Repairer of the Breach (Stones of Fire Book 4) by Sarah Ashwood (free biff chip and kipper ebooks .TXT) 📕

I looked directly at Detective Tozzi. “You’re a policeman, so you must have handguns around here. Do you have one I can borrow?”

His thick eyebrows flared. “Why? What do you think you’re planning to do?”

“I’m planning to go after my husband,” I said, breathing deep to force an outward calm I didn’t feel. “I’m planning to go to the Costas home and be his backup. We’re in this together. I think he’s forgotten that.”

“He didn’t forget anything. Ellie, you can’t go in there guns blazing after Carter. This isn’t some old-time western. And you’re no gunfighter,” Detective Ewing reminded me sternly. “Stay here and wait.”

“Would you stay here and wait if it was your partner’s life on the line?” I demanded, jerking my chin towards Tozzi.

He cleared his throat uncomfortably. “She’s got you there, Candace,” he murmured.

“No, she doesn’t. I wouldn’t run into some situation half-cocked to save your sorry hide,” Candace flashed back.

“Ouch.”

“I don’t believe that,” I said, breaking into their banter, trying desperately to appear stern and competent. I knew my physical appearance and even my profession wouldn’t give most people the idea that I could handle firearms, that I could handle myself in a fight, but I could if I had to. “It might interest you to know,” I said, unable to believe I was even admitting this, “that scene in the Botanic Garden last November? The one that put you on our trail? I shot and killed a shifter that night. She was about to get Carter, and I took her out. I may not look imposing, but I can promise you I’m not helpless.”

Weighted silence met my confession. I’d known I was taking a huge gamble admitting my part in a shooting death to two homicide detectives. However, considering what Candace and Carter had done last night to free themselves and get out the warehouse, I was certain we were all in this together at this point. What was my one shooting in self-defense that long ago night, when there was no body to prove it, compared to how many they may have killed? Candace and her partner exchanged looks. She firmed her lips in thought, her facial muscles bunching up, her hands tightening on the handle of her mug. Then, blowing out a sigh, she released the tension from her body.

“Well,” she said. “Well, I wasn’t expecting that. All this time I thought—”

“I know. You thought Carter did it. Wrong. It was me. More than that, I’ve seen enough blood and death by this point in my life that I’m not going to run screaming the other way if things go south. Carter needs me. He doesn’t think he does, but he does. And I’m going after him with or without your help.”

Again, silence. Exchanged looks. I’m pretty sure neither of the police detectives knew quite what to think. I didn’t either, except I knew we’d barely started to figure out our relationship, our marriage. I couldn’t let it end now before we’d had the chance to build an actual life together. I couldn’t let it end before I’d even had the opportunity to tell him I loved him.

“So,” I said, taking turns meeting both of their eyes, “are you going to help me or are you going to arrest me? Because that’s what it will take to stop me from going.”

Detective Ewing studied me for a long, uncomfortable moment. I was half-afraid she was going to call my bluff, then she shrugged.

“You’re a grown woman. I can’t stop you. Well, I guess I could by arresting you, but I’m not going to, especially since I have no evidence tying you to anything. Here.” She picked up a plastic shopping bag from the floor in the corner of the room. “Gary bought a few things for you while you were sleeping. Clothes. A toothbrush. That sort of thing. Get dressed. Those clothes you’re wearing now—” She gestured at my strange combination of attire “—Not exactly what I’d recommend for going to confront a bunch of shapeshifters.”

I glanced down at myself. “What would you recommend? Leather pants, high-heeled boots, and a bralette?”

“That’s only in the movies and on book covers,” she laughed. “Here. Something a little more practical and comfortable. Get dressed, come eat something, and we’ll go.”

“We?”

My confusion was echoed by her partner’s, who also echoed me by asking, “We?”

She pinned him with a stern look. “You really planning on letting this little thing go into battle against a pack of deadly shapeshifters by herself?”

“This isn’t our business, Candace. I’ve tried to keep you out of it since day one.”

“And we see where that got us. At this point, what have we got to lose, Gary?”

“Let me see: our jobs, our careers, our pensions, our lives…”

“And if Ballis manages to stop a war, maybe—maybe—we get out for good. We’re not tangled up in this crap anymore. We’re free.”

“Do you really want to run that risk?”

He stared his partner dead in the face. She stared back, unflinching. “Don’t you?”

He sighed, rubbing his chin, his beard with a palm as he weighed the options. Just as I started to say, “You don’t have to do this,” he relented. “What the hell. I know when I’m licked.” He turned to me. “Better do what she says, young lady. Get dressed. Grab a bite to eat. Or you can eat in the car on the way over. Whatever you decide to do, make it quick. Carter left a good twenty to thirty minutes ago. We’ll have to hammer down to catch up.”

I felt my insides wrench as I considered how far ahead of us Carter was and what he could already be facing. What if we didn’t reach him in time? What if he were already dead? What if—

“Hello? Earth to Ellie?” Detective Ewing was waving her hand in front of my face. I blinked several times, realizing I’d been standing there staring, lost in all sorts of horrible thoughts. “You sure you’re okay?