by Joss Wood
BoredWife: Then you would have no nuts left. Mary Kellman destroyed at least one when you tried to cop a feel at senior prom.
***
He hated autumn, Kai thought as he banged through the side door at Caswallawn and ran up the back stairs to his office. He shrugged out of his jacket and glared at the rapidly descending darkness outside his window. In the last hour the splatters of rain had turned to a hard, cold drizzle, and his clients had looked at him like he was batshit insane when he suggested that they continue with the program, and demanded to know why.
Because, he’d explained, war doesn’t stop for the weather.
They weren’t at war, they’d whined, and would far prefer to “bond” in a warm bar. Kai couldn’t argue with that, so he’d let them go.
Thank God this stupid day was over. Except that it wasn’t, he suddenly remembered. In an hour or so he had to meet with Jane’s daughter. Jane Pike. God, it had been forever since he’d thought about her, mostly because he rarely looked back. In many ways his life had started when he’d joined the Navy, and the rough thug he’d been before that had little in common with the man he was today. He liked it that way.
Kai rubbed the back of his neck, clearly remembering Jane’s words from the letter. They’d practically been branded into his brain.
It’s pancreatic cancer, Kai, and it’s not good. I probably have a couple of weeks, a few months. My fault for all the crap I shoved into my body when I was a kid.
I don’t want that life for Tally, don’t want her anywhere near it. That’s why I’m writing you . . .
You once pulled me out of a dangerous and dismal situation and since you managed to do that, it was a no-brainer that you could keep an eye on Tally, who is so much more together than I ever was. There’s nobody I trust more with my precious daughter than you, Kai. I trusted you when you were a street punk so I know I can still trust the good, successful man you are today.
Good? He didn’t think so. If anything, he was even more fucked up than before. He had money, sure, and he was successful, but he wasn’t good or kind or anything a grieving teenager needed. And, God, the kid was grieving, trying so damn hard to be brave. He recognized the defiant look on her face, the hard-ass attitude.
I can do this alone, even if every day scares the shit out of me. I can get through this, if I keep my concentration . . . and if I keep everyone out. Because I can’t be weak and I can’t break down, because if I do I might never stand up again. If I let one more person in and that person hurts me, I’ll just curl up and die.
Kai looked at his messy desk and sighed. He should be working. He hadn’t picked up his emails today, and neither had he touched the long list of tasks Sawyer had left him. But instead of sitting his ass down and getting on with it, he just jammed his hands into the pockets of his cargo pants and stood by the window, watching the day disappear.
Kai knew kids like Tally. God, he’d been a kid like Tally. Harder, maybe, maneuvering his way through a tougher world but, essentially, as alone, as troubled. The Navy had saved him, but who would save her if he didn’t? He didn’t want to. In fact, he wished that he could rewind the hours and rewrite the script of his life, but he couldn’t, so he’d have to deal. And Tally would have to deal with having him in her life. But, God, how was he going to tackle this? Where did he start? He didn’t know anything about teenage girls. The last time he’d had anything to do with them he’d been a teenager himself, and only concerned about getting into their pants. He hadn’t even picked up that Tally had been scared to be alone with him. Flick had realized that, had steered him in the right direction.
And speaking of problems, how the hell was he going to keep ignoring Flick? He’d stepped into the conference room earlier and it had taken one look for his cock to stand up and salute. He still wanted her, wanted her hot and wet around him, wanted to hear her breathless moans in his ear as he sucked her nipples, her sexy groan as he pushed into her.
Staying away from her was nearly impossible. They’d agreed not to complicate their lives any further, but as far as he was concerned, his life was suddenly complicated as shit, and a little sex with a hot woman wouldn’t make that much of a difference. The thought was just starting to fade when Kai felt the energy change behind him and he gurgled a curse as a thick arm pressed into his throat and threatened to cut off his air supply. Instinctively, he slammed his elbow backward and cursed when his opponent lunged to the side, meaning Kai’s elbow merely brushed a leather jacket. He slammed his head backward in an attempt to break a nose but a low laugh caused him to pull his head back at the last minute. The arm dropped and Kai sucked in a couple of deep breaths before turning around.
