“So explain to me again why we weren’t watchin’ this Sullivan woman?” Ben smoothed back his hair and then winced. He pulled his bandaged hand away and then stared at it as if it was the first time he’d ever seen it. I didn’t give it long before he did away with the bandages altogether in a fit of frustration.
Apparently, he had only just gotten out of the shower when Mandalay contacted him about Porter’s call. Even though she assured him that she had things covered on our end, he insisted on returning immediately. No amount of explanation from her was going to convince him otherwise. Judging from his rumpled appearance, he had probably still been getting dressed on the drive over.
We were assembled in the living room of the small apartment. Ben occupied one end of the sofa and Mandalay the other. Felicity was parked in the chair, cradling a cup of tea between her dainty hands; but me, I couldn’t begin to think about sitting. I had too much of an infusion of nervous energy. I was standing at the sliding doors, holding the heavy drapes partially open, and looking out across the snow-covered balcony to the parking lot several floors below.
“She was only a dedicant,” I replied without turning.
It had been just slightly over an hour since Porter had called, and my anger was still fresh. My jaw had now added itself to my list of aches due to the fact that I was unconsciously grinding my teeth. I kept catching myself in the act, but I didn’t seem to be able to stop. I was still fighting a case of the jitters that was born of the creepy tune looping in the back of my head; so, I wasn’t sure if the teeth gnashing was an effect of the anger alone or a combination of rage and anxiety. Whatever the cause, it was beginning to get very old.
“And that means she’s like what? A non-person?” He splayed his hands out in a gesture of helplessness.
I shook my head sharply and allowed the drapes to fall closed as I turned. I was frustrated that I had to explain something that I perceived as trivial common knowledge especially in light of my current emotional state. I took a deep breath and huffed it back out, trying to keep in mind that Felicity and I were the only ones in the room familiar with Coven dynamics and order. “I really didn’t mean for it to sound like that,” I told him. “Basically, a dedicant is someone who has made a conscious choice to study a particular religion, or most often, religious path. What we often refer to as a tradition. They take an oath to study and learn the tradition.”
“So it’s like making a pledge or a promise. Somethin’ like that?”
“Aye, exactly,” Felicity chimed in.
“So this isn’t something unusual then?” he asked.
“Not within the confines of a Coven, no,” she answered again. “Not at all.”
“So what you’re really sayin’ is that she wanted to join your study group?” He simplified my answer as he looked back and forth between us.
“Something like that, I suppose, yes.” I nodded. “At any rate, she had approached Cally about joining our Coven some time back. We met with her on a couple of occasions, and we discussed the possibility of her dedicating. What you have to remember is that taking someone into a Coven is not something you do lightly, so we took some time to mull it over. We were actually planning to bring her in at Yule, but she was out of town.”
“So she wasn’t actually a member of your group yet?”
“No. Not officially.” I shook my head. “She would have been brought in at the next Full Moon meeting.”
“Well, Porter obviously chose her because of her relationship to you,” Mandalay offered. “He didn’t just get lucky. How would he have found out about her if she wasn’t actually a member?”
“I don’t know.” I shook my head and shrugged. “My best guess would be Randy, but I can’t be sure. It could be that Porter asked him for names when he tortured him. We pretty much know that’s how he started compiling his list of victims originally. Or it could be that Randy had her name and some notes in a day planner or a PDA.”
“Notes?” Ben asked.
“Established Covens take bringing someone new into the fold very seriously,” Felicity offered as explanation.
Ben sighed heavily then brought his other hand up to massage his neck, only to repeat the wince and stunned stare.
“Dammit,” he muttered as he shook his wounded mitt and then lowered it back into his lap.
I began to slowly pace. “I blame myself for this,” I announced. “I should have considered it as a possibility.”
“Aye, I think not,” Felicity asserted. “I’m their High Priestess. I am as much at fault as anyone, if not more.”
She had regained her composure quickly. Still, I knew by looking at her that it was a defense mechanism. What she had done was nothing more than a temporary patch job on her exterior demeanor. Inside, there was still a swirling ball of gut twisting terror, but she had no intention of letting any more of it show; not in front of Ben and Constance at least.
“Neither one of you is at fault for anything,” Mandalay returned. “There was no way you could imagine that Porter would go this route.”
“Believe me, Constance.” I gave her a quick nod. “I can imagine a lot out of this whack job. I’ve got scars to prove it.”
