“How long do I have to stand down here?” Travis grumbled.
Josh sighed, not looking forward to facing several hours of the infamous Nakota chip. But he pressed the buzzer to allow him access. “Come on up.”
Josh met the gruff man at the elevator. He almost didn’t recognize him. His hair was down instead of gathered back into his usual ponytail. Neatly dressed in a pair of dark jeans and a white dress shirt, Travis held a fistful of pink roses.
Josh stuck out his hand in greeting. “Aw, for me? You really shouldn’t have.” Josh could tell Travis had a hard time holding back a grin. That was a start, he supposed. Cocking his head toward the buds that had yet to fully open, Josh went on to offer, “Want me to take those?”
Travis clasped Josh’s outstretched hand and the two men eyed each other with lingering mutual mistrust hanging in the air. Things weren’t about to change overnight between the two men. But when Skye appeared an unspoken pact had them heading to neutral corners for the next several hours.
All smiles now, Josh watched as Travis morphed into a gentle father figure. As Travis reached out to hug Skye though, images blasted at Josh’s brain. He caught several rapid-fire glimpses from the past. A ghost-like image flickered for a moment. Then, like a sudden flare out of nowhere, images raced toward Josh even harder, faster. They were so strong, packed such a punch, he thought he might lose his balance. Like a camera lens going off with a flash device to capture the best light, the series of pictures became as crystal clear to him as though he were flipping through a photo album.
Josh had seen shots of Jodi Cree, Skye’s mother. Now he saw the woman again. But he wasn’t quite prepared to witness the affection between Travis Nakota, the man standing two feet away from him, and what was happening with Skye’s mother. Somewhere in the montage, Jodi Cree and Travis had been talking about the birth of their child, their child’s future.
Dumbfounded, Josh tried to reel in his emotions. He needed to sit down.
It was tough to mask what he was feeling toward the man now. On automatic, Josh followed Skye and Travis into the kitchen. But what he’d seen remained with him. And when he took the time to replay the last five months, a ton of things clicked into place.
First and foremost, Travis’s role of overprotective father figure became clear because that’s what he was, Skye’s father, her biological father. Now, as Josh thought back to the way Travis had acted from the first moment he laid eyes on the man, all Travis’s resentment made sense.
Travis Nakota was Skye’s real father. Josh couldn’t shake that one fact.
How the hell had she missed that flashing neon sign? And why hadn’t Kiya clued her in to her heritage years earlier? Could that be one reason why Skye’s destiny seemed to be changing?
All through dinner the questions kept Josh from tasting the food. Which was a damned shame since Skye had outdone herself with the meal. Even the normally sedate Travis went on and on about the way Skye had grilled the salmon to perfection.
Even when the talk turned to the killer who kept Seattle’s women gripped in fear, Josh couldn’t engage. He listened to the back and forth as if he were standing at one end of a tunnel. He felt like he’d been transported to soupy fog and struggled to see anything beyond several inches in front of him.
The awkwardness Josh felt didn’t abate by the time Skye served a delicious cappuccino crème brûlée for dessert and poured coffee.
Any other time, Josh would’ve enjoyed the French custard, but now he couldn’t even taste it. He glanced at the woman sitting across from him, easily chatting with the man who’d fathered her. What the hell would she do when she found out?
Josh didn’t even want to consider the possibilities. He stared over at Travis, who was relating his latest horse acquisition as if nothing was amiss.
When it came to cleanup duty, Josh and Travis went through the motions together, making small talk, or trying to. From horses to the Native American paintings done by Ty Moon, the topics stayed light and safe. In fact, Josh found himself postponing the inevitable. Retiring to the living room for a more detailed discussion about what was happening to Skye’s abilities suddenly became something he very much wanted to put off.
But after loading the last spoon and fork in the dishwasher, Skye tugged him into exactly that. It was, after all, the reason Travis was there in the first place.
