“I’m what?” Thom looked at
Keegan as if the man had lost the last of his marbles.
“You’re coming with me on
this assignment. Alasdair okayed it, in point of fact it was his idea.”
“In other words he ordered
you to take me along,” Thom said, frowning. “Why? So that Darius can’t mess
with me while you’re gone?”
“Yes.” Keegan replied,
surprised at Thom’s reaction. He’d expected him to be happy about it, not
upset.
“Did it occur to either of
you that I have a job of my own? I’m just supposed to tell my boss that I’ll be
gone for who knows how long and he should hold it until I get back?”
“Well—” Keegan blew out a
long breath. “Look, if you don’t want to come with me I understand. It is short
notice. I’ll tell Alasdair and have him set up bodyguards for you.”
“Like hell! I don’t want
someone on my tail twenty-four/seven like I’m some kid.”
“Then you’re coming with me.
End of story.”
“And do what, take in the
sights wherever we’re going while you go off to fight some—whoever?”
“I’m not doing any fighting
this time, hopefully. I’m there to keep a man from getting assassinated before
or during the elections in his country.” Closing the distance between them,
Keegan put his hands on Thom’s shoulders, asking, “Why are you really so upset
about the idea of coming with me?”
Thom stared at him. “Because
it wasn’t your idea, you were ordered to take me along.”
Lowering his gaze, Keegan
nodded. “If I’d thought he’d have allowed it, mo ghrá, you would have come with
me on every assignment I do while I’m here.”
“But you would never have
stood up to him and said, ‘He’s coming with, like it or not’.”
“It’s not my place to do
that.”
Thom sighed deeply. “I know
Keegan. You’re just a—”
“A slave,” Keegan finished,
his voice tight with acceptance.
“A foot-soldier.” Thom
smiled a bit.
“Either/or, I’m his to
command until—”
“The end of time?” Thom
shook his head as he pulled away from Keegan’s grasp, but not away from where
he was standing. Instead he took Keegan’s hands in his, holding them tightly.
“There has to be an out-clause other
than dying again.”
“So you keep saying, but if
there is, no one that I’ve ever heard of has found it.”
“Alasdair would know,” Thom
said with conviction.
“And he would never tell me,
or any of us. After all, if we knew what it was, then we’d use it and there
would soon be no more Caomhnóir.”
Thom hesitated for a moment,
and then replied, “When we get back we’re going to beard the gryphon in his den
and find out.”
Keegan’s face lit up. “So
you will come with me on this assignment?”
“Of course. I can’t have you
worrying about me while you’re gone, which, I’d bet my bottom dollar, is why
Alasdair ordered this. Right?”
With a chuckle and a nod of
his head, Keegan said it was.
* * * * * * *
'Safe Harbor' is out today!
When Bobby, aka 'Prizm', witnesses the kidnapping of two other street kids and later learns one of them was murdered, he goes to the only man he thinks can help him.
Father Kurt, an Episcopal priest who runs the Harbor, a shelter for homeless kids, gets more than he bargained for when he talks Bobby into going to the police.
While the search is on for the killers, who may also be cops, Bobby and Kurt find themselves attracted to each other. Then a new friend of Bobby's is taken by the murderers and he decides it's time to use the resources at hand, other street kids, to find and to stop the murderers.
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