The waitress scowled at him but did as she was told. Damesha picked through the pile of fries, wishing the man would just leave. Annie sat at her knee, looking up at her mistress with the hopes that a fry would fall from heaven for her.
“I guess you got some white in you somewhere or are those some kind of new contacts?” The man was rude, not just with his question but in his actions as he placed a foot on the bench beside Damesha and leaned over his knee. Staring down into her eyes, he turned his head several different ways, his eyes wrinkling at the sides as he squinted at her.
For her part, Damesha tried to avoid being so close to such bad breath. She slid further away from him, the vibes coming off of him making her physically sick. Something wasn’t right with this man, not right at all, and that knowledge shook her deeply.
“One of my great grandmothers was Nordic,” she responded politely as she took a bite of the burger she’d ordered, determined to show no fear. Even if she had to gag the burger down.
“Interesting. So how long are you going to be in town, little lady?” He was doing that classic cop-thing of rocking on his feet with his thumbs in his gun belt that always seemed to show up on classic cop shows. It was a pose meant to intimidate and remind the viewer the cop had a gun that he could use without qualm.
“That’s enough, Pete, let the woman eat in peace. Go on now. You have better things to do,” a deep voice, gravelly and low, said from behind the man. The man walked into view and Damesha saw he was in his early thirties, and his handsome face was dark with anger. Obviously, he didn’t like the way the policeman was treating her.
“I’m speaking to this here woman, Kane. Mind your own…” The man’s face flushed when the taller man stepped up to the cop and his head dropped. “Yeah, I need to see what Marla needed.”
“Tired of no account people coming into this town,” the sheriff muttered but not to himself.
“That is more than enough, Pete,” the man named Kane said. The sheriff stiffened. Kane’s tone was made of steel, hard and cold. The policeman got in his car and drove away.
Damesha tried to keep her eyes from going round in wonder as she got a good look at the man the cop called Kane. Suddenly, Annie shot out from under the table where she’d been hiding and started licking at the handsome man’s hand. He was tall, well over six foot, with black hair and tanned skin. He wore faded jeans with a well-worn black t-shirt and scuffed cowboy boots.
“Annie, stop that, it’s rude!” Damesha pulled gently at Annie’s lead but the dog was determined.
“It’s fine and actually, Pete there was rude. I think Annie’s just saying hello.” The man smiled down at Damesha and she saw his full rosy lips hid a set of straight white teeth. His voice was soft, though low, and a gentle air exuded from him. Beneath it all was tempered steel, but he was gentle with Damesha. She could feel herself relaxing already. Everything felt quiet around him. Peaceful.
“Would you like to sit with me? I could use a friendly face, and Annie seems to like you.” The man knelt down to pet Annie and the two were happily getting to know each other. Annie pawed at his hands as they scratched her long floppy ears. Annie was in heaven.
“Ah, you’re one of those that sees the sense of dogs. If a dog doesn’t like someone right off the bat there’s usually a good reason for it.” The handsome dark-haired man gave Damesha a smile and she felt her heart bounce around in her chest.
“Annie’s been a good judge so far. I trust her opinion. Have a seat, I don’t think Annie’s going to let you go now.” She waved at a seat next to her and watched as Annie continued to lap up the attention happily.
Damesha noted as the man sat down that instead of the requisite cowboy hat the man had a ball cap in his back pocket. A fan of all genres of music, Damesha had noted in recent years that somewhere along the way country boys had gone from cowboy chic in Wrangler jeans and checked shirts to jeans that hugged their bottoms and tight black t-shirts. She thought of it as mechanic chic, a carefully studied air of not caring but making sure you showed off your assets.
Still, the man was well-spoken, polite, and had a breath-taking grin. It’s what prompted her to invite him to sit with her, that gorgeous smile of his. She reminded herself she hadn’t come to Kansas looking for love but to do research. Her gut told her to forget about it for a moment, this handsome fellow deserved a conversation. On top of that, her senses, her psychic buzz that sometimes made being in crowds all but painful, was quiet at the moment, something that rarely happened. Damesha almost felt normal, whatever that meant.
