Deadly Fate (Krewe of Hunters #19)(90)

They made love again. Physically exhausted, still half-aroused, deeply comfortable in his own bed in his own home, Thor drifted toward sleep. Clara moved against him, murmuring, “Something isn’t right.”

“What?”

He realized she’d been half-asleep when she roused and looked at him, puzzled.

“Something isn’t right with me?” he asked.

She shook her head and grinned. “No. You’re perfect.”

“Perfect?”

She smiled and lay sleepily against him again. “Okay, not perfect. But damned close.”

“You are perfect,” he whispered to her.

“Oh, so far from it!” she said. “No, it was something that Amelia said.”

“Amelia?”

“She was walking with me...and then she said ‘something isn’t right’ and went to find you, and bring you to me,” Clara said, and she rose again and kissed him, and he held her tight.

Eventually, they slept.

Life was good. The future loomed ahead.

A future that included...Fate.

*

Clara slipped out of bed as silently as she could. She collected her things and smiled as she watched Thor still sleeping—he really was a perfect man, arms tossed about where she had been, limbs entangled in the wealth of the covers, profile striking against the sheets.

She hurried out lest she be tempted to stay.

In the shower she savored the hot water cascading around her, thinking that he might rise to join her. But he didn’t. She dressed and went out and stood on the front porch first. The temperature was somewhere in the midfifties—cold for Louisiana standards! But so beautiful here.

She closed her eyes for a minute, incredibly grateful to be alive. So much adrenaline—fear? Fear for herself, for Emmy, for all of them? Anger, or a combination? A determination that she wouldn’t go down without fighting?—had filled her first hours, she hadn’t even really comprehended what had happened. The hours afterward had made it sink in. She’d faced a monster. And she’d come out of it okay.

Heading outside, she took a moment to really appreciate the compound. It was so handsomely arranged and filled with such beautiful creatures. Astrid and Colin kept massive and gentle draft horses as well as the dogs. The paddocks now were filled with the animals, running about, grazing, doing what horses did. She could see Astrid toward the main paddock, working with a group of puppies, and she walked over to her.

“Good morning! Did you sleep well?”

“You bet. What a beautiful group you have here!” Clara said.

“They have professional names,” Astrid said. “But, I call them Rolly, Polly and Fat Stuff!”

Clara took a seat on a bench by the kennel runs and smiled as the puppies came racing to her.

“Very social dogs,” Clara said.

“There’s always an alpha—I think it’s going to be Fat Stuff, in this group.”

“Bring me to your leader—Fat Stuff!” Clara said lightly.

Astrid took a seat by her side. “We’re so grateful that...”

“We’re alive?” Clara murmured. “I know I am!”

“More than that,” Astrid said. “Tate Morley... I think the case haunted Thor forever. Now it’s at an end. It’s hard to believe that it really is at an end!”

“I guess it’ll feel more real day by day,” Clara murmured.

“Yes, I imagine. Well, anyway, hopefully getting back to work...boarding the Fate! I know you’re working, but I hope you have a wonderful time.”

“I think your brother is going to take the cruise. Time off—and the cruise.”

Astrid nodded, grinning. “Yeah, I think so,” she said.

Clara’s phone rang, startling them both. Clara excused herself to take it.

Ralph was on the other end. He wanted to see if she and Thor wanted to meet up with him and the rest of the cast for dinner. “We’ve got our lovely young Connie Shaw joining us. I thought we’d all welcome her here. This has got to be unsettling for her.”

She grinned. Leave it to Ralph. She was the one who had been in the hands of a killer. But she was glad Ralph thought of her as the strong one!

“Sure,” she said. “Well, I’ll be there. I’ll have to check with Thor.” She went on to tell Ralph that she thought Thor was going to take the cruise. He was thrilled and told Larry, who was equally delighted.

When she hung up and her phone rang again immediately, she thought that it was Ralph calling back.

It wasn’t.

But it was another invitation—or favor.

She jumped up. “Astrid, could I possibly borrow a car? I’m going to run into town and do a friend a favor. I don’t want to wake Thor—especially since he never sleeps.”

“Sure!” Astrid said. “Mine is the Subaru. Keep it as long as you like.”

She tossed Clara her keys, and Clara asked Astrid if she’d mention dinner with her cast to Thor. “I don’t know if he is going into work today or what his plans are. Anyway, dinner will be later.”

“Of course,” Astrid assured her.

Smiling, and thinking it was a way to really do a good deed, Clara headed out on her errand of mercy.

*

Thor should have slept well.