by Jane Jamison
Her mouth dropped open. “What does that mean? Do you think your precious stockholders will like it if you’re a single dad? That they’ll think you’re noble for raising her by yourself? What will you tell them? That I deserted her when you’re the one who left us on our own? Or don’t you remember?”
“Hey, that’s not a bad spin on things. Then I won’t have to put up with you, and, once I get the kid shipped away to a boarding school, I’ll have the best of both worlds.” He crossed his arms and glanced toward the sky. “Come on, Stormy. Let’s sit in my car and settle the details. You know this is the way it’s going to be. You know I always get my way.”
“Fuck off. I’ll fight you until the day I die.” Rain wet her hair and dress, but she didn’t care. Nothing mattered except keeping her daughter away from her no-good father.
“A bit dramatic, don’t you think? Aw, well, if this is the way you want it, then so be it. I’ll sue for sole custody.”
“Like hell you will.” She followed him as he stalked toward the black car she’d only now noticed parked several yards away.
“Watch me.”
“But you didn’t even want her! You wanted me to get an abortion.” She stopped, tears of frustration welling in her eyes, but she’d go to hell and back before she let him see her cry. The Malone brothers moved to stand behind her. She could feel their anger and knew she was the only reason they hadn’t jumped C.J.
“Mom?”
She whirled around to find Jazz standing nearby. The stricken look in her big gray eyes tore at Stormy’s heart. “Sweetie, you shouldn’t be out here. Go back inside and get out of the rain. I’ll come talk to you when we’re finished.”
But Jazz shook her head and walked over to stand in front of her father. “You wanted Mom to get an abortion? You wanted her to get rid of me?”
He tried to reach out to her, but she’d have none of it. “Tell me. Did you want to get rid of me?”
“That was a different time and place. I was younger, and who knew if your mom could handle a child then?”
“And now you want me to come and live with you? Just so you can send me away?”
Stormy heard the tremor in Jazz’s voice even as she recognized the steel behind her tone. “Don’t worry about him, honey. We’re good on our own. We always have been and we always will be.”
“Yes, I want you to come and live with me. Jazz, I can give you everything you’ve ever dreamed of. You can have the prettiest clothes and date sons of the wealthiest men in the world. I’ll even let you have a dog. Won’t that be wonderful?”
“She likes horses, you ass.”
Stormy lifted her hand, quelling Ty’s outburst. A low noise behind her sounded like the growling of a dog.
Jazz pulled her body straight and tall. “You want me to come with you so you can please other people. I heard you.”
“Yes and no.” He shot a glare at Stormy then softened his expression when he looked at Jazz again. But his eyes remained cold. “I’m your father. I have a right to my own kid.”
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why do you think you’re my father? Tell me what makes you my dad.”
“I don’t understand what you’re getting at. I’m your dad because I got your mom pregnant with you.” He shook his head, his irritation showing. His mood was as dark as the skies. “Listen, kiddo. Let me take you back to the city. We’ll work everything out once we’re home.”
“This is my home.” Jazz stepped back. “And you’re not my dad.”
“What’s wrong with you? Have you inherited the crazy gene from your nutty mother?”
“You shithead. You’d better get out of here while you can still walk.”
Stormy shook her head, signaling for Rent and his brothers to stay back even though she was ready to tear C.J. apart herself. “Don’t. Stay out of this. I don’t need you or any men to rescue me. This is my fight.”
The growling sounds came again, but the men heeded her wishes. Maybe she should stop Jazz and C.J., but she could sense Jazz had to make a stand. It was her daughter’s turn to fight.
Jazz backed up again. “You didn’t answer the question the right way. A father isn’t some guy that knocked my mother up.”
Stormy’s heart clenched at the sadness in her daughter’s voice. She blinked, fighting back tears as she saw them course down Jazz’s cheek.
“A father is a man who loves his child. And you aren’t that man. I hate you!” Whirling, Jazz dashed off into the darkness.
“Jazz! Don’t leave. Stay close by, please!” Anger surged inside her as she confronted C.J. “You bastard. Stay out of our lives. Can’t you see how upset she is? If you try and get her for yourself, she’s the one who will pay the price. Go back to the city and leave us alone.”
“Like hell I will. I’ll see you in court first.” C.J.’s wicked smile accented the fact that he was certain he’d win. Tipping his head good-bye, he walked away, ignoring her and the men.
“Let’s get him.”
She couldn’t stand it any longer. No man had ever helped her, and she wasn’t about to start relying on one now.
“Shut up!”
Rent’s shocked expression was echoed on his brothers’ faces. “Baby, we have to help you. You’re ours and we’re yours. You’re our woman and we’ll keep you and Jazz safe.”
“No! I don’t need you to ride in and save the day.” She had to have time to think. She wanted them to be part of her life and Jazz’s, but could she dare to let down the wall she’d built to keep her heart safe? How could she know she could trust them with hers as well as Jazz’s?
“Stormy, letting someone help you doesn’t mean you’re letting them control you.” The anger in Rent was gone, replaced by a sadness that struck her hard. “We need each other. Please let us help.”