Bastard, he thought. He hadn’t heard him sneak into his office—he swore the guy was part ninja and part ghost. And what the hell was he doing in Mercy?
He rubbed his hand across his throat. “What the fuck, Rhodes?”
Axl grinned as he dropped all six feet four inches of himself onto the couch in the corner of Kai’s office. His booted feet dangled off the arm and he placed a thick forearm behind his head as a cushion.
“You were so deep in thought that I could’ve taken one of your kidneys and you wouldn’t have known the difference.”
“Asshole,” Kai stated emphatically before sitting down on the edge of his desk and folding his arms. He decided to ignore Axl’s comment. He’d been miles away, but the fact that Axl had managed to catch him so off guard was embarrassing. That was what thinking about women did to you, and now he had two in his life that were causing him grief.
On what planet was that fair?
Axl gave him a shit-eating grin, but his gray eyes remained cool and assessing. The area surrounding his right eye held traces of yellow and green, and the knuckles of his right hand—his dominant hand—were scabbed. Kai sighed. It didn’t take much to realize that Axl had been in another fight, a pastime that he still hadn’t grown out of. He’d never found a brawl he could walk away from.
Axl saw the direction of Kai’s gaze, looked at his knuckles, and sighed. “I didn’t start it.”
“You never do.” Kai folded his arms across his chest and narrowed his eyes. “Who where you defending this time?”
To his credit, Axl always had a good reason to fight. Somewhere in the story there would be an abused girlfriend or wife, someone who was being mistreated. Axl, the ultimate warrior, had a soft spot a mile wide for badly treated women and children, and was quick—sometimes far too quick—to rush to their defense. He found them everywhere—in bars, in supermarkets, at the gym. Kai was worried that one of these days he’d find himself on the bad side of a pissed-off husband or father pointing the working end of a weapon at his head. He might have superb hand-to-hand combat skills, but he couldn’t stop a bullet.
Not that Kai knew of anyway.
“Well?” he demanded when Axl didn’t answer. He frowned when Axl dropped his eyes and a slight stain appeared on his cheekbones. Axl, embarrassed? Kai had never thought he’d see the day.
“Puppies.”
Kai frowned. “What?”
Axl sat up and his size fourteens hit the floor with a thump so heavy that he probably set off a tsunami in the south Atlantic. “I went for a run and came across this dude throwing a sack in the river. I heard the mewling, grabbed the sack, and he took a swing at me.”
Kai grinned and gestured to his eye. “Looks like he connected.”
“Lucky shot,” Axl grumbled, placing his fingertips on his eye socket. “Now I have three mutts driving me crazy. They pee and chew and bark, all at the same time.”
Kai let his laughter rumble out. He’d never known Axl to be an animal lover—none of them allowed themselves to be, because they simply didn’t have time.
“Do you still have them?”
Axl lifted one huge shoulder. “I dumped them with my housekeeper and I keep getting snotty messages about
them.”
“Why the hell didn’t you take them to an animal shelter?” Kai demanded.
“I tried to but . . .”
“You chickened out.” Kai’s laughter rumbled again.
Axl rubbed his hand over his dark brown crew cut. He looked rueful. “She has little enough to do with me never being there, so I figure she can take care of them and find them a home.”
Kai had met Axl’s Mrs. Brewen many times, and he could easily see the sixty-something, pursed-lipped, cardigan-and-brogue-wearing housekeeper coping with three rambunctious animals. She would find a home for them with the same calm, disapproving efficiency she did everything else.
“So, I’m stuck in Mercy because Sawyer needs to sort Doug out again, but why are you here?”
Axl’s eyes hardened. “Because you make crap decisions.”
Kai felt his fist clench and his temper climb a couple of degrees at Axl’s comment. What the hell had climbed up his ass and died? He’d only been here doing this for two days. What could he have done so wrong to get Axl’s panties in a bunch?