While Travis and Skye got comfortable on the sofa, Josh could not. The shock of it all still hadn’t worn off. Ten percent of him paced like a caged wolf in front of the bank of windows, uncomfortable in his own surroundings, in his own home.
The minute Skye excused herself to go to the bathroom, Josh turned to confront Travis.
“What the hell’s wrong with you?” Travis barked. “You’ve been rude since I walked in here. You haven’t said two words all evening.”
“Me?” Josh tossed back, jingling the change in his pants pocket. He leaned forward and said in a low voice, “Do you ever intend to tell Skye the truth about her parentage?”
Josh thought he saw Travis go pale or as close to it as he’d probably ever see.
“What exactly do you think you know?” Travis snarled.
Josh raised an eyebrow in challenge. “You think it’s invisible, that I don’t pick up on the secret you’re keeping? I guess you really don’t understand the transformation in me yet or those wolf tendencies I now possess in spades. You should know though. You’re the one who warned me what it involved. If you don’t come clean with Skye soon—”
“You’ll do what?” Travis pointed a finger at Josh’s chest. “Do not threaten me.”
“The woman I love has no idea of her true father. Don’t you think she deserves to know? How long do you intend to deny her the fact that her father is alive and standing right in front of me?”
“Do you think I like living this lie? Do you think I haven’t wanted to confess before now?” Travis ran a hand through his loose hair in frustration before folding into the nearest chair. “I’ve been tempted to tell her no less than a dozen times since she came to live in Seattle at eighteen. Hell, I even drove down to Yakima once, the day before her sixteenth birthday, determined I’d come clean to her then and there. But once I got to the crazy aunt and uncle’s house, I couldn’t even get out of my damned truck to make the walk up to the front door. My knees were shaking, my palms were sweating.”
Josh blinked in surprise. The man standing in front of him didn’t look like he’d scare so easily—which told Josh a lot. All he had to do was look at the nerves emanating off the horse breeder and it had Josh feeling a measure of sympathy. But that didn’t do a thing to help Skye. “Why? Why keep this? It’s obvious, you and Skye’s mother—”
Travis stood up and thrust out a pointed finger in Josh’s direction again, this time more fierce. He raised his voice. “You don’t know a damned thing about it.”
“That’s right and neither does Skye.”
“It isn’t what you think. Oh hell. Don’t you see? I made a promise to Daniel and Jodi I’d take this lie to my grave. But now…you’re right, of course. Skye needs to know.”
“Know what?” Skye said from across the room. “What do I need to know? What did you promise Mom and Dad?”
Travis let out an audible sigh that filled the loft. “Sit down, Skye. I might as well get this over with and tell it one time. I don’t want to have to go through it twice.”
Chapter 8 Book 2
“Go through what twice? What are you guys talking about?”
Travis sent Josh a pleading look. “I don’t know where to start.”
“Sometimes the beginning works,” Josh prompted.
Travis sent a lethal look in Josh’s direction while Skye took turns glancing back and forth at both men. She began to get a funny feeling in the pit of her stomach to go with the fish she’d had for supper. Her spirit guide might be a recent memory, but she still possessed instincts that told her Travis was holding something back. When she saw Travis rub his swe
ating palms on the thighs of his jeans that little voice became a scream.
“You know how much I loved your parents, right?”
“Of course,” Skye uttered.
“Daniel Cree and I grew up together on the reservation. We lived eight houses from each other, went to the same school, played together, took our first drink at the same watering hole when we were still underage. Daniel was like the brother I never had and—”
“And my mother like a sister,” Skye stated.
Travis rubbed the back of his neck, clearly uncomfortable. “Not exactly. You see, we all met when we were very young, just eighteen. By today’s standards that’s incredibly immature. But even as young as we were, right away, Jodi and Daniel just clicked. They started talking about marriage like a runaway freight train. The next step was thinking about having kids. But after years of trying, they got frustrated. Jodi insisted they both get checked out. The doctor said Jodi was fine. Daniel, on the other hand, found out he was sterile. When your father was around twelve, Daniel suffered a severe case of the mumps. As it turns out, he was never going to be a father in the usual way.”
