Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 92771 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 464(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92771 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 464(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Quint felt as though his heart broke free of whatever chains had shackled it. He kissed her gently, lingering in its tenderness, then brushed her lips with his before kissing her again. It wasn’t meant to stir passion. It was a kiss of unwavering love. He felt her contentment when she rested against him, his own serenity mirroring it and he kept his arm tucked around her, holding her close.
“You have my heart, Shade. You are all I need, all I want. I never thought to—” He shook his head. “The emptiness, loneliness after losing Amara—” He shook his head again. “I would rather suffer a battle wound that eventually healed and pained me no more, than suffer the never-ending pain of losing someone you love.”
“I understand,” she said, running her finger faintly over his lips as though letting him know he need not say more.
She truly did understand his struggle to confess his love for her. He felt he failed his wife for not being there to protect her when she was attacked and now, he would feel it as a betrayal if he confessed his love for another woman. He had more healing to do before he understood that the reason he was able to love again was not a betrayal of his love for Amara but rather the strength of their love that allowed him to open his heart and love again.
He took hold of her finger and kissed it lightly. “I knew you well before I ever laid eyes on you, though I did not ever expect to tell you that, but I owe that to you now.”
She looked up at him puzzled, then smiled. “Brother Emmett.”
“Aye, he spoke endlessly about you, eager to share not only the knowledge you were helping him to acquire but telling me what a good and truthful woman you were. I thought that he possibly imagined you since what woman could be so wise and understanding.” He chuckled and Shade poked him playfully in his side. “But when he began to apply some of what you taught him about healing, I realized you very much existed, and it made me want to meet you. I was going to speak with Brother Emmett about it, but he died before I was able to.”
Shade looked at him questioningly. “I wonder what that fellow meant when he said, ‘failed mission.’”
“I wondered myself though I haven’t had time to give it thought.”
“His dying words could help prove you innocent of the murders.”
“With only you and me hearing him?” Quint shook his head. “No one would believe us.”
“I wonder what the failure could be,” Shade said. “Maybe they found no coins they thought were there.” She didn’t care for the thought that followed but voiced it anyway. “Or could it be that their actual mission was to kill you?”
Quint’s blue eyes darkened in anger. “I never gave it thought that it was me the culprits were after.” He shook his head. “Could they have been so furious at not finding me there that they slaughtered the monks, a message of what awaited me?”
“So, those you hunt also hunt you,” Shade said, realizing how dangerous it was for her husband and her heart hurting at the thought of what it could mean… losing him.
“It would seem so and that tells me something,” he said, seeing worry in her eyes and feeling her contentment fade.
She forced a smile. “Something helpful, I hope.”
Quint explained. “The men I hunted and killed so far were nothing more than men without purpose or reason. Men who prayed on the helpless and weak. They had no interest in hunting me down and killing me. To them, they did a job, and it is done. Now that someone purposely hunts me, it tells me that I am getting closer to finding the man who hired those men and who is truly responsible for the monks’ deaths. I am now a threat to him, and he must stop me.” He hoisted Shade onto his lap. “I fear I put you in danger by wedding you when I believed it would protect you.”
“You don’t know that.”
“With the possibility that I was the target and not the monks, or the fabled coins, it makes me wonder if Amara’s death had something to do with me. You spoke of tentacles when it came to revenge, reaching out and touching people. What if I was the reason Amara died?”
“Why do you assume you are at fault? What if it had nothing to do with you and everything to do with your wife? How well did you know her before you wed her?”
Quint had fought the memories that attempted to surface for so long now, it was difficult to recall them. He had battled them until he had buried them so deep it was almost as if none of it had ever happened to him. He preferred it that way. He didn’t want to recall any of it, relive it over again, feel as if his heart had been torn out of his chest and shattered into pieces and the hole replaced by a vast emptiness that consumed him whole until he met Shade, and she began to fill it.