Then it clicked. There was only one thing, or one person, who could send Axl from zero to warp speed in the blink of an eye.
“You son of bitch!”
Reagan was standing in his office door, her chest heaving and her bright blue eyes sparking. Axl slowly turned his head and glared at her. “You hung up on me, and then you wouldn’t take my call,” he said.
Here it comes, Kai thought, resigned. Reagan stomped forward and slapped her hands on her hips, her chin jutted forward. “Because you tried to tell me that I couldn’t take the Knox Callow protection gig.”
“Well, you can’t.” Axl crossed his ankles and looked bored.
“You’re not in charge of handing out assignments!” Reagan shot back. She jerked her thumb in Kai’s direction. “He is.”
Axl’s hard look promised retribution. “And you thought that this is a good idea?” he asked. Kai shrugged.
“Well, it’s not a bad one,” Kai said, walking around his desk and sitting down in his chair. “She’s qualified, she’s free, and she wants to do it. Win, win, and win.”
“It’s a crap idea,” Axl growled.
“And you climbed on a plane to come all the way here to tell me that?” Kai lifted his eyebrows. “Kind of extreme, don’t you think?”
Axl stood up and loomed over Reagan, who didn’t look even a smidgen intimidated. “I came over here to talk some sense into her!” He glared at Kai again. “And you.”
Nah, you came over here because it gave you a chance to eyeball Reagan, to check her out. If he wasn’t mistaken, Axl wanted Reagan, the same way Kai wanted Flick.
But it was clear that Axl didn’t want to want Reagan. And it seemed that he had no idea how to handle his inconvenient desires any more than Kai did. Kai groaned silently. It was official—they were both pussy-whipped. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t have any fun at Axl’s expense.
“He’s a good-looking guy, this Callow dude. Voted one of the sexiest guys in the world last year by one of those magazines who do that shit.” Now he was just flat-out lying, but the sucking-a-lemon look on Axl’s face was worth seeing.
Reagan tipped her head and her face took on a dreamy expression. She shivered delicately. “I know. Looking after his body is going to be a pleasure.”
Unlike Kai, Axl, in his fury, missed the gleam in Reagan’s eye that suggested that she was a cat toying with a very large mouse. “You’re a professional! Can you act like one?” Axl slapped his hands on his hips.
“You’re accusing me of not being professional? You’re the one who hopped on a plane and crossed the Atlantic to question Kai’s business decision!”
“Because it’s a shit decision!”
“Could’ve told me that on the phone.” Kai quietly stirred the pot, enjoying the scene in front of him. These two just needed to get a room and fuck each other’s brains out. Maybe then they’d get over themselves. Not that he wanted any man screwing—literally or metaphorically—with Reagan, but if there had to be someone, then he’d like it to be Axl. He was, despite the fact that he was presently acting like an idiot, a good man. One of the best Kai knew.
“Shut up,” Axl growled.
Kai was rather enjoying the show, and it sure was a fine distraction from thinking about how to deal with Tally. And what he was going to do about the fact that he couldn’t stop thinking about a certain long-legged baker.
“Maybe you should tell him that you want to join the Morrigans rescue team, Reags.”
Reagan sent him a look of pure frustration. “God, Kai, did you really have to mention that? Now?”
“It’s still a no from me but he might as well know what you’re thinking.” Kai picked up a glass paperweight and tossed it from hand to hand. Axl had gone into warrior mode and was standing statue-still, his eyes just darting between them.
“Explain.”
“I heard about your hostage rescue and ransom unit, and I want in,” Reagan said simply.
Axl opened his mouth to bark out another question but then snapped it shut. He just stared at Reagan, those eyes drilling through her. Kai had to admire her nerve—she didn’t squirm or move at all. In fact, she looked vaguely bored. He’d seen grown men wet their pants after being on the receiving end of that look, but Mike’s sister, she didn’t flinch.
Kai had never been more proud of her.
“When hell freezes over,” Axl said, his voice colder than an Arctic gale.
