by Adrian, Lara
“Anything else?”
She directed the question to the larger of the duo. Bulky, round-shouldered under a winter coat and several layers of all-weather fleece, he wore a grey knit cap and had a ruddy face covered in a reddish-brown lumberjack beard.
He took a sip of the hot coffee, eyeing the woman over the rim. “Ain’t you gonna ask me about Travis, Lenora?”
“No. Why should I?”
One of those ham-sized shoulders lifted with his sneer. “He’s coming home this weekend.”
“I’m well aware.” And from the flat tone of her voice, it wasn’t welcome news.
“He’s gonna want to see the boy, Leni.”
She took a step back as if she needed to distance herself from the statement as much as the man who delivered it. Folding her arms in front of her, she shook her head. “Riley doesn’t even know him. He doesn’t know anything yet. And he’s too young to understand.”
“That’s my brother’s decision to make, not yours.”
“His decision? Like hell it is,” she shot back, scowling now. “I’m not going to let Travis anywhere near that child. You can tell him I said so.”
The big man set his mug down. “You can’t keep us away from the kid, not anymore. You know Travis won’t stand for that once he’s home. Maybe he’ll come around the house and say hello when he gets back. Or maybe he’ll want to head over to the elementary school next week instead and surprise his son with a little family reunion.”
An older couple seated a few stools down from the confrontation evidently decided it was time to go. Tossing a few dollars’ tip next to their half-empty plates, they ambled out of the diner, the cheerful bell jingling in their wake.
That left a pair of truckers and a slightly balding, middle-aged man in a camouflage hunting jacket remaining at the counter. The truckers hardly glanced up from their pot roast now. The man in the hunting jacket had polished off the last of his apple pie a few minutes ago and seemed intent on ignoring the drama taking place a few stools away from him.
And then there was Knox in the back booth, his hands flexing and fisting under the table, his battle instincts ratcheting tighter by the second as he stared at the overbearing asshole who seemed to have come inside with the sole purpose of causing upset.
Lenora, or Leni, as the man had called her, now exhaled a sharp breath as she planted her hands on the edge of the countertop and faced off against the overbearing behemoth.
“Dammit, Dwight. Hasn’t your family done enough damage to mine?” She kept her voice tight and low, but Knox’s acute hearing picked up every syllable and nuance of her fury. “Leave Riley out of this. He’s not property.”
“That’s right, Lenora. He’s flesh and blood. Ours.”
Her chin hiked up. “Really? You couldn’t prove that by me.”
He scoffed. “Only because you’ve refused to allow the test.”
She didn’t so much as flinch. “That’ll be two-fifty each for the coffees.”
“Can I get mine in a takeaway cup, Leni?” It was the first thing the asshole’s buddy said since they came in. He dug into his jacket pocket for his wallet, but froze in mid-motion when his companion slanted him a pointed look.
“We want something to eat too,” the big man, Dwight, said. “I’ll take a serving of that pot roast.”
Leni clicked her tongue. “You’re too late. It’s all gone.”
Dwight’s glower narrowed at the lie. “Then gimme the meatloaf instead. With lots of gravy.”
She shrugged and slowly shook her head. “Kitchen’s closed now. On account of the weather.”
“Bullshit.” He uttered a threatening sound, something close to a growl, as he stood up. “Then get out my way, Lenora. I’m coming back there to make my own damn meal.”
Knox wasn’t about to let that happen. “Hey. Paul Bunyan. You heard the lady, kitchen’s closed.”
Every head in the place turned his way. Including Leni’s. Her pretty hazel eyes went wide with surprise—and uncertainty—as she met his gaze from across the length of the diner.
The big human male’s heavy brow furrowed. “Who the fuck are you?”
From his seat in the booth, Knox stared flatly at him, ignoring the demand. “Put your two-fifty on the counter, both of you, then go.”
