“What?”
I raised the sword so the blade was against his throat, the sharp edge nicking his skin and making blood dribble down the metal. “You wanted to know how long it would take someone like me to heal a broken arm. Twenty-one hours. ”
He smiled. “Good girl. ”
My apartment smelled like pasta sauce when I got home.
I kicked my boots off at the door and put the katana back up over the fireplace before I followed the smell into my tiny kitchen. In spite of Peyton still being at large—the Feds insisted The Doctor hadn’t known where he was—I wasn’t willing to hide anymore. He’d been able to find me halfway across the country, so if he wanted me, he could come get me. Now I was ready for him.
Rio, my dumb-as-nails cat, had been living with Desmond’s sister, Penny, during my absence. Now that she was back in her old stomping ground, she had spent a full day wandering around rubbing her face on anything that would hold still. Judging by her loud purrs she was just as happy to be home as I was.
She bumped her head against my legs and greeted me with a plaintive, “Breow. ”
Desmond stood in front of the stove, measuring dried oregano into his palm.
“You know I don’t eat, right?” I rubbed Rio’s back with my foot, and she flipped over, clawing at my toes.
“I tried to tell him that, but he insisted. ” Holden emerged from the bedroom and leaned beside me in the kitchen entrance. Neither of them touched me, no one having the possessive upper hand here, but I could sense Holden’s gaze on the back of my neck, and Desmond was staring right at me.
“How’d it go?” Desmond asked.
“It’s done. ”
“And how do you feel?”
I shrugged and let out a sigh. “I thought it would be a release. Thought I’d be done once it was over. But…”
“It’s still there,” Holden said.
“It’s still there. But maybe now the nightmares will let up. ” I tried for a smile and succeeded a little because Desmond looked back to the sauce he was making and stirred in the oregano.
“Why are you cooking?” I asked.
“It helps me destress. And besides, unlike the two of you I actually do have to eat. ” He replaced the lid on the pot before wiping his hands on a dishtowel and shooing Holden and me out of the kitchen. He was welcome to claim it as his domain. I had no use for it.
Holden sat on the loveseat, and I plopped down beside him, leaving some extra space since I wasn’t sure how to behave with both of them in the same room being so…nice.
Desmond answered the question for me when he sat on my opposite side, forcing me to smoosh against Holden, sandwiched between them. The two men exchanged a glance, and I expected them to go for each other’s throats at any moment.
Finally when a good five minutes passed without Holden calling Desmond a dog or Desmond reminding me Holden was a walking corpse, I couldn’t take it anymore.
“Either you guys drank the Kool-Aid, or I really am dead, because you two have never been this nice to each other. ”
Holden brushed my hair back, and Desmond squeezed one of my hands. “Look,” Desmond started. “This isn’t…perfect. I don’t like him, he doesn’t like me, but we both love you. And considering everything that happened, and how we both almost lost you for good…”
If they proposed a happily ever after ménage a trois, my poor little brain was going to explode then and there. It wouldn’t work, of course, but I couldn’t help think that’s where this insane discussion was going.
“We’re calling a truce,” Holden finished for Desmond.
“A truce?” Not as sexy as ménage a trois.
“For right now, at least, we won’t fight for your affection. We’ll respect that you have feelings for us both, and leave it there. For now,” Desmond explained.
As far as arrangements went, it might be as good as I’d ever get from them. And I didn’t have it in me to choose between them, not now. Not after everything.
“Okay. ” I nodded, but nudged each of them on the shoulder, drawing their attention to how tightly packed we were on the loveseat. “But is it okay with you guys if I move to the chair? You’re kind of squishing me. ”