Walt tossed Jakob his T-shirt just as whoever was outside banged on the door again.
Jakob muttered under his breath, pulling his shirt on as he walked to the front door. He’d picked up a fireplace poker as a weapon before he walked out.
There was a pregnant silence, and then a faint murmur of voices.
Jakob walked back into the living room with a look Annalise didn’t understand…until Eric followed him in.
Beside her, Walt groaned and put his head in his hands.
“Fleet Admiral,” she said. “We weren’t expecting you.”
Eric’s gaze slid around the room, missing nothing, including the tube of lubrication on the floor. He smirked. “Interrupting, I see.”
Jakob quickly walked over to the lube and kicked it under one of the ottomans.
Eric snorted, and then looked at Walt. “Hayden, good. Glad to find you here. Saves me a trip to Libya.”
“Eric, go away,” Walt groaned.
“Though I wouldn’t have minded checking in on the girls,” Eric mused.
It took her a minute to figure out he was talking about the girls in Libya he’d rescued from the extremists.
“Is there something we can do for you, Fleet Admiral?” Jakob asked, looking somewhat silly standing at parade rest in his retro Neu! T-shirt, flannel lounge pants, and bare feet.
“Ohh, a whole sentence?” Eric grinned at Jakob, and Annalise hid her own smile. Then the fleet admiral shook his head. “No. You’ve already done it. I’m sorry it took me so long to get back to you. It was the Albanian mafia at the cafe that day. I had to clean up some of their shit—fucking human traffickers deserve a bloody death—before I could return.”
Annalise wasn’t sure how to reply. Did the fleet admiral seriously just admit to taking on the mafia?
Eric forged on. “The three of you helped me bring a killer to justice. So I’m here to ask. What do you want? Name it.”
Annalise glanced at Jakob and then at Walt. There was only one thing she wanted, but she knew it wasn’t Eric’s to give.
“Technically, you two had to help me,” he went on, pointing at Annalise and Jakob. “But he didn’t.” Eric jerked his head at Walt.
“It was our honor to serve,” Jakob said formally. Annalise nodded her agreement because after all, what else was there to say?
Walt smiled briefly, but there was sadness in his eyes. “It’s okay, Eric. What I want—”
“You want them?” Eric interrupted.
Annalise continued to be curious about the closeness between her American doctor and the fleet admiral. Where most people treated Eric with kid gloves or respectful distance, Walt acted almost as if the two of them were old friends, though she knew his association with Eric was as short as his was with them. Of course, Walt was one of those people who simply didn’t know a stranger. He was warm, open, and friendly.
“I’m in love with them,” Walt admitted. “But I know the rules. Arranged trinity marriages between members.” Walt’s words were tight.
Annalise felt tears gathering even though the last thing she wanted to do right now was cry.
“If things were different, I’d choose them. I would spend the rest of my life with them, and it would be a good, happy life.”
Jakob made a pained noise, and Annalise pressed her fingers to the inner corners of her eyes.
Walt took a breath and went on. “But I, we, can’t have that. I’m not a member, and I can’t be. I promised Juliette I’d join—”
“A cult,” Eric interjected. “You promised to join a cult. And I have one of those.”
The drama of the moment evaporated as they all looked at Eric in shock.
Was he saying…
Annalise turned to Walt. For a moment, she thought he was going to argue, but then his frown cleared and brows rose. “You’re right. I technically never promised to join the Trinity Masters.”
Eric grinned as he stepped closer and slapped Walt on the shoulder. “Nope. You never said those words.”
“I just said I’d join a cult.” Walt’s brief smile faded. “Even so, you and I both know that’s what I meant, what I promised. My brothers, the Grand Master…they expect me to come back to join the Trinity Masters.”
“Love is hard. Happiness is harder. If you find it, take it. No matter what the cost.”
The fleet admiral’s words struck her, especially after everything she’d been through in the past few years.
He was right. Absolutely right.
Annalise pressed a hand to her mouth, silently praying. If Walt joined, Eric could—would—place them in a trinity together.
“The Grand Master’s going to be pissed off if I don’t come back,” Walt said slowly. “And my clinic, the funding.”
Eric shrugged. “She won’t cut your funding. She might be a hard-ass, but the Grand Master isn’t cruel. And I seem to be good at pissing women off lately. One more won’t matter. To be honest, she’s been pissed at me since the day she met me.”
“Can’t imagine why,” Jakob muttered, prompting Eric to laugh loudly.
“Damn, Ritter. Is that a sense of humor?”
“Wait,” Annalise said, too afraid to believe everything that was happening. “Are you saying you can join the Masters’ Admiralty?” she asked Walt.
Walt hesitated for just a moment, his uncertain gaze locked with Eric’s unyielding one. Then a smile slid over his face. “Yeah. I think I can.”
Annalise twisted to Eric. “And the three of us…”
Eric waited for a moment. “Ask for what you want, Dr. Fischer.”
“I want them. Jakob and Walt. To be my trinity.”
Eric nodded and pulled his phone out of his pocket. “Done. I’ll call Eburhardt now and tell him what’s going on. Then the three of you are flying back to the Isle of Man with me.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Walt murmured a quiet “dayum” as they stepped off the private plane that had flown him, Annalise, Jakob, and Eric to the Isle of Man. Nine dangerous-looking people were waiting for them.
“Spartan Guard,” Jakob said, pointing. “Their job is to protect the fleet admiral.”
“Poor fuckers,” Walt muttered.
“The woman in the front is Regina Kagy. Head of the guard.”
Eric walked up to the tall dark-haired woman and said, “Honey! I’m home.”
From the expression on Regina’s face, it was obvious she wasn’t amused, but was also professional enough to keep her opinions to herself. She nodded her head slightly. “Welcome home, Fleet Admiral.”
“Looks like the whole gang is here,” Eric said, his tone somewhere between annoyed and amused. “Admit it, Gina. You missed me.”
Regina, who had been doing a good job holding on to her anger, let the slightest smile slip. It lasted only a second before the frown was firmly back in place and she said, “We almost had you in Dubai.”
“I thought that might have been you. You or those asshole exotic animal smugglers.”
“We cleaned up that mess for you.”
“Good. Did you get to pet a baby tiger?”