She almost asked them if she could trust them, but she had to find Jazz first. “Do you really want to help me?” She’d see how much they cared. If they passed the test, then maybe, just maybe, she’d let them in.
“Of course we do.” Ty started to draw closer to her then stopped. “If you want us to.”
“Baby, we don’t want to take over your life or tell you what to do. We don’t want to take over like C.J. does.” Beckett took her hand and started leading her back to the barn.
She swallowed at the sincerity behind his words. “Then what do you want from me?”
“We want you to let us love you.”
They were simple words spoken softly, and although they’d told her they loved her, this time the declaration acted like a battering ram against her defenses. She fell into Beckett’s arms.
But she didn’t have the luxury of crying. She had to find her daughter. “We have to find Jazz.”
“Let’s split up and see if anyone’s seen her.” Ty took Stormy’s hand from Beckett and led her toward the barn. “Rent and Beckett, cover the outside. We’ll meet back here in fifteen minutes.”
“Done.” Beckett went off to the right while Rent headed to the left.
“We have to find her. She’s wet and upset.” Stormy hadn’t wanted to rely on anyone, any man, but having the Malone brothers with her was different. From the first time she’d sensed their connection, she’d felt as though they belonged with her and Jazz. Even the few times they’d seemed to push her, she’d still understood that they were looking after her best interests.
“I won’t tell you not to worry, because I know you will. But we will find her. My brothers and I can pick up her scent.”
“Pick up her scent? What do you think you are? Bloodhounds?”
He wiggled his eyebrows, lightening her mood if only for a moment. “In a manner of speaking. Even in the rain.”
“Ty. Stormy. We found something.”
Rent rushed up to them with Beckett on his heels. “We picked up her trail.”
Ty shrugged. “See? What’d I tell you?”
“Did you find her?”
But Rent dashed
her hope with one shake of his head. “No. But we tracked her to your car. Or at least where we think your car was parked.”
“What do you mean where it was parked? Is it gone?” She gaped at them, what they were saying slowly sinking in. “Are you saying she took my car? But that’s impossible. She’s only fourteen.”
“Does she know how to drive?”
“Of course not, Rent. She’s not old enough.” But then it hit her. “Oh, hell.”
Against her better judgment, she’d let Jazz drive in the dirt yard surrounding the rental house. A lot of kids that grew up in the country learned to drive early so they could help out around the farm driving everything from tractors to pickups. Now she wished she hadn’t taught her.
“Let me check my purse.”
They followed her as she dashed over to the corner spot where most of the women had left their purses. No one in Forever worried that their belongings might get stolen. She snatched up her purse and fished around in the bag.
A sickening feeling swamped her. “My keys are gone.”
Chapter Eight
Rent drove with Stormy next to him and his brothers in the back seat of the pickup. The rain had grown steadily stronger and lightning broke through the darkness every few minutes. He took a corner going faster than he should but still maintained control of the car. But he was second-guessing himself.
Should one or more of them have shifted and searched for Jazz as a wolf? They could’ve covered more ground, ground that they couldn’t take the pickup over. But he hadn’t thought of it. Instead, they’d loaded into the pickup and headed toward Stormy’s rental home.
“I can’t believe she’d take my car.”
He glanced at Stormy. She was doing her best to keep it together, but he could see her frayed nerves in her knitted brow and the way she kept rubbing her palms on the skirt of her dress.
“She was upset and not thinking.” He regretted what he said the moment her eyes widened.
“Oh, damn. You’re right. No one, but especially not an inexperienced teen driver, should be behind the wheel when they’re upset. And certainly not in this storm.”
Great job. Way to make her feel worse.
“These roads don’t get traveled much at night.” Beckett reached over the seat to put his hand on her shoulder. “I’ll bet she’s not going very fast, either. Hell, we’ll catch up to her in no time.”
At least Beckett knows what to say. Then again, as a songwriter, he should.
“Wait a second.”
He gripped the steering wheel tighter. Ty leaned forward. “Are you sure she’d go back home? I’m trying to think like a teen here. If you were angry at one or both of your parents, would you go home?”
“No.” Stormy twisted around to study him. “But where then? To a friend’s house? But everyone she knows was at the dance.”
“I think I know.” Rent stomped on the brake, throwing them forward. He tugged the steering wheel hard to the left and made a U-turn in the road.
“Where are we going?”
“Where else? She’s gone to see Polly. I know she’s only seen her a couple of times, but she was a goner from the first second she laid eyes on that horse.” He was certain. Jazz loved the horse and had felt happy whenever she was near it. “Plus, she may have heard about the new foal, too. What teenage girl could resist seeing a newborn horse?”
A flash of lightning lit up the sky followed by a boom of thunder. Although it was night, Rent could still make out the dark clouds against the night sky. “Let’s hope she went there. The storm’s getting worse.”
He felt Stormy tense and cursed his stupidity under his breath. Flooring the gas pedal, he kept his eyes on the road. He didn’t want to see if she looked even more worried than before he’d opened his big mouth.
Using back roads, he made it to the entry of Half Moon Ranch in less than five minutes. With the pickup bouncing over the ruts in the dirt driveway leading to the house and then to the barn, he pointed at Stormy’s car parked off to the side of the building.