On a chortle, Dwight swung his head toward his nervous-looking buddy. “You believe this guy?” He started to approach. “The only one who’s gonna be leaving is—”
Knox moved out of the booth and stood. His size had been somewhat diminished when he was seated. Now, his six-and-a-half-foot height and two-hundred-sixty pounds of muscle and bone was unmistakable. No doubt, so was the cold invitation to violence in his eyes.
Leni’s aggravator stopped short, half a dozen paces between them. At the counter, the man in the hunting jacket suddenly jolted out of his willful ignorance of the situation. Scrambling off his stool, he inserted himself between Knox and the other man while the two truckers who’d been eating at the counter paid up and made a hasty exit.
“All right, everyone, let’s simmer down.” The man faced Knox as if he were the one at fault. His woodland camo jacket was unzipped, but he made a point of opening it wider to reveal the pistol holstered at his hip and the sheriff’s badge clipped to his belt. “I don’t believe I’ve ever seen you around here before, Mister . . .”
Knox let the prompt for his name hang unanswered, his eyes still on Dwight, who was clearly more than relieved to have the law coming to his rescue. Gutless pussy.
The fact that the apparently off-duty county sheriff didn’t bother to step in while Leni was being verbally harassed annoyed Knox more than it should have. She wasn’t his concern. Neither was the obvious protective bias the local cop seemed to have toward the arrogant man at his back. Still, suspicion stirred inside him.
The officer cleared his throat and tried another tack. “Hell of a storm out there. What brings you to Parrish Falls?”
“Just passing through.”
The dodge earned him a nod and a narrowed look. “Where ya from, son?”
“Here and there.”
Knox found it vaguely amusing that the fifty-something human hadn’t yet clued in on the fact that he was Breed. Nor did he seem to realize that Knox was even more lethal than that.
He’d spent the entirety of his childhood, from birth to his teens, in the laboratory of a madman, being conditioned to kill without a speck of emotion just like the others in the Hunter program. Those hellish beginnings were training for the years he would spend under the collar of the same sadistic lunatic, doing his murderous bidding as one of scores of assassins who’d been bred in the lab.
It had been two decades since Knox and a number of other fortunate Hunters had been freed from their imprisonment in the program. That didn’t mean he’d left his skills behind.
Far from it.
He was still a born-and-bred killer, easily the most lethal creature lurking in this isolated corner of the north Maine woods. Part of him hoped the chickenshit hiding behind the sheriff would give him an excuse to prove it.
“Didn’t notice you drive up in a vehicle tonight,” said the man with the badge and the gun. “Someone drop you off?”
“I walked.”
The man gave him a dubious look. “Where you headed in weather like this?”
Knox shrugged. “Haven’t decided.”
“You sure don’t talk much, do you?”
“Is that a crime in Parrish Falls?”
The sheriff grunted. Behind him, Dwight collected a small measure of courage, enough to scoff as he peered around the smaller, older man who separated him from Knox.
“Disrespect may not get your ass arrested but loitering can. So can being a public nuisance.”
“He’s not loitering,” Leni said. Her gaze met Knox’s and held for a long moment. “I told him he could stay in the diner as long as he likes. I’ve never turned anyone away and I’m not about to start. There’s only one public nuisance in
here tonight and it’s not him.”
Dwight sneered. “Sheriff Barstow, why don’t you arrest this drifter for vagrancy? Maybe he’d prefer to wait out the blizzard in the county jail.”
“You think there’s a cell strong enough to hold me?” Knox spoke past the law officer, staring straight at Dwight. For good measure, he gave him a brief flash of his fangs.
“Holy shit!”
For a big man, it was amazing how fast he was able to leap back. The sheriff retreated a pace too. He held up a hand, which, to his credit, only trembled a little.
“Okay, now. Let’s all relax for a minute.” He spoke slowly, calmly, the way he might if he’d just been thrust into a hostage negotiation. Or a bomb scare. “No one’s getting arrested. And no one wants any trouble here tonight.”
