Page 72 of Collin: Episodes 13-15
“And that’s my cue to leave.” Ellisandre jumped up and stretched. “Damian demanded you three all to himself tonight.”
Mr. Reevesworth’s lips twitched, and he cast an amused look at his Pup. “Thank you, Ellisandre. You’ve been exemplary, and we all owe you for the past few days.”
Ellisandre smirked and put one hand on their hip, waving dismissively. “What else could I do, Richard? My lady would not have had us do anything less. Besides, this was more useful than murder. None of you left me anyone viable to shoot.”
Richard shook his head, smirking back. “I’m afraid I can’t apologize for that.”
“Well, in that case, I’m going to go home and console myself with trashy TV and excellent champagne. You all can’t celebrate coming home, but I can. Maybe I can even get my lady to stand down and join me. Maribel,” she called.
The German Shepherd wagged her tail and left Émeric, who had been giving her head scratches.
Damian saw Ellisandre and Maribel out.
A moment later, he was back. He moved to the floor beside Mr. Reevesworth and dropped to his knees, pressing his forehead to Mr. Reevesworth’s hip.
“You’re home, sir. You’re all home.”
“I’m sorry this put so much on you, Pup.” Mr. Reevesworth reached out slowly and rested his hand on the back of Damian’s head.
Damian turned to look at him, not dislodging his dom’s hand. “It was my honor, sir. But I hope we never have to go through this again. I wasn’t even here.”
“You were in California. Exactly where I asked you to be. Doing more than I thought you’d be asked to do.”
“What happened in California?” Collin asked.
Damian groaned and sat up, moving so that he could see all of them but was still touching his dom. “Ash called me Wednesday morning. He patched me through, somehow, to Alice. Even though Collin had just been kidnapped, he didn’t say a thing, just told me that Alice needed me, that she had Dana, had shot Barker, and she had to get out of California to get away from her grandfather’s friends.”
“You must have thought he’d gone mad,” Émeric said.
Damian nodded. “I made him repeat himself twice, and he finally just put me through to Alice. She told me she was hiring me to be her lawyer and going to confess a crime but I couldn’t tell anyone because she was sending me money via text.”
Richard barked out a laugh, then groaned, pressing a hand to the wound on his chest. “That sounds… direct.”
“It was. And she did send me money, all of two dollars. Then she asked if she needed to e-sign an agreement or if we were covered so she could talk. I told her we were covered. She told me the address where Barker was shot, that Ash had the video, and that she was driving east, well, north, and then east. She wanted to know what she needed to do to get Dana somewhere safe since her mom was dead. I told her I’d have to make some calls and to keep driving and not break the speed limit. She said she was going to change her appearance and to expect to hear from her in two hours or to assume something had gone wrong. Then she hung up.”
“And you called me,” Richard said softly.
“Yeah.” Damian wiped at his face. “And that’s when I found out you two were kidnapped.”
Émeric grimaced.
Damian pointed at Émeric and Collin, eyes red with pent up emotion. “Don’t you two ever, ever, do that to me again. I was all the way on the other side of the country, and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do to help.”
“You helped Alice.” Collin whispered.
Damian swallowed. “Maybe, a little.”
“You helped me,” Richard said softly. He pressed his hand against Damian’s. “When I called you and said that I was going to walk into the hostage exchange and I didn’t know if I’d come out, you told me to do what needed to be done. You told me that you’d finish what I’d started. You gave me permission.”
Damian’s eyes were distressed red at this point. He brushed tears away, but more came. “What else was I going to tell you, sir? Of course, you had to go. You wouldn’t be who you are if you hadn’t gone, bulletproof vest, grenade, and all. You had to bring Émeric and Collin home.”
Mr. Reevesworth squeezed Damian’s hand, then looked across to Émeric.
Émeric nodded slowly, and Richard’s eyes moved Collin.
Collin swallowed and also nodded. Damian spoke the truth.
“What happened then?” Collin prompted.