“Do you often go around playing knight in shining, well black and denim, armor?” she teased as he took a seat on the bench across from her.
“Only when it’s deserved. Pete’s a bit of a douchebag, pardon me, but he is.” Kane gave a rueful smile and laughed. “I think it’s time for some new blood on the local police force. He thinks he owns the place.”
“I’m sure he’s just looking out for his people. Although, he really didn’t need to be so rude or ask me about my eyes.” Damesha had been looking into his black eyes, wondering why she was so drawn to this man that was so obviously used to being obeyed, even if his orders came softly. He was obviously an alpha male, and usually, that repulsed her. Something drew her to this man, though.
“They are beautiful eyes, though it’s obvious how you got them, if I may say so,” he responded with a low chuckle. “I bet you get asked about them often.”
Damesha wished she’d worn more than a long t-shirt and her leggings as the man made her smile, but stopped worrying about it. He put her at ease. Somehow she knew this man was a defender, a kind man, though there was a glint of the rebel twinkling from those oddly dark eyes. And Annie loved him, she was between his legs, adoring him as he petted her, tongue lolling out happily as she blinked at Damesha in a “I know you’re jealous” kind of way.
The waitress came and took Kane’s order and they talked happily as Damesha ate. Kane insisted she finish her food before it went cold. She watched his hands as he stroked Annie, using his hands to punctuate his explanations. She liked how expressive he was. She also liked that they were so at ease with each other. They’d only just met but sitting with Kane was like sitting down with an old friend she hadn’t seen in years.
Her eyes twinkled at him happily, and she began to respond to him, becoming at ease as she told him why she’d come to Kansas.
“I’m a writer, I write historical anthologies and biographies of little-known African-Americans throughout history. I’m here to research a former slave from Louisiana, a woman from the Civil War era. She came to Kansas after running away with a group of slaves because it was a free state.” She stopped to take a sip of her iced tea.
“Oh wow! Intelligent, beautiful, and creative! Poor Pete would have asked you out if he wasn’t such a racist.” Kane gave a chuckle, the light sound letting her know he’d spoken without malice.
“Men like him are a dime a dozen. I can’t say I’ll ever get used to it but I’ve learned how to respond in a manner that keeps everything calm.” Damesha felt a bit uncomfortable talking to a stranger about the issue, but Kane was different.
Damesha had dated quite a few men in her life but nothing serious and she’d quickly left them in the past. The way Kane looked at her was somehow different.
“That’s just not right, not how you should have to live at all.”
“That’s life. You either accept it and get on with life, or you explode and cause yourself more problems than it’s worth.” Damesha cut herself off as the waitress brought out the most delicious Buffalo wings she’d ever smelled.
“These smell gorgeous!” she said as he picked one up.
“I tell you what, meet me back here later and I’ll buy you all of them you can eat.” He looked at her with a question in his eyes.
“Sure.” She didn’t even have to think about it. She’d never considered eating chicken, or with your fingers to be sexy but she felt a quiver low in her bel
ly as she watched him eating. Sensual and slow, his movements had her enthralled.
“Great. You staying over at the motel?” Kane pointed across the street at a rundown but clean motel.
“I guess I am. I’m Damesha by the way.” She realized they hadn’t introduced themselves yet and held out her hand. With a laugh she pulled it back, his hands were covered in orange sauce.
“I’m Kane Alexander. Nice to meet you, Damesha.” He gave her a happy smile and went back to eating. Damesha had almost got in her car and drove off after the incident with the policeman, but she was glad she’d stuck around. This Kane Alexander was intriguing.
Chapter 2
Damesha and Kane spent the afternoon at the restaurant, sitting under the umbrella as the sun moved across the sky. Though she was normally quite private, Kane coaxed her life story out of her. She told him about the hard-luck choices of parents, how they’d both ended up in prison, as they walked Annie then went back to their table.