“There doesn’t have to be,” Knox said. “If he apologizes.”
The sheriff glanced pointedly over his shoulder.
“Sorry,” came the muttered, insincere reply from the other end of the diner.
“Not to me.” Knox stared at the man, then nodded in Leni’s direction. “Apologize to her.”
“What the fuck for?”
The sheriff exhaled impatiently. “For God’s sake, Dwight, just do it.”
“Fine. I’m sorry, all right?”
Knox pinned him with a cold look. “Now pay for the coffees and get out of here.”
Dwight glared, but dug into the pocket of his jeans and withdrew a messy handful of crumpled bills and coins. His friend hurried to take out his money too.
“It’s two-fifty each,” Leni reminded them.
“Plus tip,” Knox added.
The men paid up then left, Dwight stomping out the door like an angry bear. The sheriff followed them out and paused with the men near the pickup truck outside.
“Thank you for doing that.” When Knox glanced Leni’s way, he found a small smile tugging at her expressive mouth. “I don’t think anyone’s ever stood up to him before.”
“You mean other than you?”
She lifted her shoulder. “Dwight Parrish doesn’t scare me.”
Knox scowled at the name. Parrish. No wonder the arrogant jackass acted like he owned the town. “What about his brother? Travis. Does he scare you?”
She stared at him for a moment, then dropped her gaze and shook her head. “It’s nothing I can’t handle.”
“You sure?”
She nodded. When her head came back up, her expression was one of pure resolve. “Yeah. I’m sure.”
He had doubts about that. He had questions he wanted to ask. Questions he had no business wondering about, never mind putting into words. And the longer he stood alone with her in the empty diner, the harder it was to ignore the frantic ticking of the pulse point at the base of her smooth throat. Or the desire he had to feel other parts of her under his mouth as well.
Damn. His first order of business as soon as he reached civilization had better be a feeding and a good, hard fuck. Because the craving he had for this intriguing, far too tempting female was licking through him like a wildfire.
“I should go now.”
“Okay. And thank you again.”
He inclined his head. “You take care.”
Her warm smile shot straight to his bloodstream. “You too . . . ah, I’m sorry, don’t even know your name.”
“Knox.”
“Very nice to meet you, Knox. I’m Lenora Calhoun. Most people call me Leni.”
She held her hand out to him. He took it reluctantly, bracing himself for the connection.
Not only because of the desire already spiking through him, but because touching her would also tell him things he had no right to know.
All of her sins, whispered to him through the power of his unique extrasensory ability.
But there was no jolt of revulsion. No hideousness flooding him like a slick of black, putrid oil.
There was only the warmth and honesty of Leni’s smile as she looked at him.
Only the kindness of her intelligent hazel eyes.
“You stay safe out there, Knox.”
He smirked, amused by her concern.
Outside, the roar of the pickup truck’s engine intensified as Dwight Parrish hit the gas pedal and backed out onto the snow-filled road.
Knox let go of Leni’s hand and pulled the hood of his parka up over his head.
Then he headed out to the frigid darkness, bypassing the sheriff as the man returned to the diner.
A hundred miles, give or take, stood between Knox and the Canadian border.
Maybe he’d take the trek slower than planned.
Several hours trudging through the blizzard might be the only way to cool the unwanted fire currently simmering in his blood.
CHAPTER 3
Standing behind the counter as Sheriff Barstow came back inside, Leni watched the swirling snow and darkness swallow Knox up.
She couldn’t tear her gaze away, couldn’t seem to inhale a single breath past the pang in her breast, until he had vanished completely.
And even after he was gone, she had the strangest compulsion to run after him and ask him to stay.
Or beg him to take her with him, no matter where he was headed.
It shocked her that she would even think it.
God, was she really that hard-up and lonely that a few minutes with a handsome drifter could turn her into a quivering puddle?
She probably didn’t want to know the answer. And there was no need to do the math on how long it had been since she’d been in bed with a man. Or hell, since she’d even got within kissing distance of one she liked.
