and prevalent in the vintage design. She was in Abel’s home. She’d been in his house this entire time, and she realized why Eamon hadn’t found her. He was most likely hunting for another cabin. Griffin was probably still chasing Foley Locks. No one knew to search in town. In the house of an eccentric long-time resident.

Bel scanned her surroundings for Abel’s phone, but his cell wasn’t in the living room. She searched his kitchen next, but when it too yielded nothing, she turned toward the bedrooms. Fear crawled over her skin at the idea of remaining one second longer in this house. He couldn’t escape his basement prison, but she didn’t want to see his room. She couldn’t stay in thehome of a killer any longer, so she ran into the foyer. Darkness spilled through the windows, but it wasn’t too late. Someone in town would be awake. Someone would help her.

She unlocked the front door and flung it open, racing outside on her bare feet. She almost cried at the scent of the outdoors. The two weeks without sunlight and fresh air had affected her more than she realized, and tears blurred her vision as she ran. She sobbed uncontrollably as the soft, cool grass cushioned her footfalls. She was free. She’d survived, and Abel would never come for her again.

A black blur exploded from the darkness, and Bel screamed as the mass attacked her. Only it wasn’t a scream of fear. It wasn’t a scream of violence. It was a scream of overwhelming joy as the blackness leaped into the air and slammed into her chest. She could barely see through her tears, but she didn’t need eyes to know who it was. She felt him in her soul, recognizing his presence before her fingers even found his fur, and the second he crashed into her, her arms locked around his stocky ribcage.

Bel didn’t stop running as Cerberus squirmed and cried. She held her dog tight, letting him lick her tears. His nails scratched her skin as all of his seventy pounds thrashed with joy, but she didn’t care. Her pitbull was here. He was alive. He found her, and she choked on her sobs as she buried her face in his fur.

A second figure emerged from the darkness with inhuman speed, and Bel barely had time to register the enormous man before his arms were around her, scooping both her and her dog into his embrace. She instinctively wrapped her legs around Eamon’s waist as he drew her to his chest, the pitbull trapped between them. She couldn’t bring herself to let go of Cerberus, so she tightened her thighs’ grip on Eamon’s hips instead. A strangled sound escaped the man’s lips as his one hand slid below her for support while his other cradled her back. He heldher and her dog possessively tight, and Bel cried into Cerberus’ fur as Eamon’s presence engulfed her with his safety.

“I’m sorry I didn’t find you sooner,” he said with such pain in his whisper, Bel wondered if her monster was crying. “I failed you.”

“No, you didn’t,” she choked through her hyperventilating. “You came for me.”

“I’ll always come for you, Isobel,” Eamon swore as if he was pledging fealty to a deity. “No matter the danger, I’ll always find you.”

“I knew you would come for me.” Her sobs made her words nearly unintelligible, and Eamon kissed the tears from her cheeks as if determined to steal her sorrow and make her whole.

“Bel!” a masculine voice shouted with a strangled cry, and a pair of muscular arms wrapped around her and Eamon.

“Dad?” Bel practically screamed, and she leaned down to kiss him since Eamon had no intentions of releasing her.

“Oh, my beautiful girl,” Reese sobbed, kissing her forehead over and over as sirens closed in on their location. Neither man let go of her as the flashing lights barreled down the street. Neither man let go of her as the police flooded Abel Reus’ front yard. Neither man let go of her as both Sheriff Griffin and the very alive Detective Olivia Gold raced for Bel.

“Breaking and entering is a criminal offense.”Bel smirked, her eyes still closed as the last hints of sleep left her. “As is stalking a police officer. I could have you arrested, Mr. Stone.”

“I wouldn’t have to break in if you had agreed to stay with me,” Eamon said with a hint of humor in his voice, and Bel finally opened her eyes, a smile curving her lips at the sight that greeted her. It was a beautiful Monday morning, the sunlight drifting in through her windows to bathe Eamon’s intimidating image in a glorious glow. He was dressed in all black, his dark blond hair and slightly pale skin such a stark contrast to his death-black eyes, and in all her days, Bel had seen nothing as terrifying or as perfect as Eamon Stone. He was a god among men. Desire and danger contained in flesh, and his features wereso handsome, it was almost painful to look upon his face. Yet she did. She stared at him in the sunshine and knew that she would willingly drown in his beauty.