“Mom took the fall for the man that fathered me and died of a drug overdose in prison. Dad fell off the face of the earth and it was left to my grandmother, to raise the baby girl my mother had left behind. I was two when my mother died. My grandmother is the only mother I can actually remember.” She had told the story so often for scholarship boards and magazines that the words came out almost monotone now, as though she was reading out loud from some other person’s story, not her own.
“My parents never married so I have her last name, same as my grandmother’s. She used to put me to sleep with stories from the past. We lived in a pretty rough part of Brooklyn, Grams kept me on the straight and narrow and steered my future with those stories.” Damesha’s eyes had taken on a faraway look as she remembered the large, loving woman her grandmother had been.
“What was she like?” Kane asked, his eyes gleaming with curiosity.
“Oh, she was beautiful, wonderful. In her early days she’d been a jazz singer, and was quite famous for a while, but music is fickle. She bought her apartment and saved the rest. She was still getting royalty checks but they grew smaller over the years. We struggled, but we made it. Instead of hanging out on the streets at night, I studied. I wrote stories and got myself a college scholarship. Then I left Brooklyn. Now, a few years later, here I am. I’m not rich but I’m not doing bad.” Damesha looked down at her hands on the table. Writer’s hands, long and limber from all the typing she did.
“Not bad at all. Wow. What a tale!” Kane wanted to know more about this beautiful woman. It wasn’t just a physical beauty that drew him, he realized, it was something inside her; a strength, and a sense of dignity. He knew those were important to her.
His family would not approve of his liking an outsider. Kane gave off an air of genteel poverty, a man fallen on hard times, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. And he knew a thing or two about the woman Damesha was researching.
“I’ll tell you what, I know the homestead this woman, Elspeth Fighter as we know her, built when she came here. She came just at the end of the Border Wars, when the people of Kansas were still fighting over the state being a state free of slaves, where people were truly allowed to be free. She came to this area because it was barely settled, hoping for some peace. I can talk to the family that owns the property, see if they’ll let you view it.” Kane wanted to help her but he also wanted to see her again. He really enjoyed her company and didn’t care if his family approved or not.
“So she changed her name! That’ll be why we lost track of her. She was known as Effie Beauchamp in Louisiana. Oh, I’d love to see the house!” Damesha had been stunned to learn the woman had changed her name and hadn’t immediately answered Kane’s question.
The woman, Effie, had disappeared when she came to Kansas. There were reports that she’d made it to the area but not much about what had happened to her once she’d arrived. Damesha had suspected she’d changed her name but couldn’t find out what the new name was. That was part of the reason she had come to Kansas, to find out what happened to the woman that led over a dozen slaves out of the swamps and into Kansas. It was a great tale to tell, but she needed to know what happened to her once she arrived in a state still reeling from its own terrifying war over the issue of slavery.
Damesha was amazed that one of the first people she’d spoken to about the woman had filled in the blank. Now she not only knew the woman’s name, but was going to visit her house. Descendants of the slaves Effie had led out of Louisiana had given the name of the town but had known little about what happened to her. Most had moved on, uncomfortable in a state not sure about the status of the people that escaped to it for freedom.
“So do you know what happened to her? Did she survive? What kind of life did she have?” Damesha reached into her handbag for her phone to record Kane as she asked him questions.
He saw the voice recorder go on and didn’t protest so she left it rolling. Damesha smiled at him gratefully.
“She had a family and advocated for abolition. That made life hard sometimes, the homestead is actually the third one she built. The first two were burned to the ground, but she survived.”
Damesha’s visible shock told him she would be investigating more about the matter. “Life wasn’t easy back then for anybody, but especially those that bucked the trend. Elspeth definitely did that.”
“It sounds like you knew her.” Damesha’s eyes were tender, curious.