“Mandalay’s right,” Ben interjected. “Beating yourselves up about all this isn’t doin’ either one of ya’ any good. Not to mention that it ain’t gonna get us anywhere.”
“Well, what IS being done?” I asked.
“Right now, there’s a CSU team on their way to Sullivan’s apartment. Her car is listed on the hot sheet, and every copper on the street is lookin’ for it.”
“We don’t know that he has her car,” I objected.
“We don’t know that he doesn’t,” Ben returned. “Look, Row, let us do the cop stuff, it’s what we do. Like I’ve told ya’ before, we actually solved a few crimes by ourselves before you came along.”
I closed my eyes and put my palms up to my temples, squeezing my head between my hands and roughly massaging at the same time-as if I could will the pain away. “I’m sorry,” I muttered. “I don’t mean to be arguing with you about this. I’m just kind of at the center of it, and I’d give just about anything to be somewhere else.”
“That’s understandable,” Mandalay said. “You’ve been through a lot today.”
I shook my head. My eyes were still closed, and my fingers were now working at my scalp. “Today is just the beginning,” I said aloud. “There’s an end coming. I don’t know when or where, but I’m not sure I want to.”
The moment the words exited my mouth, I felt a wave of dread hit me. If that wasn’t enough, I could physically feel my wife’s startled gaze instantly burning a hole in my back as I stood there.
“What’s that s’posed to mean?” Ben asked.
“I don’t know,” I answered. “Forget it. I’m just rambling.”
“You sure?” he pressed. “That ain’t some kinda hocus-pocus la-la land thing you’re spoutin’ is it?”
Mandalay offered her observation. “Yeah, Rowan, that sounded a little on the morbidly prophetic side, especially coming from you.”
“Really. Forget it.” I waved a hand at them. “My head is killing me, and I’m just running off at the mouth.”
The truth was that I didn’t actually know what the comment was supposed to mean. I didn’t even know for sure why I had said it. I only knew that there actually was more to it than just idle rambling and that it sounded just as bad to me as it did to them.
“You need to take somethin’, Kemosabe?” Ben asked.
“Wouldn’t do any good,” I sighed. “So anyway, go on. You were telling me what the plan is…”
“CSU, car…” He ticked off what he’d already said. “Keepin’ an eye on public places since he seems to have a penchant for exhibiting his kills.”
“By then it would be too late,” I contended in a flat tone.
“Believe me, Row, we know that,” he returned. “But it’s somethin’ that has to be done.”
“We’re also watching for the possibility that he might use one of the two cell phones again,” Mandalay added to the list. “If he does, we’ll be on top of it, and maybe this time we can get a grid location.”
“What about me?” I queried.
Ben feigned ignorance. “Whaddaya mean? What about you?”
“Don’t play dumb, Ben.” My voice once again took on a note of annoyance. “You know damn well what I mean. Porter killed Randy, and now he has Star, and he’s going to kill her. You’ve already said that he’s choosing his victims to get to me.”
“Yeah, I know where you’re headed but don’t go there.” His tone was adamant.
“What do you mean, ‘don’t go there?’” I couldn’t help but raise my voice a step. “There’s no place for me to go, Ben. He’s bringing it to my doorstep!”
He addressed me with deadpan seriousness in his voice and a hard expression forming across his features. “Listen, Rowan, I’ll be honest with you, Albright already said something about this.”
“Screw Albright,” I spat. “If she wants to ban me from something else, tell her to go ahead.”
“No, you don’t get it,” he snarled. “She’s all about using you for bait.”
“Will wonders never cease,” I said, injecting the words with as much sarcasm as I could muster. “She and I finally agree on something.”
“Rowan! No!” Felicity yelped.
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught the startled expression on her face, and as I turned to look at her, she slowly stood.
“I can’t let him kill Star,” I told her as if the conclusion was obvious.
“Aye, I won’t allow it,” she proclaimed.
Ben glanced her way then back at me as he spoke. “Well don’t worry, Felicity, cause it ain’t gonna happen.”
“Why?” I demanded.
“Because it’s not how we do things, Rowan. This isn’t a cop show. We don’t use civilians as bait for crazed serial killers.”
“Yeah, well maybe it’s time to change your rules.”
“I can’t listen to this,” Felicity blurted with a mixture of both fear and anger in her voice.
