Page 84 of Scythe & Sparrow
“Lachlan and Lark?”
“They just finished up at the police station. They’ll be on their way here soon. Leander’s people managed to sweep through Abe’s apartment to remove anything we wouldn’t want the cops to know. So thank you, Fionn. I know you gave Leander a head start at cleaning up this whole mess,” she says. I nod, blowing out a long breath. “Your brothers … do they know you’re leaving?”
“No.”
“Where are you going?”
I shake my head. “I can’t tell you. I’m sorry.”
“Why not?”
“Sloane, I can’t,” I say, brooking no argument. I pin her with eyes I know are bloodshot and framed with dark circles. “Please don’t ask. I won’t tell you.”
Her expression gives nothing away as she nods once. I’m not sure what she’s looking for when she searches my face. Maybe a hint of an answer. Maybe the secrets that live beneath my skin. I know she’s good at carving them from souls, just like I’m good at keeping them.
With a quiet sigh, she shifts her gaze to Rose, lifting a delicate hand to sweep the fringe from her brow. Rose doesn’t stir. “Is she okay?”
“I think so.” I place a kiss on Rose’s knuckles, her hand warmed between both of mine. “Infection is a risk. It’s going to take a while for her to recover. But there doesn’t seem to be any brain ischemia, thank God. She just needs time.”
Sloane nods in my periphery. “I’m sorry you won’t be here for it, Fionn,” she whispers, and the burn in the back of my throat nearly chokes me.
“Me too,” I manage.
“You got her past the hardest part.”
“Did I?” We lock eyes across the gentle rise and fall of Rose’s chest. Sloane is so stoic, or at least she is when Rowan or Lark aren’t around. But I see the wisp of sadness in her eyes that she can’t hide beneath her lethal mask.
“I don’t know,” she says, and we break the moment between us to look at Rose. “Maybe. Maybe not.”
God, I fucking hope so. I just want her to be happy. To be safe. To thrive. To know she’s so fucking loved, even from a distance.
“You saved Bentley,” Sloane says, snapping me out of my thoughts of what the days and weeks and months ahead will be like. When I meet her eyes, she offers a faint smile. “Lark is so grateful.”
I nod. “He didn’t really appreciate it, the cheeky fucker.”
“Yeah. He’s a bit of a curmudgeon. Probably why he and my cat, Winston, seem to get along. Rose told me about Barbara. We could have made it a trio.”
I try to force a smile, but it doesn’t take. All I can think of isRose, with that fucking raccoon clutched in one hand, her grin diabolical. She laughed so freely when Barbara was gripped to my face under that towel.Christ, what I wouldn’t give to relive that moment right now so I could hear her again. There are so many moments that filter through my mind. Rose’s teasing smile at Sandra’s, the black yarn balled in her lap. Her guileless eyes as she sat on the edge of the bathtub with her injured leg on mine. The love that I could feel in her touch when she traced the lines of my face in the shadows of the haunted house. What if I never see or feel or hear those things again?
Sloane rises, breaking me away from questions that consume me. “We’ll make sure she’s okay. One of us will be here when she wakes up. I’ll give you some time to say goodbye. But I won’t go far.”
I trust Sloane to keep her word, not for my benefit, but for Rose’s. That only makes me trust her that much more. “Thank you. I appreciate it.”
She doesn’t react as I turn my attention back to Rose. But she lingers. I can feel her sharp eyes watching, but for what, I’m not sure. “If you’d told me where you’re going, I wouldn’t be giving you this,” Sloane says as she passes me a folded piece of paper. My brows draw tight as I take it with a tentative hand. I open it under her watchful gaze.
Sloane Kane, Data Science Department
Clinical Development Operations
Viamax
Radnicka cesta 81/18, 10000,
Zagreb, Croatia
“If you want to send her anything, send it to that address in my name. It’s the local office for my employer, Viamax. The internal post will make sure I get it. And I’ll ensure it gets to Rose with the appropriate level of secrecy. I promise.”
I swallow, my eyes darting between Sloane and the paper in my hands. “How did you know?”