Reagan just smiled and tipped her head. “We’ll see.” She yawned, and Kai could swear he heard Axl’s teeth grinding. “Anyway, as much fun as this hasn’t been, I’ve got to scoot. Knox is sending me his jet and I’m due to meet it in an hour.”
“Reagan—” Axl ground her name out.
Kai watched, fascinated, as five-foot-four Reagan stepped up to Axl and placed her small hand on his wide chest. He saw the breath Axl sucked in and stifled a chuckle. Yeah, Reagan had him by the balls, all right. She reached up and kissed his cheek in an anything but sisterly way and stepped back. “Don’t be boring, darling.”
“You’d better fucking behave yourself with Callow, Reagan,” Axl warned.
“Or what?” Reagan challenged. Jesus, the girl had no idea when to back off. Kai sank back into his chair and shook his head. Mike had been the same—more guts than sense.
Axl stepped away from Reagan and turned to the window. Reagan took a step toward him but Kai caught her eye. He added a stern back-off look to a shake of his head and Reagan, thank God, came to her senses and abruptly stopped. She stared at Axl’s broad back before quietly saying, “I don’t understand you, Axl.”
Axl didn’t reply and Reagan turned on her heel and left his office, slamming the door behind her.
Kai looked at Axl’s tension-filled back and sighed. There was nothing to say, nothing that Axl wanted to hear. He and Reagan would have to work their own shit out . . . just like he and Flick would. He glanced at his watch. And if he didn’t haul ass then he was going to be late meeting Tally, and he knew that if he was late, then she’d use it as an excuse to run.
“You staying in Mercy or leaving?” Kai asked as he walked over to the door and snatched his leather jacket off the hook.
“I’ll stay the night at your place if that’s okay, and I’ll leave in the morning,” Axl answered.
“You still have your key?” Not that Axl needed a key; he could ninja his way into Fort Knox if he wanted to. Kai’s house was child’s play. But this was Mercy, and with his luck, he’d have some nosy old bat watching his house who would notice if Axl picked the lock on his front door. Or his back door.
“I still have a key.”
“Okay. I have something to do but I’ll be back later. What about food at the Fox in a couple hours?”
Axl finally turned and Kai saw that h
e was fully back under control. “That where all the pretty girls hang out?”
Kai grinned. “Yeah.”
Not that he had eyes for any girl but a certain brunette, and he suspected that Axl wasn’t that interested in anyone but Reagan either. But they were men—they frequently lied to themselves and to each other.
***
Tally was already at the diner when Kai arrived. Shrugging off his jacket and hanging it on a hook, he took a moment to study the girl. She was like Jane, he thought, the same shape face, the same wide eyes. Give her a couple of years and ten extra pounds, and a bit less attitude, and she’d be stunning.
Just like her mother. God, Janie. What the hell were you thinking? I know next to nothing about kids, teenagers, teenage girls.
He couldn’t slide over the veil to ask her but he could talk to her daughter—not that he had the faintest idea what to say to her. His commiserations would sound hollow and his condolences weak. He’d never been good at the there-there talks. He preferred action to talking.
Kai slid into the booth and pushed his fingers into his hair. When Tally just continued to stare out of the window, he sighed. “Do you want something to drink? Eat?”
“I already ordered,” Tally said, not looking at him. “I wasn’t sure that you’d show up.”
Kai narrowed his eyes in frustration. “Tally.”
He tried to keep his voice even, calm, but wasn’t sure if he succeeded. He needed her to look at him, to make an eye-to-eye connection.
She still didn’t turn around, so he tapped her hand with his index finger to get her attention. When she finally met his eyes, he leaned across the table and spoke again. “There’s something you should know about me, right here, right now. If I say I’m going to do something, I do it. No excuses, ever.”
Emotion flickered in her eyes and he wasn’t practiced enough to know whether it was relief or disbelief. They were a similar shade to his own. In fact, they shared many facial characteristics. A thin mouth, long nose, olive skin. Tally could be his daughter except for one salient point: Kai and Jane had never been anything other than friends.