All she had to do was look at six-year-old Riley to be reminded of the length of her self-imposed abstinence. Not that she’d had much experience before the sweet baby boy had been dropped into her life and become her primary focus.
Leni hadn’t given birth to him, but Riley was hers in every way that mattered. He was also the only family she had after her older, troubled half-sister had left town without a word to anyone only a few months after her son had been born.
Leni didn’t regret a minute of her precious nephew’s existence, nor her responsibility to provide a safe and stable, happy life for him. She would never wish him away, but sometimes she did long for more.
Did it make her a bad person that every now and then she just wanted to feel female and sexy? She wanted to feel alive, the way she had under the unsettling, penetrating intensity of Knox’s stormy blue eyes.
Not going to happen. Not in a million years. About the only thing worse than thinking she could trust her heart—or her body—to any man in Parrish Falls or within a hundred-mile radius of the place would be getting involved with someone who was just passing through. Especially when that someone also happened to be Breed.
Knox was the most dangerous kind of male she could crave, and not only because she sensed the cold lethality in him. All it would take was getting naked with him just once for him to realize she wasn’t entirely mortal herself.
It would take far less than that, probably. Because even though the small scarlet teardrop-and-crescent-moon mark she bore on her belly was concealed beneath her flannel shirt and a layer of thermal underwear tonight, there were other things that would give her away soon enough to someone like Knox.
Her singular blood scent. Her imperviousness to physical harm or injury, which was her unique gift as a Breedmate.
So, it was good that he was gone.
Lord knew she had enough problems to deal with already.
Sheriff Barstow collected his keys and gloves from the counter where he’d been seated before the confrontation between Dwight Parrish and Knox. The middle-aged man gave her a rueful shake of his head as he approached the cash register.
“You know, Lenora, the best thing you can do for yourself and that boy is find a way to make peace with the Parrishes.”
“Make peace?” She blew out a short breath as she grabbed a cloth and a bottle of spray cleaner and began wiping dow
n the countertop. “If you’ll recall, I’m not the one who started this war.”
“Maybe not. But do you really want to be the one to escalate it?” Barstow swept a hand over the thinning strands of his grayed comb-over. “I realize you’re not happy about Travis coming home on Saturday.”
“That’s putting it mildly,” she muttered, scrubbing the laminate. “Should I be happy that the man who went to prison for brutalizing my sister seven years ago is getting out early for so-called good behavior?”
“He’s served his time, Lenora. He feels terrible about what happened to Shannon, but he’s said all along that their off-and-on relationship was a volatile one. All due respect, your sister was no angel, either. She was a rebellious, troubled girl.”
“Only after she got involved with Travis.”
“She’d been in and out of rehab most of that year, Leni.”
“Are you really trying to justify what Travis did by blaming Shannon? As if it matters, I know for a fact that she’d been sober for months the night he assaulted her.”
Sheriff Barstow held up his hands. “Be that as it may, according to Travis’s testimony, Shannon struck him first. He had the bruises and scratches to prove it.”
Leni scoffed. “He had bruises and scratches, Amos. Shannon’s skull was fractured in three places. He hit her so hard he almost knocked out her front teeth.”
And despite all of that, her sister hadn’t wanted to press charges. She probably wouldn’t have, but after a trip to the county emergency room with a concussion revealed she was eight weeks pregnant, Shannon had pushed past her fears of retaliation from Travis or his family. All for the safety of her unborn child.
Now that responsibility rested on Leni.
“I’m Riley’s legal guardian,” she reminded the sheriff. “Until my sister comes home again, I’ll decide what’s best for her son. I don’t suppose I’ll be able to count on you to make sure that man doesn’t come anywhere near Riley.”
The sheriff’s furrowed brow and sheepish stare was answer enough. “Travis Parrish is coming home a free man, Leni. So long as he stays on the right side of the law, I can’t prevent him from going anywhere he wants to.”
