Eternally Hers

Part Thirty

Arabelle Warren

I stood up immediately, Lola tumbling out of my lap with an irritated hiss of complaint. Saoirse stood up too, looking at me, watching, waiting for my next move.

I looked in the direction of the hallway, where Tessa was being looked after by Willow, and then to Dot and Jamie, who both looked frozen where they sat.

"You two stay here," I commanded, "make sure everything goes smoothly with Tessa. Call me if anything changes. You and I," I looked at my mate, who was still watching me, "we have to go to Paul's place right now."

I didn't have time to change. Didn't have time to sort out everything that had happened today. Valentina had called me from Paul's phone. Something had happened to him. I couldn't be responsible for another death. Macy's was eating me alive. Tessa's injuries were eating me alive. I wouldn't add Paul to that list.

Paul was my friend. Someone I had become close with. Someone who shared the loss of Macy. Who hurt even more than I did over her death. Someone who understood.

Paul was good. He was so fucking good. He was kind and caring and genuine. He had a big dog named Bear. He wrote novels. He loved to garden. Paul was the epitome of a good man and I let Valentina get him just like she got Macy.

A picture of Paul flashed in my mind. Him on his front lawn, his throat slit, body bloodied, his limbs at odd angles. Paul in the same spot Macy had been weeks prior.

No, no, no. Not Paul.

"Okay," Saoirse replied, her tone collected as always. "Let's go to Paul's place. Come on."

I looked at Dot and Jamie again for confirmation. Jamie was still staring into space, terror and disgust clear as day on her face. Dot had shaken out of her own trance and nodded at me, her face, for the first time ever, a mask of seriousness. "Go do what you have to do," she told me, "we'll stay here."

That was all I needed.

I raced to the door, barely slipped on a random pair of shoes, and ran outside to the car that Saoirse had brazenly parked in the driveway. I could see the marks her tires had made on the road when she'd braked and swerved, but I didn't give a single damn about it.

Throwing open the passenger side door, I slid in, Saoirse in the driver's side. Our doors had barely closed before she was peeling out of the driveway, once again going much faster than the speed limit as we raced to Paul's house.

My heart was in my throat as I looked over at my mate. Her expression was concentrated and calm, but her knuckles were white from clutching the steering wheel. Any harder and it would snap under her palms.

Saoirse didn't understand Paul as much as I did. She wasn't as close to him as I was. But I knew she still cared. I knew she was still terrified of what waited for us at his house.

"What if it's a trap?" I breathed out, "what if she's waiting for us there? Tess said 'they'. It's more than just Valentina. What if it's an ambush?"

"If you knew it was an ambush, would you make me turn the car around?" Was all Saoirse's asked in response, her tone still collected, if not somewhat strained.

I shook my head. "Absolutely not."

My mate shrugged, rigid and forced. Her strawberry hair swayed where it lay on her shoulders. "Then we'll walk into the house and take as many of them out as we can."

I almost smirked at her but was too terrified to do so. Instead, I nodded once. "Good," I breathed, "yeah. That's good. We'll do that."

"I contemplated it," Saoirse admitted to me, eyes on the road. "That it was an ambush. But I knew you wouldn't have made any other choice."