“No,” Skye murmured as the revelation built to what he was getting at. She would not sway or sit. Instincts forced her spine straight as steel as if preparing for battle.
“If you’ll just let me explain for two minutes,” Travis pleaded.
But Skye was across the room in three strides. Her lean body vibrated with so much anger that her hands shook. “Please do not tell me that you and my mother had an affair.”
“I loved your mother, Skye,” Travis acknowledged.
“What are you saying, exactly? You and my mother? I don’t believe it.”
“I loved your mother,” Travis repeated. “I went up to her first that day we all met. That one summer afternoon when Daniel and I were in town messing around at the Dairy Queen getting ourselves a burger and a Coke. Jodi had been visiting relatives in our little neck of the woods.” Travis rubbed his chin. “Seems to me now that I think back about it, it might’ve been Ginny and Bob she was staying with at the time. But Jodi had grown up in Seattle. Hell that was a different world to Daniel and me back then, two Native teens fresh off the reservation, wet behind the ears in every way. We recognized Jodi as an out-of-towner, a white girl at that, with these huge blue-violet eyes. You have her eyes, Skye.” He cleared his throat, reluctant to go on, but knowing he had no choice.
“You see, Jodi was stuck in this little bitty town for three months for the summer where she didn’t know a single soul. Daniel and I were out to change that when I went over to where she was sitting in a booth by herself and struck up a conversation with her. But as soon as she got a load of Daniel, it seems Jodi only had eyes for him. From the first time they set eyes on each other, it was the two of them as a couple. I never stood a chance.”
“So let’s have it.”
“Years later, when we all ended up living here in Seattle, when the two of them came to me for help, it was as a last resort.”
“Help? You mean to give them a baby? That’s what you’re building up to, isn’t it? Why would you agree to that, Travis? Because you had a thing for my mother?”
“There’s no need for that tone, Skye Melody Cree. For your information, at first, I told them both no, a resounding hell no. In fact it turned into many times. A couple of years went by. Daniel and Jodi kept pressuring me, reassuring me they were both fine with it. They were persistent, Skye.”
The reality of what he’d confessed was still sinking in when Skye put the accusation on the table. “You didn’t go to a clinic.” It wasn’t a question.
When Travis turned away, refused to even look at her, Skye had her answer. She grabbed his arm to get his attention. “At least face me, Travis. Or what am I supposed to call you now, daddy? I don’t think so. For starters, how about I try coward?”
At the insult, Skye noted a tic in his facial muscle. But she didn’t care. “I want to hear you say it, all of it. The words, Travis, say the words. Now!”
“I am your father! Is that what you want me to say? Daniel Cree couldn’t have children so I did what he couldn’t. Is that clear enough for you?” Travis shouted in a clipped angry tone.
Skye sucked in a breath. “Crystal. I don’t know which is more deplorable. The fact that you slept with my mother under the guise of getting her knocked up so you could fulfill some teen crush you had on her. Or the fact that you stood by and did nothing while I went to live with those despicable people in Yakima. All you had to do was tell the court the truth. The truth, Travis. Was that too much to ask back then when I was thirteen years old? But you did nothing. I spent five years in hell with Ginny and Bob while I could’ve been right here in Seattle living life as your daughter. What a spineless, gutless thing to do!” With that, Skye stormed to the elevator. When it opened, she stepped inside and was gone.
Travis dropped down into the nearest chair with his head in his hands, defeated.
When Josh started to speak, Travis held up his hand to stop him. “Is this what you wanted?”
“No. But I knew she’d be angry. She’s messed up right now, Travis. She’s been having a difficult time since the transformation, since Kiya’s spirit has weakened. Give her some time.”
“Time? I don’t think she’ll ever forgive me.”
Josh said nothing else. There were no words of reassurance that came to mind. Because he wasn’t exactly sure she would forgive or trust anyone—ever again.
The aftershocks from Travis’s disclosure made for an interesting four days.