“No, but I’ve heard a lot about her. She was a truly pioneering woman.” Kane’s voice trailed off as he stared off into the distance.
Damesha realized the sun had gone down and flushed with embarrassment.
“Oh dear, I’ve taken up all of your day. I hope you didn’t have anything important on?”
“Not really. I was just going to go out and check some fences. It’ll keep.” His brother would be pissed, but the older Alexander brother would just have to get over it.
“I guess I need to head next door and get a room. Thank you for everything today. You’ve, well, you’ve really been a huge help in so many ways.”
“Glad to be of service. Here’s my cell number, give me a buzz when you get ready in the morning and I’ll meet you here. And maybe tomorrow night we can get that dinner?” He gave her a teasing smile that made her knees wobble a little as she stood.
“I’d love to! I’m just going to take Annie for a walk and settle into my room for the night. I’ll definitely call you in the morning.” She gave him a happy grin and shook his hand before he walked to his truck. An old beat up thing, the truck had seen better days. Damesha didn’t care if the man was poor or not, she liked him.
With a happy little wiggle, she gathered up her things, paid her bill, and settled Annie into the car to drive across the road. An hour later she was writing in her blog about her day, Annie had been fed and walked and was happily napping at her feet on the bed. All was well with the world.
After days of driving and long nights of sleeplessness, Damesha settled into the comfortable bed with a dreamy smile. Annie, not content to sleep at Damesha’s feet, scurried up from the bottom of the covers and plonked herself beneath Damesha’s chin.
Damesha resettled them both and sighed in contentment. Her hair was still wet from a very hot shower, and all she wore was a towel. The memory of Kane’s warm, tingle-inducing voice played in her head and she thought about turning on the recording she’d made earlier just to hear it one more time. That led to a thought about calling Kane to come over and him catching her still in the towel, but fell asleep before she could even reach for the phone. The final thought led to some naughty dreams though.
Damesha had breakfast with Kane the next morning and, same as the night before, did a lot of laughing. They ate outside under the umbrella once more and Annie was a very happy girl because she had her own plate of bacon. Soon, they were driving out to the homestead and Kane was telling Damesha about the place.
“It’s kept by her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, but there is
n’t much property left. Over the years the current owners of the ranch bought up parcels until all that was left was just the house. They signed an agreement with the family that they’d all work to maintain Elspeth’s memory and her home. It’s an important part of local history and national history.”
Damesha was pleased Kane sounded like he really cared about the place. They bounced as the truck wound its way up a long and very bumpy dirt road. The windows were down and the sun bright, a perfect summer day, unlike in New York where you could sit in your apartment in a sweater if you wanted to run the air conditioner to death. Damesha pulled her shoulder-blade length hair back, tying it up.
She watched the scenery going by and patted Annie as the dog pushed across her lap to shove her nose out the window. The dog lapped happily at the rush of air and they all rode in comfortable silence until the homestead came into view.
Weathered boards, maintained but aged to a silver gray, decorated the house in clapboard fashion. Two stories tall, the house was oddly narrow but there were windows on each side of the house.
“She didn’t need much but light was one requirement,” Kane said as he pulled up to the house. “We put sealer on the wood but Elspeth never painted the house so we don’t either.”
“You work for the family?” Damesha asked as she got out, already taking pictures.
Kane scratched at his head, pushing his ball cap back for a moment and then gave an affirmative sound. “Something like that, yeah. Let me show you the inside.”
Damesha missed the awkward moment, too enthralled with the house. To the modern eye it wasn’t much, she’d seen barns that were better constructed but there was something about the house, sitting out here on its own with a large willow tree in the front yard. She wondered if children had swung from its branches. Annie followed Damesha around and into the house with a questioning sound.
“We’re just staying for a little while, baby. Let’s have a look around.” Damesha calmed the puppy and moved through the house. Four rooms on the bottom, four on top, sparsely decorated but clean and free of dust.
Kane (Alexander Shifter Brothers Book 1) Page 2
