Page 189 of Adored
“They think the crypto key is on my brother’s body. Please don’t say we have to open the grave.”
He knew that would be brutal on Poe, and honestly, he was willing to bail. They’d barely survived this one. It was time to get the hell out of there.
Luckily, Poe didn’t dig a big hole. It was easily filled in.
“No, we’re not digging up your brother.”
Thank.
Freaking.
God.
“How did you get away?” he asked.
“I’ve been captured and tortured a few times, so I know how to get out of a prison.”
Poe was staring at him.
“Are you being serious?”
He wished he wasn’t.
When Gamble saw movement, his eyes tracked it. At first, he thought it was going to be another mercenary.
Only, it wasn’t.
Instead, he saw Hemmingway. He was behind Poe as he stood in the shadows, pointing at the tombstone.
Not the stone.
At the Victoria’s Cross.
The medal.
“Poe,” Gamble said. “Look.”
When he pointed, Poe turned, and that’s when he saw what Gamble was staring at.
And he gasped.
“Hemmy?” he asked.
His brother smiled at him, and blew his brother a kiss. Then, he focused on Gamble, and touched his temple in a salute.
“Take care of him.”
And as quickly as they saw him, the second they blinked, he was gone.
“I have to be hallucinating. Was that my brother?” Poe whispered.
Gamble touched his shoulder.
“I told you. There’s an afterlife.”
Poe just nodded, and had tears in his eyes.
“I love you, Hemmy! I’ll see you again,” he said.