I looked over at her, and she was trembling. She stared at me with her eyes glistening, and I knew there were tears behind them begging to be released. I took a step toward her, and as I reached out to touch her, she backed away and sidestepped. I stopped, immediately feeling the torment that now afflicted her. She put her hand to her mouth and then shook her head again. With that, she turned and disappeared down the short hallway and into the bedroom.
The door made a dull sound as it slammed.
“Jeezus, white man.” Ben shook his head.
“You should probably go talk to her,” Mandalay offered softly.
I was torn between running after her and pleading my case. Choosing between the woman I loved more than my own existence and the life of someone I barely knew was the last thing I needed at the moment. I mutely pled for guidance from The Ancients and met only with silence.
I started toward the bedroom door and hesitated. I felt damned no matter which direction I went. I took another step then turned and stared at Ben.
“Listen, apparently the whole idea isn’t out of the question or Albright wouldn’t have brought it up,” I finally countered.
“Why the hell do you think she was all over your ass back at the morgue, Rowan?” He stood there looking at me with his eyes wide and questioning.
“Because she doesn’t like me?” I answered.
“Exactly. And because she doesn’t like you, she was trying to get you worked up so you’d do somethin’ stupid, Row.”
“I thought we’d already established that.”
“I mean as in stupid like going after Porter. She wants to let you throw yourself out there as bait, and if you get killed in the process, oh fuckin’ well, too bad so sad.”
The revelation struck home, knocked me down, then kicked me a few times just for good measure. I stood there mute, wondering how I could have been so totally oblivious to her intentions.
“Am I that stupid?” I finally asked, an uneasy calm in my voice. “Have you known this all along?”
“No.” He shook his head. “Don’t feel like the Lone Ranger, I didn’t catch it either. I just found out on the way over here.”
“How?”
“A call from one of the coppers on the case,” he answered. “He overheard a phone conversation she had, and he thought I should know.”
“Recklessly endangering a civilian on purpose?” Mandalay sounded incredulous when she asked the question. “Have you gone to IAD about this?”
“That’ll be my next move.” Ben nodded. “But I want to make sure I can count on my source and get something a little more concrete before I make an accusation like that. Right now it’s just hearsay, plus there’s someone else involved, and I don’t know who.”
“Let’s give her what she wants,” I muttered.
“HELL No!” Ben stood and thrust his hand at me as he made the exclamation. “You just forget that shit right now! Hear me?”
“Look, Ben.” I focused on him with as much intensity as I could muster. “This sonofabitch is playing this out like some kind of contrived, low-budget movie. He’s going to torture and probably kill an innocent woman just to get me out in the open. I can’t let him do that.”
“We don’t plan to,” he shot back.
“You can’t stop him.” I shook my head. “He is going to keep killing until he gets to me.”
“You don’t know that we won’t get him, Row,” Ben said.
“Oh yes I do,” I nodded and spoke with absolute certainty.
“You wanna tell me how?”
I just stared at him. The silence in the room grew thick and charged with a frightening energy that made my skin prickle.
“Dammit, Rowan, stop this crap. Just get in there and talk to your wife.”
“I can’t yet,” I said with a disconcerting calm.
“Why the hell not?”
“Because that’s him now.”
Ben shook his head and gazed back at me with confusion creasing his forehead. “Him now what?”
The startling ring of the telephone answered the question for me.
Ben followed me all the way into the kitchenette, spouting instructions as he made himself my shadow. “If it is him, then don’t explode on ‘im, Row. You’ve gotta keep the bastard talkin’ until we pin him down.”
“I know, Ben,” I returned.
“I’m serious, white man,” he said as he continued to reinforce the mandate. “After this afternoon, I can easily see you losin’ it here. You gotta keep your temper under control.”
I rounded the corner of the doorway and turned, placing my hand on the telephone as I stared wordlessly back at my friend. On the fourth ring, I lifted the receiver and placed it against my ear, then spat, “What the hell do you want this time, Eldon?”
Ben moved his head through a frustrated gyration as he grimaced, closing his eyes and then opening them again as he came back to face me. He settled his stare on me with a thin-lipped frown cutting a deep gash beneath his angular nose.
I continued to watch him as he held the obvious question in his eyes.
