Page 18 of White Raven
“That’s not an excuse.”
Brent nudged her shoulder with his own. “Lighten up. It’s okay. As long as you show up for her, I’ll forgive that absentmindedness.” His smirk was comforting. Maybe he didn’t need therapy or medication. Maybe he just needed somebody to simply be around.
“I hate to ask this…but…are you having a joint service for—”
“No,” Brent’s smile immediately faded, and his jaw set again. He turned his attention back to the dirty pink blob on the concrete. “He’ll get no service. He can rot. She deserves to be honored without his shadow relentlessly outshining who she was.”
“Fair enough,” Sarah muttered, clicking her heels together. “What about Gretchen?”
He was quiet for a few minutes, and Athan’s black car became visible around the curve of the pick-up circle. “Her family wants her cremated. They’ll have a private service for her. At least that’s what Dr. Ambrose told me this morning. They already went uptown to claim her body.”
“What are you gonna do with Conrad?” She almost decided that she didn’t want to know, but curiosity got the best of her. Brent slowly stood as Athan pulled up.
“I think I’m gonna donate his body to science. Sign away my rights to his remains. I think it would be better if I never saw any piece of him again.”
“The irony of that is…very…”
“Fitting,” Athan finished, taking Brent’s bag and briefcase from Sarah as she stood up. He looked at Brent with understanding. “Fuck him.”
Brent’s eyes flashed with gratitude, and he nodded, tightening his smile. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Going to your place?” Athan asked.
“Yeah.”
They piled into the car, and none of them spoke the entire way to Brent’s apartment. It wasn’t because of Sarah’s history with both of them, she realized. It was more about the respect of being silent when no words were really needed. As they let him out of the car, Brent took his belongings and refused their help getting inside. Athan didn’t fight him on it, seeming to understand Brent’s need for some manner of independence. But Sarah, being who she was, came around the hood and approached him. They stood less than a foot away from each other.
“Don’t make me worry about you, Brent.” They locked eyes, and the grief she saw in them was there, but there was something else. Regret? Some sort of closure? Relief? It was confusing.
“Will you tell her I’m thinking about her?” he asked, cocking his head. She knew who he meant. Sarah half-smiled. “Tell her—tell her I’m sorry if…if I was too—”
“I’ll tell her.” She gave him an understanding nod, and he sighed through a smile as he stared down at the ground. Sarah leaned in and brought her arms around his neck, pulling him into a hug and patting his back. “I’m not far. Pick up the damn phone, okay?”
“I will. Thanks.” He released her and jerked his head towards Athan who threw up two fingers out the window. When Sarah slid into the passenger seat, she was surprised to see Athan watching Brent walk into the building.
“He’s got more balls than I thought,” he said, thumbing his chin.
Maybe it wasn’t that much of a surprise. Their battle of who could make the other more jealous was obviously growing thicker. Sarah scoffed. “He might have royally fucked up, but I don’t want anything else to happen to him. I needed him to know that.”
Athan turned his face toward her. “I wasn’t talking about the tender embrace,” he smirked.
“No? Whatwereyou talking about?”
He looked back towards the building through the glass door where Brent’s figure was disappearing into the elevator ahead. “It takes balls to pretend you’re not about to cave in on yourself. He carries it well…but that dude is about to break.” He paused, shaking his head and pinching his bottom lip with his fingers. “I don’t even think he realizes it yet.”
CHAPTER 3
NEW BLOOD
Rhaena swiped a thumb over her bottom lip, following it with the tip of her tongue as she chewed over a mouthful of doughnut and leaned back in her desk chair. Athan had already cut eyes at her twice, and she felt the need to be a little extra annoying this morning. She took another gaping bite and sucked the chocolate off her finger loudly.
“You’re making it so much easier for me to take this much needed time off,” Athan drawled from across their desks, purposely squeaking thatfuckingchair as he swiveled around to gather things he was taking home.
Rhaena rolled her eyes. “I still don’t understand why you can’t stick around. If you’re gonna be working from home anyway, then what’s the damn point?”
“The idea is to only actually work when I see reason to. I’ve got plenty of other things to do at home.” His wink was absolutely uncalled for. She grabbed a pen and chucked it at him. It hit home on the side of his tattooed neck. “Bitch.”
“Mongrel.” She sneered at him, and he grinned, turning back towards his monitor. “Why does it have to be so long? I would have never done this to you, asshole. Cap’s assigned a replacement all because your leave is longer than four weeks. I honestly frickin’ hate you.”
