Page 437 of Shadowblood Souls
I pick up another pot and toss it in my broad hand, watching the woman. “You could give it a try too if you’d like to try. Plenty of flowerpots to go around.”
I have to think anyone working under a boss like Balthazar has a little steam to blow off. But I’m not really surprised when Toni’s mouth tightens and she spins on her heel without taking me up on the offer.
She stalks away, not ordering us to stop either. I guess she figures it is better that we smash a few flowerpots than anything more important.
“More for us!” Riva declares, and snatches up one of the remaining pots.
We work our way through the entire row, cracking some right below the wall, launching others far out across the landscape. When there are none left, Riva gazes down at the browned strip of lawn where they were resting.
Her attention shifts to her empty hands. Her stance falters.
I’m not at all prepared for the tears that streak down her cheeks.
“Shit,” she mumbles immediately, dabbing at her eyes with her sleeves. “Sorry.” Her breath comes out in a hitch.
I don’t know what to do.Icaused this. I started us smashing flowerpots and somehow that cracked open something in her.
My body moves on instinct. I step toward her and freeze, my nerves clanging with alarm.
But there’s nothing in the impulse that feels at all like the horrible moment years ago when I ripped the woman the guardians hired to pieces. All I want is to comfortthiswoman however I can.
My arms slip around her. Riva startles and then tips her head against my shoulder.
“I want him dead,” she murmurs in a watery voice, so quietly I don’t think anyone other than me would be able to hear her even this close. “I want that psychopath dead and gone so this can be finished.”
I hold her against my chest, so much love and worry flowing through me that it sweeps away every other consideration. “I know. I get it.”
There’s nothing else I can say, but it seems to be enough. Riva’s breaths start to even out.
She risks hugging me back, not too tight, and my pulse only stutters a little. But the softly sweet scent of her fills my nose, and the moment starts to feel dangerous.
Riva eases back before I have to and gives me a shaky smile. “Thank you. For everything.”
She’s obviously notokay, but I have the sense that I managed to settle down the storm in her a little bit.
I smile back. “Any time, Shrimp.”
As Riva guffaws, another chuckle tugs at my attention. I lift my head and realize the other guys have followed us over, watching from the edge of the garden.
Andreas’s smile is wider now, and Jacob looks almost pleased—as close as he ever gets, these days. We amble over to join them, my spirits lifting with a strange rush of relief.
I guess I’m more than just a raging brute, aren’t I? I’ve got compassion too—enough that I got through to Riva even in her own rage.
Is it possible I haven’t needed to be so scared of myself after all?
Griffin tilts his head toward the villa with a thoughtful expression. “She wanted to, you know. Just for a moment.”
It takes me a second to figure out what he’s talking about. He indicated the direction Toni stalked off in.
From what he picked up of her feelings, some part of her liked the idea of joining our smash-fest?
I look down at my wrists, wondering how much it’s safe to say in answer. And a fresh chill prickles through my veins, sharper than the breeze.
Riva wants to kill Balthazar. But the manacles he’s locked us up with will work even if he’s gone.
We won’t be able to leave the villa. Unless we can figure out how to access and alter his security system, we’ll still be just as trapped.
Which means we’re going to need someone else here on our side. Someone who can get them off.