The repercussions were neither pretty nor dull.
Skye’s temper in the form of rockets-in-the-air fireworks went off regularly and with precision. The Fourth of July seemed tame compared to Skye Melody Cree in rage-mode. Since Travis had unburdened his secret, her dark side had bubbled to the surface where it had remained unleashed.
She didn’t walk anywhere. She clomped. Her voice seemed to take on a high-pitched squeal if Josh even hinted bringing up the name, Travis Nakota.
But on the fifth day, Josh had had enough. “How much longer do you intend to make Travis suffer?”
“This is none of your business, Josh. Stay out of it.”
“To hell it isn’t. I’m the one who encouraged him to level with you, got angry at him because of it. Had I known you were going to act like such a thirteen-year-old drama queen—”
Skye whirled to face Josh. “How dare you say that to me! He stayed mum on the sidelines and watched during the most heartbreaking time of my life. For God’s sakes, I lost my parents. Or rather the man who I thought all this time was my father. But what does Travis do back then? The son of a bitch stands beside me at the double funeral and never once claimed me as his daughter. He stood by while the court sent me to Siberia a.k.a. Yakima. He let me go live with those religious fanatics all the while knowing the truth. At the time, all the man had to do was step forward and come clean to the judge, say something like, ‘This happens to be my only child, my only daughter. Don’t believe me? I can prove it through a DNA test. She should be allowed to come live with me.’ Does he do that? Hell no! Not Travis Nakota. He keeps his mouth shut while I spend five fucking years having to bow and scrape to Ginny and Bob, listen to them tell me what a horrific person I was for letting Whitfield rape me.”
Horrified Josh let that sink in before he said, “I know you’re angry, Skye. Okay, you’re livid. You have a right to that. But he’s your father and there isn’t anything you can do about it.”
“Angry doesn’t cover what I am, Josh. Not by a longshot. For five years, I felt like I was going nuts, crazy. Don’t you understand? At some point, I started believing Ginny and Bob.”
“I’m sorry, baby.” He took her chin, lifted it up so he could stare into her eyes. “You’re right, Travis should’ve stepped up. But he’s your father, your blood.”
“Which means squat to him. If it meant anything at all, he would’ve said something when it counted
. And I might point out that just because a man can be a sperm donor in the sack to a woman desperate to have a child, it does not make him father material. I will now and forever think of Daniel Cree as my father, not some churlish horse breeder who waited a quarter of a century to come clean.”
“But we could use Travis’s insight right now into how to get your ability to come back,” Josh pointed out.
“Screw my ability. I don’t want Travis Nakota’s help with anything. I’ll work this out myself just like I have everything else in my life. Kiya and I will connect again. I feel it down to my bones. You’ll see. Everything will be just fine without Travis Nakota.”
And that had pretty much ended any further discussion.
That’s why two days later, Josh wasn’t the least bit surprised when Travis called him wanting to talk.
These days inside Ander All Games, security had to be a top priority. A company didn’t create the latest in video games without making sure the competition couldn’t get wind of the next product update. Visitors to the building and the company that occupied the top floor had to get clearance before boarding the elevator.
When the guest showed up to see the president of the company, the guard on duty notified Josh by way of a phone call to his secretary, Kendra Dunning. Kendra, in turn let Josh know the visitor was imminent.
So Josh waited in the doorway of his corner office and watched as Travis Nakota got off the elevator. Josh had to give it to Travis. The man was prompt. Travis had said ten o’clock and it was now nine-fifty-nine. But as Travis got closer, Josh noted the crow’s feet around the eyes he’d missed on the man’s face just a week earlier. “Travis, are you okay?” Josh asked the minute the two shook hands.
“Not really,” Travis replied as he settled into a chair across from Josh’s desk and got comfortable. “How’s it going with you?”
“You have one stubborn and very pissed-off daughter. She’s been slamming doors and stomping around for a week now.”
Skye Cree Boxed Set Books 1 - 3 Page 38