“So you ARE going to answer the phone, Gant.” Porter’s voice poured out of the speaker, blended throughout with self-righteous arrogance. “I was beginning to wonder if you had run back to Hell where you belong.”
I gave my friend a quick nod in the affirmative to his visual query.
“Without you?” I asked into the handset, my tone a fountain of dark sarcasm. “Never crossed my mind. I want to make sure you don’t miss it.”
He actually chuckled, something I hadn’t expected. The very sound of his voice was already sickening to me, but the theatrical measure of forced laughter made me want to turn and vomit in the sink.
“Well, Gant,” he replied. “When I am finally called by the Lord, unlike you, I will have the pleasure of living in his divine presence.”
“Yeah, well, we will have to see about that,” I snarled. “So while I’ve got you on the phone, why don’t you answer something for me.”
“She’s still alive,” he returned. “For now.”
“Slow down, Eldon. That wasn’t even the question.”
“Really?” He seemed almost surprised. “Okay. I’ll play along. What did you want?”
I watched Ben carefully as I spoke. “You see, what I want to know is this: If I’m such a big, bad minion of Satan like you say I am, then what exactly makes you think that I am going to give a damn about some insignificant woman’s life?”
My friend’s eyes widened, and he glared at me as he made a grab for the phone. I had anticipated the reaction and easily ducked his hand as I stepped backwards.
“You see, I should expect you to say something like that. It’s exactly what Satan would say. But, it’s not her life that I think you are worried about,” he replied with undaunted surety in his words.
“Sounded that way to me,” I prodded. “Maybe you should explain it to me so I understand.”
The fact that I still had Porter on the line appeased Ben for the moment, and he started to calm even though he still kept a suspicious eye cast in my direction.
Porter chuckled again. “Be serious, Gant. We both know that it’s her soul you want.”
“You think that’s what it is?” I asked.
“Of course. Tempting the weak is what you do-corrupting their souls and recruiting them into Satan’s army. This is what keeps you in his good graces. If you can’t succeed then you will fall from favor with Satan.”
“What? You actually think that I am recruiting a satanic army?” I returned. “You’re crazier than I thought you were, Eldon.”
“So you are admitting your allegiance to Satan, then.”
“No. I don’t even believe Satan exists, Eldon. Not that you are going to believe me, no matter what I say.”
The speaker on the telephone issued a forlorn plink then shifted into the hollow thrum of a disconnected line. I stepped forward and dropped it carefully into the wall cradle.
“He says that Millicent Sullivan is still alive,” I said as I leveled my gaze on my stoic friend.
“He hang up?” Ben asked.
“Yeah,” I returned.
“Row, I asked you not to go ape-shit on the SOB,” he began to admonish.
“He didn’t hang up because of anything I said, Ben,” I told him. “And he’s going to call back any minute.”
“That’s not exactly what I mean,” he said. “Hold on a sec.” He frowned hard then turned away from me and called back into the living room. “You get anything, Mandalay?”
“He was using the Sullivan woman’s phone,” her voice echoed back to us. “They’re tracking the… What?… Hold on for a second Storm… Okay, go ahead…”
She shifted attention back to the conversation on her cell phone once again.
Ben twisted his head back to me, “Listen, Row, you’ve got to calm down. If you antagonize the sonofabitch, he just might kill the woman.”
I shook my head. “No. Not yet.”
“How can you be sure of that?” He cocked his head to the side as he looked back at me. “This ‘effin wingnut is just about as off kilter as you can get. You don’t know what he’s gonna do.”
“I won’t dispute the first part,” I told him. “But the fact that she’s still alive tells me that she is his bargaining chip. He’s got my attention, so now he’s going to use her to get me out in the open.”
“How do you know she really is still alive?” he pressed.
“Because he would have gloated about it if she wasn’t.”
“I dunno about this, white man. You’d better hope you’re right.”
“We’ve got him crossing between two cells,” Mandalay’s voice came from almost immediately behind Ben.
My friend stepped to the side and turned to look at her. “Where?”
“Near Interstate Two-Seventy and Highway Forty,” she answered.
“Troop C headquarters is just west of there off of Forty.” Ben referred to the highway patrol.
She nodded briskly. “The field office has already notified MHP and County. I was just getting ready to call in to the Major Case Squad and let them know what’s going on.”
