“I understand.”
“Alright, let’s go. She’s probably in the sanctuary right now. You first.”
Ellie’s dad motioned him out the door and down the hallway to the left. Carter went first, the other man falling in behind, giving verbal directions as needed. Not many were needed. They hadn’t gone far before he heard strains of piano music. He didn’t recognize the song, but it sounded church-like. Despite his vetting months ago, he hadn’t known Ellie played the piano. She’d never mentioned that. Then again, for all they’d been through together, including resorting to a quickie wedding for reasons of spousal privilege, they’d barely been together forty-eight hours.
In a few minutes they reached the double doors guarding the church’s main sanctuary. Ellie’s father pushed one open, gesturing for Carter to precede him. He did, stepping into a small auditorium that wouldn’t have held more than one hundred fifty people, tops. Padded chairs had replaced traditional pews. There was a pulpit center stage with a piano on one side and an organ on the other. A guitar was propped up against the back wall. No hymnals. Instead, a large screen dominated the wall behind the pulpit.
Carter absorbed the details in a quick glance, but his attention went immediately to the piano and the young woman seated at it.
Ellie. Ellie St. James, now living under the assumed identity of Taylor Scott.
Seeing her again felt like a punch to the gut. The last time he’d seen her was when she hurried back to give him a hug, thank him for protecting her from Nosizwe’s shifters during their crazy adventure.
Kissed him.
It was stupid, but he could still feel the spot where she’d reached up and kissed his cheek. Seeing her now, in profile, his gazed wandered to her mouth before he dragged it away, scanning her, looking her over.
She looked good. Calm. Not at all the frightened, bewildered woman who’d almost lost her life to monstrous shapeshifters. She sat up straight on the piano bench. Behind her glasses, her eyes were trained on the sheet music in front of her. Her blonde hair spilled around her shoulders. There was an air of peace about her as her music filled the auditorium.
Too bad I have to break that, Carter thought regretfully.
How was she going to react to seeing him again? Would it bring back painful memories of times she’d rather forget? Of their arguments and the way he’d mercilessly picked on her, using sarcasm as a means of deflecting any softer feeling the Talos wrapped around her? Or would she be glad when she found out why he was here? Glad to know their farce of a marriage could probably be dissolved soon, and they could both get on with their lives, free and independent of each other?
He didn’t have to wait to find out. Ellie’s father didn’t strike him as the most patient of people—or maybe the guy simply didn’t like strange men showing up, claiming to be married to his only daughter. He headed down the main aisle, towards the center stage, jerking his chin at Carter to follow. Carter wasn’t used to being ordered around, not by anyone other than Sean Costas, his boss, maybe. He was accustomed to giving the orders. But, bearing in mind the strangeness of the situation, he gritted his teeth and followed, not saying a word.
Ellie must have caught sight of her father’s approach out of the corner of her eye. Her hands faltered on the keys. Then she glimpsed Carter, standing behind her father. She did a double take, the music coming to an abrupt halt.
“Carter?” She stood, her eyes wide behind gold-rimmed glasses. “What are you doing here?”
“Do you know him, Taylor?” her father spoke up, his voice stern. “He came here asking to see you. Actually, he came here claiming he’s married to you. He called you Ellie. I’d like to know what’s going on.”
Ellie’s jaw had dropped at her father’s words, and her gaze was flitting helplessly between Carter and her dad.
“I…um…he—he told you that?” she stammered. Her eyes swung to Carter. “You told him? What were you thinking?”
“I didn’t know he was your father.” Carter could sense her displeasure. “I needed to talk to you. I thought looking you up here, through your pastor, was a better idea than showing up at your house, raising all kinds of questions for your family. I didn’t know your dad was the pastor.”
She still looked shell-shocked. Almost as shell-shocked as when she’d first witnessed a shifter change forms, all those months ago at his boss’s house.
“I can’t believe you’re here,” she said helplessly.
She had yet to step down from the stage and stood over them, her father and Carter, looking uncertain.
“I know,” Carter replied quietly. “I’m sorry to surprise you like this. It wasn’t how I meant things to go.”
“I don’t know how else it could’ve gone,” Ellie’s father grumbled.
The man was clearly displeased by the whole situation. Ellie shot him a look.
“It’s okay, Dad. I know him. He’s safe.”
Ellie’s father looked between the two of them, measuring Carter up.
“Is he?”
Ellie stared directly at him, her eyes almost soft.
“He is. He wouldn’t hurt me. We’ve—we’ve been through a lot together.”
That was the understatement of the year. They’d been through dragonfire and death, Ellie shooting a shifter to save his life, him as the Talos beating another shifter to death to save hers. They’d been to hell and back, with him determined to fulfill his boss’s orders to keep her safe. When the Talos was told to protect somebody, it didn’t take the job lightly. Sending Ellie out here, across the United States, to live a new life under an assumed identity had been Carter’s idea. His final step of defending her.
Or one of the final steps. Officially dissolving their marriage would be the final step.
“Does he have anything to do with this whole witness protection move?” Ellie’s father asked quietly, keeping his voice down even though there was nobody else in the auditorium. “You’ve never explained any of this, Taylor. No matter how much your mother and I asked. We let it go because we could see you didn’t want to risk harming us or yourself. Then this guy shows up claiming to be married to you? I’d like to know what’s going on. I think I deserve an explanation.”
“I’m so sorry, Dad,” Ellie said. “You do, but…I can’t—I can’t explain it all right now. Please. You have to trust me.”
“I trust you. It’s other people I don’t trust.”
Meaning him. Carter didn’t miss the inference.
Ellie smiled a little sadly.
“I know. I’m sorry. I wish I could tell you.”
She didn’t want her father, her family, dragged into a world where they didn’t belong, like she’d been. She didn’t want them knowing that monsters were real. Didn’t want to risk those monsters coming for them. She was trying to keep them safe. It was a heavy burden for her to carry.
Ellie pivoted to walk down the stairs leading from the stage to the auditorium floor. She approached hesitantly, as if she were still unsure what to make of all this. Carter stepped out from behind her father to meet her.
“Is there somewhere we can talk? Alone?”