When Michelle woke up, she reached for Emmie. It wasn’t often that Michelle would reach for her when Olivia was in the room. But when she was on her lap, the baby patted her lap so Olivia would sit with her too. Emmie held the two of them like this until she realized they’d both fallen asleep in her arms. It was an amazing feeling to have someone trust you so much as to not have any trouble falling asleep while you were on guard.
Kylan came home just as the girls were waking up. They’d played in the snow today and were worn out, she told him, and that was why they were dozing again. Olivia went to Kylan first, hugging him and telling him how glad she was that he was home. Michelle, with her newfound way of getting around, crawled to her daddy and climbed up his leg so he’d pick her up. And as usual, when he left them, he’d come back bearing treats for all three of them and suggested that they go out to dinner. He said he wanted to show off his girls.
Neither of them mentioned the young woman he’d gone to save. Nor did he talk about the family over dinner. However, when they got home, and both of the girls were put to bed, he told her everything they’d done for her. Also how when he and Bryant had left, Rowan was sitting up in bed but still very weak.
“However, I’m betting in no time at all she’ll be up and around. Her brother said she wasn’t one to be idle. I can see that about her.” She asked him if they’d found out any more about the shooting. Kylan shook his head and told her what he’d done. “Doctor Fleming had one of the bullets she’d not turned over to the police yet. I asked her if I could take it home with me to give to Fisher. He can touch things and figure out where they’ve been and who had them last. I stopped by there on the way home. He said he’d come by when he had something.”
The two of them were headed to bed when Kylan paused on the stairs. She went back to him, sure it was bad news when he smiled at her. Wrapping his arm around her, then picking her up, he took her to their room while he told her what he’d just heard.
“Not only is Rowan awake, but demanding food. I told the doctor she may well be hungry and to make sure she had plenty of fresh juices and fruit to eat and drink.” Emmie asked him who had notified him. “Bryant. He left his number with her when we left. I did as well, but she said with having an infant in the house, she’d call me only if necessary. I did tell her we have the most amazing daughters in the world.”
When she came out of the bathroom, Kylan still had his phone in his hand but was asleep. When she’d told him about the article she read about the Bronson family, he told her he’d read it. She smiled as she took the phone out of his hand and covered him up.
Slipping down the hallway to check on the girls, they were both asleep too. Emmie was headed back to her room when she realized it was only ten thirty. Going downstairs to work just a little bit more, she laughed at herself before she got halfway down the stairs.
Getting into bed with Kylan, she told herself she needed to be rested up for tomorrow. That she could work anytime. Closing her eyes, she felt her body relax in degrees and knew she was more tired than she’d thought. She was asleep in no time.
Whatever had woken her had her sitting up in bed. Emmie hadn’t had any bad dreams in a long time and wondered what had dragged her from her sleep. Looking around the room, then reaching out beyond it, she touched lightly on her daughters to find them both asleep. Getting up, she looked out the window before going to see what had awakened her.
The man in the yard didn’t scare her. She was afraid for him, however. He was in heavy clothing, or he was a large man, the fresh snow making him stand out brilliantly in the moonlight. Trying something she’d never done before, Emmie reached to his mind to see what was going on with him. He looked around as if he knew someone was touching his head, then he looked up at the window where she was.
He couldn’t see her. Emmie was sure of that. Studying his face, she thought him to be kind of old but not as old as her dad. As he started walking around the yard again, she could almost see him talking to himself. Or another person. When someone touched her mind, she squeaked a little before remembering that no one could hear her up here either.
It’s Nathan. The pack leader. She asked him if he saw the man in her yard. I have—we have. We’re not sure who he is, but he’s not really doing anything to harm anyone. I was just about to run him off when he looked up at your windows. Is Kylan back?
He is. I didn’t wake him. Do you want me to? He said he’d like that, and she shook Kylan’s arm to let him know someone was in the yard. Nathan spoke to him right away. “Are you going out there?”
“Yes. I think I might know who he is. If I ask you to stay up here, will you? I’m going to give the man some food.” She just looked at him. “I did have to ask. He’s an elderly gentleman that usually lives in town in one of the abandoned buildings. But there is a business in the one he likes to stay in.”
“Mine?” He nodded as he pulled on his pants and socks. “Bring him in the house, Kylan, and I’ll give him something he can take with him too. Also, he can sleep here if he wants.”
“He won’t. He’ll say how nice it was of you to tell him he could, how you treated him like a real person, but he won’t. I’ll point out that he can stay in the barn, that it’s warmer than the buildings that are left downtown.”
She dressed herself and made her way to the kitchen. It was usually full of things like luncheon meats, but as soon as she entered, she saw their cook, Apple June there.
“I’m making him some soup in a big thermos I found.” She was sure there hadn’t been a thermos of any kind until she made it but didn’t say anything. “Would you mind if I gave him some of those old blankets that were out in the barn before it was cleaned out? They’re not doing us any good, don’t you think?”
