George whined softly, as if he desperately wanted the job.
Wrath let go of the dog and stepped back as his whole body started to shake. “I don’t know if I can do this,” he said in a hoarse voice. “I don’t know if I can…be blind.”
Beth cleared her throat a little, as if she were choking up because he was.
After a moment, Mary, in her kind, firm way, said the hard thing that needed to be said: “Wrath, you are blind.”
The unspoken so-deal-with-it resonated in his head, throwing a spotlight on the reality he’d been limping through. Sure, he’d stopped waking up every day hoping his vision would come back, and he’d been fighting with Payne and making love to his shellan so he didn’t feel physically weak, and he’d also been working and keeping up with the king shit and all that. But none of it meant things were fantastic: He was hobbling around, running into shit, dropping crap…clinging to his shellan-who hadn’t been out of the house for a month because of him…using his brothers to get him places…being the kind of burden he resented.
Giving this dog a chance didn’t mean that he was all gung ho about being sightless, he told himself. But it might help him get around on his own.
Wrath turned so that he and George were facing the same direction, then stepped in close to the dog. Leaning to the side, he found the handle and clasped it.
“Now what do we do?”
After a shocked silence, as if he’d surprised the shit out of his peanut gallery, there was some discussion and demonstration, only a quarter of which he heard and absorbed. Evidently, though, it was enough to go with, because he and George were soon taking a trip around the study.
The handle had to be adjusted up to its limit so that Wrath didn’t have to list to the side to hold on, and the dog was much better at the whole deal than his charge was. But after a while, the two of them headed out of the study and down the hall. Next trip was hitting the grand staircase and coming back up.
Alone.
When Wrath returned to his office, he faced the group that had gathered-and it was now a big one, as each of his brothers, as well as Lassiter, had apparently joined Beth and Fritz and Mary. Wrath caught the scent of each of them…and there was a fuckload of hope and worry in the breeze as well.
He couldn’t blame them for the way they felt, but he didn’t like the attention. “How’d you pick the breed, Fritz?” he said, because he needed to fill the silence and there was no reason to ignore the pink elephant in the room.
Or the blond dog, as it were.
The old butler’s voice quavered, as if he, along with everyone else, were struggling with emotion. “I, ah…I chose him…” The doggen cleared his throat. “I chose him over the Labradors because he sheds more.”
Wrath’s blind eyes blinked. “Why would that be a good thing?”
“Because your staff enjoys vacuuming. I thought this would be a lovely gift for them.”
“Oh, right…of course.” Wrath chuckled a little, and then started to laugh. As the others joined in, some of the tension drained out of the room. “Why didn’t I think of that.”
Beth came over and kissed him. “We’ll just see how you feel, okay?”
Wrath stroked George’s head. “Yeah. Okay.” He raised his voice. “Enough of the kibitzing. Who’s on deck tonight for fighting? V, I need a financial report. Is John still passed out drunk in his bed? Tohr, I’m going to want you to contact the remaining families within the glymera and see if we can get any trainees to come back…”
As Wrath barked out orders, it was good to have answers coming back at him and people moving around to sit and Fritz leaving to clean up after First Meal and Beth settling into Tohr’s old chair.
“Oh, and I’m going to have to have something else to sit on,” he said as he and George went behind the desk.
“Wow, you dusted that bitch, didn’t you,” Rhage drawled.
“I can make you something?” V suggested. “I’m good at carving.”
“How about a Barcalounger?” Butch cut in.
“You want this chair?” Beth offered.
“If someone can just grab me that wing thing over in the corner by the fireplace?” Wrath said.
When Phury brought it over, Wrath sat down and pulled the chair forward-only to smash both his knees into the desk drawer.
“Okay, that had to hurt,” Rhage muttered.
“We need something shorter,” someone else said.
“This’ll be fine,” Wrath bit out tightly, taking his palm off George’s handle and rubbing the twin pains. “I don’t care what I sit in.”
As the Brotherhood got down to business, he found himself putting his hand on the dog’s big head and stroking the soft fur…playing with an ear…dipping down and finding the long waves that flowed from the animal’s broad, strong chest.
Not that any of that meant he was keeping the the animal, of course.
It just felt nice, was all.
SIXTY-THREE
The following evening, Ehlena watched as her new friend, Roff the locksmith, drilled the holy hell out of the wall safe. The whine of his high-powered tool stung her ears, and the sharp smell of heated metal reminded her of the floor sanitizers that had been used in Havers’s clinic. The sense that she was getting something-anything-done, however, made up for all of that.
“Almost finished,” the locksmith called out over the din.
“Take your time,” she yelled back.
It had become a personal thing between her and the safe, and that sucker was getting opened tonight come hell or high water. After looking all around the master bedroom with the help of the staff, and even going through Montrag’s clothes, which had been creepy, she’d phoned the locksmith and was now enjoying the sight of that drill head disappearing farther and farther into metal.
Ultimately, she didn’t care what was inside the damn thing, but what was critical was getting past the roadblock of not having the combination-and it was a relief to feel like herself again. She’d always been one to push through the hard stuff…much like that drill.
“I’m in,” Roff said, retracting his tool. “Finally! Come have a look.”
As the whine slowed into silence and the male took a breather, she went over and opened the panel. Inside was dark as midnight.
“Remember,” Roff said as he began to pack up, “we had to cut the electricity and the circuit that tied it to the security system. There’s usually a light that comes on.”
“Right.” She peered in anyway. It was just like a cave. “Thank you so much.”
“If you’d like me to find you a replacement, I can?”
Her father had always had safes, some of them in walls, a couple down in the cellar that had been as big and heavy as cars. “I guess…we’ll need one.”
Roff glanced around at the study and then smiled at her. “Yes, madam. I think you will. I’ll take care of you, though. Make sure you get what you need.”
She turned and put her hand out. “You have been very kind.”
He flushed from the collar of his coveralls up to his dark hairline. “Madam…you have been very nice to work for.”
Ehlena saw him to the grand front door and then went back to the study with a flashlight she’d gotten from the butler.
Clicking the beam on, she peered into the safe. Files. Loads of files. Some flat leather cases she recognized from when her mother’s jewels had still been around. More documents. Stock certificates. Bundles of cash. Two accounting ledgers.
Moving a side table over, she emptied everything out, making piles. When she got to the very back, she found a lockbox that she had to grunt in order to lift.
It took her about three hours to go through the paperwork, and when she was done, she was absolutely stunned.
Montrag and his father had been the corporate equivalent of mobsters.
Rising from the chair she’d tucked her butt into, she went up to the bedroom she used and pulled open the drawer of the antique bureau she’d put her clothes in. Her father’s manuscript was held with a simple rubber band, which she snapped free with a flick of the hand. Leafing through the pages…she found the description of the business deal that had changed everything for her family.