“I can’t live with you.” Bel propped herself up on her elbows, grinning at Cerberus as he wagged his tail at her. He’d left her bed and was currently laying across Eamon’s lap on the couch as they’d watched her sleep, and only Eamon could make her seventy-pound pitbull look small.

“I don’t see why not,” he said, scratching the dog’s cropped ears. “I have plenty of room. I could keep an eye on you without stalking you, as you like to call it, and your dad could’ve stayed longer. He wanted to, but a man can only survive so long on your couch.”

It had been weeks since her escape, but most of that night was a blur. The second Eamon had captured her in his arms, exhaustion and stress overtook her, and she’d collapsed into his embrace, never leaving it as the police worked the scene. She was overjoyed to learn Olivia Gold had survived. It seemed that since Abel drugged her, he deemed it safe to release her. She remembered nothing, and as Bel explained in her statement, Abel only cared about the murders that brought her closer to his trap and suspicion to Eamon’s doorstep. After kidnapping Bel, he had no need for her blonde partner, so he’d thrown her in a ditch.

After the medical team cleared Bel, Griffin escorted her to the station to collect her clothes for evidence. They practically had to pry Eamon off her, but they didn’t want to stress her any more than was necessary, so Griffin took her initial statement and sent her home with her father. Her dad had slept on her couch, although for those first few nights, he admitted he hadn’t slept but had watched her instead. He wasn’t alone in his insomnia, though. Eamon had remained outside her cabin, guarding her with his life, but the threat had passed. She was safe, and hertestimony helped fill the gaps in the case, ensuring Abel would meet justice in the courtroom for the murders of Alana Drie, Rebecca Kolm, and Foley Lock as well as the kidnapping of a Bajka Police Officer.

Reese stayed on Bel’s couch while the station set her up with a therapist. Griffin gave her a few weeks off to rest, and she’d spent the time getting the help she needed, hanging out with her father, and playing with her dog. The beginning days were difficult, but by the time her dad returned to the city and she to work, Bel felt like a new woman. She’d survived, and the people that loved her fought to save her. Eamon never strayed far from her side. Even if she couldn’t see him, she knew he was there, and while his presence may have once frightened her, she now didn’t feel safe unless his eyes were on her. But just because his predatory protection offered her peace, it didn’t mean she was ready to live with the man. There were too many secrets surrounding him, and her conflicted emotions waged war inside her chest.

“I know you have plenty of room.” Bel pushed the blankets off her legs and climbed out of bed. She padded across the wood floor and grasped Cerberus’ face in her hands, planting a big kiss on his forehead. She straightened and moved to the coffeepot in the kitchen, well aware that Eamon watched her kiss her dog with an expression that said he wished she would greet him the same. “But we aren’t together, Eamon,” she continued as she started making coffee. “I can’t just live with you.”

“I don’t see how that makes a difference.”

“Because we’re not a couple,” she said, her words feeling like acrid lies on her tongue. They weren’t a couple, yet something had stitched their souls together in a bond stronger than any romantic entanglement could create.

Eamon grunted an unhappy sound, and Bel turned to find him scowling at her legs. He’d left her some of his shirts forwhen the nightmares got bad, and she’d taken to wearing them every night. Months ago, his teeth were the source of her terror, but now the scent of him on the shirts calmed her most horrific dreams. She loved how the fabric that once hung on his broad shoulders guarded her nights, and her bare legs stuck out from beneath the hem as she brewed the coffee, mocking her for thinking they weren’t a couple.

“Eamon, you know I trust you.” She pulled two mugs out of the cabinet to avoid his expression of longing. “I knew you wouldn’t stop until you found me. I couldn’t just sit and wait, though, which is why I took matters into my own hands. But even if I failed, even if you took a year to find me, I knew you were coming.”

“I’ll always come for you.”

“And that’s enough for now, okay?” She crossed the kitchen as the vanilla aroma filled the air. When David Kaffe learned that she’d been drinking cheap coffee during her captivity, he’d given her a few pounds of fresh grinds as a gift, and Bel was obsessed with how amazing it smelled.

“You and I have come a long way since New York. You went from being my greatest fear to the person I trust the most after my father and Cerberus.” She stopped in front of him, and he slid his hands up her legs, the need to touch her an instinct he couldn’t fight. When she didn’t protest the contact, his palms slipped to the back of her thighs, and he pulled her close until she stood between his knees.

“But I’m not just going to move in with you,” Bel continued as he gazed up at her, his chin inches away from resting on her belly.

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