Page 141 of A Breath of Life
“Don’t do that.”
“What?”
“I see you, Guns. I always see you. You’re worth more than you give yourself credit for, even when all we do is fight.”
I winced, but Tallus smiled. “The fact that we’re able to argue like a normal couple actually says a lot about your progress. Once upon a time, it was like pulling teeth to get words out of you. Now, you don’t shy away from telling me when I’m out of line.”
“You’re never out of line.”
“Guns, I am so fucking bratty sometimes, I disgust myself. We’ll be okay.” He stroked a hand over my cheek. “But we’d better get moving.”
Tallus tenderly kissed my lips before spinning and picking up the fallen hat. He brushed it off before fitting it on his head. I was once again facing a version of my boyfriend I barely recognized. It wasn’t so much the changed hair and freckles, but his eyes, the windows into his soul, were different somehow. The absence of his glasses always made me sad, but it was more than that. I couldn’t put my finger on it.
Before I could say anything, another crash from above reminded me of the ensuing chaos and the reason I had been left alone in the first place.
“What’s going on up there?”
Tallus puffed out his cheeks and propped his hands on his hips. “Well, where to begin? Long story short. Costa broke me out of the courthouse, and in our escape, we narrowly missed Converse Guy, who I think might have been Creepy Bathroom Guy, but I’m not sure. We did a vehicle swap and ended up at a restaurant, where he fed me noodles and forced the truth out of me before that freak called from your phone. From there, we contacted Memphis, kidnapped Joshua, and enlisted Kitty to play the good Samaritan cleaning lady who broke Echo out of the office. She’s fine, by the way. Kitty’s watching her.
“From there, Costa finagled a bit of a distraction so we could infiltrate the underground casino, but as you can hear, it’s gotten out of hand. Your friend, the Bishop, is having a little nap because he pointed a gun at my face, but when he wakes up and finds he’s weaponless, he’s going to come looking for you. Or me. Probably both of us.
“Backup is on the way, but until they get here, my cousin is basically holding off an army of pissed off nineteen-twenties gangsters by himself. He has twenty-first-century technology and a witch on his side, but we need to hurry and get the fuck out of here because the goal is to be gone before the police show up so Costa doesn’t get fired for breaking the rules.” He considered for a minute. “Yep. That’s it. That’s all I’ve got.”
“That’s… a lot to unpack. A gun in your face?”
“I knew you’d focus on that. We’ll chat later.”
I frowned. “Ruiz is here?”
“Yes. He and his alter ego, James Bond. Guns, I’m telling you, if he loses his job with the department because of this, we should consider hiring him. He would be a valuable asset. He and Kitty. Enough chitchat. Where’s the key for those?”
Tallus nodded at the cuffs as I tried to comprehend the sheer volume of word vomit that had spilled from his mouth. Was he talking fast, or was my alcohol-drenched brain processing slowly?
The chaos upstairs was Tallus’s doing? Who the fuck was Joshua? Why was that name familiar? Why was fucking Memphis involved? My brain was too scrambled for this.
“Diem.” Tallus snapped his fingers. “Keys, keys, keys. Focus, focus, focus.” He accompanied every word with a clap of his hands.
“I don’t have keys. Here. Use this.” I located the wire I’d discarded in a panic. “It should work, in theory, but I can’t get the right angle. You can do it, Tallus. I believe in you. I’ve always believed in you.”
He smirked and wiggled his brows. Pure sultry mischief hit me right in the balls. Bubbles of heat fizzed in my lower belly. Good fucking god, I loved this man. Even amid a gangster war, or whatever he’d called it, he didn’t flinch. I should have known all along he would work a miracle.
“You’re sweet, Guns.” From a pocket, he withdrew my lockpicking kit. “This should work better, though.”
I almost fell to my knees in relief. “You’re amazing.”
“Like a Boy Scout, I came prepared. My phony Costa-made keycard didn’t work on that door, but I didn’t expect it to. Joshua’s dad isn’t a spade and, therefore, doesn’t have access to the lower level, but a man can hope, right? Anyhoo, guess how I got in here?” He swung the handle of the kit on his finger as he bit into his lower lip and waited for a beat before continuing. “That’s right. I picked the lock. In under a minute, I’ll have you know. I’m getting better. Someday, you might even be proud of my skills.”
He radiated pride. I wanted him back in my arms. I wanted to tell him that I was already proud. That I didn’t care if he was spontaneous and reckless or if he couldn’t pick a lock in under a minute. I didn’t care if he squirmed and talked too much during stakeouts because he got bored. I didn’t care if he ate peanut butter from the jar or couldn’t cook for shit. I didn’t care if he pretended to be scared of Baby every time I cleaned her cage, simply because it was expected of him. He could sass me for the rest of our lives, and I would happily soak it up.
Tallus was perfect, and I didn’t want to change a thing. He didn’t have to impress me. I loved him exactly the way he was. The fact that he loved me back and risked his life to rescue me was already more than I would ever be able to comprehend.
He selected a pick from the case, but before he began, he stared into the middle distance and blew out an extended breath before rattlinghis head. I thought he was psyching himself up for the task when he said, “Oh boy. Yep, it’s kicking in. Not good. So. Much. Racing inside my brain.”
“Racing? What’s the matter?”
“Everything is getting super loud and shiny. Is that normal? Shit, shit, shit.” He squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head again like a dog shedding water. When he reopened them, he clucked his tongue. “Nope. Didn’t help. Fuck my life.”
I frowned and was about to ask what was going on when he looked up. I immediately noticed his eyes again, but that time, I saw what I’d missed a few minutes ago, the thing that had thrown me off. It wasn’t the colored contacts. It was the fact that the gray-blue was barely noticeable at all. Not like when he’d first come into the room.
