“Damn it, Manny, if you don’t tell me what’s wrong I’m going to assume you’ve found someone else and you’re trying to figure out how to break the news to me. You’ve been totally withdrawn for the last two days.”
“It’s…“ Manny looked up at Hamlin, who was standing almost menacingly in front of him. “I haven’t found someone new, believe me. You are the only one in my life that I love, and I have no intention of changing that. Ever.”
Dropping to his knees, Hamlin took Manny’s hands in his. “Then what’s going on?”
“Don’t shoot me, but I’m under orders not to tell you.”
“Well break them, damn it. This is me. Whatever it is I’m not going to go shouting it to the world. I thought you knew me better than that.”
“I do damn it! Hell, I don’t—“ Manny buried his face in his hands.
“Mijn liefde, tell me, please.”
“You’re not going to believe it.”
“Short of you saying that Cerdic’s back and behind what happened to you, I’ll believe anything.”
Manny laughed softly. “I told you that you wouldn’t believe it.”
Roughly pulling Manny’s hands away from his face, Hamlin growled, “You have to be kidding me. I thought… You said you killed him. What the hell happened?”
“Apparently someone on the other side wanted him back, doing his worst.”
“What are we going to do to stop him?”
“’We’ aren’t going to do anything. You don’t know about this, remember. And what I’m going to do is being decided by those in power. It could be nothing at all.”
“Like hell! He tried to have you killed.”
“I suspect that was Mr. Shadrick’s doing, all on his own. Cerdic would have known that I couldn’t be hurt that way, to say the least of dying from it.”
“But he will come looking for you.”
“Possibly. Probably. I would if I were him. And that, Hamlin, is why you’re going as far away from here as possible no matter what Alasdair and Sofietje decide about me.”
“As if that would do any good. If Cerdic knows about us, I’ve got the feeling he’d find me even if I was sent to…to the moon. If he doesn’t, then there’s no reason for me to leave. Ergo, I go nowhere unless you have to. End. Of. Story.”
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