“I think that’s a wonderful idea.” As the two of them worked on getting him something to sleep in and food, Nathan and Kylan brought the man into the house. Emmie started to smile at the older man when she froze. She knew him. “What’s your name? Please?”
“I knows you, miss. You’re that little girl that was hurt powerfully by them people. The Landry ones.” She nodded and had to sit down. “I heard tell you were here now. You marrying up one of the Prince men, you done all right with yourself. Are you all right?”
“I just never thought to see you again.” He stepped closer to her, and she stood up. “You saved my life that day. Had you not helped me when that gun went off, I would have died.”
Putting his fingers on the scar at her cheek, she let him. Tears rolled down both their cheeks as they just stared at each other. When he said he’d been wondering about her, she put her hand over his and asked him if he was all right.
“Right as rain. Right as rain. I got me a nice place here with your mister.” She glanced at Kylan, then back at the man. “You sure did purty up, you did. Those men, they’re dead too, ain’t they?”
“Yes. I never knew your name. You—” She looked at Kylan and the others in the room with them. “I was shot by one of the bullets that killed the two of them in that basement. I thought I was going to die. The bullet went through the bottom of my chin and out of my cheek. I stumbled into this man’s box, hiding from them. I didn’t know they were dead by then.”
“She was a mess then. Naked and bleeding. Her face beaten up so badly it was small wonder she only fell into my box that day.” The man, his name still unknown to her, sat down at the table when the soup was given to him. “I used a little of what I am to stop the bleeding, then I fixed her up with a towel. Couldn’t do much more for her. The police, they can be a might picky about stuff like that. Come on now, sit with me a spell.”
All of them sat down to listen to the story she’d never told anyone else. Not the police. Not her dad. No one knew what this man had done for her. She reached for his other hand while he ate and spoke.
“I went back to find you but didn’t know where you were. My eyes were swol
len shut when I escaped, and I didn’t know where I’d found you. Then you made it so I’d not be bleeding anymore from my face and opened one of my eyes. I was able to not just find my way to the police station but could see your face. You have no idea how many times over the years I looked for you.” He laughed and told her he was here now. “You’re not going to leave me again. I want you to stay here with me and my family.”
“You’re a good girl, but I can’t no more sleep in a house than I can eat a steak anymore. No, I’ll stay in your barn. That way, I can keep an eye on you and have me some quiet sleeping too.” He looked at Kylan. “You’re a good man, Kylan. A good one. You got yourself a fine wife here too.”
“I know that.”
After he was escorted to the barn, she sat in the kitchen, waiting on Kylan to return. He’d still not told her his name, and she was hoping he’d tell Kylan.
When he came back, all he did was shake his head. “He said he’s always wanted a good mystery to go with him. He said if he’s around, he’ll tell you tomorrow. I’ve known him for years, and I don’t know it either.”
After going to bed a second time, Emmie felt good. The man who had saved her was now safe too. Closing her eyes, sleep took her quickly and without any dreams.
Chapter 9
Kylan got up as soon as he knew it was close to sunrise. Dressing himself, feeling the urgency to get to the barn, he walked through the open door in time to see the man standing at the other end with the doors open already. Not bothering with niceties, he spoke to him, knowing everything there was to know about him.
“You step out into the sun, and I will tell her what a coward you are. Not only that but how you murdered your own wife.” He told him he’d done no such thing. “Didn’t you? Didn’t you hire someone to change you both into what you are today without her permission? In fact, she told you she didn’t want to live forever. That she wanted to die when she was supposed to, and not have to hang around after all her friends were gone.”
“She had no friends I approved up.” He turned toward him. “Don’t you see what is going on here? Do you have any idea how much I’ve hated myself since that fateful day? You don’t understand.”
“Oh, I understand plenty. I know that you killed Mildred as if you’d shoved her into the sun with your own hands that morning. That instead of keeping all you’d acquired, you lost it all while you lay slumbering in rest after being changed. Your children, they were not nearly as—what did you call it?—special as you thought them to be. Both of them are dead too, aren’t they?” Nodding, he stood in the open door but wasn’t stepping out into the sun. “I won’t give her that letter either. You don’t deserve her forgiveness any more than you do from your own family. You, sir, have become just the sort of nightwalker everyone fears. A monster.”
“I didn’t know what they were when I left them there. I hadn’t any idea that—” Kylan told him not to lie to him again. “I knew then. Are you happy to hear that? But I thought they’d change somehow. With us to scare them, they’d give up their ways.”
“However, you never got around to it, did you? You just went around to everyone you knew, stealing from them and having a good time. Then you found yourself living in a box, afraid that someone would find you while resting and you’d die. Then my wife came along.” He nodded, no longer looking outside the door. The sun had crested now, so it was up to him if he wanted to stand there and listen to his crimes. “Did you know who had raped her when you saved her life?”
“No. Not until a bit later. I mean, when she joined me in the box, I thought I’d been given a nice little tasty treat. When I saw that she was bleeding, all I could think about was that my meal was going to die before I could have at her. She was naked, you know.” Kylan said nothing. “Well, just as I was ready to take her throat out anyway, I smelled her. It was them. My son and grandson.”
