Total pages in book: 154
Estimated words: 145721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
Chapter Nine
“Maura’s five minutes out,” Nate said when he peeked his head back into the bedroom a few minutes later.
Kierse said goodbye to her friends and followed Nate down the stairs to a small infirmary. He pulled out supplies for Maura. She was a nurse at one of the lingering hospitals that took patients who couldn’t afford treatment. She’d patched Kierse up one too many times when she’d still been working for Nate. It was lucky to have someone on staff, considering how difficult and expensive healthcare was.
“So, you ready to tell me what actually happened?” Nate asked.
“I guess I left out a bit of the truth.” Kierse sank into the open seat with a sigh.
Nate guffawed. “A bit? You left out everything, I’d wager.”
“Look, I don’t mean to intrude on you.”
“Kierse, it’s not intruding when you’re in need.”
“I’m not charity, Nate,” she said.
“No one said you were charity. You have Druids after you,” Nate said, slamming down the bottle of antiseptic and turning to face her. “What I don’t understand is the last year. Where the hell have you been?”
Kierse frowned. “I don’t know . . .”
“No, don’t do that. We’re friends. We can talk about what happened with Torra. You didn’t have to leave.”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” she bit right back. She swallowed around the sound of Torra’s name. “We tried to save her. We failed. There’s nothing more to say.”
“There’s a hell of a lot more to say. You weren’t responsible for her kidnapping, Kierse,” he said with a frustrated growl. “It’s not your fault that she got caught up with the wrong people.”
“I should have been there,” Kierse said through gritted teeth.
“You weren’t even a couple when it went down,” Nate argued.
“Like that matters.”
“She was my friend, too, you know?” Nate said. “She was working for me as my bartender when you two met. She wasn’t pack, but she might as well have been. She was my people, and they took her anyway.”
“Don’t you think I know that?”
“Then you never should have disappeared.”
Kierse jumped to her feet. “You have no idea what I was going through. You have no right . . .”
“We all miss Torra.”
“Nate!”
He lost all of his anger as soon as hers was unleashed. He dropped his gaze. “You’re right. That was shitty.” He crossed an arm over his muscled torso. “I don’t blame you for what happened. I hope you don’t blame yourself, either. We did everything we could.” His hazel eyes were earnest when they met hers again. “A day, a week, a year, Kierse. I’m here. You being here proves that.”
Kierse deflated. “Thank you.”
“Now, tell me the truth this time. Start from the beginning and don’t leave out all the good bits.”
So, she started from the beginning. Nate had a shockingly blank look the entire time he listened to her story. It wasn’t until the end of the tale that he breathed out and said rather forcefully, “Fuck.”
Kierse chuckled. “Yeah. It’s been a fuck couple of hours.”
“And you’re sure he said Lorcan?”
“Certain. Do you know him?”
“Know him?” Nate said with a sardonic laugh. “Course I know him. He’s the head of the Druids and one terrifying bastard.”
“Human?”
“As far as I know. When the mob fell on Manhattan and we consolidated the wolves into Five Points during the war, we reached out to him and offered an alliance. He had enough clout at the time to join up. He laughed in my face and said wolves were beneath him.”
“Graves said much the same about vampires,” she admitted.
He pursed his lips and crossed his beefy arms. “Well, the thing I can’t figure is what his angle is. Lorcan is not someone I want to fuck with, but I’ve never heard of him chasing down innocents to kill them in the streets.”
“Well, apparently Graves is his enemy.”
“And now yours,” Nate added.
“Great,” she grumbled.
“If someone had asked, I would have put Lorcan firmly on the good side of the fight,” he said with a shrug. “His territory has always been safer for humans than the Manhattan streets. I don’t know what he does in Brooklyn, but he keeps people alive.”
“Yeah, well, he tried to kill us. So I don’t know if he’s good or bad. Just that he’s against us.”
Nate nodded but was held from saying anything by a tall Desi girl striding into the infirmary. Her lush brown hair fell in careful waves to the middle of her back, and the dim light played along her golden-brown skin. “Nathaniel O’Connor, what have you done this time?”
“Maura,” he said like a man ready to pounce. “Look at you.”
She stripped out of her jacket, revealing maroon nursing scrubs. “The sexiest I’ve ever looked.”
He grinned as he stepped toward his girlfriend. “Don’t have to tell me twice.”
As he came in for a kiss, Maura pushed her hand into his face. “Patient first.”