Warrior (Relentless #4)(72)

He turned his head toward me, his eyes dark with grief. “She told me she would be home after she gave him what he wanted. She lied so I would leave. She knew she wasn’t coming home.”

“She loves you and she wanted to keep you safe.” I moved into the room and sat on the couch across from him. “And she will come home.”

He seemed not to hear my last words. “Maxwell told me you were all there when she…. She wasn’t alone.”

“She wasn’t alone,” I assured him. “I don’t think Sara could ever be alone, no matter where she goes.”

He looked at me as if he was seeing me for the first time. “You’re her warrior friend. You were here yesterday.”

I nodded. “Nikolas.”

He gave me a half smile. “She called you a royal pain in the ass. She also said you were a good person. She trusted you, and Sara didn’t trust many people.”

I wanted to tell him to stop talking about her in the past tense, but my throat tightened painfully. It was a minute before I could speak.

“Mr. Grey…Nate, do you think you could trust me like she does?”

“I don’t know,” he said.

I leaned forward and rested my elbows on my knees. “Will you trust me when I tell you Sara is still alive?”

His eyes widened. It was the biggest reaction he’d made since I’d gotten here. “How can you say that? Everyone saw her get stabbed and fall off a cliff. No one could survive that.”

“Sara did. She’s missing, but she’s not dead.”

“How-how do you know that?”

“It’s a Mohiri thing.” I didn’t think he was ready to hear that his niece was bonded to a male he’d only met yesterday.

Hope flared in his eyes. “Where is she then?”

“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “But I won’t stop looking for her. We have a team of warriors out there searching for her.”

He let out a ragged breath. “I want so much to believe you. When she told me everything the other night, I didn’t take it well. It was a lot to take in…but that’s no excuse. She was upset when she went upstairs. I worked it all out by the time I came home from Portland, but I never got the chance to tell her that none of it changes how I feel about her.”

“She knows, and she loves you too. I was on the phone with her when Haism called to say he had you. All she could think about was getting to you.” It was hard to talk about that phone call, but if it eased her uncle’s mind, it was worth it.

He gave a jerky nod. “She was so brave when she stood up to those men. Maxwell said she was brave on the cliff too.”

I thought about her standing there, surrounded by vampires, telling Eli she couldn’t wait to watch him die, seconds before she killed him. It took a person with incredible strength to go through what she had and to keep her composure through it all.

“She’s a warrior,” I said proudly.

Nate gave me a strange look, and he seemed to be thinking about his next words. “Can I ask you…? Is there something going on between you and Sara?”

“I care for your niece,” I said with deliberate vagueness. “But we’re not together in that way.”

“Okay,” he said, though he didn’t look like he was convinced.

I stood and pulled a white card from my pocket. “This is my cell number if you want to know how the search is going, or if you need anything at all. I’ll be staying at the Beacon Inn.”

I walked over and handed the card to him. “Call me anytime.”

“Nikolas,” he said when I turned to leave. “Judith brought me one of her breakfast casseroles. I wasn’t hungry before, but I think I could eat now. Would you like to join me? I guarantee it’s better than anything you’ll get at the inn.”

I smiled for the first time since that call from Sara yesterday. “Thank you. I’d like that.”





*


An hour later, I stood beside my bike, staring down at my phone, dreading the call I was about to make. With a heavy sigh, I left my bike and started toward the wharves. When I reached the one where Sara and I had talked on my first visit to her, I walked to the end of it. Then I dialed Tristan’s number.

“Nikolas, I was just about to call you. How’s Sara doing? Is she nervous about today?”

I closed my eyes for a moment, wishing I wasn’t about to kill the happiness I heard in his voice. “Tristan, something has happened.”

“What?” His tone grew sharp. “Is Sara okay?”

There was no easy way to say it. “Sara’s missing.”

“Missing? What do you mean?” he demanded.

“Yusri al-Hawwash’s men got to her. They took her uncle, and she traded herself for him.” Pain lanced through my chest. “I lost her.”

“How could this happen? Where were you? Where were Chris and Erik’s unit?” Tristan’s voice rose with each question until he was almost shouting.

I told him about the frantic phone call from Sara yesterday afternoon, the fight with the vampires on the cliff, her fall into the ocean, and the search that was underway. Reliving the last twenty-four hours was torture, but it was nothing less than I deserved. I’d promised to keep Sara safe, and I’d failed her and Tristan. I never should have entrusted her safety to someone else. I never should have let her out of my sight.