Kylan knew the story because when Emmie had had another bad dream, he’d held her. Each image had come to him as she saw them. But it was after she’d gone to sleep that he touched the mind of the man in the barn.
“You didn’t just happen upon her tonight, did you? You came here to see if she’d figured out that not only were you related to the two men, but you were going to kill her anyway.” Again he nodded. “Answer me, you bastard. Say it.”
“I was going to kill her as soon as I found her. It’s not like she has done anything with her life. What sort of person becomes an attorney and a truck driver? And that father of hers. He should have been put down when he first started being a burden. I was thinking of taking her for a few days, having some fun, then killing her. Just like them other two had started.”
Kylan wanted to kill him. To shift into his tiger and tear him apart. But there was more that he was going to discuss with the man. To tell him about the girl he so eagerly wanted to kill. Leaning against the door on his side, he calmed his beast, the tiger within, while he thought of what he was going to say next.
“She had a child. Your great-granddaughter.” That got his attention, but Kylan couldn’t tell if it was good or bad. Reaching into his head, he could see that he didn’t believe him. “Her name is Olivia. She had her at fourteen. Olivia is now the same age her mother was when she gave birth to her. All alone, except for the father you so willingly would have taken from her too.”
“You lie.” Pushing his memories of Olivia into the man’s head, he watched as he staggered, then fell to the floor. Blood seeped from his eyes. “She’s beautiful. Simply beautiful.”
“Yes. She is.” The back door opened, and he knew who had joined him. Since she didn’t show herself, he didn’t bother speaking to Olivia just yet. “Not only is she the most beautiful creature I’ve ever seen next to her mother, but she’s brilliant. Also, not one you’d want to fuck with, as she’s more powerful than you would ever hope to be.”
“I want to see her.” Kylan said it wasn’t up to him. “Yes, it is, you moron. She’ll do what you tell her. You bring her out here so I can see her. She’s my great-granddaughter, damn it.”
“I doubt very much she’d want to be anything to you when she finds out what else I know about you. You’re the monster that I’ve called you. The man who not only fathered her grandda, who kidnapped her, but was grandfather to the man who turned out to be her father. The child molesters, all of you, who should have been killed long ago when you started to have your way with children.” He told him he didn’t do that anymore. “It wasn’t for lack of trying, was it, Herbert Landry? You can no longer get to them. Children are much smarter than they used to be. Savvy about old men trying to lure them into their homes. Tell me, Herbert, how does it feel to know that had you killed Emmie, you would have ended the life of her child? Does that make you feel like a big man? Like someone that should be allowed to roam the streets at night?”
He could sense Olivia’s anger, no longer confused as to why he was there, but understanding dawning on her quicker than it had him. When Emmie joined her little girl, he knew Olivia had called to her. It was time to get the man’s true story out where they could hear his confession. Before he could ask him something, however, Herbert started talking.
“My Mildred knew what sort of monsters we was. She called the police on me so many times it’s a wonder they didn’t take her more serious.” He looked at him. “I had hoped when I had us changed, she’d be a little easier to live with. But damned if she didn’t just go on out and meet the sun, just days after she heard that her boy had been killed and what he’d been up to when it happened.”
“Yes, I can well imagine she had it in her head that you’d kill your son and his offspring when they started taking up where you left off. But you did nothing, as you had your entire human life. You killed them all—you know that, don’t you? Your son, grandson, and wife. Just because you thought you knew so much more than they did. And since the police never caught on that you were taking children and molesti
ng them, that made it all right.” Kylan laughed bitterly. “I’m so glad you knew nothing of Olivia. There is no telling what that child might have had to endure while you were hanging around her all the time. Knowing you, you might well have done to her what your son did to my wife. You deserve nothing from them.”
“Damn you. I want you to tell her to get her ass out here. I have a right to know my own great-grandchild.” Olivia, with her mom, came from the corner of the barn and stared at the man. “Come closer, please? I want to have a good look at you. From here, you’re the spitting image of my dear wife.”
“Who I’m betting I would have liked a great deal more than I do you. You’re nothing to me.” Olivia looked at her mother and then at Kylan before staring at Herbert. “I wouldn’t come any closer to you even if you were chained up like the animal you are.”
“You have no right to say things like that to me. Why, if I was closer to you, I’d surely beat your ass for that.” She moved, not that he saw her moving, but Olivia was suddenly in front of Herbert with him lifted up off the ground. “What the hell are you doing to me? Let me go this minute. Damn it, Kylan, let me go.”
“I’m not touching you. Nor am I the one holding you there. That would be my daughter.” Putting his arm around Emmie, he pulled her closer to him, needing not just her touch but her scent to calm him. “I told you, did I not, that she was stronger than you? Whatever she does to you right now is less than you deserve. Christ, to think at one time I felt sorry for you.”
Kylan: Prince of Tigers – Paranormal Tiger Shifter Romance Page 13