“She’s here.”
“Oh, thank God.”
Stormy slid toward the passenger-side door and had her hand on the handle before he managed to reach out and grab her arm.
“Hold up.”
She yanked her arm, but he held her. “But why? Let me go, Rent.”
“Look.”
“Aw, shit,” added Ty.
Beckett remained quiet, but when Rent caught a glimpse of him in the rearview mirror he could see amber filling his eyes.
“Nooo!” Stormy fought against him, but he pulled her against him. He couldn’t let her get out of the car.
“Take it easy. You might spook them into attacking her.”
Six wild dogs paced back and forth in front of the entrance to the barn. Unlike how they’d left them, the doors were wide open. Jazz stood near the front with a pitchfork in her hand. Her hair was as wild as her eyes. She was so focused on the pack that he doubted she saw them.
“But we have to save her. Please.” Stormy tugged on the front of his shirt. Her face was a mask of pain and fear. “Please save my baby.”
“We will.” Yet as he said the words, the wild dogs started to advance on the brave young girl. She backed up, pitchfork raised to do battle, until she disappeared from sight. The wild dogs padded into the barn in pursuit of her.
He pivoted toward Stormy and took both her arms even as his brothers quietly slid out of the pickup and started taking off their clothes. “Stormy, I want you to remember that what you’re about to see us do doesn’t change things. We’re still the same men who love you.”
Her face was drawn as she tried to understand, but he wasn’t sure if she was capable of comprehending what he said. She’d soon see what he meant anyway.
They loved her more than their own lives. Although she hadn’t said she returned their love, he hoped she’d realize that they were as bound to her as she was to them. But it wasn’t going to be easy. They hadn’t planned on revealing their wolf sides to her like this.
“Stay in the car.”
“No. Jazz needs me.”
He shook her, making her both afraid and angry. He could smell both reactions on her. “If you’ve ever trusted me, trust me now.”
Her gaze shifted past him to Ty and her jaw went slack. “Holy shit.”
Turning her loose, he unbuttoned the top button of his shirt, opened his door, and slid out. He closed it quietly then shucked his clothes. Ty continued to transform and went down on all fours.
Her eyes were large ovals as she scooted over to the window and gaped at his brother. A second before the change hit Rent, he touched the window and whispered, “Remember. We would never hurt you or Jazz.”
The shift morphed through him as she looked on, twisting back and forth to watch him and Beckett change on opposite sides of the pickup. The world around him changed color and even the flashes of lightning in the sky became amber colored. He dropped to the ground as the fur spread over him and claws erupted from his newly formed paws.
Shaking the transformation through him, he padded to the front of the pickup and waited for his brothers to come to his side. Once they did, he growled a warning then led them toward the barn.
* * * *
Stormy sat in the pickup, unable to move. Had she seen what she thought she’d seen?
They’re werewolves.
But that was impossible. Her gaze lifted from the dashboard of the truck to the barn entrance.
Jazz.
Werewolves, wild dogs, and the devil himself wouldn’t keep her from her daughter. She propelled her body out of the pickup and ran toward the barn. If she was too late to save Jazz, she’d never forgive herself.
Only a few feet more.
She screamed, more out of surprise than anything else, as four of the wild dogs burst out of the darkness of the barn and rushed past her. Their eyes were wild and their tongues lolled from their mouths. Blood covered their muzzles as well as their fur
.
She stood stock-still until they passed her then took off running again. Please, please, please. Her heart was in her throat as she slid to a stop.
Jazz stood next to the foal and its mother, the bloodied pitchfork in her hand. Three large wolves stood over the dead bodies of the two remaining wild dogs. The dead canines’ mouths and paws were covered in blood.
She stared at them, watching them carefully as she crept by to hurry over to Jazz. She ran her palms along her body, searching for any signs of injury. “Did they hurt you? Are you bitten?”
But Jazz was anything but afraid. Still, she dropped the pitchfork and hugged her mother. “Did you see me, Mom? I fought them off. And I got one, too. He didn’t die, but he ran off.”
Relief shuddered through her. “No, I didn’t. I was outside with…”
With who? With the Malone brothers? With werewolves? But weren’t they one and the same?
She turned toward the wolves, ready to ask that question, and found that they’d gone. “Where’d they go?”
“They ran outside.” Jazz shook her shoulders. “It’s okay, Mom, they didn’t hurt me. They attacked the dogs and helped me save the foal. Does that mean I can name him?”
“I don’t know, honey. You’ll have to ask—”
A loud boom shook the walls around them as an overhead beam came crashing down. A tree that had been hit by lightning struck the roof, tearing open a huge hole. A large branch consumed in flames split apart from the trunk of the tree and dropped to the barn floor.
Jazz screamed as the flames leapt toward them. Stormy backed her child up as far as they could go into the stall as she scanned the area around them, hunting for a break in the fire. But the fire had already spread too fast, cornering them. She held Jazz to her and realized the terrible truth. They were trapped.
The horses kicked and whinnied in their stalls, fear making them desperate to escape. Moving out of the way of the mare and her foal, Stormy put her body in front of Jazz, ready to take a blow if the frightened mare kicked out.
