He shook his head. “I can’t. Not right now. But I will one day.”
A familiar knock came a few moments later and we both froze. My heart beat harder from sheer nerves. I wanted this for him. I wanted him to have some piece of his family back.
Another knock sounded as we sat there staring at the door.
I tugged him to his feet and led him to the door. “Come on, no matter what happens next, I’m here and I’m not going anywhere.”
He gave me a clipped nod and I opened the door. On the other side stood Helix and the woman I knew as Melinda. She wore her short black hair in a braid with a tail that curled around the side of her neck. No sunglasses. Tonight, she’d dressed down in jeans, a blue t-shirt, and a leather jacket.
I waved them both inside, nudging Fin a little behind me, his hand still clutched in mine. Helix entered first, his posture and level of alertness double what it had been before.
“We didn’t suddenly set up rocket launchers in the five minutes you’ve been gone,” I said.
He cut me a glare, but I turned to Melinda. “It’s nice to see you again. Thank you for changing your mind.”
Her eyes were on Fin whose hand had gone slack in mine.
“Sol,” he breathed.
She stiffened as if he’d struck her. “I go by Melinda now.”
Fin dropped to his knees in front of her, his hand dragged from mine. “I can’t believe you’re here.”
I placed my hands on his shoulders, trying to lend him some of my strength. All the while, a chaos of emotion beat at the bond within my chest. I could barely breathe around the onslaught. Tears pooled at the corner of my eyes at the intensity, the pain, so I glared at the ceiling until they cleared.
When she spoke again her voice had thawed, but only a tiny bit. “I came here to conduct business. Let’s get on with it, please.”
She turned and joined Helix on the couch.
Fin dragged himself off the floor and slunk behind me over to the couches, each step jarring me to as if we were connected through his pain and heavy confusion. We took our seats, and I kept half my attention on Fin and half on the pair on the other side of the table.
“This is awkward,” I said, trying to break the tension.
Helix chuckled and earned himself a glare from Melinda.
Fin shifted forward on the couch and my heart broke at the look in his eyes. “Sol—Melinda—what happened to you? Where have you been? If you weren’t being held captive, why didn’t you come home?”
Her glare could cut ice. “Home? Where it’s so very safe? I wasn’t the only one who’d been captured or killed there, am I?’
His back went rigid and I rubbed my hand up his spine trying to ease him, knowing I couldn’t do a damn thing to help with this pain.
“I don’t know what to say except I’m sorry,” Fin whispered. “I’m so sorry I didn’t protect you.”
He hung his head and stupid tears leaked down my cheeks. I forced myself not to swipe them away in anger. They were partly for him and everything he had endured during Sol’s absence.
Both of them had suffered and both of them seemed to blame Fin for that suffering when they should be putting that blame on Esteban’s crazy ass shoulders.
“How about we put a pause on this discussion and take care of what we came here to do? Afterward, maybe you guys can hug it out?” I said, looking to Helix for support.
His jaw was set as tight as Fin’s.
The seconds o
f silence stretched, and I itched with the need to move or to speak. I waited, hoping one of them might say something useful.
When no one did, I shoved off the couch and poured myself a drink. If no one was going to talk, or act like adults, then I wasn’t going to endure the emotion duress sober.
“You’re drinking?” Melinda asked after my first sip of straight vodka, her tone bordering between horrified and stupefied.