“Good deal.” Ben reached up to his neck but caught himself. Judging by the look on his face, he apparently managed to do so just before flexing his hand enough to bring on any real pain. He dropped his hand back down and continued. “Maybe we can put an end to this whole thing right here and now.”
“It’s not going to be that easy,” I told him as I shook my head.
He held up his hand to stop me and then huffed out a breath as he stared at my face. He was looking for something in my expression but wasn’t finding it. “Look, Row,” he said. “Do you think that maybe you just might be wrong this time?”
“You have no idea how much I’d like to be,” I retorted. “It’s not like…”
My sentence was truncated by the telephone pealing for attention once again. I snatched up the handset and brought it to my ear.
“What took you so long, Eldon?” I chided. “I was beginning to think you’d lost my number.”
“I am her absolution, Gant,” he said in a measured cadence, but this time his voice held more distraction than arrogance. “And you will be witness when she is released from her darkness and given unto the glory of God Almighty.”
“Let me talk to her,” I demanded.
He continued, ignoring my assertion. “You will know when it is time. Vengeance is mine.”
Flat resonance issued from the speaker for yet another time as the connection was unceremoniously ended.
I took in a deep breath and let it go in a heavy rush as my shoulders dropped. I rested the handset back onto the hook and looked up at Ben and Constance.
“Well?” Ben appealed.
“He wants me to see him kill her,” I answered.
“Jeezus…” my friend muttered. “He give you a place or somethin’?”
I shook my head. “No. He sounded a little preoccupied. I think he knows he was on the line too long the first time around.”
“He’s probably going to try getting off the main roads then,” Mandalay offered as she began stabbing at the buttons on her cell phone.
I could feel the icy breath of the Dark Mother on the back of my neck, and I shivered inwardly. She was waiting in the wings for someone, and I had a bad feeling that the someone just might be me. There was simply no way that this was going to play out well.
Ben stared at me and furrowed his brow. “I know that look, Kemosabe. Whaddaya got chewin’ on ya’ now?”
“Nothing,” I replied in an absent tone.
“You’re lyin’, Row.”
“Am I under oath all of a sudden?”
“Awww, man, Row…” he started.
I moved past him with deliberate purpose. “I need to go talk to Felicity.”
“Hey.” I offered the word softly as I pressed my back against the door and felt it click shut.
It was quiet in the room. My wife was sitting on the edge of the bed, hunched over, with her arms encircling a pillow. Her back was to me, and I could hear her sniffling. Either she was still crying, or she had only recently stopped.
The only light in the room came from a reading lamp on the book table to one side of the bed. It cast a soft luminescence across the dark blue comforter, then dissipated, leaving Felicity in the muddy shadows just beyond its reach.
I waited for a long stretch and received no response.
“Do I need a white flag?” I finally asked.
I watched as she slowly moved, releasing her grip on the pillow and setting it aside. Her dainty hands slipped upward and pushed her mane of spiraling auburn back from her face. She continued to the back of her head, where she gathered it with a twist and pulled it into a fiery fall over her left shoulder then began to fiddle with it absently. The pale skin of her now exposed neck seemed to glow in the semi-darkness.
“Aye, it was him again, wasn’t it?” she asked, her voice almost a hoarse whisper. “On the phone?”
“Yes,” I answered, keeping my own voice low for fear of shattering the tenuous calm in the room. “It was him.”
“Is Star dead?” she asked, the words catching in her throat.
I noticed after a moment that I was shaking my head even though she couldn’t see me; I verbalized the answer. “No. She’s still alive.”
Silence filled the space between us and thickened as each second passed. The energy in the room was a chaotic mix of anger, sadness, fear, and resolve. It assaulted me on every level, igniting my nerve endings with cold fire. The physical atmosphere was warm-too warm-but I still fought off an overwhelming need to shudder as I pushed away from the door and stepped farther into the room.
“We need to talk about all of this, honey,” I said.
She still hadn’t turned to face me, but I could see her head bob in the shadows as she spoke. “Aye, we do.”
I pressed on. “Star is still alive, for now, but he does intend to kill her.”
“This shouldn’t be happening,” she muttered
“I know,” I said. “Believe me, I wish it wasn’t.”
“What did he say to you?”
“No, honey,” I objected. “There’s no need for you to…”
“Dammit, Rowan,” she half demanded, half pleaded. “Don’t leave me out. The bastard called me this afternoon.”
