Free Web NovelChapter 62: Chapter 62 His Audacity
_Rowena’s POV_
The pack doctor came at nine in the morning the next day, finding me in my office already.
He carefully stated that Dickson was dead.
The doctor described the physiological progression of how he died, saying the force of the rock had cracked his head in the process.
I sat with the information for a moment.
He was gone.
I had killed him.
The network’s architect was gone, the compound’s formula was in Gabriel’s custody on its way to Alaric’s office, the research would be dismantled by people with the authority and resources to do it completely.
The new threat had a different shape now, Drake was still unaccounted for, and Drake had his father’s knowledge if not his father’s operational infrastructure, which made him dangerous in a more unpredictable way.
“Drake,” I said to Kasper, when the doctor left.
“Disguised and out of the city,” he said.
“Description is circulating through the regional network. Gabriel has people on the transit routes.”
“He has resources we haven’t mapped yet,” I said. “His father ran this for nine years. There are secondary contacts, secondary facilities possibly, things that weren’t in Corby’s confession because Corby didn’t know them. Drake will know some of what his father knew.”
“We’re not assuming the network is slow,” Kasper said. “Gabriel isn’t assuming it either.”
I nodded and went back to the report I was cross-referencing.
My ribs on the left side had developed a specific complaint about sitting in one position for too long that I was managing by shifting carefully every forty minutes and not drawing attention to it.
The wrist was better, Kyra had been working on it steadily, the restored healing capacity making a genuine difference, but the ribs were slower, which was the nature of ribs. The doctor had told me to rest. I had thanked him and continued working, which was the only response available given the current state of things.
Velvet knocked at half past ten with the expression she reserved for news she found personally objectionable.
“Kaelen is at the gate,” she said. “He has a patrol battalion unit with him. He says it’s official business, regional patrol coverage review for this district.”
I set my pen down.
Kyra made a sound in the back of my mind that I chose not to repeat.
“Send him up,” I said.
Velvet communicated her opinion of this before leaving.
Kaelen came in with the patrol battalion purpose arranged around him like clothing he had chosen carefully. He was composed and official and he had clearly thought about this visit in advance, which I could tell because men who haven’t thought about a visit look different from other men.
He saw my wrist.
He saw the way I was sitting.
Something moved across his face that I recognized immediately, because I had been watching him make this calculation since he came home, the one where the evidence in front of him was filtered through the conclusion he had already reached, and the conclusion was always that whatever was happening to me was secretly, fundamentally, about him.
“You should be resting,” he said.
“I’m working,” I said. “What’s the patrol matter?”
He sat down without being invited, which was consistent. “The district coverage for the Ashthorne estate sector is under review. The recent incidents, the facility, the network activity in the area, the patrol commander felt additional resources should be offered formally.”
“Alaric’s office contacted me about additional coverage at seven this morning,” I said. “It’s been arranged.”
Something shifted in his posture. “I offered before his office did.”
“I appreciate that,” I said, with complete sincerity and no warmth. “It’s been handled.”
He looked at me with the expression that meant he was building to something. I waited for it for a while.
“You’re pushing yourself past the point of sense,” he said. “You look......” He stopped, reconsidered, kept going. “You look exhausted and injured and like you’ve been running on nothing for days. And I think, I think part of what’s driving that is that you haven’t let yourself stop. And you haven’t let yourself stop because stopping means sitting with things, and sitting with things means.....”
“Kaelen,” I said.
He kept going. “.....it means acknowledging that some of what happened between us isn’t as finished as you’re telling yourself it is. The investigation, the throwing yourself into everything, the way you’ve been operating since you came home, that’s not just about your family. That’s about having somewhere to put....”
“Kaelen.” Sharper this time.
He stopped.
“I am injured because I single-handedly fought men twice my size,” I said. “I am working because there is a case to complete and a man still unaccounted for and a family legacy that requires active attention. I am tired because I have not slept properly in four days and because the work is substantial and the timeline is urgent.” I looked at him directly across the desk. “Every single thing about my current state is explained completely by the actual events of the past two weeks. None of it requires a theory about my emotional life.”
He was quiet for a moment.
“You came here with a patrol battalion as the official reason,” I continued. “I understand that. But you’ve walked into this room and looked at my injury and decided it means I’m unraveling over you, and I need you to hear this clearly, Kaelen...... I am not unraveling over you. I was never unraveling over you. I was hurt and then I was angry and then I processed both of those things and moved forward, and where I am now is a place that has nothing to do with you in any direction.” fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com
“You’re still arguing with me,” he said.
“I’m correcting you,” I said. “Those aren’t the same thing.”
“You wouldn’t correct me if you.....”
“Don’t finish that sentence,” I said.
He sighed, refusing to give up.
Then he said something I had not prepared for even slightly: “I’m going to remarry you.”
I stared at him like he’d grown a second head.
“When you’re ready,” he added, as though this was a consideration rather than an absurdity. “I know it’s not the right moment. But I want you to know I’ve decided.”
I opened my mouth.
He stood up before I could use it.
“Take care of the ribs,” he said, at the door. “Left side impact needs more recovery time than you’re giving it.”
Then he left.
