“Vin, I want you to lie against me.” As she tugged him, he followed her prompting, easing into her lap and holding on to her. “Shh…you’re okay. I’m okay….”

As his face tucked into her side, she couldn’t believe what she had seen and yet didn’t doubt it had been real. She also got a clear sense that she had been aware of only part of what had actually happened.

Fortunately, Eddie had only acted out the stabbing, that see-through knife stopping with the point directly on Vin’s breastbone. But the agony had been real for both men while they had both struggled. And then…well, she didn’t know what went down next, really: Eddie reared back as if he’d pulled something out of Vin, and then Marie-Terese felt a sharp, ringing panic that was tied to nothing specific—at least at first.

That changed fast. She’d felt an evil spirit focus on her, and at the moment it did, Jim pushed her behind him and then doused her in a solution that smelled like the sea. As she sputtered, the evil seemed to splinter around her, and that was when the window shattered.

Vin rolled over in her arms and looked into her face. “You…truly okay?”

He could barely get the words out from between his chattering teeth.

“I’m fine.”

“You’re wet.”

She pushed her damp hair back. “I think it saved me.”

Eddie spoke up from over on the bed, his voice gravel. “It did. Jim made a good call with that.”

The man nodded once, more focused on the rough shape his buddy was in rather than on any kind of compliment. “You sure we don’t need to get you anything?” he asked Eddie.

“Adrian’s the one we need to worry about. She didn’t show and he’s not here, and that means…”

Problems, Marie-Terese thought.

“Problems,” Jim filled in. “So I’m just going to get a refill of the magic sauce.”

As he headed for the bath, Vin let out a groan and tried to sit up.

“Here,” she said, putting her arms around his torso and hefting his upper body off the floor. When he managed to hold himself upright, she yanked the duvet free from under his hip and wrapped it back around him.

He ran his hands through his hair, smoothing it down. “Am I done? Am I…free?”

Eddie got to his feet with a lurch. “Not entirely. Not until we get that diamond back.”

“Can I help with that?”

“No, it’s better to have one of us take care of it.”

Vin nodded, and after a moment, he started to stand up. Even though he weighed so much more than she did, she helped him as best she could until he was standing on his own, and then she let him go so he could pace around.