“Ben told me,” I acknowledged. “I was going to talk to you about that later.”
“He’s sick, Rowan.”
“I know that.”
Another lull slipped through the room. I heard her take in a cleansing breath and watched the shadows as her shoulders moved upward then slowly fell when she exhaled. She pulled her hair upward and began working it into a loose pile on her crown.
“So what did he say to you?”
“Honey…”
Insistence permeated her voice. “What did he say, Rowan?”
I lowered my head in resignation. “He said that he was her absolution.”
“What else?”
I sighed and moved another step toward the bed. “He said that I would be a witness to her release.” I left out the “vengeance is mine” comment.
“So you are going to go save her, then” came her flat reply.
“I don’t think I could live with myself if I didn’t try.”
“You could let the police handle it now.” There was a narrow thread of hope woven through her voice.
“I will. If they can…” I let my words trail off.
She turned slightly, twisting her body and glancing over her shoulder. As she repositioned herself, she moved partially into the light. My eyes were finally adjusting, and I could see that her cheeks were flushed. Her smooth skin glistened with the dampness of her tears, and she reached up to wipe her eyes.
“Aye, you think they can’t?”
“It doesn’t feel very good,” I offered.
“Aye, so you will sacrifice yourself for her, won’t you?”
“It’s not my intention.”
“But you will if you have to.” She offered the comment as a statement of fact and then paused before finally asking, “Won’t you?”
I didn’t answer her.
“Aye, what about me?”
“You’ll be safe,” I said softly. “Mandalay will be here with you.”
“That’s not what I mean, then, Rowan!” She turned farther into the light and glared at me sharply. “What of me? Why are you so willing to leave me alone? Don’t you love me anymore?”
“Felicity!” I was stunned. “How can you even think that? Of course I love you. More than anything, you know that.”
“Why do you want to leave me then?”
I moved forward and took a seat next to her on the bed. She leaned into me as I slipped my arm around her and pulled her close.
“Honey.” I tried to soothe her. “I don’t want to leave you.”
“Aye, but you will,” she said. “If you die…”
I didn’t want to lie to her, but I didn’t want to acknowledge the possibility either. I had nowhere to redirect the conversation, and I was beginning to share her pain.
“I have to do whatever I can to keep you safe,” I finally said. “That is what this is about. I love you. I will always love you. No matter what.”
She moved her head against me as she slowly shook it. “Aye, I am not ready to be without you.”
“I’m not ready to leave,” I told her.
“But you will…”
“If that is what it takes to keep you safe,” I said. “Then, yes, I will.”
“Do you really think that he would try to come here?”
“If he can’t get me out in the open, yes I do. And I can’t allow that to happen.”
A siren sounded outside, muted by the walls, but audible all the same. I gave her a reassuring squeeze before standing up and moving to the window. I cautiously pulled back the heavy drapes and peered out through the hole then down across the parking lot. I watched the emergency lights of a squad car flickering in chaotic strobes as the vehicle accelerated down the street. The lights disappeared, and the wailing siren slowly faded in the distance. I allowed the insulated fabric to fall shut, and I turned back to face Felicity.
“You don’t have to do this, then,” she insisted, her Irish brogue thick from her ongoing distress.
“Yes I do,” I answered, feeling a strange calm at the decision.
Her nervous fidgeting had been completed, and her spiraling curls now sat atop her head in a loose Gibson-girl. Her green eyes flashed wetly in the dim light as concern deepened the lines in her face. She’d run the gamut-anger, guilt, all of it. The tone in her voice brought everything back around to demands once again.
“What did Ben say,” she contended as if the answer would somehow make a difference.
“The same thing you just said,” I replied.
I took a deep breath as I ran my hand across the lower half of my face, brushing my bearded chin. I winced as my fingers grazed a still-healing wound on my upper lip-a leftover from my stunt with Ben’s van.
Felicity took on a pleading tone as she gazed at me, “Then why are you doing it?”
“Because we can’t keep living like this,” I answered. “Because I want us to have our lives back.”
“How can we have our lives back if you get yourself killed?”
I wasn’t sure if the next words out of my mouth were the truth or a lie. I spoke them anyway. “I’m not going to get myself killed.”
Tears were once again rolling across my wife’s cheeks, and her voice cracked as she trembled. “Damn your eyes, Rowan Linden Gant, you’d better not, then. Aye, you’d better not.”